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For direct access to the DrJack soaring forecast products — BLIPMAPs and BLIPSPOTs— you must "register" (which is free) by following the instructions at the Registration Sign-Up page. For more registration information, see the rest of this page. |
What is "Registration"
I ask that users of the BLIPMAP and BLIPSPOT
forecast products be "registered". There is no charge for
registration. Registered users have direct access to all
"Thermal Velocity" BLIPMAP forecasts, to all "Buoyancy/Shear Ratio"
BLIPMAP forecasts, to all BLIPSPOT forecasts, and to all "Previous
Day" BLIPMAP forecasts (for all parameters). These "free"
forecasts are intended primarily for those just interested in
staying aloft in local flights near the launch site.
Unregistered viewers can only view "Previous Day" forecasts and will
be sent to a "Visitor Access" page and be given the option of
registering prior to any viewing. Users must also register before
they can "subscribe" or make a donation.
A registration UserID is
intended for use by a single individual, not by multiple individuals
or a club.
Why
I want to be able to evaluate how forecasts are
utilized and to know the total number of BLIPMAP users. The
latter is important to me, because the primary satisfaction I get from
the effort I put into providing these forecasts is the thought that I
am helping other pilots - and the larger the number of people I know I
am helping the better I will feel. So I expect that those who
benefit from these services will demonstrate their appreciation for my
efforts by obtaining their forecasts as registered users - else I will
feel that I have opened a door for someone to enter yet not received a
nod or thank you or acknowledgment in return.
What is "Subscription"
At one time subscription was required to obtain access to many
BLIPMAPs. Currently, the only advantage to being "subscribed",
which requires a financial contribution, is that you would show your
support for BLIPMAPs and also receive any mailings I send to
subscirbers. Since subscribers have shown their support for
BLIPMAPs in a tangible way and contributed to their development, I
regard them as being the audience to which I should address myself and
consider in any future BLIPMAP changes.
How registration works
Registered users normally access the forecasts by
obtaining a "cookie" for their browser (but a
more complex "cookieless" access method is also
available). When you register, a cookie containing your user
information will be sent to your PC (assuming you have cookies
enabled) and subsequent forecast access will immediately follow a
mouse click on webpage links, bypassing the visitor screen.
Normally you simply leave the cookie on your computer between sessions
since the cookie is valid for one year. When it expires, you
must "Logoff" (erase the cookie) and then "Logon"
(get a new cookie) to obtain updated cookie. Please
note that it is not necessary to Logon (or
Logoff) before (or after) each session.
Multiple computers for a single user
Users of multiple PCs do not have to
create a new Registration for each PC (and I would prefer that
they not do so) but can simply "Logon" once from each different
PC using the UserID and Password of your already existing registration
to get a "cookie" for each. From a user
point of view having a single account (and UserID and password) should
be easier to manage and from my point of view means that forecast
viewings from a single user are counted together. Please note
that users of multiple PCs do not have to erase a cookie
("Logoff") on one computer to use another one. The registration
system allows multiple cookies to exist simultaneously on different
PCs.
How to Register and/or Get a Cookie ("Logon")
If you are not registered or if already
registered are not logged on (i.e. have no DrJack registration
"cookie"
on that computer), you can do either the next time you access a
forecast since you will first see a "Visitor Access" screen with
"Register" and "Logon" options on the left-hand
sidebar. Alternatively, you can choose to directly register
using the Registration
Sign-Up page. Or if already registered but do not have a
DrJack registration cookie on your PC you can use the Logon
page to obtain one. If you already have a cookie but wish to
obtain a new one, for example if you think the
existing registration cookie may have gotten corrupted, you can use the View/Change
User Information page to first delete the existing cookie("Logoff") and
then obtain a new one ("Logon"). Please note that it is
not necessary to Logon (or Logoff) for each
session since you can just leave the cookie on your computer between
sessions. The cookie has a life-time of one year, so "normal"
operation consists of a once-per-year Logon to get a new cookie
and thereafter simply clicking on any desired forecast link.
