[HN Gopher] WeatherStar 4000+: Weather Channel Simulator
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WeatherStar 4000+: Weather Channel Simulator
Author : adam_gyroscope
Score : 411 points
Date : 2025-05-29 15:38 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (weatherstar.netbymatt.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (weatherstar.netbymatt.com)
| jader201 wrote:
| It will only be the true 90s Weather Channel when I hear some
| Rippingtons playing in the background.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndaMC-Ug4Jg
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I remember instrumental covers of Pink Floyd.
| huslage wrote:
| I bought all of the Rippingtons albums because I heard them on
| the Weather Channel...I was inexplicably into smooth jazz at
| the time.
| polygot wrote:
| Not sure how they're going to go around that corner with that
| vehicle
| ndiddy wrote:
| If you're interested in this, someone on YouTube got a
| WeatherStar 4000 (device that sat at cable headends and generated
| the local weather report graphics) and wrote all new firmware to
| make 90's style weather reports on the real hardware. This was
| necessary because the original firmware was downloaded over
| satellite so it's now lost. It looks basically identical to the
| real Weather Channel from the 90s, except it doesn't have their
| logo in the corner (I guess for trademark reasons). Here's a
| stream of his WeatherStar:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66mSjXpfD2c
| jjk7 wrote:
| If you read his devlog, he started this project not knowing
| assembly or C... teaching himself as he went. Incredible.
| jimmydddd wrote:
| Importantly, it also plays Weather Channel-esque background
| music.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| Thanks for mentioning that, had me digging around for where I
| can find the music. The youtube link lead me to the project's
| hackaday log, which is extremely detailed but lacks any
| mention of music [0]
|
| The submission link's github page [1] links to a website
| listing all the tracks that ever played [2], explaining they
| dropped the music from the project so as not to deal with
| copyright claims. too bad fair use isn't clear enough to
| apply here, I think its a relatively transformative use and
| doesn't compete with the original.
|
| [0] https://hackaday.io/project/178144-reverse-engineering-
| the-w...
|
| [1] https://github.com/netbymatt/ws4kp
|
| [2] https://twcclassics.com/audio/artists.html
| dylan604 wrote:
| why would fair use be at play here? TWC would have paid a
| license fee through ASCAP or whomever for the rights to
| broadcast that music. They didn't just download a bunch of
| mp3 files from Napster and try to disrupt broadcasting.
| jazzyjackson wrote:
| You're right, of course. I guess I just put a lot of
| weight on the charm of keeping old things running, and
| think there's value to the public in allowing free use of
| music, particularly for non-commercial/educational
| purposes.
| theklub wrote:
| Not sure if you are aware but the weather Channel sold
| music CDs I have one.
| CursedSilicon wrote:
| If it's the same one that brings the equipment to Retro
| Computing events. He sadly has declined to publish any kind of
| archive of the software for other hobbyists :(
|
| I understand that he's under no obligation to do so. But a lot
| of us worry that if the hard disks die or if he loses interest
| in the hobby, that software will be irrevocably lost for all of
| us
| jb1991 wrote:
| When I visit this site, it just keeps automatically refreshing
| the homepage over and over every second.
| dbg31415 wrote:
| Love it!
|
| Music is a bit too fast, I miss the sleepy jazz feel from the
| 90s. (=
| jasonpeacock wrote:
| Nice!
|
| It'd be helpful to have the options stored in the URL, especially
| the kiosk mode, so it can be bookmarked.
|
| And allow <esc> to exit kiosk mode.
| trvr wrote:
| It seems if you left click "Copy Permalink" that the site will
| generate a massive URL with all of your options. One of them is
| "settings-kiosk-checkbox". Change it to "true" in your copied
| URL and that should work.
| crims0n wrote:
| Very neat! I put it in kiosk mode and could almost hear the hum
| of a CRT.
| dylan604 wrote:
| hum? you mean a very high pitched squeal?
| ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote:
| Looks like this was the original version?
