Steampunk Coal-Power Gauge shows real consumption!

# Steampunk-Grid-Gauges.widget

Steampunk-Grid-Gauges Yahoo Widget, written in Javascript and XML for the Yahoo
Widget (Konfabulator) Engine. Created for XP, Vista, Win7, 8, 10+ as well as the
Apple Mac.


The Steampunk-Grid-Gauges widget is an attractive Steampunk Yahoo widget for
your desktop. It is a series of electrical generation and consumption gauges for
the UK electricity generating network. Functional and gorgeous at the same time.
This Widget is a moveable widget that you can move anywhere around the desktop
as you require.

When you first run the widget it will default to displaying the UK current
electricity consumption. A right click on the prefs will allow you to select
data relating to any method of generating or delivering electricity in the UK. It
can also display the current frequency in Hz.


The graphics are my own. This widget was created with the serious coding skills
of Harry Whitfield. I supplied the graphics, made some ephemeral changes and
helped steered the widget toward its final goal. I also tested the widget and added
a little extra functionality. Harry built the core and did it far better than I
ever would have.

-oOo-


The above gauge shows coal-power generation by the UK's coal-fired power stations, a real-time
gauge that takes its information via a real-time feed from powergen, the UK
national power generating organisation.

For the first time since 1882 the power stations of the UK have run without
burning any coal at all. The very first power station was set up in 1882 and
coal-powered power stations have been run continuously ever since. They have
produced the majority of Britain's electricity over the last 150 years.

Huge efforts by the governments over the recent decades have reduced Britain's
reliance on coal until it has reached a point where they were able to turn all
the coal-powered stations off. The above gauge shows just half a gigawatt
currently being generated by coal but that gauge has been reading zero for
almost a week. This is Great Britain doing its bit for the environment.

I find this a fascinating bit of information especially as it is a rather
telling indicator that Britain's industrial revolution, the one powered solely
by coal is nearly at an end, you could call it the end of a steampunk era...
the good thing is even the newest nuclear power stations are still producing
copious amounts of steam!

-oOo-

The widget can be resized - Hover the cursor over the widget. Press the CTRL key
and use your mousewheel up or down. The widget will resize dynamically.

All javascript widgets need an engine to function, in this case the widget uses
the Yahoo Widget Konfabulator engine. The engine interprets the javascript and
creates the widget according to the XML description and using the images you
provide.

The electrical gauges take their data from this feed:
www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

Built using:

RJTextEd Advanced Editor www.rj-texted.se/
Adobe Photoshop CS ver 8.0 (2003) www.adobe.com/uk/products/phot…
Yahoo Widgets SDK: engine (Konfabulator), debugger & documentation

Tested on :

ReactOS 0.4.14 32bit on virtualBox
Windows 7 Professional 32bit on Intel
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on Intel
Windows 7 Professional 64bit on Intel
Windows XP SP3 32bit on Intel
Windows 10 Home 64bit on Intel
Windows 10 Home 64bit on AMD
Windows 11 64bit on Intel

Dependencies:

o A windows-alike o/s such as Windows XP, 7-11 or Apple Mac OSX 11.

o Installation of the yahoo widget SDK runtime engine

Yahoo widget engine for Windows - g6auc.me.uk/ywidgets_sdk_setup…
Yahoo widget engine for Mac - rickyromero.com/widgets/downlo…

Running the widget using a javascript engine frees javascript from running only
within the captivity of a browser, you will now be able to run these widgets on
your Windows desktop as long as you have the correct widget engine installed.

Please note: I will not be uploading new versions of this widget here, instead
new versions of this gauge can be found on github at this location
:
github.com/yereverluvinunclebe…

Instructions for running Yahoo widgets on Windows
=================================================

1. Install yahoo widget SDK runtime engine
2. Download the gauge from this repo.
3. Unzip it
4. Double-click on the resulting .KON file and it will install and run

Instructions for running Yahoo widgets on Mac OS/X ONLY
========================================================

1. Install yahoo widget SDK runtime engine for Mac
2. Download the gauge from this repo.
3. Unzip it
4. For all all recent versions of Mac OS/X including Sierra, edit the following
file:

com.yahoo.widgetengine.plist which is in /Users/xxx/Library/Preferences. Look
for these lines:

<key>DockOpen</key>
<string>false</string>

Change to false if it is true.

5. Double-click on the widgets .KON file and it will install and run

Wit these instructions you should be able to start Yahoo! Widgets and the
menubar item should appear. Widgets can then be started from the menubar or by
double-clicking on the KON file in the usual way.


LICENCE AGREEMENTS:

Copyright 2023 Dean Beedell

In addition to the GNU General Public Licence please be aware that you may use
any of my own imagery in your own creations but commercially only with my
permission. In all other non-commercial cases I require a credit to the
original artist using my name or one of my pseudonyms and a link to my site.
With regard to the commercial use of incorporated images, permission and a
licence would need to be obtained from the original owner and creator, ie. me.