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Google Bard now requests your actual location for better answers by Paul Hill Google has pushed out another update for its generative AI chatbot, Bard. This time, it has added the ability for users to allow access to their location so that Bard can use this and provide more relevant results. One popular Google Search query is “What time does X close?”, you’ll typically see the searched-for business in your Search results with a list of closing times. You can now do this in Bard with the location update and it will give you the closing times of the local stores you asked about. Google didn’t really expand too much on what else the precise location would enable you to do, but Bard itself says you can get location-specific information on places like coffee shops and restaurants, get directions from your current location, find events that are happening near you, and get local weather information. Having tested the weather forecast, Neowin can report that it works well but there is a small grievance. In the UK, where a hodgepodge of imperial and metric measurements are used, the main unit for measuring the temperature is Celsius. Despite knowing that the query was coming from the UK, Bard still decided to put out its response in Fahrenheit, a quick clarification swiftly resolves this though. To see which location Google Bard has for you, just look in the bottom-left corner and you should see a blue dot if you’ve given permission for it to use your location, followed by your town or city. You can also press update location if it’s now out of date due to travelling. OpenAI took an early lead in the generative AI race but while it still gets updates, its knowledge is still stuck in 2021 and it cannot do as much now as Bard, such as accessing your location or grabbing relevant pictures from the web and inserting them into your query results (at least on the free tier). We are still early on with regards to the maturity of these generative AI projects so we should see a lot more new features arriving over time. It’s so early that Google still refers to Bard as an experiment.

Microsoft Weekly: bugs, apps, IE not dead, and the overall calm before Build by Taras Buria Another weekend—another issue of Microsoft Weekly, your regular seven-day recap of everything that happened in the world of Microsoft. This week was relatively tame and quiet, something you can call the calm before the storm Build, Microsoft's annual developer conference. It is kicking off next week, and we expect many announcements from the software giant. But before that, time to look back at this week full of Windows bugs, apps, updates, Bing, and other news. Confirmed Windows Bugs and other troubles This week, Microsoft confirmed several issues and bugs in its operating systems. It all started with multiple users reporting cryptic errors when installing the latest Windows 11 cumulative updates. In addition, some complained about VPN slowdowns that Microsoft subsequently confirmed. Later, Microsoft admitted it could not fix issues with the Local Security Authority feature and offered a temporary workaround. Interestingly, LSA is not the only problem Microsoft has a hard time fixing: the company confirmed the return of the bug causing issues with the Start menu, Office apps, Window Search, UWP apps, and other components. This time, the only workaround as we wait for a real fix is to uninstall specific apps, which might not be acceptable for many. Finally, Microsoft detailed a weird bug causing internal hard and solid-state drives to show as removable media in Windows 11. Funny enough, it is one of those ancient annoyances from the Windows Vista era, and it still haunts modern Windows versions, such as 11. Luckily, Microsoft has provided a workaround. It is not all bad news It is not all negative, though. This week also brought some good news, such as the updated Windows Clock app, in which Microsoft finally mended its "game-changing" feature. After months of neglect, one of Windows 11's productivity-boosting capabilities is working again. Another great improvement (do not praise Microsoft for it) is the Weather app infected with ads and MSN News. After a wave of criticism, Microsoft removed all banners and news, resulting in a much cleaner and more pleasant application. Other app-related news includes the global rollout of the Phone Link app for iOS that now allows you to send iMessage (sort of) from your PC, make calls, and receive notifications. Windows PCs now play much better with iPhones, and it is excellent. Besides, Microsoft has released an update for the Windows Photos app with support for the WebP image format. Windows 11's built-in photo viewer is now much better at handling still exotic and unconventional for many formats, such as WebP or AVIF. Internet Explorer lives... wait, what? This week, Microsoft reverted some of its initial plans to bury the good-old Internet Explorer for good. The company explained that Windows updates would no longer remove visual references from its operating system (icons on the taskbar or Start menu), leaving companies in control over determining the timing to remove IE11. Also, Microsoft would ensure some exceptional scenarios still allow access to IE11 within Edge. So there you go, Internet Explorer is still not dead™. EU and China say "Go," and Microsoft loves GeForce Now Every week brings new developments to the ever-going saga of Microsoft trying to get its hands on Activision-Blizzard. After failing to score the green light from the UK, the software giant received approval from the European Union and China. One of the biggest and most interesting gaming-related news (especially in light of CMA's discontent with the Microsoft-ABK deal) is Microsoft bringing its games to Nvidia's GeForce Now streaming service. The company has announced its plans to let gamers stream Gears 5 and more projects in the future using GeForce Now and not just Xbox Cloud Gaming or xCloud. Finally, if you are looking into something new to play, check out the latest addition to the Xbox Game Pass library that now includes FIFA 23, Railway Empire 2, Planet of Lana, and more. Bing or be careful who you call ugly in Middle School Bing is no longer Microsoft's unloved child; it gets new updates almost weekly. On May 16, Microsoft announced new AI-powered features to its mobile apps, such as Bing, SwiftKey, Edge, and Skype. Those updates will help you leverage the power of artificial intelligence in your daily life and make things much easier than before. Not so long ago, Microsoft opened Bing Chat to all users, leaving no customer in the waiting line. This week, the company made another notable change with Bing no longer requiring a Microsoft Account to access its artificial intelligence power. It is worth noting, though, that you will not get all features when accessing Bing without an MSA, so the best experience still requires an account. In addition, Microsoft is rolling out a bunch of features it promised to deliver earlier. Users can now share their conversations with Bing or export them into PDF, text, or Word documents. Finally, the character limit was increased from 2,000 to 4,000, and the service now supports video overlays and extra enhancements in Edge. Bing's rapid growth and customer interest have made some manufacturers consider swapping Google with Microsoft's upgraded search engine. However, things are not changing in favor of Bing as Samsung has not decided to ditch Google on its smartphones. No_builds week The Windows Insider program was quiet this week, with no new builds for those rocking Canary and Dev Channels. All eyes of insiders are now on the upcoming Build 2023 conference, where we want to see some Windows 11-related announcements and details about future updates. Regarding future updates, reliable sources confirmed this week that the upcoming Windows 11 23H2 update would still arrive as an enablement package based on the 22H2 version with a minor build bump. Although we haven't got any preview builds to test, Microsoft released a few apps and Xbox updates for early trials. For example, the Windows Subsystem for Android received a few neat features improving security and performance thanks to anti-virus software support and memory reallocation. The Xbox app for Windows got a few bugs squashed, and Xbox Insiders received an updated Home experience with improved Reward points integration. As for unofficial updates and projects, the original Surface Duo received another set of drivers that enabled this tiny dual-screen device to run Windows 11. Version 2305.45 brought improved sensor support, compatibility with the Surface app from the Microsoft Store, and more. Accusations and a new investigation This week, Twitter sent a letter to the Microsoft CEO complaining that the company has been "improperly using Twitter data" without paying and sharing it without permission. A Microsoft spokesperson was quick to react and told The New York Times that the software giant does not pay Twitter for its data and that Microsoft would review the complaint and respond to it accordingly. Another not-so-positive story of the week is a new antitrust investigation from the EU. The watchdog is now looking into accusations of Microsoft behaving anti-competitively and abusing its access to confidential information to leverage and compete with other cloud providers. Fun, useful, and free stuff Internet Explorer is not the only Microsoft product refusing to die this week. In a surprising move, Microsoft announced a giveaway of an unopened Zune player to help promote Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Although the giveaway sounds extremely exciting, there is one catch: Microsoft does not know if the never opened Zune works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Adam Bottjen, your source of weekly tips, has published a new guide describing how to stop Edge from automatically loading on Windows startup. It is a handy tip for those wanting to maximize performance on startup and ensure Windows boots as "clean" as possible. Now to the freebies and discounted stuff: Epic Games is giving away free copies of the highly acclaimed Death Stranding. Also, many games are discounted during the Epic Games Store Mega Sale (coupons included) and you can save up to 90% on games in this weeks Deals with Gold that remain live until Monday. Finally, John Callaham published a guide to all the major streaming gaming events in the next few weeks to help everyone keep up with the upcoming announcements. Dates, time, and where to watch—everything included. Signing off And that is all for the week of May 15, 2023. As we approach the annual Build conference, brace yourself for a massive drop of Microsoft news next week. And to never miss a single Microsoft announcement and support us, subscribe to the Neowin Newsletter.

