Slight short circuit in the Month of Change. Spent most of last Friday (Day 4) writing code for something new. I didn't quite finish and ran out of time to post anything. Spent a bunch more time trying to finish it up today, but still have a little bit to do. Should be able to share details tomorrow. However, I was able to get a few little things done in between.

Satellite Tracking Data Processing

I mentioned improvements to data processing on Day 3. I was also able to optimize data processing for the chlorophyll satellite imagery that is used in STAT. Thought I had also finished with the sea surface temperature, but there is still a bug somewhere that I need to fix. When it is all working, a process that was taking 12-18 hours every day should complete in just 3 or 4 hours.

More Updates to Remigration Summary Statistics

Had another request from Brian Shamblin which I have added to the Remigration Summary Statistics. The summary now shows you the percentage of females that have only been detected during one season. A critical metric when looking at remigration.

iPhone 5s Side Project

And I got distracted for about half an hour on a side project on Friday. I have been getting annoyed that I can't find the iPhone 5s I want at my local Apple Store. Apple lets you check online if their stores have iPhones in stock, but I kept forgetting to check their website. So I wrote a little script to check for me every hour and let me know if my Apple Store gets the iPhone I want. I decided to spend a little more time on it to make it a public service, since I assumed there are other people in the same boat. So now there is a page that will allow you to sign up to receive an e-mail notification when your favorite Apple Store has the iPhone 5s model you want available for in-store pick up.

iPhone 5s Availability Notifier

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Satellite Tracking Data Processing

Today was the culmination of something I have been poking at for several weeks. I significantly optimized one of the data processing tasks. Something that used to take about 4 hours per day now takes about 20 minutes. One of the things that happens behind the scenes as part of the Satellite Tracking and Analysis Tool (STAT - the engine behind the seaturtle.org satellite tracking website) is sampling of environmental data for every animal location that is collected by STAT. STAT users are able to export their data from the system and get access to all of the sampled environmental data. In this case, the process determines if it is wet or dry (water or land) underneath each animal location, and keeps up to date as new animal locations are added every day. Now that that is done I just have to do the same with data sampling of sea surface temperature and chlorophyll :)

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A smallish update today. I had too much fun making this graphic this morning :)

Now, back to business...

Updated Remigration Summary Statistics

I received some great comments from Brian Shamblin, one of the DNA project partners from the University of Georgia, on the Remigration Summary Statistics that I set-up yesterday. Brian wanted to be able view remigration summaries at the state level at for the entire project. You can now do that. Brian also mentioned that he gets lots of people asking him how many of "their" turtles are new each year. So I have now added a statistic that indicates the percentage of new females identified each year.

Suggestions and feedback are great and help make me so much more productive. Thanks Brian!

Posted by Michael Coyne at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nesting Database Bug Fix

The first change of the month is a small bug reported by Mark Dodd and the folks from Jekyll Island, Georgia. One of the reports generated by the Sea Turtle Nest Monitoring System was incorrectly giving hatch success and emergence success values of zero in some cases. The report in question is called the Activity Report and allows users to export all of their nesting data to a CSV file. The bug was related to changes I made to the code at the beginning of the 2013 nesting season to add several new fields to meet Florida sea turtle nest reporting requirements. The changes caused one (yes 1!) line of code, a simple counter, to end up in the wrong place and throw off the HS% and ES% calculations. Now fixed :)

Remigration Summary Statistics

Added a new feature to the STNMS that calculates remigration summary statistics based on the genetic ID of each nesting female on beaches participating in the Northern Recovery Unit Loggerhead DNA Project. Basically you can look at any participating beach and see what percentage of the nesting females nested in other years. It is soooo cool all of the amazing things that people will be able to do with this DNA data!

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

People are generally surprised to learn that seaturtle.org is (mostly) run by one person. One of the most frequent questions I get is how do you do it?

