Tim Leland

Best Weather Apps

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 Tim 13 Comments

Of course, if you are looking for a weather app for your browser, you should definitely be using Weather Extension. But if you are in search of an app for your phone while on the go, here is a list of some of my favorites. Leave a comment below of your favorite weather app.

Dark Sky (iOS/Android)

Dark Sky is the most accurate source of hyperlocal weather information. With down-to-the-minute forecasts, you’ll know exactly when the rain will start or stop, right where you’re standing. It’s almost like magic.

Powered by their own weather service, Dark Sky is the best source of accurate weather forecasts to help you plan your life. Install Link

Url Shortener Link History

February 27, 2020February 26, 2020 Tim 2 Comments

I recently added a new feature to my URL shortener extension that will show you the history of your short links. Just click on the history icon, and a list of the past 20 short URLs will appear. You can then click on any link to copy it to your clipboard. Hopefully, this will save you time finding all your short links.

Let me know in the comments below any new features you would like added to the extension.

Wireless Temperature Humidity Sensor

February 4, 2020January 11, 2021 Tim Leave a comment

If you have a need to wirelessly monitor the temperature or humidity of a room, attic or even a crawl space, the Govee Thermometer Hygrometer is a great device! I currently have 3 of them monitoring my attic, crawl space, and kid’s room. They have a nice screen but also sync over Bluetooth with your smartphone. They take 2 AAA batteries after a couple of months still are showing full for the battery status.

They are great for real-time temperature and humidity readings but also store 20-day historical data that can be viewed and exported from the app. You can also set high/low alarms for both temperature and humidity but since they are Bluetooth, you do have to be within 100 ft of the device to get an alert.

For $15, the Govee is a great deal and I highly recommend them!

Compress and Upload Images using NativeScript

January 30, 2020March 14, 2023 Tim 1 Comment

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been working on a new iOS and Android app using NativeScript. One of the requirements is to compress and upload images. I figured this would be pretty straightforward but couldn’t find any examples of how to accomplish image compression. After some trial and error, I came up with a simple solution that has worked well. Hopefully, this example will save you some time!

The key piece of code is imageSource.saveToFile which takes a third argument that is compressionValue. This allows you to compress the image to a value from 1-100. To test a string first use this MD5 hash generator tool to convert the string to an MD5 hash. Then check out the playground example below and feel free to ask any questions in the comments below.

var saved = imageSource.saveToFile(path, "jpg", compressionValue);

Demo

Playground Example

GitHub Repo