Microsoft Security now uses weather terms for threat actor names by John Callaham Microsoft Security is making a big change in how it labels threat actors. Today, the company revealed that from now on, these threats will be labeled based on weather terms. In its blog post, the company's Threat Intelligence team explains the reason for this change: With the new taxonomy, we intend to bring better context to customers and security researchers that are already confronted with an overwhelming amount of threat intelligence data. It will offer a more organized, memorable, and easy way to reference adversary groups so that organizations can better prioritize threats and protect themselves. Simply put, security professionals will instantly have an idea of the type of threat actor they are up against, just by reading the name. A number of the new weather terms will identify the threat actors as coming from specific countries: China Typhoon Iran Sandstorm Lebanon Rain North Korea Sleet Russia Blizzard South Korea Hail Turkey Dust Vietnam Cyclone Microsoft will also break down some more specific threats from certain nation states with additional sub-categories. For example, Russia has Blizzard as its main threat name, but it will also get Midnight Blizzard, Forest Blizzard, and Aqua Blizzard for more specific security issues. The new weather terms will also extend to other threat actor issues: Financially motivated Tempest Private sector offensive actors Tsunami Influence operations Flood Groups in development Storm If a threat comes from an unknown source, or if one cannot be identified immediately, Microsoft will use the term Storm, followed by a four-digit number, as a preliminary label until it can be fully identified. Microsoft also has established a new set of icons to go along with these new weather names for threat actors. It states: We believe this new approach, along with the new icon system shown in some of the examples above, makes it even easier to identify and remember Microsoft’s threat actors. Each icon uniquely represents a family name, and where it makes sense will accompany the threat actor names as a visual aid. This new naming approach does not in any way change who the threat actors are that we are tracking, or our current analysis behind the names. You can find out more about this new system on this Microsoft support page. All of Microsoft's in product pages that use security threat terminology will be updated with the new terms by September 2023.

