Making charts

So today I took some of that data from the National Weather Service I've been playing with, and I used it to figure out how to make dynamic charts in PHP-based websites.  Turns out, it was pretty easy using Libchart with a few tweaks here and there.  I don't know how long it'll stay up, but the charts look something like this:

I know, nothing to get overly excited about, but it's a start.  As I collect more data (this was only about 5 hours worth) the chart should begin to look a little more interesting, but I'm not completely satisfied yet.  Tomorrow, assuming I'm not catching the flu (it feels like it right now) I'm going to play around with JpGraph and see how that works.  It looks to be a lot more robust, with a lot more options, like letting me plot temps in Fahrenheit and Centigrade on the same chart with scales that are locked to each other, the ability to set the minimum number on the bottom to something other than zero, and so on.

I'm really not all that interested in learning how to completely code the chart making from scratch.  I mean I am, a little, but instead I think I'd rather learn a new language like C# so I can create desktop apps for myself that do similar things.  There are a lot of benefits to web-based apps like this, but until I'm able to afford a new gaming rig I don't have a dedicated linux box.  Right now I'm stuck running all of this on a vmware image, which is fine since I have tons of memory, but sometimes I need to shut vmware down for extended periods and then all of these nifty little apps I've been working on stop collecting data.

For now, though, I'm just playing around and learning new concepts.  Something to keep me occupied in the evenings, at least.