over_clox

@ over_clox @lemmy.world

Posts

138
Comments

3252
Joined

3 yr. ago

I am not a robot. I promise.

2d ago

(edit: no) Is it a good idea to use an Android phone as an external SSD for backing up my home folder?
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over_clox @lemmy.world 2d ago
Just randomly looking through my recent comments..
Yeah, I did just pull those words out of my ass, so it probably is something of a new twist on an old quote that originally said 'basket'
If you really do use your spare phone as a data backup, well keep it safe and don't carry it around with you, that's how the eggshells end up getting broken...

2d ago

What's that discolouration on the silver spoon?

I'd use a pencil eraser to polish off surface level tarnish, no need to bust out the grinders here. But otherwise your comment is on point.

2d ago

What's that discolouration on the silver spoon?

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over_clox @lemmy.world 2d ago

Regarding the magnet contact area, the magnet was blocking most of the ambient air from the silver. Given that the spoon was where most spoons live anyways, the kitchen, consider all the food scents and vapors it has experienced on the fridge, that likely accounts for the sulphur oxidation others have mentioned.

2d ago

What's that discolouration on the silver spoon?

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over_clox @lemmy.world 2d ago

The bottom side wear is probably largely wear from the spoon slightly wobbling every time the fridge door is opened and closed.

4d ago

(edit: no) Is it a good idea to use an Android phone as an external SSD for backing up my home folder?

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

Follow your gut instinct..

Modern phones are fragile eggs anymore, you might as well be putting all your eggs in one eggshell...

4d ago

Happy Valentines'

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

I am not a Hawaiian. But I am partly Native American, and I respect this message..

4d ago

After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name (EDIT: See description and comments regarding 404)

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

That's actually the even more proper way to handle it, thanks for the update 👍

4d ago

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

Meh, DOSBox is plenty suitable enough, and QBasic is easy enough to find...

https://winworldpc.com/product/qbasic/1x

I can't promise that DOSBox emulated results will give the exact color results as original old-school hardware on an old CRT, but results should still be mighty close.

The raw input data files are pretty simple to generate with most graphics software, just downsample down to potato 80x25, then export to raw 888 RGB format.

4d ago

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

Sure, have at it!

Sorry it's not a full complete dump with examples, but it's programmed in QBasic 1.1 and converts raw RGB pixel data into equivalent closest matching color halftone onscreen characters. I designed it in mind with DOS text modes of either 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50 text modes, but I'm sure the technique can work with any text mode that can properly render the old DOS block characters. But, I'm betting that whatever device you're using right now is almost certainly not configured to display the old DOS block characters as they were back in the day.

Good luck!

    
REM TEXTPSET.BAS
REM over_clox - February 26, 2008

DECLARE SUB DisplayRAW (FileName$, W%, H%)
DECLARE SUB TextPSet (X%, Y%, R%, G%, B%)
DECLARE SUB TextPixel (Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%)
DECLARE SUB HTMtoRGB (HTMColor$, Red%, Green%, Blue%)

TYPE PaletteType
    R AS INTEGER
    G AS INTEGER
    B AS INTEGER
END TYPE

REDIM SHARED DOSPalette(15) AS PaletteType
REDIM SHARED FakePalette(15, 7, 1 TO 3) AS PaletteType

RESTORE
FOR I% = 0 TO 15
    READ HTMColor$
    HTMtoRGB HTMColor$, R%, G%, B%
    DOSPalette(I%).R = R%
    DOSPalette(I%).G = G%
    DOSPalette(I%).B = B%
NEXT

FOR C% = 1 TO 3
    C2% = 4 - C%
    FOR B% = 0 TO 7
        FOR F% = 0 TO 15
            R1% = DOSPalette(F%).R: R2% = DOSPalette(B%).R
            G1% = DOSPalette(F%).G: G2% = DOSPalette(B%).G
            B1% = DOSPalette(F%).B: B2% = DOSPalette(B%).B
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).R = (R1% * C% + R2% * C2%) \ 4
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).G = (G1% * C% + G2% * C2%) \ 4
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).B = (B1% * C% + B2% * C2%) \ 4
        NEXT
    NEXT
NEXT

'MS-DOS Text Mode 16 Color Palette
DATA 000000,0000AA,00AA00,00AAAA,AA0000,AA00AA,AA5500,AAAAAA
DATA 555555,5555FF,55FF55,55FFFF,FF5555,FF55FF,FFFF55,FFFFFF

CMD$ = COMMAND$
IF CMD$ <> "" THEN
    DisplayRAW CMD$, 80, 25
ELSE
    DisplayRAW "LOGO.RAW", 80, 25
END IF

