Messages

211

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: November 07, 2013, 01:21:17 AM »

My beloved Kindle 2 died last night after nearly four years of excessively heavy use.  After reading about this on Facebook, one of my friends bought me the best Kindle reader that Amazon sells, and it will arrive on Friday.

Not only am I thankful, obviously, but I'm also incredibly humbled that someone I haven't even seen in person in over a decade would do this for me.  This gives me the opportunity to think about things and put my priorities in order.  And, believe me, they've gotten horribly screwed-up lately.  I needed this... in more ways than one.

212

Local Forecast / Re: Regional/Metro Cities

« on: November 06, 2013, 05:47:41 PM »

Interesting collection of maps!  I always disliked seeing icons cut off at the bottom of the screen on the 4000, though.  Surely the programmers could have nudged the city up a little bit to avoid that.

213

Local Forecast / Re: Emergency Feed Sightings

« on: November 02, 2013, 10:23:15 PM »

Well, now, that's interesting...!

214

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 29, 2013, 09:37:07 AM »

I have to agree... keeping weather information on the screen all the time is likely TWC's way of increasing longform programming while still "providing" round-the-clock weather information.  Studio weather programming is likely to keep decreasing until it's but a small minority of programming on the channel... and it will eventually disappear altogether.

215

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: October 26, 2013, 10:49:21 PM »

Oh no.......  That's so sad.  She was such a talented and funny actress, and I can't even imagine The Simpsons without Mrs. Krabappel.   

216

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: October 24, 2013, 02:49:33 PM »

Nothing disappears from YouTube for long.

217

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: October 24, 2013, 12:45:20 PM »

Or you can just go to YouTube and watch the preview:

The Weather Channel Weather All The Time Video

218

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 16, 2013, 01:02:40 PM »

At least they're on top of things.  My guess is some cable companies simply won't care, so that means national LDLs, local forecasts, and everything else for their viewers.

219

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: October 09, 2013, 10:39:15 PM »

I never got the chance to play the original version on the NES, but I played the heck (and still own a working cartridge copy) of the GBA version. I've had it since it came out in 2001. The cape was my favorite power-up. I played this game just last month for old times sake.

I played the first 3 games on the NES, then, of course, on future systems.  I later played the original Mario Bros. (where they're in the sewers bopping on whatever comes out of the pipes) on various systems, such as the Apple II and the Atari 2600.

220

General Discussion / Re: The Pot Belly Stove

« on: October 09, 2013, 08:06:09 PM »

One of my most favorite games of all time! 

221

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 08, 2013, 02:07:20 PM »

Since Weatherscan seems to be the lowest of TWC's priorities now (just think how long it's been since it's had a major overhaul), I doubt anything will change, other than possibly the weather icons.

222

Programming and Graphics / Re: TWC Greenlights 6 New Series in Time for First Upfront in 5 Years

« on: October 08, 2013, 11:24:51 AM »

6 new series? If only they could put as much effort into upgrading their weather coverage as they put into these inane shows. Also, if they can't be bothered to have at least one man in a studio covering the weather for huge chunks of the day, then they must be close to bankruptcy or something. This is afternoon we're talking about here, not 1 AM.

I guess a scrolling ticker on the bottom of the "weather always on" format describing severe weather is a "good enough" replacement for them.  That way, they still get to air longform yet technically they're also still covering severe weather live.

223

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 08, 2013, 11:23:16 AM »

Guys get the metropolitan idea out of your head. This is simply an Intellistar/Intellistar HD update. I'd say it would depend on what your ob site is.

But I want demand a background photo of Daytona Beach on my local forecast, and it has to must be one that I personally pre-approve, and it should needs to be a photo that I took and uploaded to TWC's website.  If not, I'm going to raise holy hell!

224

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 08, 2013, 11:21:47 AM »

The icons look awful. They should go for a set that's more realistic-looking and diverse (something similar to the current IS2 icons  ).

I agree.  They look like something out of "USA Today" or some new-fangled app for a tablet, not something worthy of being on television being displayed by very expensive computers.

Also, what if you're 50 or 100 miles away from the nearest metropolitan area/skyline? For a great many people showing weather that's 50 or 100 miles away would be useless in terms of showing them the local weather. 50 or 100 miles makes a huge difference in many situations, such as thunderstorms, snowstorms, and strong cold fronts. TWC has decayed a lot but not enough to do something like that, so I'm assuming that there's a generic background for those outside the big cities.

Until sometime in the mid 1990s, the Stars in my hometown in Massachusetts showed conditions in Boston.  It's a half-hour away by car and right on the coast, while my hometown was inland and often had different weather conditions than in Boston.  Eventually, the current conditions city got changed to Bedford, which is an immediate neighbor to my hometown.  Then I went away for a while, but when I returned to Massachusetts in late 2009, I discovered that the current conditions city had reverted back to Boston, but Bedford was brought back as a secondary city on the new IntelliStar LDL scroll.

225

Programming and Graphics / Re: New Graphics coming to TWC

« on: October 08, 2013, 11:18:30 AM »

i'm hoping my area gets the Boston Headend

As a former Bostonian myself, that would be nice.  That said, two questions arise.  First, if Comcast has been so reluctant and/or unable to install an IS2 up until now, what are the odds they're going to rush to get everything ready for TWC's relaunch next month?  Granted, at least it is a possibility...  Second, if the HD feed still won't have the IS2, will the IS (which Boston's Comcast does have) on the SD feed be receiving the same update?  I guess there's a third question... will this mysterious new "replacement" Star for the legacy units be ready in time for the relaunch, and will they be distributed to everyone at once?  Doubtful.

I was so happy when Comcast in Boston started carrying TWC's HD feed, but so disappointed that they never got around to installing the IS2, which meant I had to keep watching the SD feed and Weatherscan for the local weather.  When I moved to Daytona Beach, there was no HD feed or Weatherscan, but the HD feed was eventually added, with the IS2.  I still remember how excited I was at such a random thing that I discovered in the wee hours of the morning because I had insomnia and couldn't sleep!