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Journal banky's Journal: weather.com has officially lost its fucking mind 10

Journal by banky

I have bitched from time to time about how weather.com is basically a piece of crap. Why still use it? For the same reason people still look shit up on Yahoo, I guess; it's what I used a long time ago, and I haven't bothered to change my habits.

Well, those days are numbered, because they have officially pissed me off.

Was it the z-index flash ads? No. they sucked but they sucked so bad they lasted all of about 3 days.
was it the relentless web-bugging? No, I filter a lot of that crap out.
Was it the generally bad forecasting? Almost...

No, it's their redesign. A couple of weeks, maybe a month ago, they redesigned their site. They introduced 2 things that pissed me off so much, I'd like to see them die.
1. They AGAIN broke links and bookmarks, and have no redirection. For example: www.weather.com/local/zips/00000 was the format for going directly to your zip code's weather (or something like that). When they switched, all links to those pages broke utterly. The thing is, the URL became something like www.weather.com/weather/local/00000. We're not talking a 256-character URL here with a hacked session key. We're talking 2 minutes, and the man page for mod_rewrite. C'mon, weather.com, you're running apache, get a fucking clue. Making your users redo bookmarks on PC, laptop, work machine, (not to mention my Plucker scripts, and assorted junk) is downright hostile. (Side note: how does weather.com implement syndication? hmmm.) But that was nothing...
2. The "highlights" forecast and the "detail" (now called 'narrative') forecast are now in complete disagreement with each other. Highlights says "isolated T-storms w/ a 30% chance of rain, highs in the 80's". Narrative says, "10% chance of showers, highs in the mid 90's". (for example). Excuse me, but that's complete bullshit. Those 2 forecasts are worlds apart. Update your shit all at once, or don't fucking update at all. You look stupid.

So anyway, someone said accuweather was cool, I might try that. What's your favorite weather site?

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weather.com has officially lost its fucking mind More

weather.com has officially lost its fucking mind

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  • Try the National Weather Service [noaa.gov]. I like the layout you get if you search city, state, although I am not too happy with the thunderstorms predicted to rain on my parade later this week.... Oh well, my grass needs it.
    • Screw that. The day the grass gets brown and goes into hiding for the summer is a happy day: no more grass cutting. More time for home brew, Ghost Recon, motorcycle riding, and sitting in the hammock with my kid.

      • Hey, some hammockless folks enjoy laying in the soft green grass... although you've got me on the mowing. Is that acceptable, letting your grass just get in that brown funk wherein you don't have to mow it much over the summer? I just bought my first house and I am not really sure what is kosher, although your effortless yard really sounds much better... Is it okay not to water your yard? (I haven't even bought a hose yet, much less a sprinkler...)

        • If I remember correctly, Maryland is in a drought watch or something like that where I'm not even allowed to water lawn. I still water the plants, as they are new, and cost money. Also, in a year or three, they should be self-sufficient.

          Even if it weren't a finable offense, I still wouldn't do it, as I am on municipal water, meaning I have to pay for it. It's one thing to pay for the water, but I have to pay for sewer on all the water that runs off outside my house! Makes no sense.

          I actually just got my hammock for father's day.

          Oh, the other thing about grass: when I bought this house (~2.5 years ago) it had a wonderful lawn. Then I found out why: Chemlawn. I'm sorry, I will not do that. I had/have pets, and now have a child. I do not want them playing on that stuff. If it's so non-toxic, why does it stop the bugs? And why is there a little paper you have to sign saying, essentially, 'do not walk on lawn for 48 hours after treatment'?

          In the final analysis, it depends on the neighborhood. None of my neighbors waters much past the end of May, so they all look scraggly at the same time.
          • We mow our lawn every few weeks. We have the mower set to 'high' (as in, 'Take off the top 1/8" of the grass) and don't collect the clippings. Our grass grows like crazy even in drought. It does help that our yard is very shaded, but I think we've found the solution to Chemlawn - fuck that "yard crew cut" thing so popular in the suburbs. Let it look a little wooly, and it'll stay alive all the time.
  • Look-out-yer-fuckin-window

    Best of all, it's free, and doesn't need a browser.

    I still use weather.com, supplemented with my local stations' forecasts. Everybody just uses a national weather service feed anyway.

    • I need time windows; I want to know what the weather is going to be *tomorrow*. :)

      Aw fuck it, like I ever go outside, anyway.
  • But they have super-annoying, intrusive ads that superimpose on the text you're trying to read. I've fired off several angry e-mails complaining about the ads.

    I like Weather Underground [wunderground.com] better. Try it.

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