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"It's like Hoth out here" |
By Kat
Staff Writer
July 11, 2010
Star Wars Weather guy Tom Scott might not be able to predict the weather, but he can make it more more fun. Just go to his Star Wars Weather Forecast site, plug in your city name and discover the Star Wars planet equivalent to your current weather. Having a hot, dry day? It's like Tatooine out there. Having a rainy day? That's more like Kamino. Tom Scott describes the process and inspiration behind the site.
| How did you become a Star Wars fan? Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not actually a Star Wars fan. I've not even seen all the movies all the way through! How did you come up with the idea for a Star Wars weather website? In the middle of a snowstorm in February, I was walking through London and overheard someone say, "it's like Hoth out here." The whole idea snapped into my head, fully formed--which is generally the sign of a good idea! |
How did you bring your idea of a Star Wars weather website from concept to completion?
A few hours of coding, which was made a lot easier thanks to the YQL query language. Any web developers who haven't looked at YQL yet should really check it out--it makes a lot of common web projects a lot simpler.
How many different planet climates do you have on the site and how did you come up with them?
Eight. Nine if you count Alderaan, which appears as a blank starfield if the site can't work out the location you're looking for. And Wikipedia's list of Star Wars planets came in extremely handy...
What kind of research did you do before launching the site?
"Has anyone done this yet? No? Okay, let's go!"
When did you launch the site?
Back in February, in the middle of one of the worst winters Britain's had in a long time!
You say the site is approaching two million views. How long has this taken?
Most of that arrived in the first few days, but there's still a steady stream of regular viewers...
Who's your favorite Star Wars character and why?
No idea!
The Star Wars Weather Forecast is one of many gag projects you've done. How did you start doing these projects?
Most of them start as conversations in pubs. I have a tendency to take ideas from drunken conversations a bit too far...
When did you make your first gag project?
That depends what you count! For online stuff, probably about ten years ago; but I always made stuff like this as a kid, even if the only people to show it to were my folks!
Have you thought about making any more Star Wars themed projects?
Well, there was the Coruscant Juggling Club, but that was years ago...
What's next for you?
I haven't the faintest idea. That's what makes it fun!
A big thanks to Tom Scott for taking the time to share his story with SWBookZone.com. For more information, visit Tom Scott's website at tomscott.com.
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