Gongol.com Archives: June 2025

June 1, 2025

Computers and the Internet Today's weather, yesterday's graphics

A computer developer has produced a website to almost perfectly recreate the analog-era Weather Channel "Weather on the 8s" screen, using the current conditions for wherever the user happens to be. Like the people who recreate classic teletext services and reverse-engineer old split-flap displays, the people who revive familiar old electronic services like the classic Weather on the 8s are good at finding small but deep cuts into the nostalgia centers of the brain. ■ But to give credit where it is due, it's not just nostalgia that makes those services appealing. A current-generation iPhone has a display rendering an area measuring 2,556 by 1,179 pixels, and there are designers who seem compelled to make something happen inside each and every one. The basic weather app is rich with statistics and color, but it does impose upon the user the burden of selection: "Am I here to see the current UV index, the 'feels-like' temperature, or the current wind map?" It takes some executive function -- just a little bit, but still some -- just to stay on task. ■ Stripped-down, "retro" user interfaces don't require the same amount of self-control. Analog, standard-definition television in the US was produced at 720 by 480 pixels -- not enough room to get fancy. Due to limited real estate on the screen, the information contained in "Weather on the 8s" rotated through a series of screens instead. Each item had its turn, and the viewer had to take what was served. ■ That's not necessarily a bad model, even if it's possible to share much more on a modern screen. It's not just attention that is finite -- so is self-control. The craving for a today's best available information, but delivered in yesterday's formats, makes an unexpectedly large amount of sense once we begin to account for the amount of mental commitment required to navigate daily life. Sometimes it might just be more pleasant to let someone else do the data scrolling for us. Art is found in the constraints.