Cold and Dry and Maybe a Snow Flurry

The forecasts are stable and the models are in agreement--cold and dry with strong winds downstream of mountain gaps.
Today we started with a large pressure difference across the Cascades (see temperature and wind forecast for 10 AM above). Cold temperatures and associated high pressure west of the Cascades. There was very strong wind acceleration in the only sea level gap across the Cascades...the Columbia Gorge...with winds at locations such as Troutdale reaching 30-40 mph.

The next act is beginning...the first in a series of upper level troughs is moving through and behind it there will be an influx of colder, continental air (see plot). Not the primo stuff...but cooler than we have had during the past several days. I have included a surface chart for later tomorrow...with cooler air and northerly flow moving south--there is a large pressure change at the forward edge of the cold air. There could be a few snow showers tomorrow morning with this...particularly over the western Cascade foothills...but nothing of any note.

A second upper disturbance moves through Sunday and an even stronger pulse of cold air, with strong easterly and northeasterly flow follows (see figure). Will be an interesting day. A huge gradient will be established over the Fraser River Valley and strong winds will push into Bellingham, with further acceleration down the western Strait of Juan de Fuca. You will see the famous Tatoosh easterly gales! At one time this area was known as the "graveyard of the north Pacific" due to these winds and the rocks. You have delicate plants...protect them. When the winds die down on Monday morning the temperatures could plummet on the western side into the teens in some locations. Maybe even colder Tuesday am. Good weather for plumbers--could have some frozen and bursting pipes.

And watch the action offshore! As the cold air moves over the relatively warm water there will developing cumulus activity...including showers. There will be lines of convection...should be impressive.

Monday and Tuesday will be cold and sunny. That's far enough to forecast...but remember...sometimes the most interesting weather happens when a cold spell ends. I won't even mention that unspeakable four letter word: S**W. Don't even think about it.

Introducing Google Public DNS: A new DNS resolver from Google

Today, as part of our efforts to make the web faster, we are announcing Google Public DNS, a new experimental public DNS resolver.

The DNS protocol is an important part of the web's infrastructure, serving as the Internet's "phone book". Every time you visit a website, your computer performs a DNS lookup. Complex pages often require multiple DNS lookups before they complete loading. As a result, the average Internet user performs hundreds of DNS lookups each day, that collectively can slow down his or her browsing experience.

We believe that a faster DNS infrastructure could significantly improve the browsing experience for all web users. To enhance DNS speed but to also improve security and validity of results, Google Public DNS is trying a few different approaches that we are sharing with the broader web community through our documentation:

• Speed: Resolver-side cache misses are one of the primary contributors to sluggish DNS responses. Clever caching techniques can help increase the speed of these responses. Google Public DNS implements prefetching: before the TTL on a record expires, we refresh the record continuously, asychronously and independently of user requests for a large number of popular domains. This allows Google Public DNS to serve many DNS requests in the round trip time it takes a packet to travel to our servers and back.


• Security: DNS is vulnerable to spoofing attacks that can poison the cache of a nameserver and can route all its users to a malicious website. Until new protocols like DNSSEC get widely adopted, resolvers need to take additional measures to keep their caches secure. Google Public DNS makes it more difficult for attackers to spoof valid responses by randomizing the case of query names and including additional data in its DNS messages.


• Validity: Google Public DNS complies with the DNS standards and gives the user the exact response his or her computer expects without performing any blocking, filtering, or redirection that may hamper a user's browsing experience.

We hope that you will help us test these improvements by using the Google Public DNS service today, from wherever you are in the world. We plan to share what we learn from this experimental rollout of Google Public DNS with the broader web community and other DNS providers, to improve the browsing experience for Internet users globally.

To get more information on Google Public DNS you can visit our site, read our documentation, and our logging policies. We also look forward to receiving your feedback in our discussion group.