| https://github.com/vbguyny/ws4kp
| Chihuahua0633 wrote:
| Man, I want to be able to have this as an actual stream on my TV!
| joezydeco wrote:
| Follow what this person did:
| https://blog.scottlabs.io/2024/02/weather-like-its-1999/
| lordfrito wrote:
| Great stuff! Reminds me of when the web used to be fun...
| lobsterthief wrote:
| Same here. I've been doing web design and development for 24
| years now so I've witnessed the full pivot towards
| homogenization of interfaces; it's necessary for commerce and
| usability at this point. But once in a while I'll throw
| together a microsite like this to return to my roots a bit.
| This is my latest (a basic Trump presidency countdown clock):
| https://timeleft.now/
| Vitamin_Sushi wrote:
| Love the WS4000. I've been meaning to make a WS4000 like
| application I can throw on my firestick and just have it play all
| day on my TV as a side project. As someone without any GUI or
| graphics programming knowledge, it's definitely been a nice
| learning experience.
| absurdo wrote:
| I miss this late 80s early 90s jazz fusion.
| phkahler wrote:
| Oh, man I thought I was going to see an AI generated Heather
| Tesch.
| laweijfmvo wrote:
| I yearn for Local on the 8's
| parpfish wrote:
| half expecting this to veer into some analog horror
| throwanem wrote:
| The horror lies in seeing 2025 with eyes from 1990.
| post_break wrote:
| I run one of these on my desk 24x7 with a raspberry pi and a 3D
| printed monitor that simulates a CRT. I tried with a real CRT TV
| but the frequency and having it at the side of my main monitor
| started to make me sick.
|
| https://imgur.com/a/wD2EINO
|
| https://github.com/vbguyny/ws4kp
| agscala wrote:
| Nice! Which screen is that? All of the screens I've found are
| widescreen and I'd like to do a similar project
| post_break wrote:
| https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5564208
| shortstuffsushi wrote:
| It seems like this could make a good addition for the folks
| working on EmuVR @ https://www.emuvr.net/
| halyconWays wrote:
| I love this
| noduerme wrote:
| This page on an Android phone displays briefly and then crashes
| the tab in Chrome, and crashes the entire app in Firefox. Neat
| trick.
| throwanem wrote:
| No trouble here. Galaxy S10+, Firefox whatever's current.
| duxup wrote:
| Very cool.
|
| Music is a bit too high fidelity ;)
| languagehacker wrote:
| Thank you for the vaporwave vibes!
| barbazoo wrote:
| Wow, that's horrible, I love it!
| doawoo wrote:
| I have a version (probably not exactly the same software for the
| head unit) of this on an SGI O2 sitting around including all the
| environment scripts and the HTML manuals. I have a tar.gz of it
| that I should upload to an archive location.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| Where's the sponsored content?
| socalgal2 wrote:
| Not knowing what WeatherStar 4000+ was, I was expecting "Weather
| Channel Simulator" to use AI to generate live video of a weather
| reporter describing the weather.
|
| Can't be too far off.
| samtp wrote:
| This is a lot more interesting and impressive than AI generated
| goop
| pncnmnp wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing! I've been working with some TTS
| applications, such as real-time commentary for Pong and
| personalized radio stations. I might give this a try, it sounds
| fun.
| volleygman180 wrote:
| I was impressed as soon as it loaded and immediately said, "Yea
| but what about the music?". Then I noticed the sound toggle
| button.
|
| Absolute perfection!
| sharksauce wrote:
| Anyone see an easy way to add the sound-on setting to the URL
| options generated by "Copy Permalink"?
| 9Ljdg6p8ZSzejt wrote:
| Yes! Add &mediaPlaying=true to the url. You might also need
| to allow audio autoplaying for the website first in the non-
| kiosk version or launch the browser allowing it.
| gasgiant wrote:
| I listen to a lot of Pat Metheny Group, which my wife refers to
| as "Weather Channel Music". I used to argue that Pat was waaay
| better than the stuff on the Weather Channel, until one day we
| had it on in a hotel room and "Last Train Home" came on, and I
| had to shut the heck up.