Skip down to the punchline if you get bored :)

The short answer is monkey buttons! A lot has changed since I wrote that "monkey button" post in 2003 (more than 10 years ago!). Seaturtle.org now averages 90,000 hits a day (2-3 million hits a month) and I'm not sure I can count how many pages make up the site. I now no longer have a "real job". About 6 years ago seaturtle.org became too much work to keep up with in my spare time, so this is now my "real job".

The (slightly) longer answer: I automate everything as much as I can. So much so that I typically will not add a new feature until I can figure out how to automate it. So if you are ever wondering why feature X is taking so long, that is usually the reason. Take this approach to it's logical conclusion and you add a new feature/doo-dad every few days for 10+ years, and eventually you have a giant, feature-rich website.

Note that I said "new feature every few days". In the early days I could easily add a feature, or multiple features, every day! However, even with automation, the code base and the user base has grown so much that day to day maintenance has become a huge task unto itself. I typically spend at least half of each day responding to inquiries via e-mail (preferred) and phone (not preferred!). These can be anything from simple questions and customer service type problems ("where is my adoption packet?") to technical questions and bug reports ("my favorite thing on seaturtle.org that I need right NOW is broken!"). The questions get answered, the problems get fixed and the bugs get squashed. And as with any growing and increasingly complex system, I periodically have to step in and optimized code, manage databases, etc, to speed things up and keep everything running smoothly. Throw in the (thankfully) infrequent hardware and network failures and you have multiple full-time jobs!

The Punchline

It can be a bit difficult to wrap your head around all of this, so I thought I would try something I am calling "a month of change". Everyday for the month of October I will document the changes I make on seaturtle.org. This could be anything from a brand new tool/service (least likely), to a new feature on an existing tool/service (a little more likely), to one or more bug fixes (most likely!). Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between a bug fix and a new feature :)

Consider this a peek under seaturtle.org's kimono, and a preview of some of the things I am working on.

One small caveat...

Family is important to me, so I will not make changes/post on weekends. Except in emergencies :)

Starting tomorrow (1 October 2013) keep an eye on this space to see what has changed on seaturtle.org. The changes will come from a variety of sources. There may be a bug fix reported by a user that day. I have an official to-do list of things that I have to get done. I have a less official wish list of things that I want to get done. And then I have a stack of random pieces of paper with notes and ideas scribbled on them sitting next to my keyboard. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please send them along (or post them in the comments below if you are reading this on the blog).

And enjoy a month of change!

Thanks,

Michael Coyne
seaturtle.org

PS - There are a couple of folks that help out tremendously (and others that have helped out in the past). Not everything can be automated. A lot of the content on seaturtle.org is user submitted and some of it needs to be reviewed/approved before it goes online. Without help I definitely would not be able to keep up. Matthew Godfrey manages the Image Library and ALan Rees manages the Job/Volunteer Board. They review all of the submissions and correspond with users as needed, I just need to make sure the engine keeps running.

And of course I would not need this extra help managing content if all you turtle nerds weren't participating by sharing your data, submitting your photos, and just generally being awesome. Thanks for being a part of the Global Sea Turtle Network!

And while I've got your attention on this topic, if there is a favorite tool or resource on seaturtle.org that you would like to help out with, please let me know :)

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is an important announcement sent by Marydele Donnelly of the Caribbean Conservation Corporation. The Marine Turtle Conservation Act has supported more than 100 sea turtle projects around the world, including the Marine Turtle Newsletter and SEATURTLE.ORG.

Due to a series of delays this year, citizen lobbying for U.S. appropriations in support of the Marine Turtle Conservation Act (MTCA) and other Multinational Species Conservation Funds (MSCF) for some of the world’s most charismatic species has only just begun. The deadline for Congressional signatures on a letter to Interior Appropriations in support of MSCF programs is Wednesday, March 17^th.

Around the world, these programs make a huge difference to conserve marine turtles, rhinos, tigers, great apes, African and Asian elephants and neo-tropical migratory birds.

