Comment On Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful

What is "moon percent" ?

Can you actually have negative pressure, as in -999 hPa? I thought that once it got to zero that was as far as it went.

Nelle:

What is "moon percent" ?

I would guess it is the amount of the moon visible

"moon percent" is the percent of the moon visible.
100% = full moon shining bright
0% = just a dark night

CAPTCHA: craaazy :)

The colour scheme for the wind speed graph appears to assign cool colours to low speeds and hot colours to high speeds. Since 9999 knots is a yellowish-orange, I guess it must be considered a moderately high speed.

To be honest, I'm more horrified by the interface in the second pic than by the numerical mistake...

Not Dorothy:

Can you actually have negative pressure, as in -999 hPa? I thought that once it got to zero that was as far as it went.

You could have pressure acting in the opposite direction to a reference, indicated by a negative, or a pressure measured as relative to another pressure which is more practical in many applications.

I found this few years ago:
http://tweeky.eu/content/fun/wetterspiegel2.html

So. Was that a nuke doing off at 8am? That would explain the wind-speeds. And can only assume that the thermometers looped around the top (from +32768 to -32768, and then a bit more?)...

MrTweek:

I found this few years ago:
http://tweeky.eu/content/fun/wetterspiegel2.html

Minus 68 Celcius does seem a bit nippy for a Spring morning in Saarbrücken.

I'm still trying to understand the negative precipitation, myself. -999mm of water going flying upwards?

The real WTF here is that the US _still_ hasn't adopted the metric system.

What's this "Outside" you speak of?

Ron:

I'm still trying to understand the negative precipitation, myself. -999mm of water going flying upwards?

That would have to be nearly a metre of water evaporated in three hours. Must be caused by that high wind.

PortLand? I can understand numerical systems going haywire, but I'd like to think that the WTFs be in a more difficult realm than that of spelling and capitalization.

It's only below absolute zero because of wind chill factor.

As I have always said about the weather:

"If it feels nice out,
then leave it out!"

rsynnott:

To be honest, I'm more horrified by the interface in the second pic than by the numerical mistake...

I agree! Took me a while to see the WTF since the interface is too damn purrrty. Must be a Mac! ;)

I quite enjoyed the map of the USA at a uniform 2 billion degrees Fahrenheit - even being consumed by our dying star wouldn't produce such brutally scorched earth!

-999C eh? That is only -725.85 Kelvin.

I guess if that happens, Hell really does freeze over.

Captcha: burned ... well not really

The really WTF is the smiling moon on a field of stars. Those stars are right where the shadowed side of the moon should be. There won't be any light there unless it's on the surface of the moon or between the moon and Earth.

This moon and star symbolism is used in lots of places and I cringe every time I see it. Does everybody else think that a crescent moon results from the rest of the moon being eaten by a giant space goat?

AlpineR:

Does everybody else think that a crescent moon results from the rest of the moon being eaten by a giant space goat?

Yes.

yawn.

Actually, the last picture might be a future prediction -- of when the Sun goes supernova

The real WTF for the second one is that it's substantially colder at 4:46pm than at 6:54am.

Oh, wait, it's Australia. Everything's reversed there.

--Rank

trwtf is that weather forecast things such as these are some of the buggiest pieces of crap ever that it probably didn't take more than a week to accumulate three amusing images for a dwtf post.

UNINITIALIZED VARIABLES NEVER STOP BEING FUNNY

rsynnott:

To be honest, I'm more horrified by the interface in the second pic than by the numerical mistake...

I dunno, I kinda like the sunrise and sunset icons. I mean, I wasn't able to figure out WTF they were until I tried to figure out WHY there was a coffee cup in a weather application.

And you have to love the two columns of unrelated information. That's classic interface design!

The left column appears to contain:

Sunrise Time (see, the sun's waking up with a cup of coffee)
Daily High (at least, I think that's what the thermometer is indicating)
Day-time Forecast (mostly self-explanatory)

While the right column contains:

Sunset Time (see, the sun's now going to bed over the sea?)
Daily Low (at least, I think that's what the thermometer is indicating)
Night-time Forecast

But there's also the nice two icons on the bottom of the forecasts. My best guess is that it's chance of precipitation, followed by humidity. But I have no idea if I'm right.

This is another example of the classic WTF of trying to jam too much information into too small a space.

brazzy:

What's this "Outside" you speak of?

The big blue room with the bright thing.

#2 is the result of programmers doing interface design. Which also happens to be Linux's biggest downfall -- and, coincidentally, OS X's greatest feature.

Al Gore is including the third screen cap in "An Inconvenient Truth II"

I believe this shirt is in order:

http://www.bustedtees.com/shirt/thisiswhyimhot/male

AlpineR:

This moon and star symbolism is used in lots of places and I cringe every time I see it.

Choices:

(a) fix every graphic designer, icon designer, and amateur maker of hallowe'en posters in the entire world one by one.

(b) remember it's just a symbol and get the hell over it.

I know which I'd choose.

