Haiku Error Messages

I suppose it takes a certain mind to appreciate Haiku Error Messages. First, a little explanation for the uninitiated of what haiku is: Haiku is a Japanese method of writing poetry. In its modern English form, it usually consists of three lines: the first 5 syllabels in length, the second 7 syllabels, and the final 5 again. It is nearly always free verse, which is to say it does not rhyme. These three lines form the complete poem. (This is a very important point, because if you go to the Haiku Error Messages page linked above, and read it as one long poem, it will make absolutely no sense. Each three lines is a complete, independent poem in itself.)

I learned haiku in elementary school, where it is often introduced as a way for children to get their feet wet in poetry. I may have enountered it later in high school as well. I find haiku fascinating, in part because of the discipline required to create a beautiful (or, in this case, witty) poem within such tight constraints.

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ASCII-O-Matic

Back when I was a kid, I remember seeing ASCII computer art at my dad’s office in the data processing department of the University of Alaska. Back in those days, most printers printed only text (most often using only the Courier font!), and nearly always in black and white only. Imaginative computer users with time on their hands created a method to make pictures with just letters. So hanging all around the department were these large posters printed from dot matrix (or maybe ball-based) printers, using letters, numbers, and punctuation to simulate shades in an image. Up close you saw alphanumeric characters; from a distance you saw a picture.

Well, now you can enjoy the same excitement by visiting the ASCII-O-Matic website! You need a JPEG (.jpg) image, of yourself or anyone or anything, exactly 60 x 50 pixels in size.

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