19 Aug
2026
19 Aug
'26
12:58 p.m.
https://devin.ai/cli
Not exactly the image I'd expect to see on a webpage advertising shiny new technology.
It even shows that application running on the VT100 (simulated, but the evidence for that
is pretty subtle).
Fun.
paul
21 Aug
21 Aug
11:35 a.m.
On 2026-08-19 15:58, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
https://devin.ai/cli
Not exactly the image I'd expect to see on a webpage advertising shiny new
technology. It even shows that application running on the VT100 (simulated, but the
evidence for that is pretty subtle).
Fun.
Teaching old dogs new tricks :)
6:33 p.m.
I’ve been trying to run these cli based agents on real terminals quite a bit. They make a
real mess with all the glamorous color throbbing and boxes and Unicode. But Devin is the
least messy I’ve found on a real VT241 when you stipulate
“unicode_mode”: “ascii”,
“legacy_terminal: “true”
in ~/.config/devin/config.json
Something of a pleasure to work with on an real terminal, actually.
On Aug 21, 2026, at 14:42, emanuel stiebler via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2026-08-19 15:58, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
https://devin.ai/cli
Not exactly the image I'd expect to see on a webpage advertising shiny new
technology. It even shows that application running on the VT100 (simulated, but the
evidence for that is pretty subtle).
Fun.
Teaching old dogs new tricks :) 
7:06 p.m.
On 2026-08-21 7:33 p.m., Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote:
I’ve been trying to run these cli based agents on real
terminals quite a bit. They make a real mess with all the glamorous color throbbing and
boxes and Unicode. But Devin is the least messy I’ve found on a real VT241 when you
stipulate
“unicode_mode”: “ascii”,
“legacy_terminal: “true”
in ~/.config/devin/config.json
Something of a pleasure to work with on an real terminal, actually.
I HAVE BEEN WANTING ASCII 1963 FOR
YEARS!!!!
.M
.:AMMO:
.:AMMMMMHIIIHMMM.
.... .AMMMMMMMMMMMHHHMHHMMMML:AMF"
.:MMMMMLAMMMMMMMHMMMMMMHHIHHIIIHMMMML.
"WMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMH:::::HMMMMMMHII:.
.AMMMMMMMHHHMMMMMMMMMMHHHHHMMMMMMMMMAMMMHHHHL.
.MMMMMMMMMMHHMMMMMMMMHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMHTWMHHHHHML
.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHHHHHHHHHMHMMHHHHIII:::HMHHHHMM.
.MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHHHHHHMHHHHHHIIIIIIIIHMHHHHHM.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHHMMHHHHHIIIHHH::IIHHII:::::IHHHHHHHL
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMHIIIHMMMMHHIIHHLI::IIHHHHIIIHHHHHHHHML
.MMMMMMMMMMMMMM"WMMMHHHMMMMMMMMMMMLHHHMMMMMMHHHHHHHHHHH
.MMMMMMMMMMMWWMW ""YYHMMMMMMMMMMMMF""HMMMMMMMMMHHHHHHHH.
.MMMMMMMMMM W" V W"WMMMMMHHHHHHHHHH
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"MLI"ML': :HHII::... MMHHL ::::: . :..
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"MMMHITIIHHH:::::IWF" """T99"'
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YMMHII:IHHHH:::IT.. . . ... . . ''THHI::.'.'
.;H.""."H"
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""" MMHI::HY""ML, ... . .. :"
:HIIIIIILTMH"
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"MMHL.. .. "MMMMMML,MM,HMMMF . .IHM"
"MMHHL .. "MMMMMMMMMMMM" . . '.IHF'
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......
On Aug 21, 2026, at 14:42, emanuel stiebler via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 2026-08-19 15:58, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
https://devin.ai/cli
Not exactly the image I'd expect to see on a webpage advertising shiny new
technology. It even shows that application running on the VT100 (simulated, but the
evidence for that is pretty subtle).
Fun.
Teaching old dogs new tricks :) 
7:29 p.m.
Circa 1980 there was a cat poster making the rounds that made
extensive use of overstrike. It looked marvelous when printed
off the IBM 1403 chain printer. The one I had took up about
four sheets of line printer paper. It was de riguer for every
student hovel on campus :-)
--lyndon
3 Sep
3 Sep
7:29 a.m.
I have a collection of old 1403 "carriage control" printer art that came from
Princeton University at one point. I found copies online looking for "Princeton
Pictures Tape". Some of them are HUGE (20-25 printed pages taped together, all with
like 4-5 line overstrike.
I was happy to find them, I had a copy of the PPY "Moon" printer art on my
office wall in the 80s and thought I'd never see them again.
Joe
On Aug 21, 2026, at 10:29 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg
(VE7TFX/VE6BBM) via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Circa 1980 there was a cat poster making the rounds that made
extensive use of overstrike. It looked marvelous when printed
off the IBM 1403 chain printer. The one I had took up about
four sheets of line printer paper. It was de riguer for every
student hovel on campus :-)
--lyndon
8:34 a.m.
On a visit to CHM my picture was taken. It was then digitized and printed on one of the
1403 printers. I think it was a rare event.
12:16 p.m.
On Thu, Sep 3, 2026 at 9:35 AM Joe George via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I have a collection of old 1403 "carriage control" printer art that came from
Princeton University at one point.
I found copies online looking for "Princeton Pictures Tape". Some of them are
HUGE (20-25 printed pages
taped together, all with like 4-5 line overstrike.
You can find all the Princeton Picture Tape files, in both ASCII and
EBCDIC, along with the whole story, by starting at:
https://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/ASCII/
I had the PSA jet flying over the Golden Gate Bridge covering one wall
of my office in the 1980s. This is the largest ASCII art piece that
I'm aware of. IIRC it's 96 pages of full-sized lineprinter (greenbar
sized) paper arranged in 8 columns of 12 pages with something like up
to 7 overstrikes per line.
I have attached my somewhat hacked together digital rendering of this
image, created by running it through Virtual1403 and then manually
assembling the resulting PDF page strips. Inter-strip gaps aren't
perfect, but it was tough to get right with an actual printout too
lol.
7
days inactive
22
days old
7 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
ben -
Donald Whittemore -
emanuel stiebler -
Gavin Scott -
Jacob Ritorto -
Joe George -
Lyndon Nerenberg (VE7TFX/VE6BBM) -
Paul Koning