

Show HN: Is my power still out? My Sun. project for powerless Virginia residents - thecodemonkey
http://poweroutage.codemonkey.io

======
ydant
Earlier today I poked around at the ArcGIS API they are calling from the flex
app - is this what you're using?

For my particular location there is one dot that is likely the one I'm waiting
to have fixed, but it could be one of several surrounding my house. What are
you using for your determination of if I'm fixed? Simply finding the work
orders within a distance of the point dominion says my house is at?

I'd have a lot more confidence that this app would do anything useful if it
gave me info like the work order numbers in my area, the number affected per
each, and the estimated resolution (although they all say "no estimate").

Still, it's a cool little project to throw together - I wish I'd had more
brain-working time during the weekend to do something like this - the best I
did was automatically querying the JSON for local parsing. Ultimately, though,
my computers / thermostat coming back online is going to be the real
indicator!

For others who are curious, the Dominion outage map is calling some ArcGIS
services that take a bounding box and returns all work orders (in JSON) with
their statuses (number affected, etc). It's a horrible web interface, but at
least the data can be manipulated queried fairly easily.

------
martey
This is definitely easier to use (and understand) that Dominion's maps. Some
notes and questions:

"Severe" is spelled wrong. Some periods are missing at the end of sentences.

Why is the ZIP code required even if I enter a full address?

It also does not inspire confidence to enter your home address into a site
that claims "no responsibility" when doing so proclaims that you are either at
home without power or away from home. Sites like this need a privacy policy.

~~~
thecodemonkey
Thanks for your feedback.

I updated the description on the front page to fix some grammatical and a few
spelling errors, thanks. (English is not my first language)

I'll double check if the zip code is actually necessary, i'm hooking directly
up the Dominions website, so it all depends on how they respond to my HTTP
requests.

I updated the wording to be a bit more accurate. I take peoples personal
information very serious, the phrase was meant to refer to the power outage
status shown on the website.

Thanks again for the feedback, it's much welcome!

------
envysea
Even though this is obviously thrown together, it really provides a much
easier UI experience than Dominion's Maps.

I signed up my email, and I'll definitely be recommending my friends. Thanks a
lot for this.

It's little apps like this why I love Hacker News.