What is my UserID ? my Email Address ? my Status ? Do I have a cookie ?
These questions are best answered by accessing
the View/Change
User Information webpage (see next section for more details). If you
do not have a "cookie", the "Logon (Get new cookie)" screen will appear
first to allow you to get one, since that is required for access.
For registered users using cookies, your UserID, Email Address, and
Status are also displayed in in the upper-left corner of all registration
webpages.
Viewing and Changing User Information
Registered users who wish to view or change their
current user information, such as their email address or password,
must first have a "cookie" (i.e. be "logged in") and should then
go to the
View/Change
User Info page - don't forget to click on the "Update"
button if you make any changes, so that they will be recorded!.
A copy of your new User Information will be emailed to your registered Email Address.
At this time user information cannot be changed without
having a cookie, so if you do not normally enable cookies in your
browser you must first enable them, then get a cookie using
the Logon
page and then when the "Logged On" screen appears click on the
"View/Change User Info" link in the left-sidebar - then after making
your changes and clicking the "Update" button to get to the
"Your information has been updated" screen you can click on the
"Erase cookie" link and again disable cookies in your
browser.
Forgotten Password and UserID
First, note that you can "Logon" using
either your UserID or your Email address, should you forget one
or the other (but you will need to know your password!).
As with all computer login systems, you are
expected to remember the UserID and Password you chose when
registering. You can also find your User Information on the
confirmation emails sent at the time of a new registration, a
subscription, and a any change in User Information - hopefully you
have kept those. However, if you have forgotten or lost that
information, you can have it automatically sent to your registered
email address by clicking on the "Send Forgotten User Info"
link in the left-sidebar of any registration page (such as the
"Visitor Access page") or by going to the User
Information Recovery page. Please note that those with
overly aggressive anti-spam filters might find that email at their
"questionable spam" mailbox instead of their regular mailbox.
Other than that possibility, if the email does not arrive it is
because the address at which you are expecting it to arrive at is not
the email address specified in your User Information!
It is also possible to get that information from
your own computer by examining the DrJack registration "cookie" used by your browser, assuming your
browser allows viewing of individual cookies (which most do, excepting the new IE7). The cookie will be for Domain "drjack.info" with Name
"register". The fields of the cookie Content/Value are
separated by an "&" ala "myid&mypassword&myemail&...". For those using the
Firefox/Mozilla browser, you can view your cookie information by
following "Edit" "Preferences" to "Privacy" "Cookies" and click on
"View Cookies" to open the "drjack.info" "register" item - in older
version, use "Manage Stored Cookies" and "Content" instead (more
detailed information about Firefox cookie settings is available at the
Browser Cookie Settings webpage). For MS Internet Explorer
prior to IE7, I am told that one follows "Edit" "Preferences" to
"Receiving Files" and "Cookies" to get a cookie list, then after
finding the cookie with the proper Domain and Name clicking "View" to
display the cookie Contents (my understanding is that IE cookies are
stored in a "cookie folder" and could also be viewed with a text
editor, but I know nothing further - if an IE user sends me additional
information I will post it here). For the "beta" IE7, it is not
possible to view or control your cookies (perhaps that will change
when the final IE7 is released). For IE users, a free utility
can also be used to view the contents of any individual cookie.
For Opera, follow "Edit" "Cookies" to open the cookie display window,
then find the correct domain and cookie name (expanding the tree by
clicking on "+ boxes" when needed) and read the cookie "Value".
I don't know what procedures are used for other browsers.
Your final option is to send an email providing
enough information to identify yourself to
However, that requires manual investigation and response so a reply time of a week
is not unusual.
