Messages

826

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 11, 2011, 08:04:29 PM »

These things can be learned and gotten used to.

How many courses are you taking?  What's your schedule like?  If nothing else, expect to do a lot more studying after classes than in high school.

There are a lot of things you can do to help make this easier.  For example, just as you have a course schedule, you can make a study schedule and work out how much time you'll need, and specifically when, to get all of your homework and studying done.  Read and reread your textbook.  Not only should you review your book and class notes after every lesson, but you should also read ahead by at least one lesson so that you'll know what to expect when the teacher discusses it, and it won't all be new to you.  Otherwise, without knowledge of what's coming up next, each class will be something entirely new, and it will be harder to "make the pieces fit" as you assimilate all the new information.

827

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 11, 2011, 06:44:23 PM »

Is college supposed to be this hard? I'm failing 2 classes right now, and English might be a 3rd (nothing was graded yet), but the material is very difficult for me.

Do you know why you're having a difficult time with these classes?  Nip the problem in the bud before it starts to spiral out of control.  It's still very early in the semester, so you should still have a chance to correct the issue before it goes even further.  Set up appointments with your professors or teachers to discuss whatever problems you're having.  They might be able to help you figure out where you need to refocus your energies so that you can be successful in the classes.  The amount of coursework and homework, as well as the difficulty, is considerably more than in high school, and so you might need to "retrain" yourself to be a more efficient studier.

Are you having problems remembering facts?  Are you having problems comprehending the material from the beginning?

828

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Should the TWCC presence stay?

« on: September 11, 2011, 06:42:02 PM »

I still vote that it should stay, but I think I'm the only person here (or one of a very small few) who was watching TWC all the way back then.  I've tried discussing those days before, but so few people have first-hand memories like I have that the conversations didn't really go anywhere.

829

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: Should the TWCC presence stay?

« on: September 10, 2011, 11:18:53 PM »

Please, please, please[/b] don't get rid of the Classic TWC section, page, or anything related!  I started watching TWC in the late 1980s when I was still in elementary school, and the channel had a big impact on me.  It made me want to become a meteorologist (never happened due to bad math skills), get involved in television broadcasting (which I did for 7 years), and, of course, TWC was just so different back then, and, I dare say, so much better than it is today.

I go through the site so often I practically have it memorized by now, but I always enjoy wandering down memory lane, especially since none of my videotapes from that era have survived.  (My mother had this habit of determining for herself what I "needed," any anything not on her list got thrown out or otherwise destroyed or removed from my possession.)

830

Local Forecast / Re: Lack of Local Forecast for Non-Intellistar systems

« on: September 10, 2011, 09:03:22 PM »

I'm confused.. you were ranting about the XL, yet you posted a video of the IS..

I originally asked for a video of the old squeezeback. I found it and posted it instead. End of story.

I see.  Your edit was a little confusing, though, since you took out what you were originally asking for.

831

Local Forecast / Re: Lack of Local Forecast for Non-Intellistar systems

« on: September 10, 2011, 06:04:49 PM »

That video looks like it's from the Intellistar, not the XL - notice the font.

832

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 07, 2011, 03:36:04 PM »

Darn it - I think it's a great design!

833

Local Forecast / Re: General LF Discussion

« on: September 07, 2011, 03:26:15 PM »

Wow - this is very interesting!

On the one hand, I'd want to say it's an emulator that combines the look of the XL with the new SD satellite local forecast backgrounds, but it almost seems "too perfect."  The weather information is accurate and everything appears as it should.

Are there any other screenshots or videos available?  I guess, in the absence of someone coming forward to say that it's an emulator that he/she made, we'll just have to wait and see what our XL viewers in the forum say about what they observe happening to their local Stars.

And, of course, this raises the question... if this IS real, will the Intellistar soon be updated to match this background, too, thus providing a constant and similar look across three platforms?

834

General Discussion / Re: The Front Porch

« on: September 07, 2011, 12:15:39 AM »

Oh, no!!  I'm sorry.