'DEF SEG = &HB800: BSAVE "LOGO.BSV", 0, 4000

COLOR 7, 0

DO: Hit$ = UCASE$(INKEY$): LOOP WHILE Hit$ = ""

SUB DisplayRAW (FileName$, W%, H%)

    FileNum% = FREEFILE
    OPEN FileName$ FOR BINARY AS FileNum%
    CLS : WIDTH W%, H%
    ScanLine$ = SPACE$(W% * 3)
    FOR Y% = 0 TO H% - 1
        GET #1, , ScanLine$
        FOR X% = 0 TO W% - 1
            R% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 1, 1))
            G% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 2, 1))
            B% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 3, 1))
            TextPSet X%, Y%, R%, G%, B%
        NEXT
    NEXT
    CLOSE FileNum%

END SUB

SUB HTMtoRGB (HTMColor$, Red%, Green%, Blue%)
    Red% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 1, 2))
    Green% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 3, 2))
    Blue% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 5, 2))
END SUB

SUB TextPixel (Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%)
    ' °±²Û (32,176,177,178,219)
   
    Diff% = 768: BGround% = 0
    FOR F% = 0 TO 15
        RDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).R - Red%)
        GDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).G - Green%)
        BDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).B - Blue%)
        NewDiff% = RDiff% + GDiff% + BDiff%
        IF NewDiff% < Diff% THEN
            Diff% = NewDiff%: Char$ = "Û": FGround% = F%
        END IF
    NEXT

    FOR C% = 1 TO 3
        C2% = 4 - C%
        FOR B% = 0 TO 7
            FOR F% = 0 TO 15
                RDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).R - Red%)
                GDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).G - Green%)
                BDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).B - Blue%)
                NewDiff% = RDiff% + GDiff% + BDiff%
                IF NewDiff% < Diff% THEN
                    Diff% = NewDiff%: Char$ = CHR$(175 + C%)
                    FGround% = F%: BGround% = B%
                END IF
            NEXT
        NEXT
    NEXT

END SUB

SUB TextPSet (X%, Y%, Red%, Green%, Blue%)
    TextPixel Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%
    LOCATE Y% + 1, X% + 1: COLOR FGround%, BGround%: PRINT Char$;
END SUB

4d ago

After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name (EDIT: See description and comments regarding 404)

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

I didn't write the article, neither did OP.

If the article is false, well so be it, but at least the supposedly false article was archived.

Sometimes, even if an article proves to be false, readers in the future might still be curious what all the article said or claimed.

🤷

4d ago

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

Yeah, I don't think that's particularly feasible with my prime directives in coding things meant to render on a potato. If I'm ever gonna revisit that old code again, I want it to continue to be able to run on old-school 286 CPUs, real raw hardware.

Like sure I don't mind writing old QBasic/QuickBasic code under an emulator, but if I'm writing on such an antiquated language for legacy hardware, I wanna be able to transfer it to a floppy disk and run it on actual hardware from the era.

Other than that, going back to the good old days, I don't see much reason to do such coding on modern systems. Though I will say this much, neofetch and the newer fastfetch are pretty awesome character based sysinfo utilities!

I just don't see myself trying to jump through conversion hoops such as ASCII to ANSI for such a project to even keep me awake..

4d ago

After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

404 Error, well done!

Oddly enough, I got an archive link in my clipboard right now. You can thank me later...

https://web.archive.org/web/20260213194851/https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name/

4d ago

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

I'm not exactly sure how I'd incorporate both techniques into the same rendering system though.

My method doesn't use letters, numbers or punctuation characters, mine uses the DOS mode block characters, blank space, 25%, 50%, 75% halftone characters, and the 100% solid block character.

I could probably get a little closer to sharper shape edges with my method if I add in the upper half block and lower half block characters, but when using those characters I'm no longer able to use the halftone dithering and would be limited to 8 background and 16 foreground colors..

I dunno where I'd really even start (over) again to use alphanumeric characters with my text rendering method...

4d ago

After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name (EDIT: See description and comments regarding 404)

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

OP posted a working archive link in the comments..

https://web.archive.org/web/20260213194851/https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name/

4d ago

After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name (EDIT: See description and comments regarding 404)

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over_clox @lemmy.world 4d ago

You should edit your original post to use the archive link, as the main link now leads to a 404 error..

5d ago

ASCII characters are not pixels: a deep dive into ASCII rendering

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over_clox @lemmy.world 5d ago

I made one myself many years ago for DOS, but mine renders in 512 pseudo halftone colors from a base palette of 16 colors. Results look pretty nice for whatever it's worth, but yeah mine doesn't focus on their efforts to get more crisp edges.