http://www.kosherjava.com A weblog about Kosher Coffee (Kosher Java), Zmanim and other odds & ends Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:16:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The release of the iPhone 3G got me thinking about zmanim on the iPhone. While I would eventually like to create a free native iPhone zmanim app, for now I created a simple iPhone web app to test out the UI. While only of alpha quality, the iZmanim web app ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/07/17/izmanim-an-alpha-release-of-zmanim-for-the-iphone/ The second beta release of the Zmanim API 1.1 is now available on the download page. Changes in this release include additional code refactoring to the refactoring already done in the last few releases. As in the previous release, included is the zmanimAstronomical-1.1_beta_2.jar, a release that only includes ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/07/17/zmanim-api-11-beta-2-released/ I was recently contacted by Jan Terje Johansen, a developer at Datek Wireless AS in Norway, with an interesting bug report. Datek uses the Zmanim API (the AstronomicalCalendar base class) to allow their clients (the power company and stadiums) to remotely (via a web interface) control streetlights and stadium lights ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/05/08/zmanim-bug-report-from-the-land-of-the-midnight-sun/ A release candidate (RC1) of the Zmanim API 1.1 is now available on the download page. Changes in this release include a slight clean up of the recently released NOAACalculator code (does not change calculated times), as well as fixes to the date (but not time) of calculations for ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/04/17/zmanim-api-11-release-candidate-available/ The Zmanim API was developed from the ground up as an API which allows for easy plugging in of different algorithms. The Zmanim API ships with 3 "Calculator" implementations. Two calculators implement the US Naval Observatory's algorithm, the SunTimesCalculator and the ZmanimCalculator. Both produce identical zmanim using slightly ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/04/13/fix-to-noaa-sunrisesunset-algorithm/ I have been asked a number of questions recently about the directional accuracy of the Bearing to Yerushalayim and Zmanim Map calculations. The rhumb line calculations are very straight forward and I will not spend much time on it in this article. As a side note, for those interested in ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/04/07/technical-information-about-the-bearing-to-yerushalayim-map/ As hinted at in my previous post , there is a new project underway that uses the Zmanim API in a way that I had never really imagined. Using the Smack API, Michael Kopinsky created the ZmanimBot that allows getting zmanim by instant messaging the ZmanimBot, an internet bot. It ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/02/07/zmanim-via-instant-messaging-bot/ In December when developing the Zmanim/Bearing to Yerushalayim map (blog post), I noticed a problem with the code used to generate zmanim. The API returns a Java Date object. Usually only the time is of interest, and the date is ignored, but in some cases (when a timezone offset is ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2008/02/07/updated-zmanim-jar-released-please-download-the-latest/ Did you ever fiund yourself unsure of the correct bearing (direction) to Yerushalayim (Jerusalem)?   The new Zmanim/Bearing to Yerushalayim map will help you find it very easily.  The map draws two lines from your location to Yerushalayim. The blue line uses the commonly used (Levush and others) rhumb ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2007/12/30/bearing-to-yerushalayim-and-zmanim-map/ A while ago, Dr. Irv Bromberg mentioned to me, that my Zmanim API was in use in the Astronomical Clock Applet created by Ali Adams. The applet was a modification to Antony Pranata's clock applet that displayed Islamic prayer times. Apparently the Zmanim API was so flexible that ... http://www.kosherjava.com/2007/11/18/zmanim-clock-applet-alpha-release/