An ice dam in the attic after one horrible snowstorm caused a similar problem with me.  I opened my bedroom door one day to find water pouring all over my desk.  Fortunately, my computer wasn't on it, and, actually, hardly anything else was, either, so nothing got damaged.  Still, it ruined the wallpaper, left stains all over the ceiling, and gave me quite a lot of cleaning up to do.

835

Local Forecast / Re: Dan Chandler's local forecast narration

« on: September 07, 2011, 12:14:07 AM »

In all of the examples I gave, I was talking about either the Boston or Willow Grove Stars, not about Stars in general or about every Star in the country.  I didn't prefix every mention of a Star with the city name because I thought it was unnecessary and understood in context.

Interesting. I wonder why your cable company decided not to show the outlook. Guess I'll have to through my Willow Grove footage and find out!

No idea.    I wasn't even aware of the Outlook until I started watching TWC at my grandparents' house.

I'm glad that there are clips of the Willow Grove Star available.  Good memories!

836

Local Forecast / Re: Dan Chandler's local forecast narration

« on: September 06, 2011, 10:23:10 PM »

In all of the examples I gave, I was talking about either the Boston or Willow Grove Stars, not about Stars in general or about every Star in the country.  I didn't prefix every mention of a Star with the city name because I thought it was unnecessary and understood in context.

837

Local Forecast / Re: Dan Chandler's local forecast narration

« on: September 06, 2011, 08:16:12 PM »

Tides substituted the almanac for coastal STARs... I am no classic TWC expert, but I simply knew that because I saw a 4000 in 2009 that had tides in lieu of the almanac 

Yes, Tides replaced the Almanac.  Exceptions were extraordinarily rare - they happened only when the tides information was, for some bizarre reason, unavailable, and even that was so unlikely, since the Star calculated the tide and sunrise/sunset data itself.  In other words, it was a product that technically could never expire.  The Boston Star 3000 showed the Almanac instead of Tides maybe only a couple of times that I can remember, and it never showed the Outlook.  Boston upgraded to the 4000 in 1993, and I don't think I ever saw the Almanac taking the place of Tides.  The 4000 never showed the Outlook, either.

Every summer I got to watch the Willow Grove, PA (near Philadelphia) Star.  Since this wasn't on the coast, it showed the Almanac instead of Tides.  The 3000 showed the Outlook only about 20% of the time, and the rest of the time it showed the Almanac, regardless of flavor.  I can't remember offhand seeing both the Almanac and the Outlook together on the same local forecast.  This area upgraded to the 4000 in 1991, and that showed the Outlook only at the very beginning.  It very quickly disappeared from the rotation.

838

Local Forecast / Re: Dan Chandler's local forecast narration

« on: September 06, 2011, 07:55:59 PM »

Actually the temperature/precipitation forecast "above/below normal" or "normal" was on the "outlook" page, when the narration said "your regions long range outlook"; not on the almanac page.

I've seen it used on a 3000 in place of the almanac.

839

Local Forecast / Re: Dan Chandler's local forecast narration

« on: September 06, 2011, 06:50:46 PM »

Whenever, the "Almanac" page was seen on either the 3000 or 4000, which would tell you, depending on which STAR, the moon phases, the average high and low temperatures for the date, the average precipitation for the month, the sunrise and sunset times and tidal information if you're on the coast, why would his narration refer to the "Almanac" page as "special regional information"? Just curious.

Simply because of what you said - there was so much variety with that page.  Depending on the Star version and the location, you might see the temperature and precipitation forecast ("above/below normal" or "normal"), you might see the page with the average and record temperatures, there might be moon phases and sunrises and sunsets, and, for locations along the coast, the tide information, which was never titled "Almanac" on the 3000 or the 4000.

840

Questions, Comments, Suggestions / Re: New Banner

« on: September 06, 2011, 12:07:57 PM »

And some of you may just be thinking "Well, it is just a banner. What's the big deal?" But I feel that an out-of-date banner gets old after awhile and makes the entire forums look out-of-date.

So true.