the Weather Channel has officially created a "retro" website which recreates how it looked in the 90s

[Krvavi Abadas]

(link)

April Fools joke, basically. though it seems like the page is a permanent addition regardless.

worth noting there's already been a long history of fan recreations of the design. including an unofficial webpage build that functions similarly (though apparently it only works with the US, while the official version is worldwide).
helped by the fact that the original Weather Star 4000 hardware the UI originates from has been discontinued since 2014. leading to people managing to buy them off various cable stations.

i know the Vintage Computer Festival has had someone/a group managing a booth filled with these units, but i don't recall who they are specifically.

also worth noting that the Weather cable Channel and the Weather Channel website are currently owned by separate entities, which this project required the two to work out a deal.

It’s also a bit confusing. You see, in 2018, Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group (AMG) purchased the Weather Channel for roughly $300 million. What AMG did not acquire were digital assets like weather.com; in 2024, the private-equity firm Francisco Partners bought those, including the website. The Retro forecast is a collaboration between the two — “The companies have ongoing agreements that have been in place for many years and such things are the result of that,” a spokesperson for AMG told The Hollywood Reporter — one that’s here to stay.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

8
Phil Connors

225 Points, 9 Lists, #1 RT-55J ​

Source: Groundhog Day
Traveler-Type: Trapped in a Loop
Method of Transport: Sonny & Cher

Phil Connors is a grouchy weatherman who visits Punxsutawney for it’s annual Groundhog Day tradition if seeing if local celebrity and groundhog Punxustawney Phil will see his shadow. Over the course of the day, Phil half-asses it and does not hide his contempt for the people. However, he soon discovers that the day has repeated and confusedly tries to make his way through it. The repeats keep coming and he realizes he’s trapped in the town and in time, unable to escape the day. Initially he is upset but starts taking advantage of a world without consequences. But it is also a world without progress and soon Phil falls into a depression and comes to the conclusion that if the world can’t change, maybe he can.

Groundhog Day is one of those perfect scripts. It could have been overly complicated and clever but instead it is a funny, sweet comedy that didn’t invent the time loop story but popularized it. It’s a perfect combination of performer and director (the disgrace of the former, while not entirely unsurprising, hurts) that uses the Bill Murray persona to create a different take on the supernatural redemption story. It is similar to the Scrooge tale (a character Bill Murray has also played!) in many ways but it’s also a film that never tells Murray the rules. I mean, did he actually get out of the loop through redemption or did he get out just as he made peace not only with his situation but who he is and who he could be.

There’s a great retrospective review from Robert Ebert from his Great Movies series where he points out that he doesn’t change from a bad person to a good person but rather he’s a better version of the person he’s always been. He’s still a smart alec but now he has new capabilities; to learn to look for virtues instead of flaws. And I think the journey is clever from being weirded out by the trap to having fun with it to finding it soul crushing to finding new depths in people and in himself. No, Groundhog Day didn’t invent the time loop story but it did essentially make the road map for other people to follow and subvert and I think it would fail to catch on without a charismatic main character to get attached to, even in the beginning.

Spoiler: Original Post

Nice. Also, the Comics Unleashed guy OWNS THE WEATHER CHANNEL?!

 

[Violentvixen]

No popups, it just loads the thing I want. Bookmarked so hard. Thank you!

 

[Eishtmo]

I kind of prefer the Weather Star 4000+ as it provides the same information, but let's you skip through the entries or turn some on and off. Still nice to have though.