ascii

ASCII-fied Google Street View Is A Beautiful Way To Get Lost

Digital maps of the world have gotten so comprehensive, complex, and accessible that it’s easy to take marvels like Google Street View for granted. Leave it to these gorgeous, real-time ASCII renderings of Street View to remind you that holy crap it’s incredible.


No Technology Can Improve On An ASCII Photobooth

If you thought the novelty photobooth idea was just a recent trend, think again. Back in 1976 — the year before Atari released its ground-breaking 2600 console — the company was hawking these fantastic Compugraph Foto booths that created retroriffic ASCII portraits of people.


Play Nyancat On Your Terminal Because You Can

My nerd dream came true: 1) Open your Terminal in Mac OS X or Windows or Linux or whatever the hell you are running your toaster on. 2) Type telnet miku.acm.uiuc.edu. 3. Enjoy an endless nyancat loop in glorious ASCII.


Trololo As ASCII Art Is A Thing Of Perverse Beauty

Dear internet, please give up on April Fools’ jokes. YouTube’s is untoppable: A “text-only mode” that renders videos as coloured ASCII art. Clever, gorgeous, perverse.


Watch Any Vimeo Video In Freaky ASCII-O-Vision

I have no idea how this works, but I do know that it’s one of the strangest, coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Search for any Vimeo video on ASCIImeo, and it’ll play back to you as text.


Man Blowing A Bubble: An ASCII Really-Short Film

Before the internet, there were typewriters. And before typewriters, there were movies. And before movies, there was chewing gum. And before chewing gum, there were only paleolithic caveman. Is this dude a Neanderthal chewing gum in a typewriter movie? Maaaybe.


I <3 You

You want ASCII paintings? We got ASCII paintings! You want ASCII furniture? We got ASCII furniture! You want ASCII jewellery? Becky Stern’s got it for you: The I <3 You necklace.


ASCII Art, Circa 1934

And so a timeless truth is revealed: If you put enough nerds in front of a set of lettered keys, one of them will produce awkward art, eventually.


Awesome 1980s Computer Pop-Up Book: A Floppy What Now?

Now this is one amazing Goodwill find: A vintage pop-up book designed to teach burgeoning nerds about the wonders of the modern computer. Floppy disks, ASCII, and the dot-matrix printer. Oh my.


ASCII Art, Since 1948

Before there were ASCII portraits of Dwight [PDF] , there was this: “Keyboard Art,” from Popular Mechanics, October 1948.


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