
The Panic Sign - _pius
https://panic.com/blog/the-panic-sign/
======
connoredel
I've heard that the Durst family made an app for changing the lights on One
World Trade Center. They guard its distribution pretty tightly, though.

I have a fantasy about going on a date at some rooftop bar that has a view of
the spire, asking her what her favorite color is, directing her attention to
the spire, and making it happen. I suppose I'd settle for changing the sign on
a Portland office building, though ;)

~~~
dh0913
I think this is what you're referring to: [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-
york/new-yorkers-control-skys...](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-
yorkers-control-skyscrapers-lights-mobile-app-article-1.1911297)

I was in NYC a few weeks ago and a friend had the app and was able to change
it. It was really cool. We could see it pretty clearly from his place in Long
Island City.

I don't know how exactly he got an invite, but it wasn't too special. We also
talked about how it would make for a great date idea.

~~~
bsirkia
Can you ask your friend to send me an invite? Price is negotiable :-)

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tdeck
One of the towers at the Adobe headquarters has a sort of semaphore on top
that displays coded messages, and spins whenever a plane flies over the
building:

[https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/philanthropy/sjsemaphore/](https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/philanthropy/sjsemaphore/)

~~~
MrKristopher
Also in downtown San jose, you can change the colors of the lights on The88
building:

[http://www.siliconvalleylofts.com/blog/living-in-
downtown/cr...](http://www.siliconvalleylofts.com/blog/living-in-
downtown/create-your-own-holiday-light-scene-at-the-88/334/)

------
mjbellantoni
The "Old John Hancock" building in Boston has a similar weather beacon and an
accompanying rhyme:

    
    
      Steady blue, clear view.
      Flashing blue, clouds due.
      Steady red, rain ahead.
      Flashing red, snow instead.
    

In summer, flashing red means the Red Sox game has been cancelled.

~~~
munificent
That rhyme conveys virtually no information. It could just as well be:

    
    
      Steady blue, rains due.
      Flashing blue, clear view.
      Steady red, snow ahead.
      Flashing red, clouds instead.

~~~
SamBam
True, but that's the case for many a rhyming mnemonic:

I never remember, is it _In fourteen hundred and sixty-two, Columbus sailed
the ocean blue?_

But of course I _remember remember the ninth of November._

Sometimes, though, I'm not sure if I'm correct with _I before E except before
C._

But I can definitely remember the order to get drunk in using _Beer before
wine, all is fine; wine before beer: oh dear._

~~~
X-Istence
Remember remember

the fifth of November

the gun powder treason and plot.

I know of no reason

the gunpowder treason

should ever be forgot!

------
zxter
Slightly off-topic: About the weather sign at the beginning; there is a tower
in Istanbul that was initially build in 1749 to watch for fire and report with
baskets (daytime) and lights (night).

Now it is is still in use today as a watch-tower as well as for signaling
weather forecast and maritime navigation information to the ships on the
Golden Horn at night.

source:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyazıt_Tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyazıt_Tower)

------
nodesocket
Really cool idea and hack. Unrelated, I wonder what Panic is going to do to
keep up in terms software products. Coda was awesome, but then Sublime Text
came along.. And then Atom came along.

Panic makes some of the most beautifully designed OS X software, so I hope
they release something new and relevant soon.

Just spit-balling, but they should make a native OS X application to provision
and manage infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, DigitalOcean).

~~~
danpalmer
I've thought similar things - Coda hasn't kept up with my progression as a
developer - but after speaking to our designer at work I'm not convinced they
have a problem. Coda is not for people who do full-time software engineering -
it's much more targeted at designers, people who are iterating rapidly,
possibly for clients, and for whom FTP is a perfectly reasonable deployment
mechanism.

Unison is niche, but the only good piece of software in its category as far as
I'm aware.

And Transmit is one of the best pieces of software I've used. I unfortunately
have no use for it, but many people do.

Finally, I'm pretty sure that Firewatch did ok, so I'm sure that's some
funding for them too.

I think Panic are in for the long haul. They're never going to be 'huge', but
I think they're going to be financially successful for years to come.

~~~
windsurfer
One has to suppose that the primary reason they won't ever be 'huge' is their
Apple devotion and reliance.

------
draw_down
It's been like this for at least a year, actually I can't remember when they
first did this. Could have sworn they already wrote this up sometime before...

~~~
josephpmay
Yes! I know 100% that I have read this exact blog post before, like over a
year ago. I'm glad I'm not going crazy.

------
kh_hk
Now, it's just a matter of automating it:

    
    
        curl https://signserver.panic.com:54444/set/0/0/0/0/0/0
        sleep 1
        curl https://signserver.panic.com:54444/set/255/255/255/255/255/255
        sleep 1
    

If I was there to check IRL, I would probably like the sign to spell SOS using
morse.

It's probably a good idea to add a queue and a minimum time for an specific
configuration to run, although, that probably defeats the purpose.

~~~
LeoPanthera
On a recent Periscope, Cabel explained that the sign can only be changed every
10-15 seconds, and simply ignores requests silently during the timeout.

(Apparently the permit for the sign doesn't allow "rapid flashing".)

~~~
jessaustin
It's probably visible from a highway. Distracting signs are distracting.

------
odonnellryan
This is awesome! My father makes signs, he'd love to read this article.

I grew up helping him install signs. It's a pretty neat thing to be involved
in.

This is also great advertising for Panic ;)

------
zorpner
They mention they Standard Plaza weather beacon at the beginning of the story
-- we actually have one here in SF! The lights at the top of the south tower
at One Rincon Hill turn red for warmer, blue for colder, green for rain, and
amber for no change expected. Something fun to look for as you come west
across the Bay Bridge.

------
bsimpson
I wonder how many people who are nowhere near SW Portland right now are
fucking with their sign.

------
fomojola
Quite nice: would be nice to have a camera focused on the sign so you could
change it and see it update even if you're not on the corner.

~~~
wlesieutre
He mentions in a comment that they considered a webcam and decided not to:

 _@lachlan We thought about a webcam for a minute or two, but realized it
would be pretty logistically tricky (there’s not an obvious place to mount
it).

Even more than that, though, we think it’s kind of appropriate that you have
to visit Portland to experience the magic.

So, come visit us! _

~~~
TeMPOraL
It also probably cuts down on the change requests from most of the people who
can't see the building themselves, which - if you publish something on-line
and blog about it - would probably mean 99.9% of the requests.

------
kbd
Posted the other day:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11680369](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11680369)

No traction then, weird. Didn't know HN would accept dups within days.

~~~
metasean
It's not only been allowed for a few months, dang has mentioned that there's
also some semi-automated reposting. There is also a 'past' link under titles
now, that will show you links that the system thinks are reposts (e.g. there
have been at least 4 submissions for this actual page, but the system also
thinks an article, "CEOs are often the last to know" is the same? -
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=The%20Panic%20Sign&sort=byDate...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=The%20Panic%20Sign&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0))

~~~
detaro
The past link only is a link to a search for the title. It isn't dupe
detection (HNs automatic dupe detection AFAIK only triggers on exact URL
matches)