By Prem Ramaswami, Public DNS Team

Midweek Video: The Softer Side of Blue Monday

There are generally three directions that covers go in. There are covers which pretty much pay homage to a song by doing it in a similar style, there are covers which take a song and make it harder, faster or louder, and then there are versions which make it softer, and at times cute.

This is one of those last kind.

Can you believe that this post only represents the tip of the iceberg for Blue Monday covers?

Tags: nouvelle vague, blue monday, new order, orgy, cover version, flunk

Deeper integration for Friend Connect and Twitter

Did you hear that Friend Connect and Twitter are more closely integrated than ever? To learn more, check out our post on the Social Web Blog.

By James Reilly, Google Friend Connect Team

The Best DVD Storage Solution EVER!

I have to preface this by saying that I have not received any compensation for this post. I had to go on the record and say that because I gush here, and I want you to all know that money is not involved, just an undying love for the product this is about. I am writing it spontaneously because it feels almost like this awesome thing is a secret and that more people should know about it, and seeing as a lot of you are pop culture junkies too, well, you may have the same problem I do.

A few years ago, someone was moving out of town and they asked if I wanted this plastic set of drawers they didn't have room for, and being the thrifty fellow that I am, I took them up on this offer.

What I received was something like this, built by the Gracious Living company:



And at the time, I didn't realize that the above item was going to become one of my favorite things ever.

You see, the thing that I've never heard mentioned about these particular units is that they are one of the best standard DVD storage solutions (although my title does give that away). If I didn't know better, I would swear that they had that in mind and then looking at how small the market was for just that purpose, they threw the product on the market as a general storage solution.

The reason I make this claim is based on the mathematics the unit employs. Each of those large drawers hold two rows of 18 standard DVD cases perfectly, spine up, so you can read them, and do you know how wide a standard DVD case is in terms of another DVD dimension? Laid flat, a standard DVD case is the width of 9 DVD spines. The extra space at the top of the drawer is 3 DVD spines tall plus a small buffer zone. That means that each drawer can hold in practice 48 cases. And since the width is perfect, that means even the little drawers can hold a fair number of DVD cases flat. They aren't squashed together or swimming in space... the drawers are the perfect size for this task and there is room for you to stick your finger in at the front to pull individual titles out from the front. I admit getting a DVD out from the back isn't that simple, but it is still relatively easy (you just have to get the one in front of it out first before sliding it out), so it doesn't feel like that much of a hassle.



Did I mention they make units with just the bigger drawers too? I've seen ones with 5 big drawers in them, which means you could hold around 240 cases in a unit with a very small floorspace footprint. If push came to shove, you could just put it in a closet or other out of the way area.

Do you want to know how crazy I am about these things? Whenever someone even hints to me that they may be having a problem finding a place for their DVDs, I feel compelled to tell them about these storage drawer units... they just have to know about them. Hell, when I was buying my second one, I was telling people who were working in the store how good they were for storing DVDs. I'm evangelical about them. And the upshot was, when the person who gave me that first one ended up buying another one for the very same purpose after hearing about how good it was for DVD's.

And the thing is, these Gracious Living units are really inexpensive when you compare them to the alternative, and they require very little assembly (you can put some wheels on them if you want, but what you see above is basically how you buy them). When I went to buy a second unit with just 3 of the big drawers, I ended up getting it for about 20 dollars, which is really affordable. When I was looking for a picture to accompany this entry, I noticed that I was getting hits from American retailers as well, like Riteaid and Lowe's, so these Gracious Living products do seem to be available in the States as well. And in Canada, I've seen these units at Zellers, Walmart and Canadian Tire, so they are certainly around if you need one.

It is not a looker, but for the price, the sheer amount of storage and convenience these Gracious Living storage drawers provide, I can't recommend them enough.

Tags: gracious living, storage drawers, dvds, most awesome storage solution ever, zellers, walmart, canadian tire, riteaid, lowe's

Update

Does this remind you a bit of December past?
Cold, but no snow? Bah! Humbug!