Please consider sending an electronic letter or making a call to your Congressional Representative asking that he/she support appropriations for these small but critically important funds by signing a letter to Interior Appropriations. More information, and the opportunity to send a letter, are provided on CCC’s website. The office of your Representative can be reached through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

The MTCA was passed in 2004. Since 2005, it has provided 113 grants totaling $ 3.733 million to marine turtle conservation programs outside theUnited States and leveraged an additional $5.946 million in matching or in-kind funds. As many of you in our community live in the Southeast, we are asking for your help in encouraging your congressional Representatives to sign a letter to Interior Appropriations by the March 17^th deadline.

As constituents and interested citizens, your calls make a huge difference. Remember, in addition to everything else the MTCA supports, it also provides critical funding for the International Sea Turtle Symposium. This year Members of Congress signing the letter to Interior Appropriations will be requesting $2.5 million for the MTCA.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rush Limbaugh Seriously Considering Founding Turtle Preservation Society

(Disclaimer: these quotes may be slightly out of context, a practice Limbaugh approves of but rarely warns listeners of when practiced on his show)

Radio star Rush Limbaugh is worried about sea turtles and is doing something about it. He and his neighbors in Florida know that just one light can kill thousands of sea turtles. "Giant sea turtles lumber out of the ocean, they trundle up to the beach, they dig the nest, they lay the eggs, and they trundle back to the ocean", says Limbaugh. "And then some weeks later the hatchlings hatch and they burrow up out of the sand and they are supposed to go to the ocean." But, says Limbaugh, "lights on the beach distract the hatchlings and cause them not to go to the ocean but inland. So, those of us who live on the beach have to turn the lights off."

Continue reading "Sign Lights Out for Rush Limbaugh Sea Turtle Pledge" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Use these widgets to easily add dynamic content from the News database on seaturtle.org to your own website. Get the latest news, updated automatically, by copying and pasting the code below in to your web page.

Latest Headlines

<script language="JavaScript"> var newswidth=460; //set to desired width of news widget in pixels var newsbgcolor='#CFC'; //set to desired background color of news widget var newscolor='#000'; //set to desired text color of news widget var newsborder='#090'; //set to desired border color of news widget var newsdelay=5000; //set to desired delay between news rotations (in milliseconds) var newsfont=12; //set to desired font size </script> <script src="/jslib/headlines.js" language="JavaScript"></script>
copy and paste code to your web page

Continue reading "Sea Turtle News Widgets" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thousands of sea turtles have been rescued from the unusually cold weather experienced during the second week of January in the southeastern US. These turtles are being cared for by organizations from North Carolina to Texas. The unprecedented number of stranded sea turtles has left these organization scrambling for resources and forced them to spend funds typically budgeted for an entire year. Please help these organizations care for and return the rescued sea turtles to the wild by making a donation of money, time or materials.

Photos courtesy of NOAA

Below is a listing of organizations that need your help. This list is being constantly updated, so please check back often!

If you find a dead or injured sea turtle, please report it to the proper authorities.

NEWS

A Record 5000 Sea Turtles Cold-Stunned in Florida
2000 sea turtles rescued from unusually cold sea off Florida
Statewide turtle rescue hits historic proportions
Shocked by the biting cold, dying turtles get new life
Cold snap's toll just now being completely felt

Continue reading "Help needed to care for thousands of cold-stunned sea turtles" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Have you been wondering what the deal is with Twitter? Not sure where to start? Well, SEATURTLE.ORG has come to your rescue with a list dedicated to turtle tweets. Everybody that I can find that is talking about sea turtles on Twitter.

Do you tweet about sea turtles? Drop me a line on twitter and I will add you to the list.

And, as always, get all of the latest news and updates from the sea turtle world by following SEATURTLE.ORG on Twitter.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google just announced an expansion of its popular Google Earth application to include seabed maps and underwater imagery. This new "Google Ocean" provides a powerful new tool for sea turtle researchers.

