Sunsets in Google Calendar using R (opens in new tab)

(hilaryparker.com)

97 pointsinmygarage12y ago10 comments

10 comments

10 comments · 6 top-level

baldfat12y ago· 2 in thread

I always miss meteor showers. I live in the city so I have to drive for about 30 minutes to see one BUT if the sky cover is over 10% covered it isn't worth it and the moon needs to be gone. I think I might try to figure out a way to let me know when the conditions of a meteor shower, the cloud cover are just right and the moon is not present in the sky and post to my Google Calendar.

Thanks for inspiring me.

privong12y ago

I wonder if you could use the data from Clear Dark Sky[0] for taking care of the moon and cloud cover constraints. I'm not sure if the data which makes the charts (e.g., [1]) is accessible or not.

[0] http://cleardarksky.com/

[1] http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

k-mcgrady12y ago

I'm not sure how much data the API offers but parent could also maybe get something from this source[0]. It's used by the Dark Sky iOS app and at least for rain I've found it unbelievably accurate.

[0] https://developer.forecast.io

sudont12y ago· 2 in thread

Great idea. There's a lot of calendar apps out there, but the data feeds powering them are the same old crap. The concept of an agent doing stuff with the app feels like 60's-ish virtual assistant futurism.

I wonder how usable an "intelligent" autonomous agent putting things on a calendar would be. (That is, to extend the generation of a calendar feed with more clever bits.) Say there was a weather component that would only schedule sunsets when the weather would be conducive for photography.

cryptoz12y ago

I'm actively working on building this actually - starting with the normal weather side of calendar integration (appointment locations vs. weather conditions, for example), but also eventually including beautiful sunset predicting/timing. I'd be interested in collaborating on some of these...email me if you want to explore this. :)

sudont12y ago

Definitely, I'll send an email over. I've spent a lot of time mulling over these type of agents, would be nice to do something practical based on it.

benjaminpv12y ago

Reading the title made me think that someone wrote a script that would create sub-calendars of various colors and then schedule events using those calendars so that it'd emulate a sunset across the Google Calendar interface.

nathan_f7712y ago

Man, I totally forgot about my idea for a website until reading this post. I put this into evernote last week:

> A service/website which lets you know when a beautiful sunset or sunrise is likely, and the best time / place to view them in your area. Includes a photo sharing feature where people can upload their sunsets, rainbows, etc. Would use weather forecasts to predict red skies

Does anyone know if this already exists? If it does, I won't even be disappointed, I just want to use it

loisaidasam12y ago

Got it to work! Great writeup Hilary.

For others like me who know nothing about R, I did a little writeup for doing this yourself: http://blog.samsandberg.com/2014/06/04/sunsets-in-google-cal...

Hope this helps at least someone out there

phragg12y ago

Any reason in particular you decided to choose R?

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