The IBM 1401 mainframe runs "Edith"
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a fun, well-known example of line-printer art on early IBM hardware, and to the channel for vintage computing history.
What it is
CuriousMarc runs the program 'Edith' on a 1959 IBM 1401 mainframe at the Computer History Museum. The program prints a famous line-printer image on the vintage machine. The video is part retro-computing demo and part joke.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Recommends simcop2387 · 2020-04 · on “Ask HN: What are some great posts or articles about history of computing?”
While much more on the technical side of things, both Ken Shirriff and Curious Marc are great resources for a lot of the historical and technical aspects of things. I'd highly recommend both of them for looking at specific topics of how the computing hardware worked: - Marc's videos on old HP computers, [LINK] - Marc's videos on restoring some old IBM hardware, that includes a good bit of the history that went into them, [LINK] and [this video] - In fact just look at his playlists directly, [LINK] For Ken, I'd look at his chip teardowns and explorations, the AM2901 is on HN this very moment, [LINK] A lot of his articles dig into why the different chip technologies were made and fell out of favor
Recommends eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 · 2021-01 · on “IBM paperweight teardown: Reverse-engineering 1970s memory chips”
Here's a fun IBM line printing video I've discovered thanks to your mention of those: The IBM 1401 mainframe runs "Edith" [this video]
Cites kens · 2022-01 · on “Nude pictures on early retro PCs – was it possible?”
Before this, there was line printer art; see "The IBM 1401 mainframe runs 'Edith'": [this video]
Cites GeorgeTirebiter · 2023-10 · on “ASCII FacePalm”
I think using characters to make pictures started with teletype machines - maybe even on typewriters! It was common with ham operators in the 60s (RTTY & Teletype machines) and it surely must have been popular before that. On the IBM 1401 (1959) "Edith" is legendary: [this video]