Weather from Microsoft Start declared most accurate global forecast provider by Taras Buria ForecastWatch, a forecast monitoring and assessment company, has granted Microsoft a "world's most accurate global forecast provider" title. The independent study evaluated 25 major forecast providers and concluded that the data provided by Microsoft achieved the highest ranking providing the general forecast and more specific data, such as high/low temperature and wind speed. In addition to the general forecast, weather on Microsoft Start provides extra information, such as suggestions, alerts, air quality index, and other essential data you may need to plan your activities during the day. The company was even recognized by the Director of NOAA's National Weather Service for its contribution to public safety. You can access the "most accurate weather forecast" from Microsoft on the Microsoft Start portal, the new tab page in Microsoft Edge, Widgets in Windows 11, and News and Interests in Windows 10. In addition to refining the algorithms used to generate forecasts, Microsoft is improving the overall user experience. For example, the weather widget in Windows 11 recently released better theme-aware icons and subtle animations. Interestingly, the dedicated Weather app in Windows 10 and 11 still uses data provided by Foreca, which scored notably lower than the weather in Microsoft Start. You can find more information about ForecastWatch's research and analysis in a document available here.

Windows 11 is getting a major update next month, Android apps in tow by Usama Jawad Windows 11 has been around for several months now and while the OS clearly has deficiencies, Microsoft continues to tackle them in Insider builds. Although the operating system shifted to an annual release cadence, the Redmond tech giant has announced today that Windows 11 will get another update next month. In a blog post looking back at the past few months and outlining plans for what's next, Microsoft's Panos Panay has noted that Windows 11 is entering its final phase of general rollout for compatible devices. It's been encouraging for the company to see that users are spending 40% more time on their Windows 11 PC versus one that's running Windows 10. There has also been a threefold increase in traffic being directed to the Microsoft Store. Microsoft also highlighted how the pandemic has changed habits and lifestyle of its customers. In the past two years, there has been a 6x increase in people using online communication software, a 2x increase in PCs being used for shopping, and a 40% increase in the time people spend shopping online. In the same vein, monthly gaming duration has increased by 35% while time spent on content streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube has increased by 70%. In terms of what's next, "new experiences" are coming to Windows 11 in February. The highlights of the update include a public preview for Android apps on Windows 11 via Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), enhancements for taskbar, the return of the weather widget to the taskbar, and redesigned apps for Notepad and Media Player. Essentially, all the stuff that has been tested by Insiders in the past few months will now be seeded to the general public. Microsoft has emphasized that it hopes to empower even more audiences with its focus on gaming, creativity, and the "metaverse" in 2022 and beyond.

Apple is shutting down Dark Sky's iOS app and website in 2022 by Fiza Ali Apple acquired the hyperlocal weather app, Dark Sky, in 2020 and, at that time, it was highly likely that it would shut down Dark Sky's apps and website in the same year. However, the company also said that there would be "no changes to Dark Sky for iOS" at that time. In 2021, we see that there is a small update to the Dark Sky blog that appears to be adding a new shuttering date for the Dark Sky iOS App, API, and website. Adam Grossman, the co-founder of the Dark Sky weather app, wrote: Support for the Dark Sky App service for existing customers will continue until the end of 2022. The iOS app and Dark Sky website will also be available until the end of 2022. We hear this news shortly after Apple announced an overhaul to iOS' inbuilt weather app during WWDC. While the wording on the website doesn't explicitly say that the service will be "shut down" per se, it does seem that it is reaching its end of life. Previously, the Dark Sky website was scheduled to shut down in August 2020 while the API was scheduled to for the same at the end of 2021. Apple already killed Dark Sky's Android app back in August 2020. Source: Dark Sky via 9to5Mac

UK's Met Office and Microsoft sign supercomputer deal by Paul Hill Microsoft has announced that it has signed a multimillion-pound agreement with the Met Office – the UK government’s meteorological service – for the provisioning of a new supercomputer that will improve weather and climate forecasting. According to Microsoft, the new supercomputer will be in the top 25 supercomputers worldwide and will be twice as powerful as any of the other supercomputers in the UK. As the planet continues to heat up, the new supercomputer will be able to help the country prepare for the more severe storms, floods, and snow that is expected in the coming years. Commenting on the agreement, Penny Endersby, Chief Executive of the Met Office, said: “We are delighted to be working in collaboration with Microsoft to deliver our next supercomputing capability. Working together, we will provide the highest quality weather and climate datasets and ever more accurate forecasts that enable decisions to allow people to stay safe and thrive. This will be a unique capability that will keep not just the Met Office but the UK at the forefront of environmental modelling and high-performance computing.” Microsoft and the Met Office plan to have the new supercomputer up and running sometime in the summer of 2022. Over the 10-year lifespan of the agreement, financial benefits are expected to reach up to £13 billion. As with all supercomputers, this one will be energy-intensive. Microsoft said that it will be powered by 100% renewable energy and will take advantage of energy efficiency methods. It’s expected that these efforts will save 7,415 tonnes of CO2 in the first year of operational service alone.

