Tweet

Jason Scott

25 Dec, 5 tweets, 3 min read

WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS EVE

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED GIVING THE GIFT OF SKEUOMORPHISM

Well, there's an new service over at Internet Archive that just popped up and the gift never stops giving. It involves an awful lot of human knowledge, a strong dash of serendipity, and BOOKS GALORE

It's called OPEN LIBRARY EXPLORER and it's essentially an experimental approach to bringing some online version of the experience of browsing and moving among classifications. It's fun for the whole family, and at the end of it you get to read!

openlibrary.org/explore

@cdrini

Here's a blog entry about the Explorer: blog.archive.org/2020/12/21/wha…

And creator of this interface, @cdrini has a whole walkthrough of what he was trying to accomplish with the project here:

archive.org/details/openli…

SKEUOMORPHISM IS THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

Oh, and openlibrary.org is exactly where we left it - still working as it always has and giving you access to millions of books. So stop by regardless, happy holidays.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to traipse through 021
[Library relationships (with archives, information centers, etc.)] and curl up by the 8-bit fire

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @textfiles

Jason Scott

@textfiles

25 Dec

https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1342307110277804032

It's up! The Little Phone Phreak Library is a set of scans from this pile of photocopied sheets, with full runs (sometimes photocopied horribly) of TAP, TEL, YIPL and a host of Phone Phreak articles. Historical context and all readable/downloadable at archive.org/details/Phone_…

https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1342307110277804032

Pretty much all the information is completely and utterly invalidated in the contemporary times. But the playful and smart spirit lives on.

I should rush to say this is absolutely not the first time this material's online; there have been scans and we actually have them up online. There's even a CD-ROM available with (also) crappy scans of YIPL and TAP. It's at archive.org/details/TAP_an…

Read 4 tweets

Jason Scott

@textfiles

25 Dec

Next scanning project

Read 5 tweets

Jason Scott

@textfiles

23 Dec

Playing Call of Duty Cold War.

Well, not really playing.

Playing custom mode, The Pines.

Why? It is a 2020 game imitating a 1980s mall. Let's see how they do.

Pretty mall-y!

Read 14 tweets

Jason Scott

@textfiles

23 Dec

Quick story. It's not heartwarming but it's certainly warm.

Friend of mine really liked Dragonriders of Pern, which is the science fiction series where people train and ride dragons. She was also an artist. People would roleplay Pern online, naming themselves, describing and naming dragons, you know, nerd stuff.

My friend (a real person, I assure you) started drawing friends riding on their dragons, and drawing them based on requests. Got pretty good at it. Did commissions. Drawing people on dragons.

Read 9 tweets

Jason Scott

@textfiles

23 Dec

OK, so. Nobody, almost nobody, has time for the wonky tracking of all the laws that screw with their lives and keeping tracks of the up and downs of things like copyright maximalist bombage and the day to day energy of that. So, I'm giving you a very quick "What can I do" list.

So, first, really, sign up for, donate, and become a member of the EFF, Electronic Freedom Foundation. They've been around a long time and they're all up in everything. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who does the high-profile internet bazoola who HASN'T worked with them.

And yes, that includes me, a half dozen times since 2000. 20 years of me working with these folks on stuff you didn't have to hear about because they helped me or organizations I was working with first. They're at EFF.ORG and the year-end challenge is afoot.

Read 11 tweets

Jason Scott

@textfiles

21 Dec

So my pal (anonymous so his family doesn't find out) decided to play Call of Duty Warzone with me and his two sons and our 4-player team got to the last rounds, 3 of us were killed, and the 8 YEAR OLD WON THE GAME FOR US.

I am humbled

It probably helped that the two kids (8 and 11) kept calling me "The Pro", as in "The Pro will protect us".

brb adopting two children 8 and 11

Somewhere, the guy who was #2 in this warzone round will go to bed annoyed he wasn't able to win the game, but by the mercy of an otherwise cold universe he does so unaware he was smoked by Gorgu