Special case: Public Access
My present policy is to provide free
access to all BLIPMAP forecasts from a "public access
terminal", meaning a computer available to and used by multiple
users at a gliderport/airport. I do ask that this be done by using
a UserID and "cookie" created specifically for that computer, using the
following procedure:
(1) use the "public access" computer to
access the Registration
Sign-Up page, then create a unique UserID registration for that
computer. This will be a special UserID used for the "pro bono"
public access only and is not intended for individual
use. Important special procedure: when entering the
required email address, use a "@@" in place of the normal "@" - using
this special email address will allow you to also have a separate
individual UserID which uses your normal email address, with
its single "@". (This procedure is necessary because all UserIDs
must have a unique email address - the "@@" will be converted to a "@"
for any email notices sent to the special "public access" UserID
account.) Note: a new DrJack registration cookie will sent be to
the computer, so its browser must have cookie processing
enabled. Also, if for some reason there should be an existing
DrJack registration cookie already be on the computer, you will get an
"Already Registered" message for the UserID associated with that
cookie - you must then use the "Erase cookie (Logoff)" link to delete
that cookie before you can proceed with registering a new UserID and
getting its cookie on the computer.
(2) email a request to
asking for that UserID to be given access as a "public access"
terminal and providing a brief description of the circumstances under
which that computer is used.
I will then give that UserID "unlimited" access
allowing any pilot using that computer to view any forecasts they
desire. Please note that such a "pro bono" account is not
intended for personal use by anyone from any location other than at
the "public access" terminal itself - especially, its UserID/Password
is not to be given out to all members of a club to use! This
access is valid for a year, at which time the registered email address
will be sent an expiration notice - you can then request that it be
continued for another year (I do want to find out whether such access
continues to be actually used!).
Similarly, if there is some "once-per-year"
public event which affects a large group of people, for example a
contest, I will provide an individual associated with that event free
access for the purpose of forecasting for that event (for a temporary
period of two weeks). For this option, that individual must send
me an email request at the time when he wishes the temporary access to
begin containing information about the event and the UserID for which
temporary access is requested.
Special case: Websites using "Hot Links"
"Hot Links" refers to images which are displayed
on one website but which in reality are produced by, and belong to,
another person's webpage. [These are not regular
website links, which lead to the website to which the images
belong.] Webmasters who use "hot links" should be aware of the
ethical and legal issues that such usage entails - many people do not
like their images being displayed on other websites and consider it
piracy, particularly artists who display their artwork on their own
page (in any case, good ethics requires attribution of the image
source of any hot link). In addition, this practice means that
the download bandwidth is charged to the original site not to the
linking site, which is why it is sometimes referred to as "bandwidth
stealing".
My present policy is that hot links to my images
are allowed if a request is sent to me and if a special UserID is
established for that purpose. This procedure allows
everyone who looks at your webpage to see BLIPMAP forecast images - they do
not need to be "registered" (their use will be credited to
UserID you set up). Those webmasters creating multiple
parameter pages should consider those as providing a local synopsis
feature (but should not be intended to
provide all soaring forecast parameters to everyone who browses that
webpage).
To enable hot linked BLIPMAPs for your website,
follow this procedure: (1) register using a unique UserID
specially for that website (not your personal UserID that you
use to get your own forecasts!). IMPORTANT: Immediately after
registering, when you get the "Registration Completed" screen, click
the "Logoff" link on the left-sidebar to erase the "cookie" created and then get a new cookie using
your personal ID, otherwise your personal accesses will be considered
website accesses!
(2) email me
your request and include the the UserID you created and the URL of
your webpage(s) which will contain the embedded image(s).
The "hot links" will not become active until I have received and
responded to your email. So far at least ten webmasters have hot
links successfully enabled on their webpages. Note that in the
above procedure the images links in your webpages will not
contain the UserID and password that you created - the access will
instead be enabled by me for your particular website. I am
specifically requesting that no webpage be created which contains
registration UserID and password information - the method
described above should instead be used.