Apple-acquired Dark Sky will now shut down its Android app on August 1 by Rajesh Pandey In March this year, Apple acquired the hyper-local weather app Dark Sky and announced that it would be shutting down the Android, Wear OS app, and the website on July 1st. Now, Dark Sky has updated its announcement post to reflect that the Android app and weather forecasts, maps, and embeds from its website will continue to be available until the end of this month and shut down on August 1, 2020. If you remain an active Dark Sky subscriber on Android when the service shuts down on August 1, 2020, you will be eligible for a full refund. Dark Sky will continue to support its API until the end of next year and the service is no longer accepting new registrations for it as well. The Dark Sky app for iOS continues to be available for purchase on the App Store and will be available for the foreseeable future as well. Apple is using Dark Sky's weather data for offering hyper-local weather information in the Weather app of iOS 14 to offers "a minute-by-minute chart that shows the intensity of rain or snow over the coming hour."

UK supercomputer set to help fight African locust outbreak by Paul Hill A supercomputer funded by UK aid is now being used to help predict locust movements in East Africa that are destroying crops. By knowing where the locusts will move next, residents will have an early warning to prepare themselves. The region is currently experiencing the worst locust outbreak in 70 years. Climate experts are using the supercomputer which is based in the regional climate centre in Kenya (ICPAC). It uses satellite data to track the swarms but also produces weather forecasts to predict high winds, rainfall, and humidity; this data allows the experts to figure out where the locusts will go next to breed, giving residents in the area time to protect their crops. With the data in hand, the UK is also providing £5 million to an emergency UN appeal which will help cover the costs of locust surveillance and aerial pesticides in countries such as Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Tanzania. With this support, farmers will have a much better chance at defending 78,000 hectares of land from the insects. The supercomputer, which will help predict the locusts’ movements, is provided through the Department for International Development’s Weather and Climate Information Services for Africa (WISER) programme, in collaboration with the UK Met Office and the Africa Climate Policy Centre.

Google AI model outperforms traditional methods of weather prediction by Ather Fawaz A couple of weeks back, Google AI used a machine learning model to improve the screening of breast cancer. Now, the firm has used a convolutional neural network (CNN) in nowcasting precipitation. In the paper titled "Machine Learning for Precipitation Nowcasting from Radar Images", researchers at Google AI have employed a CNN to give a short-term prediction for precipitation. And the results seem promising, and according to Google, outperform traditional methods: This precipitation nowcasting, which focuses on 0-6 hour forecasts, can generate forecasts that have a 1km resolution with a total latency of just 5-10 minutes, including data collection delays, outperforming traditional models, even at these early stages of development. Unlike traditional methods, which incorporate a priori knowledge of how the atmosphere works, the researchers used what they are calling a 'physics-free' approach that interprets the problem of weather prediction as solely an image-to-image translation problem. As such, the trained CNN⁠ by the team⁠—a U-Net⁠—only approximates atmospheric physics from the training examples provided to it. For training the U-Net, multispectral satellite images were used. Data collected over the continental US from the year 2017 to 2019 was used for the initial training. Specifically, the data was split into chunks of four weeks where the last week was used as the evaluation dataset while the rest of the weeks were used for the training dataset. In comparison to traditional, venerable nowcasting methods, which include High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) numerical forecast, an optical flow (OF) algorithm, and the persistence model, Google AI's model outperformed all three. Using precision and recall graphs, the quality of nowcasting was shown to be better on the U-Net model. Precision and recall (PR) curves comparing our results (solid blue line) with: optical flow (OF), the persistence model, and the HRRR 1-hour prediction. Left: Predictions for light rain. Right: Predictions for moderate rain. As can be seen, the quality of our neural network forecast outperforms all three of these models (since the blue line is above all of the other model’s results). It is important to note, however, that the HRRR model begins to outperform our current results when the prediction horizon reaches roughly 5 to 6 hours. Moreover, the model provides instantaneous predictions. This is an added advantage because the traditional methods like HRRR harbor a computational latency of 1-3 hours. This allows the machine learning model to work on fresh data. Having said that, the numerical model used in HRRR has not entirely been superseded by it. In contrast, the numerical model used in HRRR can make better long term predictions, in part because it uses a full 3D physical model — cloud formation is harder to observe from 2D images, and so it is harder for ML methods to learn convective processes. Google envisions that it might be fruitful to combine the two methods, HRRR and the machine learning model for having accurate and quick short-term as well as long-term forecasts. According to the firm, they are also looking at applying ML directly to 3D observations in the future. If you are interested in finding out more, you may refer to the paper published on arXiv here.

