New Feature Suggestions

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A-L-E-X
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Joined: 2012-06-28

Hi, I wanted to suggest some features that I currently require multiple programs to use, which would be quite useful if they were all offered with Time Zone Master.

One is a list of servers to chose from to update time. The normal windows servers dont quite do it for me (slow to update, sometimes dont update at all) and I have a dead CMOS battery so when I turn my computer on, the time is stuck on whatever it was when I shut it off. Currently I use the following programs to do this (all are freeware):

http://www.freewarefiles.com/SymmTime_program_18873.html

http://www.wimsprograms.com/programs.html#wclock30

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptsync.asp

The karenware program has the most comprehensive list of servers, and also allows you to sync the clock at start up and at regular intervals, so options like that would be the best.

Some other options which I thought useful was something similar to what I see in a wonderful wallchanger program (also free) called Desktop Earth:

http://desktop-earth.en.softonic.com/images

It sets a satellite image of the earth as your desktop background (you can make it span multiple monitors) and the image itself changes monthly, with light and dark areas showing on the earth, as well as city lights. Clouds are updated every 3 hrs and you can set the night/day areas to update anywhere from every minute to every hour. I love this program and would love these features to be incorporated into your program! It uses NASA servers (they are listed in the program) and they are free so this should hopefully be easy to accomplish.

It would be nice if you could add a moon phase indicator to the clock face also (one for each of the 8 phases: new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent.) Like in this free program:

http://www.ambientweather.com/freedownload.html

I also like how it uses wunderground to output local weather data from anywhere around the world; I think this could be of use in Time Zone Master also (especially combined with Clear Sky Clock, to show levels of light pollution and sky conditions worldwide and locally.)

http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

I know there is a version of this which outputs levels of light pollution on a town by town basis for anywhere around the world (using Google Earth.)

Here it is (can this be included in Time Zone Master overlaid on the map of the globe and one can click in the vicinity of a given location and get the map to enlarge and zoom into one's home town to see the weather and Bortle Scale light pollution levels?)

http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/

an updated one:

http://sites.google.com/site/3davel/home/light-pollution/lp2001/gmap

Weather Ninja has a nice Clear Sky Clock implementation

http://www.ccdware.com/downloads/

Which would be nice to incorporate into Time Zone Master along with the Bortle Scale Google Maps implementation like from the Dark Sky Viewer or Light Pollution Map implementation above.

http://www.inquinamentoluminoso.it/worldatlas/pages/

http://www.lightpollution.it/worldatlas/pages/fig1.htm

Here is a visual limiting magnitude program it would be nice to incorporate, however it predates the Bortle Scale, so that isn't included like it is in the map links above:

http://www.ilanga.com/visuallimitingmagnitude/index.shtml

http://www.novac.com/lp/def.php

dpatte
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Joined: 2010-04-30

Thanks for your suggestions. All good!

TZM does not syncronize using NTP, it assume that you are already doing that on your computer using what is default in windows or by some other means.

The other programs are interesting, and I'll look them over.

As for actual timezones, I believe TZM is the only windows program that uses the Olsen database exclusively. This makes it unique and more acurate than any other windows clock programs.

I'll keep your suggestions in mind.