Despite what the former Vice President Al Gore declared, the “Googles” (W. Bush reference for the internet) were developed by DARPA, not him. This advent, in it’s most early form, predates my tenure at the widely misunderstood government research group by some 25 years, but my generation was the first to grow up always having an online avenue; dial-up 300 bps BSB’s, which gave way to AOL 28.8k and then ISDN, cable modems, ADSL and even high speed fiber to the desktop.

Nowadays, the internet has become such an ingrained part of our daily lives, that we seldom remember it’s somewhat humble beginnings. The technological marvels that have come about in the last decade make my elders feel like their one of those red shirt dudes in the original Star Trek. 

For those who don't remember, they were the guys who always died in the first five minutes of the show. It basically sucked to be them, but my point is they were constantly being exposed to new life forms and new technology, which subsequently ate them.

Anyway, this technological revolution has permeated our cruising world with the use of single meter precision GPS, long range, high speed internet access antenna arrays, satellite phones and world wide, real time detailed weather prediction and storm tracking software.

I guess that was my point, and so here is what I wanted to show you. (Sorry, struggling for material this week)

I’ve been playing with this new, real-time weather tracking application that is free to use and works via a web browser, so it’s platform independent. I can access it via my Android phone, my Linux desktop and my Windows laptop.

This site is especially relevant this time of year as we are currently in the middle of hurricane season.

I’ve included the link below, which centers on where Dream Catcher currently is, but you can change the location to anywhere you want and you can also zoom in or out as desired. 

On some browsers it may be necessary to press the play button to start the animation, especially you poor, challenged Mac lovers.

Check it out here:   https://www.windyty.com/?23.604,-74.707,4

More to follow, end of line….

P.S. – Today’s picture is of my brother when he visited last month.