4th February 2019 DMI RIP! 👎

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Monday 4th 33-36F, dark grey, with rain and wind. Rain or wintry showers are forecast for much of the day. And so it was. With wet snow falling for much of the afternoon with strong winds to boot. Or, rather, sans boots, in my case.

I was just reading how "commercial interests" were selling UK Citizenship answers via FBI-style communicators. Any unwanted immigrant person attending a UK Citizenship interview would be supplied with a two-way, communications earpiece in exchange for up to £2000.

2000 squid? Blimey, that's strictly Pussian Mafia, upmarket property investment, money laundering money, in my book! I suppose it helps to keep out the riffraff.

Somebody at t'other end of the "earpiece" would answer any <cough> relevant questions which came up during the citizenship interview. Well, as a constantly resident [for over half a century] citizen of gravelyblighted.uk I would certainly have needed this "service!" Should I ever be forced to return from exile, thanks to that nice Mister Frauge, I shall look them up on the Citizen's Advice Bureau website. It's no use my taking a crib sheet into the interview. I can never find my [supermarket] reading glasses! 

For the life of me I hadn't a clue as to the answer to any of the trivia questions suggested by the BBC. Who knows, for example, who was the second cousin [removed] of the "real life" girlfriend of a one-episode [seated] actor, in the back of the crowded bar on "Corry" on the 13th of January in 1753?

I mean, for gawd's sake? I'm 71, you know! And still have change for a thruppeny bit in my pocket. Just in case I'm caught short! My father served on the Titanic in the Bore War and my mother knew a friend of Florence Nightingale's sister. So there! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Ms DisMay!

They say everything changes. Well, the Danish Meteorological Institute's "weather" webpage has just taken a plunge to match the awful, bløødy weather. Absolutely dreadful! It's satans forferdelige! As the Danes are apt to mutter in moments of crisis. Like an extra 25 øre on the price of beer.

The old DMI "Byvejr" [Town, or local weather] was truly excellent. Instantly decipherable graphs, symbols, maps and multi-choice, weather map animations. Wind/Rain/Snow or the Lightning radar? It was all there for the asking. As crystal clear and instantly understandable as one could possibly wish for for. A triumph of online "service providing" in an otherwise, barren landscape of the same.

The new version is just plain [sic] garbage. Probably to make room for new, quarter page adverts! Heads should roll! Probably some "new broom" temporarily promoted to a situation well above their normal pay grade. By the time they find a properly qualified candidate it will be far too late. The damage has already been done!

I was putting off updating my favourites link to their new offering for as long as possible. Now my first port of call, every single morning, for years on end, has been closed down. To be replaced by the strictly new, whitewashed columns version.  The old webpage was all horizontal graphs and symbols arranged in parallel. So one could read the entire day's weather and for the next two days at a glance.

They don't even have the wherewithal to update the old URL so one isn't left with "website not found!" This is the DMI, for fandens!! Not some teenage bedroom start up in made to measure viruses or to host revenge porn! It's as if the aliens had just landed and closed down normal online services with an EMP. What were they thinking? Not a lot. Can you imagine the BBC website going down after a facelift? Or rather, a facedrop in this case.

I'll just use another online weather service and their commercials [visual spam] need never bother my well-worn Ad-block software ever again. Farvel dmi! 👎 Velkom til, TV2 Vejret! 👍  [The Danish, commercial TV, weather service.] <sniff>

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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