With the power of the internet it can't take more than a month or two, with a bit of door-to-door for those who aren't on the net.

The second one is a screen shot at 240x320, you don't suppose it's a PDA do you? You try designing a GUI for a PDA and let me know how you turn out.

Finally - undeniable proof of global warming.*







*data covers only United States

Locovaca:

The second one is a screen shot at 240x320, you don't suppose it's a PDA do you? You try designing a GUI for a PDA and let me know how you turn out.

It is a PocketPC with a custom taskbar skinning program (as the PPC default does not offer a task switcher, or a proper close application button). It is very much a power user type app.

Vartan Christopher Simonian:

Finally - undeniable proof of global warming.*







*data covers only United States

National warming?*






*excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

The Real WTF (tm) is that he leaves for work at 8 - I had to be at my desk by 6:30 this morning!

Erk:

The real WTF here is that the US _still_ hasn't adopted the metric system.

So true!

That's no moon...

Linux FTW:

#2 is the result of programmers doing interface design. Which also happens to be Linux's biggest downfall -- and, coincidentally, OS X's greatest feature.

The difference is that Linux programmers are also the end users, so they'll be the first to know about a design that sucks. At least we have nice CLIs.

And the interface is OS X's only feature.

OK, I live in houston, and can guarantee that the temperature shown was accurate here.

Xaox:

-999C eh? That is only -725.85 Kelvin.

I guess if that happens, Hell really does freeze over.

Captcha: burned ... well not really

It turns out there is a way to define negative temperature. If you start with statistical mechanics and use that to build up the concept of temperature (instead of just assuming it, like you do in thermodynamics), the stat mech definition can include negative numbers.

However, because of how it's put together (and I'd have to go dig up my notes, it's been a couple years--it has to do with having a 'population inversion' where you've set up a situation where you are way out of line with what could happen normally), negative temperatures end up being insanely hot.

The RealWTF is Des Moines displayed but not Chicago on the 3rd map.

I like how the first one has cloud icons for sunny, dark clouds, light clouds in front of the sun, and light clouds behind the sun.

Locovaca:

The second one is a screen shot at 240x320, you don't suppose it's a PDA do you? You try designing a GUI for a PDA and let me know how you turn out.

Ah yes, the "it's difficult" excuse.

"It's difficult to do this correctly, so that excuses the fact that it doesn't work!"

Sort of like how because I don't personally know how to design a car, I can't be upset if my brakes fail, causing me to drive into a tree. Before being able to complain about intermittent brake failure, I have to actually design and build a car from scratch.

phaedrus:

Xaox:

-999C eh? That is only -725.85 Kelvin.

I guess if that happens, Hell really does freeze over.

Captcha: burned ... well not really

It turns out there is a way to define negative temperature. If you start with statistical mechanics and use that to build up the concept of temperature (instead of just assuming it, like you do in thermodynamics), the stat mech definition can include negative numbers.

However, because of how it's put together (and I'd have to go dig up my notes, it's been a couple years--it has to do with having a 'population inversion' where you've set up a situation where you are way out of line with what could happen normally), negative temperatures end up being insanely hot.

I found a wikipedia article on it, but I'm not educated enough to understand it

AlpineR:

The really WTF is the smiling moon on a field of stars. Those stars are right where the shadowed side of the moon should be. There won't be any light there unless it's on the surface of the moon or between the moon and Earth.

This moon and star symbolism is used in lots of places and I cringe every time I see it. Does everybody else think that a crescent moon results from the rest of the moon being eaten by a giant space goat?

The obvious answer is a moon shaped like a satellite dish.

Normal air pressure is 101.3 kPa at sea level.

We often us this as a "zero" for comparisons sake.

For example, if you put a pressure gauge on your tire and it reads 0, your tire pressure is actually 101.3 kpa (14.7 psi).

Normal tire pressure of 32 psi is actually 46.7 psi.

A negative pressure would be possible down to -101.3 kPa on this scale, but you can't go any lower than a perfect vacuum. The actual value of your "absolute relative zero" (nice phrase) depends on what "zero" you pick.

Remember, there's no such thing as suction, it's actually air from the high pressure area blowing into the low pressure area.

Actually, the first image isn't a WTF as presented. All 9s indicates missing data for that field (in this case, every field, indicating that the station missed an hourly report). Data is sent to NOAA as an ASCII flat file, so you can just imagine the kinds of WTFs committed in the sending of crucial meteorological data. God, I love the government.

Choda:

Erk:

The real WTF here is that the US _still_ hasn't adopted the metric system.

So true!

I joked about this today (I work at a civil engineering company). Our DOT requires metric plans...and the engineers were complaining. "It's Complicated," they'd say. You're an idiot, I'd reply. "I much prefer the English system," another would say. The English don't prefer the English system, says I.

Then the kicker...a guy with questionable talents says "But I'm used to dividing everything up into 12. Dividing things into 10s slows me down." We all just stared at him -- some mouths open, some people trying to hold back the snickers.

Engineering Scales are all measured in tenths of a foot. Now we all know why his grading plans are off.