| alexjplant wrote:
| Given how much fusion they played on "Local on the 8s" I wonder
| if they ever spun some Weather Report...
| xorbax wrote:
| Wasn't there also a text-to-speech voiceover of the local
| forecast text?
|
| I would have sworn they would replace the music with a guy
| "reading" the forecast.
| dcrazy wrote:
| There was a time when it was only prerecorded "The forecast
| for your area"
| dylan604 wrote:
| For a time, you could call a phone number for the forecast.
| A lot of banks would tell you the time with one of their
| numbers.
| reaperducer wrote:
| This still exists in some cities. Albuquerque is one.
| xd1936 wrote:
| "Your Local 'On the 8s'"
| dylan604 wrote:
| In large markets, some of the local broadcast stations have a
| dedicated digital channel that plays a local version of this.
| In my market, they have the digital voice reading the
| forecast.
| dcrazy wrote:
| This reminds me of when I first listened to my dad's Spyro Gyra
| CD.
| colpabar wrote:
| Music is so funny. I just listened to this on youtube and
| _immediately_ started crying because it reminded me of my late
| father who used to watch the weather channel all the time.
| Seeing this thread and all the weather channel talk makes me
| think of him, but man, hearing the music just wrecks me.
| jader201 wrote:
| Yeah, there's something about hearing -- especially music --
| and smell that can somehow really induce major nostalgia,
| where sight just doesn't have the same effect.
|
| Sight still definitely can induce nostalgia, but not near to
| the extent as hearing and smell.
|
| Particularly music, where it already has the power to induce
| emotions already.
| mortenjorck wrote:
| "Last Train Home" _is_ a banger, in any case.
| hospadam wrote:
| Is there anyone who could point me to an easy-ish way to get this
| running on a PI + Screen? I have a special-needs son who would
| LOVE to have this running. I'll take any advice! Thank you!
| macintux wrote:
| Looks like this comment might help:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44128109
| ivraatiems wrote:
| I love this. Why is the music so good? How do I get more music
| like this?
| vanadium wrote:
| So many people loved it, The Weather Channel actually put out
| CDs. One such example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/127083056970
| theturtle wrote:
| Far out! From the old days before they had shitty non-weather
| shows all the time and before they started "naming" winter
| storms.
|
| And before they started saying "impactful" nine times a minute.
|
| And before they hired that fuckface Justin Michaels.
|
| Before that 1970s "comedian" bought the channel and fucked it up.
| harwoodr wrote:
| I take it this only works for USA locations?
| raverbashing wrote:
| Looks like it. Which is definitely a shame but I can understand
| they might not have all the APIs for all the locations
| harwoodr wrote:
| International version: https://github.com/mwood77/ws4kp-
| international https://mwood77.github.io/ws4kp-international/
| ghosty141 wrote:
| this is fantastic, thanks!
| jimmydddd wrote:
| Great job!
| gdubs wrote:
| Well, this wins the internet for today -- pack it up everybody.
|
| Seriously though beyond just being awesome, this site is such a
| good experience on mobile. Really well crafted nostalgia vibes.
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| nothing but love for this. excellent stuff
| burnte wrote:
| This is fantastic.
| can16358p wrote:
| It literally couldn't find my city nor the most popular city of
| my country.
| chorfusmcnally wrote:
| The version linked is just using NOAA info, here's the
| international version: https://mwood77.github.io/ws4kp-
| international/
| eth_hack77 wrote:
| This sounds interesting but here's what I experience: I put
| London and pressed continue - nothing happened. I gave the
| location permission and pressed continue - nothing happened
| again.
|
| Console printed these logs: Uncaught (in promise) TypeError:
| Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'relativeLocation')
| at ws.min.js?_=5.21.3:1:133923 at ws.min.js?_=5.21.3:1:89730
| b8 wrote:
| I wish the watermark was smaller, because it blocks so much info.
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(page generated 2025-05-29 23:00 UTC)