Special case: Cookieless Access
For some situations use of a "cookie" may not be
possible, for example one user likes to use a personally-created HTML
page displaying a montage of favorite BLIPMAPs, and some companies
deny use of cookies to their employees, though so far I have only one
report of that being the case, and some people just don't like
cookies. Those who have registered can also access BLIPMAPs
without using a cookie, but still by-passing the "Visitor Access"
screen, by appending your user information to the end of the URL
desired - in creating a bookmark, for example - in
this manner (with no blanks/spaces!):
?id=YOURUSERID&pw=YOURPASSWORD
Complete examples are:
For a regional RAP BLIPMAP page:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/RAP/CANV/index.html?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For a RAP javascript viewer:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/RAP/CANV/viewer.html?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For the RAP/NAM univiewer:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/univiewer.html?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For an individual RAP BLIPMAP:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/RAP/CANV/FCST/wfpm.21z.png?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For an individual RAP BLIPMAP data file:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/RAP/CANV/FCST/wfpm.21z.data.zip?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For an individual NAM BLIPMAP:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/NAM/CANV/FCST/wfpm.curr.21z.png?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For an individual NAM BLIPMAP data file:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIP/NAM/CANV/FCST/wfpm.curr.21z.data.zip?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
For an individual BLIPSPOT:
http://www.drjack.info/BLIPSPOT/FCST/minden.txt?id=youruserid&pw=yourpassword
Note that a non-blank password is required for this method to
work!
To use this method immediately in a browser,
rather than via a bookmark, you must add the user info to the end of the URL showing in the
URL window and then reload the page with that information (usually by hitting the
Enter key).
Finally, I request that those websites which employ "Hot Links" of BLIPMAP
images to utilize the method described in the above Hot Links section rather than this method.
For the paranoid
To achieve the goals given in the "Why" section,
at registration I will be asking you to state the type of user (pilot)
you are and I will be counting each later forecast request.
However, my interest is in global statistics not in individual
usage. The registration process also asks for an email address
- this is for your convenience, first because logon
access can be obtained through use of either your UserID or email
address, so if one is forgotten then the other provides a backup, but
more importantly it allows for automatic emailing of your password to
you should you forget it. In addition, if there is a problem
traced to your account then I can communicate with you about
that. [For the record, I do not plan to make big bucks by
selling this email information to anyone!] The truly paranoid could
enter a false email here since they are not verified.
Downsides
This system also requires users to remember, at
least once a year, their UserID and password. I suggest writing them
down [as an Internet user I also tire of needing so many access
account userids and passwords so I love my Firefox browser's ability
to remember and automatically fill-in usernames/passwords for
different sites - but I still write them down!]. But an easier
way is to simply keep the confirmation emails sent to your registration email
address when you register or change your UserInfo - those emails contain both
your UserID and your password.
And while I have spent considerable time (many, many days!)
massaging the present procedure to make it as painless as possible,
there will be glitches and problems which will have to be resolved and
thus access will never be as smooth as would occur for a simple static
webpage.
Questions
If you have a question then likely others have
similar question, so please use the Blipmap Forum to
ask it. If you have a problem gaining access or registering
please see the Problems section below.
The Forecasts
Registration provides direct access to the following forecasts:
BLIPMAP: thermal soaring forecasts based on RAP model predictions
BLIPMAP: thermal soaring forecasts based on NAM model predictions
BLIPSPOT: thermal soaring parameters at a single geographic location
More Information on Cookies
Upon "logging on", a "cookie" containing your
UserID and password is sent to and saved on your computer, so it later
can be sent upon request from your browser to the drjack.info website
(and only to that website!) to identify the user. For
normal access to DrJack forecasts a valid DrJack cookie must be found
by your computer's browser (though more complex "cookieless" access is also available). The
following links contain more information about "cookies":
What is a cookie? (short)
Do cookies compromise security? (more details)
Cookie Frequently Asked Questions (very detailed)
Cookie Info from the U.S. Government (summary at top)
Note to the paranoid: while there are many real dangers on the
internet, cookies passively store information and cannot be
used to run a program or virus on your PC. They are not a
security concern. However, their usage can
create privacy concerns as from advertising sites
conglomerating user data from different sites through "third-party" or
"foreign" cookies, which provide information to sites other than the
originating webpage site - but my cookies are "originating site only"
cookies, so their information is available only to my website.