Google releases new tool to help gauge and reduce pollution and carbon emissions by Ather Fawaz Data, arguably, is one of the most precious resources in today's world. And Google is planning to use it to help fight climate change. Today, the tech giant announced a new tool⁠—Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE)⁠—that uses Google's exhaustive global mapping data to help gauge and reduce carbon emissions and measure renewable energy potential across cities. Google Earth Director, Rebecca Moore, wrote in the official blog post that this tool will help garner "new insights, deeper research, and more effective climate action." Starting from today, the Environment Insights Explorer will initially be available in Europe starting with Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester, with Wolverhampton and Coventry to follow soon. Copenhagen will get what Google is calling "hyperlocal, street-level air quality data" as part of EIE Labs, which will help streamline and optimize action against climate change by piloting climate-focused datasets. The Copenhagen Air Quality Map depicted in the picture above contains figures on the concentration of black carbon and ultrafine particulate matter per block. This was made possible after utilizing data from Project Air View and Google Street View vehicles fitted with scientific instruments to measure air quality at street level. These insights, the city leaders and Google believe, will help pick out hotspots and use those to plan more environmentally friendly cities in the future. Dublin has already been utilizing the new tool to help track emissions from transportation modes. The Chief Executive of Dublin City Council, Owen Keegan, said that the tool has the potential to increase awareness about climate change in general and inform people about the impacts of the steps taken to combat it: “Now we can bring Environmental Insights Explorer data analytics to conversations about transportation greenhouse gas emissions and show people the impact of supporting such programs to help start reducing emissions for our entire city which can help inform the debate." While EIE is available in selected cities for now, Google is working on expanding it to other cities as well to help "create a healthier, cleaner future for their citizens and for the planet." Google has also published a form where ordinary citizens and government officials alike can nominate their cities for the Environmental Insights Explorer to help combat the menace of climate change. You can check it out here.

Microsoft slowing down development of some first-party Windows 10 apps by Rich Woods A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced a major reorganization of the company, which left Windows and Devices head Terry Myerson leaving the firm, and Windows split up over various departments. Naturally, this means that there will be many smaller changes throughout Microsoft, and one of them is that the company is slowing down development of various Windows 10 inbox apps, according to a report from Thurrott.com's Brad Sams. Sams cited Stocks and Weather as the types of apps that will be winding down, so the major apps like OneNote shouldn't be affected. Mail and Calendar should still fall under the Outlook team, so those shouldn't really be affected either. Employees that are leaving the teams for the more minor Windows 10 apps are being offered positions on the Edge team. The report also says that other developers are coming over to Edge as well, due to Redstone 5 features that were canceled. None of this is particularly surprising, as the in-house Edge browser is clearly still a high priority for Microsoft. Besides, it's not like Weather or Stocks were about to get any exciting new features.

Facebook introduces weather-focused features for its website and mobile apps by Muhammad Zaid Tariq About a year ago, Facebook introduced "weather greetings" which intermittently displayed brief details about the weather in a card-based UI on the social platform. The company has now fully integrated new features focused on the weather into its desktop and mobile apps. This update can be viewed as an extension to the previous feature. Now, if you tap on the cards detailing information about the weather, they will direct you to a new section. You can also view it manually on your smartphone by tapping the hamburger icon in the Facebook app and clicking on "See More" near the bottom of the menu, where you'll be able to see the "Weather" section. At the top of this new section, there are simulations which change depending on the current weather. Hourly and weekly forecasts can be viewed, and users also have the ability to switch between Celsius and Fahrenheit measurements. Moreover, they can change their default location by simply tapping the settings icon in the top right corner. The app also receives your default location and collects its data from a dedicated website accordingly. A link at the bottom also redirects users to weather.com for more details. A Facebook spokesperson had the following to say about the new feature: We are doing this because our goal is to develop products that connect people to the things they care about most and create moments of joy in people’s day, like simply telling you that it’s going to rain later. The company also claimed that over 95% of users can already access the new feature. It also plans to allow users to set notifications about the weather with another update coming at the end of this month. Source: TechCrunch | Facebook Notifications image via Shutterstock

MSN Weather updated for Fast ring Insiders with a transparent Live Tile by Rich Woods Microsoft updated its MSN Weather app for Windows Insiders on the Fast ring today, bringing the version number to 4.17.72.0. The big new feature for the app is a transparent Live Tile. Such a feature has been heavily requested for some time; Weather is one of very few Microsoft apps that comes pre-installed on a Windows phone and doesn't include a transparent tile. Users are bound to switch their focus to the new Skype Preview app, which launched as recently as the Anniversary Update but still has a solid blue tile. In you're simply not feeling the transparency, you'll still have the option to go back to the old Live Tile. It's on by default, so to get rid of it, tap the hamburger menu on the top-left, select Settings, and toggle off the option that says "Transparent live tiles". The update is live for both PCs and phones, but only for Windows Insiders on the Fast ring. You can download or update your MSN Weather app right here. If you're on the Production ring (non-Insiders), you'll likely see this update pushed to you within the next few weeks. Via Windows Central

I upgraded two of our workstations from 8.1 Pro X64 to 10 build 10586. But after the update was successful, I ran into an unusual problem on one of the two systems. The Weather App closes within 1 second of opening. I ran sfc /scannow in elevated command prompt and it returned no file system errors. Then I used Dism command to restore health by inserting install USB but no use. Finally, I uninstalled Weather App using powershell command. Then went to App Store and re-downloaded Weather App and installed it. But still no use. The Weather App quits within just 1 second of opening. The window frame appears for fraction of a second and disappears. My system is Intel NUC D34010WYKH. The other system is also same model NUC which opens the Weather app without problems. It has same graphics, sound drivers and BIOS. I only have Mouse, Keyboard and Epson Printer TM-220 attached on both the system. So both the systems are exactly identical. Finally I updated both the systems to today's cumulative update KB3124263 but the Weather app still the same old broken as before. I have exhausted my options and wondering what could be the issue as all other Modern or App store apps work just fine. Re-installing Windows on that system is not an option just for this App. My OCD gets the worst of me. Can anyone help?

