Posted October 20, 2008, 4:30 PM.

The new computer entered service Sunday afternoon.

The older computers at various locations, including Wildomar, have suffered from several problems, most notably frequent hard drive failures.

The next generation computer runs a modified version of Puppy Linux 4.1 on a USB flash drive, eliminating moving parts. We hope the new design will be more reliable and result in less downtime and fewer field trips.

Software on the weather data logging computer is written in the Java programming language. The software translates the serial feed from the weather station into internet data packets, that are stored locally, then transmitted to the web server once per minute.

The next generation computer is a low-power Intel Celeron running at 600Mhz. The system has 512Mb of RAM and a 2GB USB flash drive. The flash drive is written to once every half hour to preserve its life.

Older computers are still in service in Murrieta, Menifee, Fallbrook, San Jacinto and Moreno Valley.