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A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

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Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#171

Post by clawlor »

duanem wrote: post #142
alecfreudenberg wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good eye! I added this to their bugs forum. I believe they are still a team of one, and have focused on app progress and efficiency at the expense of bugs & loose ends that would typically be handled in a larger organization with dedicated teams for that sort of thing. I bet they would Personally I find it charming. That is until I run into a security issue. I can't speak for Flowx though.

I've actually already looked into the DEBUG=True issue just now. Setting it to false causes an "Internal Server Issue". So do I spend hours looking for a fix, look into replacing it with a static pages site (I'm thinking Hugo) or just go back to porting Flowx to Apple :-)

> Never deploy a site into production with DEBUG turned on.

- https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/4.1/ref/settings/#debug

Setting DEBUG = False doesn't cause in Internal Server Issue. The issue is caused by something else, having DEBUG = True just means Django will return a detailed error page, instead of a generic 500 error page.

IIRC, DEBUG = True also used to leak memory, which doesn't matter so much for local development, where it's intended to be used.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#172

Post by highwaylights »

strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

Even that notification sound when it’s going to rain.

Dark Sky was magical. It was the kind of experience Steve Jobs used to get giddy about on stage for 20 minutes at a time.

Man I wish they could just hit the undo button on axing it.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#173

Post by ethbr0 »

tshaddox wrote: post #170
cglong wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's weather feature on Android does this :) They don't call it "high" and "low", instead calling it "day" and "night".

What if the low temperature is forecast to be at noon?

Then you live in Antarctica, it's winter, and you're out of scope.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#174

Post by pmarreck »

strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

I can't delete the icon just yet.

CARROT is OK for "a different kind of weather app", but nothing really is the same.

Dark Sky's UI was just... Nice.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#176

Post by ethbr0 »

tshaddox wrote: post #118
brewdad wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes useless when it was 32 degrees at midnight. But now, as I sit here on a Thursday morning, it shows the low for today as 28 degrees and tomorrow as 40 degrees. What will I need to wear Friday morning when I go out? Will it be closer to 40 or continue dropping and be closer to freezing? Is it safe to put my sensitive plants back outside? Perhaps it shows 28 again but is that for early Friday morning or late…

> In almost all cases the coldest part of the day is right around dawn. Probably true, and yet the counterexamples are when the temperature forecast is particularly important when I'm choosing what to wear. Any simplification of the temperature forecast into daily lows and highs will fail certain use cases, so I think it's very reasonable to make the daily lows and highs as well- and simply-defined as possible and pr…

Given that the suns movements are pretty predictable, it seems suboptimal to define counter to something that happens almost every day.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#177

Post by chordalkeyboard »

scarface74 wrote: post #159
chordalkeyboard wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That must be why developing iOS Apps is so unpopular with developers… Apple products are popular among consumers and developers in spite of their many user-hostile decisions precisely because there are few alternatives, all of which have substantial disadvantages as well.

So if Apple products are “user hostile” then why are enough users happily spending twice as much on iPhones and more on Macs to make Apple the most valuable company in the world? Maybe their decisions are only hostile to geeks who want to run Linux on the Apple Pencil.

> So if Apple products are “user hostile” then why are enough users happily spending twice as much on iPhones and more on Macs

They aren't all "happy" about it, but as I mentioned in the post you replied to, there is not a decent alternative.

> Maybe their decisions are only hostile to geeks who want to run Linux on the Apple Pencil.

Certainly not but one would have to be interested in the fact of the matter to realize it.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#178

Post by vl »

Dark Sky was good, but had it's strange quirks too. On top of that some features were undiscoverable - for example it was possible to click bubbles on the right side of the graph to get detailed view of the hour. Very useful, I stumbled on it randomly after years of use.

Weather has same information, presented a bit in a different way. Sure, I think they could have done better job.

Most important component, however, are the models they use. Weather/Dark Sky models are good, but at some moment they diverge from Wundeground - another app I use. So I started paying for Windy, which allows you to see a view with 6 (!) different models. I'm not sure why I need that, but I love having this feature.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#179

Post by scarface74 »

chordalkeyboard wrote: post #177
scarface74 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if Apple products are “user hostile” then why are enough users happily spending twice as much on iPhones and more on Macs to make Apple the most valuable company in the world? Maybe their decisions are only hostile to geeks who want to run Linux on the Apple Pencil.

> So if Apple products are “user hostile” then why are enough users happily spending twice as much on iPhones and more on Macs They aren't all "happy" about it, but as I mentioned in the post you replied to, there is not a decent alternative. > Maybe their decisions are only hostile to geeks who want to run Linux on the Apple Pencil. Certainly not but one would have to be interested in the fact of the matter to reali…

There is an alternative - 85% of phone users choose Android.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#180

Post by workethics »

moneywoes wrote: post #33
strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

Any good alternatives since?

https://merrysky.net/ comes pretty close!
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