Earthquake Precursor Data Display Project – Posted by EQF on January 6, 2012

Roger and I are in the process of getting started on a project to (eventually) create a CGI program (runs at a Web site) that would let people submit earthquake precursor data through a Web site data entry screen. The program would then process those data and display them on interactive maps of the Earth along with data supplied by other people around the world.

Roger would be actually doing most of the work on the project. And anyone interested in helping with the effort would largely be working with him. I will be doing some Perl language work and also providing some project organization such as creating a Web page that would be devoted to the effort. And, I myself don’t care who works on this project as long as they don’t create some type of computer program that has a virus in it.

A demonstration version of what that program would initially do can be found on the Web page this URL will get people to:

http://www.freewebs.com/eq-forecasting/Demo-Program.html

Instead of creating a CGI program to start with we are planning on using the following approach:

A Perl language .exe program will be running in the background on the user’s computer. As it will be a .exe program, the user will not need to have the Perl language compiler running on his or her computer.

The Perl program will watch for key presses. When it sees a key pressed it will store the data in a file and tell Roger’s data processing TrueBasic .exe program to start running.

TrueBasic cannot apparently watch for single key presses. Perl can do that without using much processor time.

The TrueBasic program would then use those new data and past stored data to draw whatever map was desired and store it as a PNG or JPG or GIF file or whatever in some directory. Then the user’s browser would display a Web page that showed the map.

Once the project got moving along, all of the TrueBasic routines etc. could be translated into Web site CGI program language such as Perl.

We also considered starting out with the Google Earth map program. But for a start that might be a little too complex.

Since the original programs would be running on a person’s personal computer instead of a Web site server computer, any programming language could be used for doing specific types of things. They would just need to be able to interact with the Perl and TrueBasic programs that Roger and I will be creating. That interaction would be done by storing command data in special files etc.

I am planning to create a special Web page that will act as a central repository for information regarding this project and also a location where the freeware programs can be stored and downloaded from.

People interested in working on the project can contact either Roger or me or post a response note here.

This is not a high priority project. Work will get done as time permits.