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Show HN: EBNF Specification of the BBC Shipping Forecast
- jsmith99 5y agoExcellent. Although the real shipping forecast is full of helpful forecasts like 'Moderate to good, occasionally very poor', which does seem to cover all the possibilities.
- hanoz 5y agoThis has just given me the epiphany that if the BBC is ever put out to grass, which does now seem to be in the offing, then the preservation of the shipping forecast at least, would be only a few weather APIs and some speech synthesis away. Which would be good / occasionally moderate.
- timthorn 5y ago> would be only a few weather APIs and some speech synthesis away Find me a speech synthesizer that can recreate Zeb Soanes and you might have a case.
- frobozz 5y agoThe shipping forecast is produced by the maritime and coastguard agency. The BBC just read it out. As do the coastguards.
- melissalobos 5y agoIs there any source that has all(or at least 1000+) of the historic shipping forecasts? I have an old tool to do probabilistic parsing that I would like to try on this.
- DC-3 5y agoWonderful, thanks for sharing.
- nivertech 5y agoAny tools to generate a railroad diagram from EBNF? Preferably CLI.
- tedunangst 5y agoPressure tops out at 999?
- bmsleight_ 5y agoThis is my got to fall sleep radio. It the most British thing, it is actually (only really used it one) useful if you go sailing. My partner complained last night I was snooring whilst this was too loud on my headphones, but I think of the map, the weather in that place - and off to sleep I got.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kitd 5y agoFrom my random forecast: Faeroes, Wight, and FitzRoy. East hurricane force 12 to violent storm 11. Heavy snow. Poor, becoming good. Severe icing. Sole and Forties. East 2 to hurricane force 12, becoming cyclonic northeast severe gale 9 later. Wintry showers. Very poor, becoming poor. Severe icing. Yikes! Might stay inside.
- gnufx 5y agoNow for a version for "professional idiot" Les Barker's Shipping Forecast variations. As well as video of Les reciting it, you can find a version read by Brian Perkins in his normal delivery. Edit: The Perkins version is video G9QumF93PpY on youtube^Wan invidious instance. Check out more of Barker's stuff while you're at it.
- FearNotDaniel 5y agoThe "strict" definition used here is not strict enough. Presumably it is based on the prose description in the linked Wikipedia page, which omits one crucial fact about the area forecasts: each area is included exactly once, and always in the same order (approximately clockwise starting from 'Viking' in the North East). Culturally speaking, it's an important part of the poetry that groups such as "Forth, Tyne, Dogger, German Bite" always appear in the same order, though the rhythm/groupings can be broken up differently depending on the weather patterns. I'm still not happy that they renamed Finistere to FitzRoy, and that was 20 years ago now.
- satellite2 5y agoHour can only go from 0 to 19. Is this on purpose?
- jamespwilliams 5y agoWhoops! Thanks, I've fixed it.
- jarvist 5y agoYou're also missing 'soon' and 'imminent' (along with 'later' have a very specific and important meaning). And no 'sea states'? Currently there's 'Very rough or high, occasionally very high later in northwest Rockall.' Nice stuff!
- anitil 5y agoWhat a brilliant idea! I had heard that people find listening to the shipping forecast very relaxing, but I didn't realise they had such a strict format
- blipvert 5y agoClip up some samples, Markov chain generator; endless fantasy SF for the insomniac …
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoIn the meantime, here's five hours of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHa5KaMBcM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxHa5KaMBcM
- tz18 5y agoSo that is the sample at the end of Viking North: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CSNCiqbtHLA https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CSNCiqbtHLA
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoThis is the cutest thing I have seen in weeks. For those outside the UK who are unfamiliar, the shipping forecast is the most British thing possible. A concise forecast that reads as pure poetry, and before it, Sailing By: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdas-kMF74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdas-kMF74
- toyg 5y agoBack in the days, there were (conspiracy) theories that it had been used, during the Cold War, to pass commands to British spies in the field.
- bpye 5y agoNot a ridiculous theory. Related are also “numbers stations” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
- giobox 5y agoIt must have been literally half my life I fell asleep to Robin Lustig on The World Tonight followed by Book at Bedtime, Today in Parliament then Sailing By and the Shipping Forecast. A habit I picked up from my mother, this same sequence of programs (I've left out a few, I know) was broadcast every weeknight from 10pm on Radio 4 since seemingly the dawn of the time until I left the UK. I'm actually surprised I can fall asleep without hearing the Shipping Forecast now!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mellosouls 5y agoA concise forecast that reads as pure poetry, and before it, Sailing By Followed by the National Anthem to end the day's broadcast! It's really relaxing drifting off to sleep to the gentle tones of the forecast, but countered somewhat by the need afterwards to stand up in bed as the anthem is played.
- fshee 5y agoHuh, great idea. Might (attempt to) do one of these for metars.
- stuaxo 5y agoFantastic - I wonder if any of the automated voices you could hook it up to could have the same relaxing quality as the real thing ?
- vincent-manis 5y agoA long time ago, two Canadian computer scientists published a paper where they had written a 1-page Lisp program that got a passing grade on the British Columbia written driver's exam. It relied on the fact that in those days, all questions on the exam that started with “Must...” had the answer “yes”, questions starting with “May...” had the answer “no”, any question containing “pedestrian” was answered with “stop, the pedestrian has the right of way”, and a few others. “Immediately notify the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles” was the default answer. As I say, this program passed the exam, and the result was presented at a Canadian AI conference. They've changed the exam since then. By the way, when I did my exam (long before this experiment), the person in front of me failed.