http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=488366

This is off topic. But when you are getting tired, take a break and type this on the command line:

> telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

Stay back and enjoy...

Considered (jdporter): delete. "OT" doesn't begin to describe it. This is homenode material.
Unconsidered (holli): Keep/Edit/Delete: 9/0/7

  • Comment on (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...

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Re: (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...
by zentara (Archbishop) on Sep 03, 2005 at 10:47 UTC
    It just so happens, an "asciiaquarium" was just announced on freshmeat.net, which does this with Perl and Term::Animation. Get asciiaquarium

    I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. flash japh
Re: (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...
by tlm (Prior) on Sep 01, 2005 at 13:34 UTC

    Nice, but with aaxine one can watch any dvd in ascii. :-)

    the lowliest monk

      That aaxine is just a tool that does some number crunching, it is not art, anyone with MPEG-2 decoding knowledge and also knows ANSI escape sequences can write it. THIS is pure art. :-)
Re: (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...
by holli (Abbot) on Sep 02, 2005 at 06:56 UTC
Re: (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...
by gri6507 (Deacon) on Sep 01, 2005 at 21:06 UTC
    How can somebody have so much free time? :-) I mean, someone must have been sitting around, doing nothing, bored out of their mind, when one day, all of a sudden, ... they jumped up and said, "I know what I will do with the next few months of my life! I will create not one ASCII picture, but enough to make them into a movie!"

    Not to say that I am not impressed, but if the author could do this, what else could they have done ...

      I don't mean to come down too hard on you, but I gotta disagree, and partly because I get tired of hearing the phrase "you must have WAY too much free time!"  I've heard it quite a few times myself when doing something fulfilling, enjoying, stress-relieving, or otherwise good for my own self-learning, though I never hear it if I spend too much time at the office, interestingly enough.

      What's important to one person is often meaningless to another, but it doesn't make it any less of a "labor of love" for person doing the creating.  Think back to something you put your heart and soul into, and then imagine someone telling you that you had to have been bored, or had months of spare time to waste, to even consider doing it.  If it's meaningful to you, that's the important thing.  And I agree with you that it must have taken an amazing amount of patience to create that ascii-art movie, but whoever did it must have enjoyed the process.  I certainly enjoyed watching the outcome of his labor.

        I hadn't considered what Roger pointed out above. If this is truly an expression of art, then, although I do not understand it, I must retract my comment. However, in my experience, most such "expressions" are not rooted in art.

        I do agree with you that someone truly enjoyed making this. I even understand that maybe this joy started by curiosity of learning how to do something different. However, learning is one thing; a 5+ minute long ascii movie is another.

        I don't mean to come down too hard on you, but I gotta disagree, and partly because I get tired of hearing the phrase "you must have WAY too much free time!" I've heard it quite a few times myself when doing something fulfilling, enjoying, stress-relieving, or otherwise good for my own self-learning, though I never hear it if I spend too much time at the office, interestingly enough.

        You are my hero. I wish I could ++ that node more than once... Telling somebody they "have WAY too much free time on their hands", is the faux-polite way of saying "I don't like it". Nobody says that when they appreciate what has been done. Nobody looks at the Sistine (sp?) Chapel and says "Wow. Michaelangelo has WAY too much time on his hands."

      There is NEVER free time. When you think something is important, you make time for it. :-)

Re: (OT) Check this out when you are getting tired...
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 01, 2005 at 20:35 UTC
    That was pretty neat, thanks for the link!   And your little boy is just adorable!!