I posted something like this on Facebook, and though I would post it here as well to help everybody out. Cold weather is fast approaching. My garden has mostly died back except for my pumpkin vines. According to 3 or 4 different predictions I've seen, they're expecting my region of the country to have an even worse winter than we had last year, and last year's was pretty rough. In light of the fact that it is now September and we're getting some dark predictions from multiple sources, here are some tips for things you can do to help prepare yourself for the cold weather before it gets here. - If you've never done it, now would be a good time to flush the coolant system on your car. Flush out all your old anti-freeze and re-fill it with clean anti-freeze. Anti-freeze doesn't just keep your engine from freezing up and cracking, but it also acts as an anti-corrosion agent for the inside of your engine, water pump, etc., and it does need to be changed occasionally. Failing to do so could cause the water lines to rust/corrode, and losing fluid because of a leaky radiator in the dead of winter is not something you want to go through. Anti-freeze doesn't just stop the engine from over-heating, it is also where your car's heater gets its heat. - Drain your car's washer fluid and re-fill it with de-icer. - If your vehicle's heater isn't working properly, now would be the time to fix it. - Make sure you have a secondary source of heat, if you heat primarily with electricity. A kerosene heater, coal/wood burning stove, propane, something to keep you warm when the electricity goes out. If you heat with coal, kerosene or wood, now would be a good time to build up a good stockpile. - Check the tread depth on all 4 tires of your car and make sure you have all weather tires, or at the very least have a good amount of tread left on the tires you do have. - Make sure you have some emergency equipment in your car like a blanket, flashlight, jack, tire tool, tow rope/chain, maybe even a small propane heater (the kind that take the little coleman propane canisters) to help you if you happen to break down in really cold weather. I'd recommend keeping a tow rope/chain even if you drive a car, because you never know who might come by and be able to pull you out with your rope even if they don't have one of their own. I also recommend a secondary mode of communication (something other than a cell phone, I consider a cell phone a primary means of communication) like a CB radio. - Have your car's battery and alternator checked. Advance will check them for you for free. Your battery may work fine now, but you also want to know that it'll reliably start your car when it's 5 below zero. When it gets that cold, batteries lose juice, so take yours down to Car Quest, Advance, or NAPA and have them check the life of your battery, and that your alternator isn't showing signs of wear. - Purchase a NOAA weather radio. Many police scanners can access the NOAA frequencies as well. Whenever there's severe weather headed our way I try to record parts of the NOAA transmissions and post the audio to Facebook, but you should have a NOAA radio so that even if the local radio station goes down (because apparently they don't believe in generators at WRLV) and the power goes out, you'll be able to keep up with the latest weather advisories and forecasts. There's 4 or 5 frequencies within our listening distance that you can hear with battery operated scanners/NOAA radios even if there's no power or cell phone service. - Double check all of the insulation under the floor of your house. Make sure that your water lines are adequately protected from the open air, and that your underpinning is in good repair. - Take out any window air conditioners you have, or place a large plastic bag over the outside portion of it to keep cold air from coming in. - Consider having the under-carriage of your car sprayed with rubberized undercoating, or painted at the very least, to help protect it from corrosion caused by road salt. - Remember your pets. If you have outside dogs, consider bringing them inside, or at the very least rigging up a heat bulb to keep them warm when it gets cold outside. There's all sorts of other information available at ready.gov, you can check it out here: http://www.ready.gov/winter-weather

