I read about its deficiencies in the resolution of the device (that it is only 1024×768), the lack of multitasking, the lack of upgradable ram, even complaints that we don’t know how much ram is in it. People bemoan the lack of flash and the inability to really produce anything on the device.

I’m sorry that you haven’t realized this yet, but to those people, the iPad isn’t for you. Buy a laptop.

When I look at the people that the iPad is built for, I see people who don’t know what 1024×768 even means. They don’t know what multitasking is, what ram is, or what Flash is.

And for every thing you are wishing the iPad was able to do, it probably wasn’t meant to do it.

The iPad is quite simply for the consuming of content. Not creating, but consuming.

I want to read this, I want to watch this, I want to hear this. It handles the complete computing tasks of every non geek I know. Literally every single thing my mother, sister, friends and extended family use their computers for, can be accomplished on an iPad.

Do I want an iPad? Yes. Does it do everything I need. No. That’s why I have a computer.

The one thing I wish the iPad could do, and it may, I just don’t know, is that I wish it had the ability to update itself and be used without a computer.

Requiring a computer to use the iPad only limits your market, obviously, to people who already own a computer. When in reality you don’t need one.

I can put photos, videos, music and apps all on the iPad without a computer. So, why require it.

This took me a few days to get working and it drives me crazy because of how simple it is. My problem is that I tried to do it in Javascript first and my Javascript skills aren’t up to my ASP skills.

It is actually quite simple and here is the code.

*******************
set xmlHTTP = server.createobject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
xmlHTTP.open "Get", "http://www.google.com/ig/api?weather=philadelphia,pa", false
xmlHTTP.send()
Set xml = xmlHTTP.ResponseXml

city = xml.documentElement.childNodes(0).firstChild.firstChild.attributes(0).nodeValue
currenttemp = xml.documentElement.childNodes(0).firstChild.nextSibling.childNodes(1).attributes(0).nodeValue
conditionstext = xml.documentElement.childNodes(0).firstChild.nextSibling.childNodes(0).attributes(0).nodeValue
conditionsicon = xml.documentElement.childNodes(0).childNodes(2).childNodes(3).attributes(0).Value

*******************

Then you can just response.write the values where you need them.

Bringing the object back was pretty easy, but traversing the DOM to get the information that I was looking for was a real pain. A combination of Firefox and Firebug made selecting what I needed a lot easier.

You will also notice that I have ‘philadephia, pa’ harcoded into the URL, but where this is being used, I use an IP locator to get the IP address of the user, convert that to a city and state and put that value into the URL, so that users can get their own weather and not mine.

Also ‘conditionsicon’ brings back a relative URL to an icon image for the current conditions. If anyone has a list of all possible conditions that would be amazingly helpful.