Hi Marauders,

My friends and I are all third year Software Engineering students. We have created a new service called MacSMS. The service is exclusively for McMaster University.

Some key features of MacSMS:

- Get live weather information from McMaster's own weather station via Text Messages. You can set up an alert time (say in the morning before you leave the house) to automatically get a text message containing the weather information

- The times for the next two buses at any stop across Hamilton. Use the command bus #### (Stop Number)

You can try it out without registration by texting the following commands to 289 724 1MAC (1622):

- weather or w for the current weather
- temperature or temp for the current temperature
- wind or windspeed for the current wind speed and direction
- bus #### (e.g. bus 1208) to get the next two bus timings at that stop

If you want access to the newest features and help us define the service, please sign up today at www.MacSMS.me

For more information, please visit our website. All feedback is appreciated.
You can also read the DailyNews article about MacSMS to learn more about it.

P.S. Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter to receive the latest updates about new features and more!

Thank you
MacSMS Team

Who's paying for that?

The service is completely free for the McMaster community! As long as you have free text messaging (from your cell phone carrier) you will be be charged for anything else.

Cheers,
MacSMS Team

The service is completely free for the McMaster community! As long as you have free text messaging (from your cell phone carrier) you will be be charged for anything else.

Cheers,
MacSMS Team

You don't get it. Who organized those things, and on whose money? If it's a third party software, then how much of my tuition goes there?

Did we really need an sms service to tell us whether, 99% of people have cellphones with internet access to check it?

Lol. You gotta be kidding me. SMS updates? What is this? 1999?

hey man, I didnt get SMS updates in 1999, nor did anyone I know

granted, I was like 6 years old so I may not remember all too well

Originally Posted by Afzal

Lol. You gotta be kidding me. SMS updates? What is this? 1999?

MacSMS is not affiliated with McMaster University yet. It is a personal project and as such it is personally funded.

Weather is just the starting point for this service. Stay tuned for more exciting features that MacSMS will offer in the near future by registering or liking us on Facebook.

Cheers,
MacSMS Team

Originally Posted by drpatel

hey man, I didnt get SMS updates in 1999, nor did anyone I know

granted, I was like 6 years old so I may not remember all too well

SMS updates were touted as premium services by carriers back then

To the developers of this service... you do realize that in order to get to the sms page on most smart phones, one would have to go through their home screen. On that home screen, most phones have a weather app that will show the weather forecast in any area the user selects. So not only have you recreated a primitive technology, but you have put it in a location where one will already have seen a more updated weather forecast upon getting to the SMS screen.
More features in the near future you say? So you mean you are going to allow us to receive more information from this outdated technology? What service that already has a modernized smartphone app are you going to recreate next??? Seriously its like you are calling the horse and buggy the next big thing in motorized transportation in today's society:p

Originally Posted by JayJackson69

in order to get to the sms page on most smart phones, one would have to go through their home screen. On that home screen, most phones have a weather app that will show the weather forecast in any area the user selects.

this is the main point
many people alrdy have the weather network on their front screen

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but this service is honestly way too lame for the amount of attention it's getting. I'm not sure why it's getting so much publicity; I'm guessing the creators are being very aggressive in advertising. The fact that McMaster went ahead and posted an article about this, as if to say "look at the coolest thing students of the CAS department have produced" is a little embarrassing.

Like others have said, this application maybe only fits the niche market of students that don't have smart phones. It's not very innovative either; I feel like the backend is probably just some computer blocking on a "receive text message" method of an SMS API in an event loop and a scheduling thread pool for sending out messages at certain times of day according to subscriptions - maybe a couple hundred lines of code at absolute most? I don't think adding bus times really makes it much more useful.

I think the website looks great, so to the guys who made this: why not put your talents into something more innovative directly related to the school? Weather and bus times are an already solved problem for the most part. This won't impress anyone in industry, and I know you guys are capable of something a lot more impressive than this. Investing your time into creating a great product and remaining relatively unknown is a lot more impressive than creating a gimmick and spending the majority of your time trying to be famous.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but this service is honestly way too lame for the amount of attention it's getting. I'm not sure why it's getting so much publicity; I'm guessing the creators are being very aggressive in advertising. The fact that McMaster went ahead and posted an article about this, as if to say "look at the coolest thing students of the CAS department have produced" is a little embarrassing.

Like others have said, this application maybe only fits the niche market of students that don't have smart phones. It's not very innovative either; I feel like the backend is probably just some computer blocking on a "receive text message" method of an SMS API in an event loop and a scheduling thread pool for sending out messages at certain times of day according to subscriptions - maybe a couple hundred lines of code at absolute most? I don't think adding bus times really makes it much more useful.

I think the website looks great, so to the guys who made this: why not put your talents into something more innovative directly related to the school? Weather and bus times are an already solved problem for the most part. This won't impress anyone in industry, and I know you guys are capable of something a lot more impressive than this. Investing your time into creating a great product and remaining relatively unknown is a lot more impressive than creating a gimmick and spending the majority of your time trying to be famous.

To be fair the have made themselves semi-famous on MI and possibly at McMaster, its just that they are famous for creating a useless weather application that, for some reason, they decided to position right next to the current weather application. They are famous for making themselves look foolish lol

That's a little harsh, and unnecessary, but I guess haters are gonna hate for what these McMaster students have "semi-famously" done for themselves.

You do realize that not everyone has wifi and data access, so they would rather receive text messages, if they prefer.

Also, it's not just a useless weather application. If you even read the first post carefully, you'd know that you could easily type in a Bus number/route and be texted back when it is coming.

Originally Posted by Bigmacfatpack

You do realize that not everyone has wifi and data access, so they would rather receive text messages, if they prefer.

I'm not trying to say it's completely useless, I'm saying it's nowhere near complex or innovative enough to be receiving the attention it's trying to get. Doing things like listing LinkedIn profiles and team member titles as "CTO/CFO/CEO" is way over the top.

It's well done, but I'm just hoping the team members won't try to coast on this project and have plans to make something much bigger and actually news worthy for the school.

Originally Posted by Bigmacfatpack

That's a little harsh, and unnecessary, but I guess haters are gonna hate for what these McMaster students have "semi-famously" done for themselves.

You do realize that not everyone has wifi and data access, so they would rather receive text messages, if they prefer.

Also, it's not just a useless weather application. If you even read the first post carefully, you'd know that you could easily type in a Bus number/route and be texted back when it is coming.

I know for a fact there is an app that shows all hamilton bus routes available on app markets. So again, they are advertising a technology that is completely outdated for its intended purposes when compared to the current available applications