SEATURTLE.ORG's wildlife tracking tool allows researchers to open satellite tracks in Google Earth with the click of a button. By incorporating the sea floor in to Google Earth, Google has provided an exciting new way for researchers to visualize their wildlife tracking data.

Swim with Adelita

Take an 8-minute tour across the Pacific Ocean with Adelita the sea turtle.

Adelita was the first turtle ever tracked across an entire ocean basin using satellite telemtry...maybe even the first marine animal! Millions of kids shared her migration on the internet. Her migration helped to prove that loggerheads born in Japan cross the Pacific and feed in California and Mexico, before migrating back home to nest in Japan. She also reminds us that the oceans are connected and that we need to work together to protect sea turtles and their habitat.

Continue reading "Sea Turtles Navigate (Google) Ocean" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google has added a new high-resolution bathymetry layer to Google Earth and Google Maps. In Google Maps you have to switch to satellite mode to see it. The new layer appears to be based on the NOAA NDGC ETOPO1 or Gebco global bathymetry products.

These are the same bathymetry data used in SEATURTLE.ORG's STAT and Maptool resources.

This is a very exciting development, particularly if it means we are getting closer to the release of the long rumored Google Ocean product.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Due to some confusion over the change in the deadline date for Marine Turtle Conservation Fund grant applications the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is extending the October 1 deadline to October 8, 2007. Please go to www.fws.gov/international/rfps/marineturtlehow.htm to ensure you have the correct forms and instructions for the application process. If you do not have your DUNS number or endorsement letter in time for the deadline please indicate it will be forthcoming as it needs to be in USFWS hands before any awards can be issued. The next deadline for grant applications will be April 1, 2008, and we encourage projects planned for winter season surveys or research be submitted at that time.

Earl Possardt
USFWS MTCA Fund Program Officer

Posted by Michael Coyne at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A timely reminder from Marydele Donnelly on CTURTLE:

I would like to remind you that applications for international US Marine Turtle Conservation Act grants are due on 1 October 2007. The next deadline will be 1 April 2008. As many of you know, the MTCA has been a great source of funding for the sea turtle conservation and research outside the United States since it was passed into law in 2004, providing over $1.5 Million to date.

Each year a group of U.S. organizations lobby the U.S. Congress to increase funding for the program significantly. You can help us by demonstrating the need for MTCA funds is far greater than the money appropriated. This year the program that starts on 1 October will receive between $1 Million and $1.5 Million, depending on negotiations between the House of Representatives and the Senate. Next year the ngos will be requesting $2 million for the program, if we can show there is a need for this level of support.

If you work outside the United States, I encourage you to apply for a grant. Please remember that projects not funded in this round of grants will have a better chance of receiving support next year if everyone continues to submit proposals and demonstrate the need for more money. Those who award the grants every year have told me that they would support 99% of the proposals received to date if they had enough money. That's very encouraging!! So if you have not already dusted off your old proposal or submitted a new one, you have nine more days until the submission deadline.

Go to http://www.fws.gov/international/rfps/marineturtlehow.htm for more information.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Would you like to add dynamic sea turtle content to your site?

I just happened across an old post (from 2004!) where I promised to make little widgets available that would allow other web site owners to easily add dynamic sea turtle content from seaturtle.org to their own site.

At the time I had created a small javascript image library widget. I've just updated it so that it is user configureable. Simply copy the code below and add it to your own web page and you will get a browser with the latest uploads to the seaturtle.org Image Library.

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
<!--
//set to desired width of photo widget
var slidewidth=130
//set to desired height of photo widget
var slideheight=150
//set to desired background color of photo widget
var slidebgcolor='#CCFFCC'
//set to desired delay between image rotations (in milliseconds)
var slidedelay=6000
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="/jslib/imagelib.js">
</script>

Which will look something like this:

Stay tuned, more to come...

