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Project Blinkenlights

32 points4 hoursblinkenlights.de
jolt423 hours ago

Is this still well recognized?

ACHTUNG! ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS! DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN. IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS. ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.

bradrn3 hours ago

Yes! I know it! (And I’m not old at all.) I saw it at, as I recall, a model train exhibition when I was very young, and I found it so hilarious I’ve never forgotten it. In fact I was quite surprised when I eventually learned it was a well-known thing, considerably older than I am.

jdsnape3 hours ago

I have a letterpress print of this from the Cambridge (UK) museum of technology when I was a kid (so about 30 years ago I guess!). I love the juxtaposition between letterpress and the idea of relaxen und watschen der blinkenlichten

pjot3 hours ago

Thought this was the ascii Star Wars in your terminal à la

  telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
positive_sec3 hours ago

So nice to see this here! We were inspired by Project Blinkenlights to conceive BlinkenCity, a city-wide installation of the same idea (abusing the radio-controllable individually-addressable street lamps in many German cities): https://positive.security/blog/blinkencity-38c3

sunir2 hours ago

When I was younger, I was in Berlin and wandered unannounced into the Chaos Computer Club and I met Tim there. What a legend.

The whole club is legendary. We need more of their spirit of the art of the possible and irreverent. Life is for the living, and computers are for the hackers.

Animats3 hours ago

Downtown Shenzhen is rigged for that.

For a while, the SF Bay Bridge was. I once went to an Autodesk event in SF where the guy behind it was controlling the lights from his laptop.

kukanani2 hours ago

You’re probably thinking of the Bay Bridge Lights or Bay Lights. They first ran from 2013-2023. They were so popular, that starting this year, the lights are back on, every night.

https://illuminate.org/projects/thebaylights/

zahlman4 hours ago

> Stereoscope — Toronto 2008, City Hall: two towers, one matrix (96×32 pixels, 16 greyscales).

Oh man, I think I remember that.

unprovable3 hours ago

It's been so long since I last saw this. Stalwart of the internet.

karim793 hours ago

I think it got the HN kiss of death. We need a new page about how to avoid this. Basic scaling skills I tells ya.

esseph3 hours ago

It's a lot of the same people that refuse free CDNs.

nullc2 hours ago

Ever wonder why those CDNs are "free"?