I wrote what is mostly my own weather code for geektool, cause I wasn't satisfied with any of the existing ones. There was some interest when I posted my desktop, so I figure I'll post the code for anyone to be able to take advantage of. The main part of the weather code uses Yahoo's XML feed, and as such should work for everyone. The alert part only works for Canadians, as it uses Environment Canada's RSS to grab the alerts (not surprising, they don't care about other countries :p ) The way mine works is a single main file, master.py, downloads the the XML feeds from Yahoo and Environment Canada and saves them. It then checks these files to copy the correct weather conditions image, and if needed, an alert image to the temp images. It also calculates the lunar cycle, and copies that image. The other files then, if needed, pull from these cached XML files to extract the information they need. This is to minimize the number of times I'm having to hit external servers, and pull data. I have limited bandwidth, sometimes caps on usage, every little bit helps. MyWeather.zip REQUIRED : Feedparser for Python - https://pypi.python.org/pypi/feedparser You will need to install this as root in terminal (or other ways if you know what you are doing.. it's not hard, but not my topic today.) REQUIRED : GeekTool http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/ Unless you use something else, in which case ignore this. Included in this zip is all the scripts, the images that I used ( Weather icons are FlatWhite, from http://lavana.deviantart.com/art/Flat-Weather-Icons-32021664 ), and my current cached weather. Below I will go through some of the changes that need to be made. I personally run each script individually in their own script boxes through the code: python /path/to/python/file.py Though pasting the contents of each file into their own script windows should work too. Images link to w_temp.png, l_temp.png, and a_temp.png (Weather Conditions, Lunar Cycle, and Alerts) and are updated regularly. Now, lets start on the fun parts. master.py : yahoo_url = 'http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?w=3826&u=c' weather_cache = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/w_temp.xml' gcweather_url = 'https://weather.gc.ca/rss/warning/ns-19_e.xml' gcweather_cache = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/gcw_temp.xml' theme_dir = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/Icons/FlatWhite/' lunar_theme_dir = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/Icons/LunarWhite/' alert_theme_dir = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/Icons/Alerts/' temp_image = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/w_temp.png' lunar_temp_image = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/l_temp.png' alert_temp_image = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/a_temp.png' night_images = [27, 29, 31, 33, 45, 46, 47] Obviously, first thing you will need to do is update all the paths to your location. Second thing is update yahoo_url and gcweather_url to your locations. For Yahoo, refer to http://developer.yahoo.com/weather/ for how to find your specific WOEID. Also note the u=c, that means Yahoo sends me the information is Celcius/Metric. If you want it in Imperial, either change the C to an F, or omit it all together. As for the Environment Canada address, go to https://weather.gc.ca/canada_e.html , select your nearest city, and then go to near the bottom of the page. It will have the RSS icon, and say ATOM: Weather | Alert, you want the alert. Lastly, if you want to change the icons, then you can update the urls for the themes. The alerts one is a work in progress, atm it just uses a red icons for an alert, and transparent if there isn't one. Weather icons wise, this script will with without edits with any if the icons in the pack I linked above (there are several different colours available in that pack). If you want to use other weather icon sets, then this script does use the standard Yahoo weather conditions code, HOWEVER, this script will also calculate the lunar cycle and apply that. Most icons sets do not have images for those different phases, so you will need to remove that section of code. The condition codes that have lunar cycle images are listed in the variable "night_images", simply removing the numbers there and putting a number that doesn't ever happen, like 100, will resolve it. Or you can actually remove the code itself. If you are not Canadian, or otherwise don't want the alerts, you will need to remove a few sections of code, lines 60-64, 92-108 (you can remove the globals for it too if you wish). With the master.py file setup, you add it as a scipt. Personally when I add it to geektool, I check the "Override text:" box, and put in my Degrees C. I have mine set on a refresh rate of every 600s but you can adjust this as you see fit for how often you want it to hit the external servers. Now that that is over, you will need to edit most of the other py files. The lunar_phase.py doesn't have anything that needs to be edited, it doesn't read from either of the xml files, it just outputs the current phase name. All of the other ones will need to be edited to have their global variable point to the correct locations for the cached XML files, alert.py for the Enciornment Canada one, and the rest for the Yahoo Weather xml. The included scripts are: alert.py -- The active weather alert from Enviornment Canada. current_conditions.py -- Current weather conditions. current_temp.py -- The current tempature. feels_temp.py -- What the tempature feels like. lunar_phase.py -- The current lunar cycle. sunrise_cunset.py -- The Current Sunrise/Sunset times. (If it's day, it shows sunset, if it's night, it shows sunrise). wind.py -- Current Windpseed and cumpass direction. master.py -- The most imporant file. If there is additional information you want, it isn't hard to make your own scripts to pull from the cache. I shall post one as an example. #! /usr/bin/python import feedparser # Globals weather_cache = '/Users/Ryoken/Documents/GeekTool/MyWeather/w_temp.xml' data = feedparser.parse(weather_cache) # Get current conditions from Cache conditions = data['items'][0]['yweather_condition']['text'] # Output the current conditions print(conditions) This is current_conditions.py, 3 guess as to what this outputs? :) Now if you go to http://xml.weather.yahoo.com/forecastrss?w=3826&u=c , or open the included cached weather information in the download, you will see exactly what information Yahoo sends you. I ignored the forecast cause I really don't care. Maybe some day I'll write something for it, but not today. Now I'm pulling the text from yweather:condition, ( : gets converted to _ for feedparser ). The full contests of that is: <yweather:condition text="Partly Cloudy" code="29" temp="-14" date="Thu, 23 Jan 2014 7:59 pm AST" /> Simply changing the ['text'] part will change what it grabs, changing it to ["code"] will return the weather code, used for the images. ["temp"] will return the current temp. Other important parts to look at are: <yweather:units temperature="C" distance="km" pressure="mb" speed="km/h"/> <yweather:wind chill="-22" direction="220" speed="14.48" /> <yweather:atmosphere humidity="82" visibility="" pressure="1011.7" rising="0" /> <yweather:astronomy sunrise="7:41 am" sunset="5:09 pm"/> All the units used in these feed. Wind Chill, Direction, speed. One that I haven't included that might be of use, depending on the time of year and your location is Humidity, As such I would change data['items'][0]['yweather_condition']['text'] to data['items'][0]['yweather_atmosphere']['humidity'] Well there it is. I think I've wrote enough on it for most people to be able to figure it out, and expand on it if needed. If you have any questions ask/message me. I may or may not notice and respond (being honest here, I often go away for weeks/months at a time from following forums lol) ** Also, don't forget to set refresh times for all the smaller parts. Personally I have all the individual scripts update every minute or two, with the master every 10 minutes, but that's personal preference. The more often you update, the mode system load geektool uses, but with that said, even on my old MacBook Pro, the usage for this never even registers as relevant. Hope someone finds this of use :)