Posted by Michael Coyne at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Are you interested in knowing what kind of tools and resources are under development?

Check out seaturtle.org Labs

You will find a number of projects, big and small, that I am working on for inclusion in seaturtle.org. Have a look and contribute by providing feedback.

But you have to be geeky enough to be reading this blog in the first place :)

Posted by Michael Coyne at 12:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

SEATURTLE.ORG is completely developed and runs on Apple hardware. I find this to be a highly efficient and cost effective way to work. Mostly because of the Unix underpinnings of OS X, which gives me access to a huge world of free and powerful software.

However, since going solo with SEATURTLE.ORG I no longer have access to Windows boxes, and since Micro$oft no longer develops Internet Exploder for the Mac, I have no way of testing pages, tools and resources in IE. Since most people on the internet are (unfortunately) using IE, this presents a bit of a problem with some of the new advanced features that I am trying to develop (Come on, people! Please switch to Firefox!). Perhaps the most difficult aspect of all of the things I do is coding around all of the idiosyncrasies in IE. Just try searching for "idiosyncrasy internet explorer" on Google for a sample of what I am talking about.

If you or your organization has a surplus Windoze box (preferably a laptop for space considerations), and more importantly, can spare a licensed copy of Micro$oft Windows XP, it would go a long way toward supporting development of resources on SEATURTLE.ORG, and help me ensure that everything functions properly for all users. We don't need much, just something powerful enough to run the latest versions of Internet Exploder.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, so maybe TWiST (This Week in Sea Turtles) is not an appropriate name for our semi-occasional podcast. Particularly given the fact that we have not produced a new episode in about a year!

But never fear faithful listeners, we have heard your near silent cries. We will TWiST again! In fact we have been trying to coordinate a time all week. So far tonight seems the most likely candidate, but it will be a miracle if everyone actually ends up being available at the same time; if I don't screw up the audio; or something else doesn't get in the way. But we will try.

Given that, we'd like to hear from YOU!

• Do you have a comment to make on a past discussion?
  
• Would you like to suggest a topic for future discussion or a special guest?
  
• Do you have any questions?
  

Posted by Michael Coyne at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am pleased to announce that the Sea Turtle Image Library on SEATURTLE.ORG reached a milestone last night. This post, by Hector Barrios-Garrido, was the 1000th image posted to the image library:

Continue reading "1000 Images!" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For those of you that hadn't heard yet, Thane Wibbels is president of next year's symposium, to be held in Savannah, Georgia at the Hyatt Regency. I'm not sure a final date has been set yet, but I believe it will be in late January. I'll post an update here if I can get a final date.

All I can say is, it's about time we got back to the water!!!!

Posted by Michael Coyne at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Hey everybody, Angela started blogging! Welcome aboard.

Posted by Michael Coyne at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A slew of new turtle news has rolled in the last few days. Not sure when Kelly last updated the site, but you should check back frequently if she hasn't. Lots of good stuff. The problem with the fund drive on the home page is that you don't see the latest news updates as easily. Come on people! Let's get the fund up to $6000 so we can go back to normal :)

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't talked about this topic here yet, not sure why. Maybe I didn't want to jinx the effort.

Continue reading "Server Fund" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MTN 100 is wrapped up and online. Print version is at the printers. All previous 99 issues have been proofed and are searchable online. It's been a long time coming and it feels good to have it done! A lot of work with a lot of help from a lot of dedicated folks. Thanks everybody!!

Plus I went to the circus today :)

Posted by Michael Coyne at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This resource is seaturtle.org's version of a weblog or "blog". For those unfamiliar with the idea a blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically - like a "what's new" page or a journal. Blogs are excellent communication tools. They can help small groups communicate in a way that is simpler and easier to follow than email or discussion forums.

Continue reading "Welcome Message" »

Posted by Michael Coyne at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)