paulperreault dot com

For Christmas last year my wife bought me a LaCrosse 2308 weather station complete with wind and rain sensors. I mounted the remote temperature gauge outside and connected the station to my Mac Pro with a USB to serial adapter.

Over the course of the past few months I've tried various weather station software packages including WeatherTracker and LWC. Unfortunately development on WeatherTracker seems to have halted, and LWC didn't meet my needs. Both are cool packages though. While I was experimenting with WeatherTracker I helped the developer of GaugeSoftware get his package compatible with PHP4 and PHP5.

Instead of using a compiled software application to log my weather data I decided to build my own data logger. Unfortunately LaCrosse doesn't publish any information about their device, so writing a method to query data direct from the station was impossible (for me). After much research I stumbled upon a perl library (available via CPAN)
that acts as an interface for the USB serial driver.

Eventually I wrote a little perl script to query the device and submit the data to the database. I also wrote a LaunchDaemon plist file that fires off the perl script every hour during the day. With data logging to a MySQL db running locally I then wrote a little web application to query and post the data. You can see current weather data here. I also plot the historical weather data using a PHP library called jpgraph.

For kicks, I modified a script available for PBX In A Flash that speaks the current weather conditions to anyone that calls. Hows that for geekery?

Next, I'm going to improve this application by adding a "real time" method that will query the device every 15 minutes and log this data to the database.

I just finished a complete redesign of PBX In A Flash Scripts. The site was built with Drupal which has become my favorite web development platform. In total I've developed 5 commercial sites using Drupal. Most of these sites include a bunch of customizations I developed.

PBX In A Flash Scripts is a site where PBX In A Flash users can download customizations and updates for their favorite PBX system. PBX In A Flash is great because of the people behind it. Thanks to Ward, Tom, and Joe for releasing (free!) such a powerful and truly open platform!

It's wintertime in Boulder, Co and I've been stuck inside the house due to the cold. When people say that Boulder has 300 sunny days per year they omit the fact that a quarter to a third of those sunny days occur during the winter where temperatures vary between 5-35 degrees!

Today is a perfect example: I woke to a beautiful sunrise and the mountains near the house were bathed in a deep pink light. My walk to work was anything but pleasant though: a stiff cold wind cut through my clothing and gave me the shivers. It's the kind of cold that makes the muscles around your chin so stiff that you can't talk.

Anyways: I've been indoors a lot because of the cold and I'm getting desparate for something to do. I've been searching for new projects and here are some things I'm considering, have started, or otherwise plan to tackle:

• Update and complete half-finished features on paulperreault.com;
• Organize, rate, assign metadata to over seven thousand digital pictures;
• Search for and learn about obscure features in various home electronics devices;
• Ditch Trixbox and replace with PBX In A Flash;
• Organize files in file cabinet;
• Organize files on computer;
• Gather 2007 tax documents;
• Research and contemplate RC plane purchases;
• Research and contemplate model rocket purchases;
• Wander hallways;
• Make sure all software is up to date;
• Etc;

Anyone have any good ideas for me? HELP!

The sale of our new house on Quince Street is complete! We can't wait to move in--but our stuff wont be here until next week. Ellyn is gearing up for a shopping field day: we need appliances, curtain rods, curtains, towel racks, etc etc. Good thing I'm not working right now--otherwise I'd have to pay for all this stuff with my hard-earned money.

Pictures

Our house at 4709 has been sold! It was difficult leaving our house, which we lived for 11 years and invested so much sweat equity. Even harder was saying goodbye to our wonderful neighbors who have been so nice to live with for so many years.

Best wishes to the new owners!

...be sure to stay at the Holiday Inn Express off exit 176. This place is dog friendly, has WiFi, and has nice rooms to boot!

Leaving 4709 25th Street, SF, CA 94114 was really tough today, tougher than I thought it would be. We invested a lot of money, heart, and soul into that house and the past 11 years at that place have been wonderful. Best wishes to our old house and the new owners--may you find much happiness in our old home.

Tomorrow is moving day. It's finally here, after (what seems like) an eternity of hard work, heart stopping stress, and miles of heartache. I've never wanted to leave SF but I can't wait to get out of this crowded, cold, cramped, anarchic, unfriendly, tired, bitter, exquisite, and beautiful city. Tonight we had Henry's Hunan and I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

Goodbye SF! I'll miss you--but not for 3 months ;)

I found a great site listing a bunch of quotes from Marcus Aurelius, the 14th Roman Emporer. He was an orphan and devoted his life to study. He wrote a series of books during his military campaigns--the source for a number of interesting quotes and ruminations. I found a site full of great quotes: be sure to check it out.

Here's one of my favorites:
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
-Marcus Aurelius

We're moving to Boulder! After several years of deliberation, coupled with the recent passing of my dad, Ellyn and I have decided to make a change to be closer to family. We've also decided that Boulder is a much more family-friendly place to raise our kid: there are a ton of parks, the schools are better, and Sebastian will be able to play in the street without us worrying about him getting impaled by a Muni bus.

Right now we're hard at work preparing our house for sale: fixing lots of little details, finishing our addition, and a host of other pre-sale functions. We'll be hard at work for the next 6 weeks or so--and I'll be posting some pictures of the progress. Stay tuned...and feel free to drop us a note to wish us luck!

Paul D. Perreault, 65

Paul D. Perreault, loving husband to Phyllis, father to Paul and Craig, and grandfather to Sebastian, died peacefully at the Hospice Care Center in Louisville at the age of 65 on May 12th, 2007 after enduring a long-term illness. His family was with him until the end.

Paul was born on April 25th, 1942 in Leominster, Massachusetts and was the oldest of six children born to Anne E. (Sharko) and Paul L. Perreault. Siblings visited their big brother in his final days, which brought him great comfort.

Over the course of his extraordinary life, Paul enjoyed a passion for family, friends, learning, travel, aviation, poetry, literature and the great outdoors. A research scientist by training, Paul earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute, received a Masters in Geophysics in 1969, and was awarded his Ph.D. in Astrophysics ("On The Relationship Between Interplanetary Magnetic Fields And Magnetospheric Storms And Substorms" Paul D. Perreault, 1974) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Alaska was a special place for Paul; he and his wife cultivated many close friendships there, many of which continue to this day.

Paul's career followed his love of science and technology: first with the Stanford Research Institute, then Stanford Telecommunications Incorporated, Lockheed Missles and Space, and finally Trimble Navigation, one of the major pioneers in Global Positioning Systems receivers. Notably, Paul provided technical support during an expedition to measure Mt. Everest using GPS equipment in 1995.

Over the years Paul had many adventures - the culmination being his appointment to the Explorer's Club- a society dedicated to scientific discovery and exploration. Some favorite journeys included: Mt. Everest, The Great Wall of China, Greenland, Europe, the Artic Circle and Boulder Colorado, where he and his wife have lived for the past six years.

Paul earned his private pilots license in 1994; he and Phyllis enjoyed several years of flying together. After moving to Boulder, Paul was often found at the local airport planning another trip, tinkering with his plane, or working at the main desk.

Paul found a special peace flying above the clouds. His family and close friends are comforted by the thought that he is again amongst the clouds. He will be loved and missed by all who knew him.

Paul suffered from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a degenerative, neurological disease. Those who wish to express their condolences may do so with a charitable donation to:

Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (http://www.psp.org/)

Hospice Care of Boulder and Broomfield Counties (www.hospicecareonline.org/)