J.A.R.V.I.S. is From moview <Iron Man>, High-tech style Weather Clock widget for Android. How to uses: 1. install xwidget for android from google play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xwidgetsoft.xwidget 2. download ".xwp" file and sent to phone 3. run .xwp file on phone by XWidget for Android download from here: http://android.xwidget.com/page/widgets/weather/2013/1204/J_A_R_V_I_S__Weather_Clock.html

Mood Miui Weather Clock Port by Pigboat Credits: Thanks for the author kidaubis Right click to change City/Location and Temp Unit C/F Requirements: XWidget http://xwidget.com How to use: Download skin and double click to install skin and will show on your desktop Download

TSF Weather Widget for xwidget Video Requirements XWidget Click the background to Expand/Collapse Right click to change location and Enabled/Disabled Shake Download: tsfweather.zip

So I have been using Beautiful Widgets forever and have grown tired of the lack of decent skins for them. Got a nice weather skin but the clock just isn't right. Can anyone suggest any other clock/weather apps which they have found to be useful? I don't need it to be graphically intense, just nice and simple, but attractive.

Hey Guys, Recently i setup my very own Weather Station at home and decided to learn a little bit about Wordpress theme development and took the plunge and developed my own site based around it. I am looking for some feedback on the design and usability of the site, i know that some parts are not working at the moment, for example there is a Internal Server Error being displayed this is where the weather information will be shown but at the moment the server is not uploading the data. The design was done by me and the coding was also done by me with some help from some friends, it may not be 100% perfect but as i said i am still learning. Any ways take a look http://www.oswestryweather.co.uk and let me know what you think. Cheers Rich

Cleanup is underway in Michigan after tornadoes swept through the area on Thursday. It is believed that three possible twisters hit the state, with the town of Dexter suffering the most damage. The tornado cut a 10-mile path through the area, but no one was hurt. Many in the town credit an alert that was issued 33 minutes before the tornado hit, according to CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod. But, Columbia University scientist Adam Sobel thinks that weather services can do better and give people warnings months ahead of the natural disaster. "I think that will happen probably within a year from now," he told CBS News. Sobel and his team looked at 30 years of climate data. They discovered two conditions linked to active tornado season. One was wind shear, which is wind blowing from different directions at different levels. The other was atmospheric instability that produces thunderstorms. "(We can use this knowledge coupled with) using the numerical climate models that have been developed by the forecasting centers that predict the climate up to several months in advance," he said. Scientists still have work to do, including finding out why the spring is busier than the fall when it comes to tornadoes even though conditions for producing the twisters are similar in both seasons. Hopefully, an early and accurate forecast for an intense tornado season will be in place soon and help areas prepare and be aware of what is coming. CBSNews

Not really technology related news, but my hometown of Salyersville, KY demolished by a tornado yesterday. They very rarely see things like this because of their location in the hills, but one touched down yesterday and totally destroyed what everybody calls "Restaurant Row". The downtown area where the courthouse and things are wasn't touched though, so that's good. One of the schools was completely leveled and the others were severely damaged. Several businesses were leveled and people are missing. Most of my family members are fine except one aunt we haven't been able to contact. The next town over, West Liberty, is in worse shape because just a couple of days ago they too experienced a tornado for the first time in their memory, and then yesterday they were hit again by an F4 and one to two smaller tornadoes. Their town is also in shambles. Like I said, I know it's not tech related, but thought I would share this info. I never would have known it was happening except for I turned in my drivers' license at the rifle range yesterday to get a spotting scope and the guy looked at me and said, "Bet you're glad you're not in Kentucky now aint ya?" The phones and power are out all around the town, so of course I hadn't seen anything on Facebook about it because nobody has internet. Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Is weather control a good idea? While I was walking to work in the cold weather that has gripped the UK for the past couple of weeks, I was thinking that I could endure the cold weather as I do enjoy snow but I'd prefer to know when it is going to end. I know we can control the weather to an extent already but I mean Red Alert 2 / The Truman Show sort of control. There obvious advantages (Monday sunny, Tuesday windy, Wendesday raining, Thursday warm, Friday hot...) but there's obvious disadvantages too. I guess it would depend how much we control it. If there's droughts then we could create rain. Or would we control all of the weather (IE, when it is hot, when it is raining or snowing). What are your thoughts?