Rain drops keep falling on my head

Hacking Umbrella Today

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:32:09 -0400

Hacking Umbrella Today:

Connect to UT via Prowl to get iPhone notices.

umbrellatoday on the desktop!

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:31:30 -0400

umbrellatoday on the desktop!:

Jeremy Herbert hooks up UT to an LCD monitor.

API Issues

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:52:29 -0500

We’re having some isses today with the new international API, which may be leading to “Location not found” errors on places that are very common and should be found right away. We’re working on it.

"How can something so simple be so useful? You can get either text or email alerts to inform you..."

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:51:03 -0500

“How can something so simple be so useful? You can get either text or email alerts to inform you whether you should grab that umbrella before you go. And it works!”

- Umbrella Today? — only like the coolest website ever made

Umbrella Today in your email

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:44:03 -0500

Umbrella Today in your email

API changes and wrong reports

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:54:44 -0500

As part of deploying our international support release last week, we also updated the API that umbrella today uses behind the scenes. The old API proved pretty reliable on most days, but was not super specific. The new API is even more specific about weather conditions - so much so that we don’t even have every possible weather condition included in our code yet!

Over time, this will make the UT reports more accurate and more informational, but in the short term, there will be some weather conditions that should either very clearly be a “yes” and we report “no”, or vice versa.

Thanks for bearing with us while we add more codes, and keep sending us feedback when you get a report that’s clearly wrong.

Happy Umbrella Day

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:22:35 -0500

Happy Umbrella Day

"Guess what? There is the most amazing website–UmbrellaToday.com. What does it do? Well it’s like a..."

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:11:08 -0500

“Guess what? There is the most amazing website–UmbrellaToday.com. What does it do? Well it’s like a personal assistant who text messages you in the morning before you leave (or whatever time you would like, you pick) and tells you whether you will be needing an umbrella that day! Now, it’s not always right…but neither is the weather channel.”

- You Can Stand Under My Umbrella-ella-ella. Umbrella Today! No One Can Rain on Our Parade!

"Umbrella Today? is the greatest weather site on the internet. It answers one question: Do I need an..."

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:58:55 -0500

“Umbrella Today? is the greatest weather site on the internet. It answers one question: Do I need an umbrella today? It’ll even send you a txt message in the morning of any day you’re likely to need one. You know, just as a heads up.”

- Umbrella Today?

"[…] here is a fine quote from one of it’s happy users: “It’s like totally the simplest weather..."

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:04:28 -0500

“

[…] here is a fine quote from one of it’s happy users: “It’s like totally the simplest weather report ever, Julie.” Do you love this site, or what? Do you love Julie’s quote? (I do)

Go there now, enter your zip and forever know the answer to this age old questions– Do I need an umbrella today? Your welcome

”

- A Website You Can’t Live Without (or you’ll get wet)

"The site is simple and easy to use and even has an umbrella etiquette section, with playful tips for..."

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:39:00 -0500

“The site is simple and easy to use and even has an umbrella etiquette section, with playful tips for not hurting yourself or others with your weather gear. The site is also planning more help for in the future, including letting you know when it is going to snow and how likely it is that rain is on the way, as well as make the site available internationally.”

- Umbrella Today?

Slight change to message format

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:54:28 -0500

In addition to adding snow support, we recently added the chance of precipitation and the location you are subscribed to to the SMS text you receive from umbrella today.

That way if you travel a lot you can subscribe to multiple cities and make sure you know you’re reading the right report. Example:

“You should bring an umbrella today (54% chance of precipitation in Boston MA).”

Delayed arrival of SMS messages from Umbrella Today

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:05:23 -0500

A lot of people have reported that they consistently receive their SMS messages from Umbrella Today much later than they’d wanted to. For example, if you have your message time set to 7AM on the site, you might receive the message at 7AM 50% of the time, but the other 50% of the time you’re getting it between 2 and 5 hours late.

Here’s what happens…

* We send the reminders exactly on time, every day, from the umbrella today server. We’re confident that this is being done correctly.
* However, we use the “email gateway” for the phone providers, which is a no-cost way for us to initiate an SMS TXT msg which starts in our web app and winds up on your phone.
* The TXT msgs which are sent that way have a very low priority in the phone carriers SMS networks, because they come from a “free” source. This is in comparison to actual SMS msgs sent from phones on their networks, where the people are paying subscribing customers who will have higher delivery priority.
* Thus….some people experience huge delays in getting msgs sent this way.

We’ve considered switching to a service that ties us directly into the SMS TXT network and would guarantee faster delivery - but it’s much more cost for us, so we’re not sure whether we’ll be doing it - but we do hope to address the problem.

Clearly getting your umbrella notice is a time sensitive thing, and it’s not really useful if you get it at 3PM when you’ve already left for the day.

"Umbrella Today now has snow support!"

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:15:04 -0500

“Umbrella Today now has snow support!”

- Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

"In today’s confusing times, it seems everyone could benefit from a little simplicity in their lives...."

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:08:33 -0400

“In today’s confusing times, it seems everyone could benefit from a little simplicity in their lives. While it doesn’t reveal the wind direction, humidity levels, or even the temperature, Umbrella Today? does answer one very important question for your day: will you need an umbrella? Simply enter in your zip code and the site will return a confident Yes or No. Users can also have the information sent to their cell phone every morning.”

- Librarian of the Internet: Site of the Day: Umbrella Today?

"If Natalie Merchant had had access to a site like “Umbrella Today?” when she wrote “Like The..."

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:30:01 -0400

“If Natalie Merchant had had access to a site like “Umbrella Today?” when she wrote “Like The Weather” in the Maniacs heyday, we would surely have missed an extraordinarily fine song from what is arguably their crowning achievement as a band.”

- KIller Startups

"I recently came across a website which is simply beautiful. One of those ideas where all the fluff..."

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:03:46 -0400

“I recently came across a website which is simply beautiful. One of those ideas where all the fluff was stripped away to deliver a perfectly functional and readily acceptable web service. The site is Umbrella Today (even the domain is simple!). This product of the clever guys over at thoughtbot tells you whether you need an umbrella or not based on your zip code.”

- incutank: umbrella today: simplicity is beauty

"Simplicity is a good things generally, and Umbrella Today? aims to hit the mark when it comes to..."

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:07:00 -0400

“

Simplicity is a good things generally, and Umbrella Today? aims to hit the mark when it comes to knowing the weather each day. Once the website is armed with your ZIP code, it will tell you simply “Yes” or “No” to the question, “should I take my umbrella today?”

You can then schedule a text message to your cell phone on any day when you should prepare for inclement weather. Of course, we’ll have to see how it handles the more solid form of winter precipitation …

”

- luther college: This Week in LIS - 26 September 2008

Bailing out your boat full of water

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:59:38 -0400

A number of people (including some of us!) received their umbrella notices with a significant delay this morning (like, 3-4 hours late). We’re guessing one of these things happened…

* There’s a timezone issue on the server

* There’s a non-timezone issue on the server, or with the email sending process (we send emails which becomes sms messages)

* We did everything right, but there are issues on the phone carrier side.

We’re looking into all of this, and will report back.

"Enter your zip code and the handy site will tell you with a simple yes or no if you need to plan for..."

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:52:08 -0400

“Enter your zip code and the handy site will tell you with a simple yes or no if you need to plan for inclement weather.”

- daily candy: The Weekend Guide