Fun on the Internet

Every once in a while, I like to write about new sites (or, at least, new to me) that are designed for fun.

First, let's take a look at some ASCII art. ASCII stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." In the 1960's and 1970's, before the days of dot-matrix printers and other printers capable of graphics, when the only things we could print were alphabet characters, numbers, and some punctuation codes, one of the great pastimes of computer geeks was to create art using those printed characters.

I remember 132 column printouts, about 15 inches wide, where that width was the width of the image — and the image might be 4 or 5 feet tall!

So, the first site I want to offer for your enjoyment is Joan Stark's ASCII Art web site. The art is all Joan's original work, unless otherwise noted, and it's amazing.

Even if you're not old enough to remember ASCII art, you'll be amazed at this similar use. It's a Star Wars fan site, but it's not your usual Star Wars fan site.

How about an ASCII-animated version of Star Wars?

You can use the Telnet client program built into Windows XP. If you use Windows Vista, it's not installed by default, but it's easy to install. From Microsoft's Vista Telnet FAQ:

By default, Telnet is not installed with Windows, but you can install it by following the steps below.

To install Telnet Client

1. Click the Start button Picture of the Start button, click Control Panel, click Programs, and then click Turn Windows features on or off. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2. In the Windows Features dialog box, select the Telnet Client check box.
3. Click OK. The installation might take several minutes.

Start the Telnet program:

• Windows XP: Start > Run > type CMD and press the Enter key
• Windows Vista: Click Start, type Telnet and click OK.

Then, visit the Star Wars asciimation by typing:
telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl

Copyright © 2009 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.