I’ve used WW about 20 times now, and finally coughed up. I really admire the simplicity, small size and tight design. I’ve given WW a place in my tray now, and believe me, I’m very picky about what I allow to live there.
A couple of comments, based on two days with 5.1-something, and now 5.4a. For now, this is on an older “email” 98SE/128MB PII (figured you needed a couple of retro users:
o I got bit by the upgrade thing, and had to DL and overlay-install the full 5.4a. That worked. Perhaps deny autoupdate with the update version this one time?
o I like the “return of the registry.” Things are much crisper on this slow machine, and I get only 1-2 second "blips’ of 50-70% CPU on each update. There are no clots when the Weather Channel is uncooperative – WW just times out smoothly.
o I like the subtly changed skins - very legible. Understand, I’m a minimalist - I knock my icons back to 256C, even under XP. And these are the first “pastel blue” screens I’ve seen that don’t look over-trendy or XP-ish under 98. VB native? Screen package? Anyway, nice.
(Feature requests mixed in now, sorry)…
o How about italic for the tray temp on first load, changing to roman/normal on the first successful update? Color change? For those of us who do not load WW at startup, it’s a shock to see last week’s 58F temp down there when you know it’s actually colder than a witch’s youknowwhat.
o Has the weather channel been a stable feed for you and your users over the years? Ever considered a fallback source, or does the WC encourage access this way via an API?
o You badly need hotlinks to mirror DL sites on the front page. Download has been slow for a couple of friends to whom I’ve recommended the program. But congrats on your popularity. This is really an intelligent utility that does what it’s suppost to do. And we get support, too! That’s paradise for this user.
-Frank