I just viewed the latest forecast output (computer models initialized at 4 PM) and also the uncertainty (ensemble) forecasts from NCEP (the National Weather Service forecasting center) and ECMWF (the European Center for Medium Range Forecasting). The die is cast for the next 5-6 days: dry and cool, and getting COLD.

With clear skies, temperatures have already fallen into the 30s in much of the areas, some colder spots are already below freezing. Tomorrow will be like today...perhaps with some fog in low spots in the morning. With an increasing offshore pressure gradient and easterly winds aloft, the fog probably will not be extensive or long-lived. Sun tomorrow. No precipitation at all. Ditto Thursday. Friday a weak disturbance will pass to our north...all we will get is some clouds...particularly the northern portion of the State.

Saturday again cool and dry with sun. Sunday will be interesting as a strong surge of cool air pushes into the region with strong easterly flow in the lower atmosphere. Winds will howl through the Fraser River Gap and flags will be flying in Bellinghan. Strong easterlies in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. But it looks dry.

Monday and Tuesday could be the coldest we have seen in a long time...particularly in sheltered spots. My advice...you have delicate plants--cover them with mulch, bags, or whatever you do. Or bring them inside. This is potentially plant killer weather--but we will know more in a few days.

Some of the forecast models keep it cool virtually all next week, others have different solutions...but no need to worry about that--I am more than content to forecast 5-6 days out.

Special Lecture: I will be giving a noon-time weather lecture ("Is Rainfall Getting More Extreme?") and a book signing at Elliot Bay Books, December 2 at 12 PM. Downtown in Pioneer Square

KIRO TV WEATHER SPECIAL: Wednesday, Dec 2 at 7 PM. For more info check out: http://www.kirotv.com/station/21774954/detail.html

Google Analytics Launches Asynchronous Tracking

Today we're excited to announce our new Google Analytics Asynchronous Tracking Code snippet as an alternative way to track your websites! It provides the following benefits:

• Faster tracking code load times for your web pages due to improved browser execution
• Enhanced data collection & accuracy
• Elimination of tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn't fully loaded

Here is the JavaScript source of the new tracking snippet:

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script');
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 
        'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    ga.setAttribute('async', 'true');
    document.documentElement.firstChild.appendChild(ga);
  })();

</script>

The first part of the asynchronous tracking code snippet assigns the _gaq variable to a JavaScript array. After that, two tracking API calls (encoded as arrays) are pushed onto _gaq. When the tracking code initializes, it transforms the _gaq object from a standard array into a new object and executes all the tracking API calls initially collected in the array. With this feature, you can immediately store all necessary tracking calls even before the Google Analytics tracking code is downloaded! No more worrying about race conditions or dependency issues on the ga.js tracking code.

The second half of the snippet provides the logic that loads the tracking code in parallel with other scripts on the page. It executes an anonymous function that dynamically creates a <script> element and sets the source with the proper protocol. As a result, most browsers will load the tracking code in parallel with other scripts on the page, thus reducing the web page load time. Note here the forward-looking use of the new HTML5 "async" attribute in this part of the snippet. While it creates the same effect as adding a <script> element to the DOM, it officially tells browsers that this script can be loaded asynchronously. Firefox 3.6 is the first browser to officially offer support for this new feature. If you're curious, here are more details on the official HTML5 async specification.

Once loaded, the tracking code, transforms the _gaq array into an Analytics _gaq object. This object acts as a wrapper for the underlying _gat object and executes all the commands, sending data to your Google Analytics account. Your page code can ignore this fact though, because the _gaq.push syntax can be used at any time. See the Asynchronous Tracking Usage Guide for more details.

The new tracking code is now in Beta and available to all Google Analytics users. Keep in mind that use of the code is also optional: all your existing Google Analytics code will continue to work as-is should you decide not to adopt the new tracking method. But if you want to improve the speed of your website and the increase accuracy of your Analytics data, then we think you'll love this new option.

Learn more about this new tracking code in our Google Code developer docs and get started with our migration guide.

By Brian Kuhn, Google Analytics Team