A terminal-based webcam viewer. Video streams are displayed as ASCII (default) or ANSI graphics.
Once we start editing DNA on a large scale, we will need to keep track of what we do, revision histories, comment the new genes and add copyright notices. This is a suggested standard of entering ASCII information into the genome:
We will use 4-base codons to encode 7-bit ASCII. I know it is a bit primitive, but I think it does well enough and we might want to use the extra bit (see below). Each base codes two bits, and the complementary base codes the inverse:
A: 00 G: 01 C: 10 T: 11
Thus each character will be coded as four bases, read in the canonical 5'->3' direction.
The letters 'DNA' will thus become
01000100 01001110 01000001
G A G A G A T C G A A Gor GAGAGATCGAAG.
The problem when reading a DNA string is: which strand should we read? If we read the complementary strand, we will get an inverted string backwards. But since we use 7-bit ascii, we can test to see if every 8th bit is a one or zero, and deduce which side we are on. The reading process thus tries out the eight starting frames, and chooses the one which gives an unbroken stretch of ones or zeros. If the stretch are zeros, the bases are read and converted, if they are ones they are read to the end of the message, inverted and reversed. Note that some errors can become detectable this way, as interruptions of the stretches of similar bits.
To delineate the comments, we need markers. A standard could be the sequence corresponding to "COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT..." repeated a number of times (we don't want to use a long stretch of similar bases, since it would influence the bending of DNA, which might lead to unwanted effects).
A problem is that we might accidentally create active regions in the DNA with these comments; ideally we should choose a coding that minimizes the biological effects of the comment. Methylating the cytosine bases will also inactivate the comment. If it can be marked as an intron it could also be placed inside exons, making sure the comment will follow the gene it belongs to.
Thanks to John D. Gleason for the methylating and intron ideas.
A Python script that converts images into ASCII art.
A collection of text art and photographs with an 8-bit aesthetic.
Takes in a GIF, short video, or a query to the Tenor GIF API and converts it to animated ASCII art. Animation and color support are performed using ANSI escape sequences.
A hacked X server that displays everything as ASCII art.
A library that renders graphics as ASCII art.
Somebody cloned Portal into an open source game done entirely in ASCII. Cute.
A website that takes input in one form and converts it into others for your use and edification.
A website that takes arbitrary images that you upload or from a website and turns them into ASCII art.
A website that lets you draw ASCII diagrams with your mouse.