Alert weather watchers (do you guys ever take a day off??!!!??) noted that the site went a little sideways yesterday. The main thermometer thought the high and low for the day was 32°F, the winds and other basic parameters were not right, and some of the supplementary pages failed to load or generated a pageful of errors. Hopefully, it’s working better today.
A junior web operator who shall remain nameless attempted to check the web sites’ configuration files into Git and instead loaded in the entire site, including dynamically updated data files and cached files. This means Git will pretty much always report the repository is out of date, and make cloning amd redeployment a serious hazard. In fixing the issue, the problem compounded: it turns out the “git rm” command does not remove the file from git as one might suspect, but instead OBLITERATES THE WORKING FOLDER OF PRODUCTION DATA and marks the file retained in (for historical purposes), but no longer active in the repository. Removing live data and cached files while the website is running had predictably disastrous results. Management has been notified and stern lectures delivered about diddling with the live production site without making three backups while clicking your heels together.
The management wishes to apologize to anyone who just wanted to know what the weather was outside. Yesterday, you would have had to go out IRL and look for yourselves; today, you can check on your phone again.
“It’s Another Yankee Forecast” – wazzatmean?
“It’s Another Yankee Forecast” was a handy and memorable name for a site I’ve owned for many years, and adapted to my latest hobby of weather observation. It refers to the old chestnut, “if you don’t like New England weather, just wait a minute” which was coined by … Mark Twain? Unlikely. Will Rogers? Nyah-uh. Like Yogi Berra, who may or may not have said, “I never said half the things I said,” the quote is attributed to many places and authors, but most likely should be credited to “Anon.” The great site, Quote Investigator has an indepth article here: “If You Don’t Like Our Weather, Just Wait a Few Minutes.”
I enjoyed the article’s citation of a Mark Twain speech he actually did make, which included a couple of great quotes, like:
There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger’s admiration—and regret.
and:
Yes, one of the brightest gems in the New England weather is the dazzling uncertainty of it.
The fun of New England weather is to grab a light jacket and sunglasses to walk the dog, only to be hit with a blizzard whiteout halfway home, or bundling up on a blustery fall day only to be ripping off layers in the tropical heat minutes later.