drio/unixmagic

Marker List

Closed this issue · 10 comments

abetusk commented

List of remaining marker annotations:

  • socket
  • spawn
  • Jfo nroff (jso - Joseph F. Ossana)
  • root
  • dates
  • whoami
  • boot (booting?)
  • make (partially obscured, assuming it's make)
  • pwd
  • mbox
  • login
  • traps
  • spells (spell?)
  • curses
  • diff
  • reap (as in process reaping)
  • threads (added in 16-usr)
  • symbols on cloak
  • liquid in shell is overflowing
  • tee in pipes? (Wikipedia)
  • tree like shape of the liquid the wizard is playing with
  • the shell is outputting to null via the stdout/stderr
  • hook (hooking?)
  • ring (near diff) (protection ring)
  • string/thread (near diff) (thread)
  • what's with the icons in the hat? Are those shells?

I thought it would be better as a single issue rather than try to spread it out over many smaller ones.

drio commented

threads

Yes. It is interesting though that the thread references /usr. Not sure what is going on there.

boot

It is not a boot, it is a socket and references network sockets.
I'll take care of this one.

reap

Not sure about this one.

cloak

These are symbols that you constantly use in the shell. Very clever.
I'll take care of this one too.

Hook

That is an interesting one. I don't know the significance.
People seem to be puzzled with this one too.

There are still quite a few more.

Such a wonderful piece of art.

drio commented

For the cloak, it'll be nice to reference each symbol individually.

drio commented

Another one, why is make a bit obscured?
Why does the oregano container have a lid on it?
Why is tar in mortar (mortar?)
What about the thread in the diff?
Why are some references in pouches?
Why the login reference is in the axe handle?

drio commented

This is a crazy one:
The UNIX MAGIC is in a banner.

drio commented

I want to also expand on the shell "faucet" with the daemon shape.
That is such a wonderful metaphor of processes dumping data to the standard outputs and how you can redirect that to files, the special null in this case.

drio commented

There is of course the tree like shape of the liquids the wizard is playing with.
What is that referencing exactly? Version control? Was it a thing at that time?

drio commented

Another crazy one about the shell. The liquid is overflowing.

abetusk commented

threads

Yes. It is interesting though that the thread references /usr. Not sure what is going on there.

I was actually referencing the (what looks to me like) a thread going through a metal ring on the left hand side, just underneath the boot. From that HN you linked, it might be a string. Considering the positioning next to diff, this might make more sense. I don't know if it's a stretch but there is a concept of user protection rings. There's also the concept of a ring buffer.

In terms of /usr, looking at spool more closely I found this reference, though I'm not sure how relevant it is. The threads here could also be referencing user threads.

reap

Not sure about this one.

To me, it definitely feels intentional that the man has a scythe.

Another one, why is make a bit obscured?

I just assumed it was a spacing issue and nothing really intentional.

Why does the oregano container have a lid on it?

Other containers have lids, I'm not sure that's anything significant.

Why is tar in mortar (mortar?)

I didn't make the connection, nice observation. My first guess is that it's a pun on just the tar portion but maybe it has something to do with more command?

Why are some references in pouches?

Not sure about this one, I don't know how significant this detail is.

Why the login reference is in the axe handle?

In the right middle? It's not an axe but a log for the fire, so this is probably another pun (login).

I want to also expand on the shell "faucet" with the daemon shape.

Yeah, nice observation.

There is of course the tree like shape of the liquids the wizard is playing with. What is that referencing exactly? Version control? Was it a thing at that time?

I was wondering about this too. My first thought was Git, but that, of course, wasn't created until 2005, a couple decades after this picture was created. It looks like CVS was developed in 1986 and RCS was developed in 1982, which might put them near when this poster was created. I'm not sure those railroad/branching diagrams were common at the time.

This might be just artistic license to describe dataflow/branching. It is crazy how closely that image matches modern Git branch diagrams.

abetusk commented

Some other ideas:

From BossHamster:

Not just any pipe, it's a "broken pipe".

From clort:

a tap and daemon
some pipes have tee's

From sprior:

There are tees in the pipes and I think the trap and valve was significant.
... That's not just a spool, but a /usr/spool.

abetusk commented

login is a bit ambiguous as there's a difference between "logging in" and the system process login.