Website Abuse
Abuse of this website will be dealt with as seems
to best fit the individual case. Abuse circumstances include
repeated requests for webpages at unrealistically short intervals,
promoting server overload. [In the worst case to date, a user
was automatically requesting the same 8 forecasts once per minute
throughout the day!]. Abuse responses can including banning of a
user or IP from website access, but that will be done only after
notice is given to the abuser (if possible). Also, at present I
consider requesting more than 300 forecasts per day to be overuse of
the system, but that value was chosen somewhat arbitrarily so I'm
ready to listen to anyone who thinks they need more forecasts in a
single day.
Privacy Policy
Information about individual data collected by
this website can be found on the Privacy policy
webpage.
PROBLEMS with Browsers, Access, or Registration
I know that folks have successfully used Firefox,
Internet Explorer (IE5, IE6, IE7), Netscape, Mozilla, Konqueror,
Opera, Safari, and BlackBerry browsers with this registration
system. At present there are over 4000 registrations with
no known unresolved problems with browser access, so you should
be able to resolve any difficulty you experience. Please note
that while I will correct any errors on my website, I cannot act as a
personal computer assistant to help you solve problems occurring at
your end - if you need such help, find a computer-savvy fellow pilot
or friend or relative. If you experience a problem in displaying
the forecast maps here are some suggestions - since there are many
ways for things to go wrong, it's probably best to first skim the list
looking for something most relevant to your problem. (If you
have an additional suggestion you think should be included, send it to
.)
Final thoughts:
I will solve difficulties which appear to be
related to the Registration system. But there are
currently no known problems with the Registration system so any
problem you experience is much more likely to lie in problems at your
end , e.g. settings of your browser which do not allow cookies to be
accepted, lack of a valid cookie, etc. I cannot be everyone's
personal computer assistant or teach you how to use your browser or
computer - instead, personal acquaintances who are "computer savvy"
are your best source for figuring out how one's own browser or
computer, for example those you fly with who can successfully view the
forecasts on their own computer.
While I would like to help those who have genuine
difficulties and who have made a good faith effort to figure them out
themselves but were unsuccessful, I have gotten somewhat jaded
regarding user reported "problems" since some have turned out to be
as trivial as not scrolling down a webpage to find its forecast
links! More commonly, many people do not want to be bothered
spending their time reading the provided information and
instead want me to spend my time leading them step-by-step
through anything they do not understand.
My position is that you should take the time to
do some reading and/or investigation on your own before asking for
help from others. If you want more information about the
operation of the Registration system than is provided by this
Registration page, you can post a question to the DrJack
Forum. By using the Forum, any answer you obtain will also
be available to other interested users. You can also post
problems to that forum to try to obtain help from other BLIPMAP
users. I do monitor that Forum and may provide feedback, but
that depends upon evidence indicating that you have already spent time
on your end attempting to solve the problem and your providing enough information
to allow me (and others) to understand the problem you are experiencing.
Unfortunately, my experience is that many are unwilling
to make the effort needed to provide sufficient details about their problem, expecting others
to instead spend time considering all the myriad possibilities that
might have occurred - in which case my feeling is that if
they can't bother to provide detailed information, then I
can't see why others should bother to help them.
If you believe a problem exists in the DrJack Access or Registration system:
At this point, after years of successful system
use by thousands of users, the registration system is unlikely to have
a newly discovered bug (and I extensively test any alterations I do
need to make). But stuff can happen, so if you seem to have what
appears to be a registration system problem, rather than a problem
with your own browser/computer, then report it
by sending an email with a description and associated details to
.
You should indicate:
