Topics

31

General Discussion / Can't get a song out of your head?

« on: August 25, 2011, 09:10:25 PM »

This song has been playing over and over and over again in my head since two nights ago.

Alla Pugacheva-1981 Как Тревожен Этот Путь

32

General Weather Chat / Mandatory evacuation - not for me!

« on: August 25, 2011, 05:26:54 PM »

Under what circumstances would you refuse to obey a mandatory evacuation order?

What if you were specifically told you would have no access to emergency services during the event and in the immediate aftermath?

What if you were threatened with arrest if you refused to leave?

33

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / What I'm enjoying here...

« on: August 15, 2011, 02:03:54 AM »

While conversations about TWC are certainly interesting, and give this forum a purpose, what I'm finding most interesting of all are the discussions about weather itself.  Of course, we're in the middle of hurricane season, and hurricanes have always been a passion of mine.  In fact, they're what got me interested in meteorology in the first place, starting with Gilbert in 1988 and becoming rock-solid with Hugo in 1989.  (I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again, but I still think TWC's documentary on Hugo, "Force Four," is probably the best documentary TWC has ever made.)  If it weren't for my total lack of math skills, I certainly would have become a meteorologist.  Even though I'll never become a professional, the weather still remains a serious passion of mine.

Anyway, thanks for many very interesting discussions.  Yes, we get a bit kvetchy at times, and, yes, we often wander into the realm of the bizarre, but it's all interesting reading, nonetheless. 

34

WeatherSTAR Tech Support / Daytona Beach metro maps

« on: July 28, 2011, 10:23:17 PM »

Regarding the Daytona Beach Intellistar (#24656), there's one request I'd like to make and one mistake I'd like to point out.

The metro maps (for current conditions and forecasts) have the east coast of Florida pretty much in the middle of the screen, meaning that the whole right half of the screen is just blue ocean.  If the map was moved a little further to the west, we'd be able to see more of central Florida, add more cities to the map, and not have so much wasted space.  While this might include more territory that isn't necessarily covered by this Star, I think it would make sense to have more land, and, therefore, more information, present on the screen, instead of having so much ocean there.

As for the mistake, the station ID caption says "channel 30" on Bright House, yet The Weather Channel is on channel 27, and has been ever since I started visiting the Daytona Beach area years ago.

Thank you!

35

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Bug: "Unread post" doesn't work

« on: July 27, 2011, 09:18:39 AM »

For the first time since I've been on this forum, the "Show unread posts since last visit" link doesn't work.  It worked fine yesterday evening, but not this morning.

When I click on it, it says there are no unread messages, even though I can clearly see several unread messages in the forum itself.  I had to manually go through each folder marked with a blue icon to find the unread messages this morning.

36

Local Forecast / IntelliStar Changes

« on: July 25, 2011, 02:43:33 PM »

I just saw my first Daypart forecast on the Intellistar in a long, long time.  Too bad it's not on more often.

Edit: I just realized why - the local radar is unavailable, so it's shown for a considerably shorter period of time.  The radar picked the "perfect" time to go out - there are a lot of thunderstorms in the area.  At least one of the local stations has its own 24/7 weather station with radar... and it's not post-NBC. 

37

General Discussion / Leaving you for a while...

« on: June 27, 2011, 12:10:32 AM »

Well, my friends... the time has come.  Even though I won't be moving to Daytona Beach for another couple of weeks, I will be temporarily relocating starting tomorrow afternoon.

I'll still be able to check my email and Facebook using my Kindle and my cell phone, but, unfortunately, neither one supports the message boards.

So, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say "good bye" for now.  It could be up to a month before I can get online again with any degree of regularity.  I hope you'll still remember me when that happens! 

All the best, and I hope to see you soon!!

38

General Discussion / NOAA to lose vital satellites?

« on: June 18, 2011, 06:14:23 PM »

Government officials are forecasting a turbulent future for the nation's weather satellite program.

Federal budget cuts are threatening to leave the U.S. without some critical satellites, the officials say, and that could mean less accurate warnings about events like tornadoes and blizzards. In particular, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are concerned about satellites that orbit over the earth's poles rather than remaining over a fixed spot along the equator.

It was data from polar satellites that alerted forecasters to the risk of tornadoes in Alabama and Mississippi back in April, Sullivan says. "With the polar satellites currently in place we were able to give those communities five days' heads up," she says.

Read more here: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/17/137251742/blind-eye-in-the-sky-weather-satellites-lose-funding

39

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Can't we do something about spam?

« on: June 17, 2011, 10:17:49 PM »

I noticed a huge amount of spamming tonight.  It's annoying, but, unfortunately, it happens, and our administrators have to spend all that time removing the posts and (hopefully) locking out those accounts.

That said, isn't there anything that can be done to prevent spam before it happens?  On some other message boards I've been to over the years, new accounts have to wait a pre-determined period of time before they're allowed to post.  This will discourage many spammers, since they want to get their "work" done as quickly as possible, not register, save the site address, and come back later to post all of their links.

40

General Discussion / Good bye, HD!

« on: June 14, 2011, 08:32:17 PM »

In a few weeks I'll be moving to Daytona Beach, Florida.  No HD feed and no Weatherscan.  "Lucky" me. 

At least they still have the IntelliStar down there. 

41

Your Local Weather / Boston weather

« on: February 05, 2011, 10:20:12 PM »

Early February thunderstorm... how interesting! 

42

Local Forecast / Advantages/disadvantages of the Stars

« on: January 27, 2011, 10:22:56 PM »

It seems that I'm in a small minority of people who prefer the Intellistar over the XL.  (And I really, really dislike the XL - always have.)

So, I figure this is a good time to discuss what makes each Star a winner... or a loser.

43

Local Forecast / IS2 compatibility issues

« on: January 27, 2011, 08:43:41 AM »

Even though it's not an official page, the Local on the 8s Facebook page made the following announcement yesterday:

Please note that the IntelliSTAR 2 is not rolling out onto Comcast/Xfinity headends due to compatibility issues.. I don't know much on the situation, so just be patient! A lot of smaller headends have the IS2 by now though..

It's disappointing that one of the largest cable companies in the U.S. is inaccessible for the IS2, meaning the largest share of viewers won't have access to it.  When will this change?  Unfortunately, Comcast isn't exactly known for its rapid response to anything.  My guess is it will be a long while before IS2 comes to Comcast, if ever.

44

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Critical? No. My thoughts...

« on: January 25, 2011, 05:54:31 PM »

While it's true I have been a little critical about the way things have been going in this forum lately, I didn't want to give anyone the wrong idea.  In general, I absolutely love this forum, because I finally have a way to discuss The Weather Channel with other people who care... both the good points, and the bad points.

45

Local Forecast / Local on the 8s split screen

« on: January 25, 2011, 04:36:00 PM »

Right now, 4:33 pm (ET), a Local on the 8s split screen.

Local on the 8s at 33 minutes after the hour? 

This is actually the first time I've seen it, and I'm disappointed that it's just a national thing, as opposed to the local IntelliStar overlaying local information on it.  It could certainly be done.

P.S.: Technical glitch - when the split screen ended, a couple of seconds later the whole picture went black.  When it came back rather quickly, the LDL disappeared - no national or local LDL.