https://jpmens.net/2021/04/09/the-unix-magic-poster/

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Jan-Piet Mens

The Unix Magic poster

I understand the classic UNIX Magic poster by Gary Overacre was
distributed at past USENIX conferences, and I've known of it for
years but now in confinement, I've decided I want one to hang in my
office.

Unix Magic

The poster features a white bearded wizard with UNIX related objects
around him, for example a spool of thread, a boot, a fork, pipes, and
a bunch of containers labeled troff, awk, diff, uucp, make, null, and
there's even a C container and cracked B container. And some oregano:

    The oregano is reputedly referring to an incident in which one of
    the original folks involved with BSD was hassled for coming
    across the Canadian/U.S. border with a bag of what was assumed to
    be an illegal substance, and turned out to be oregano.

How to get a poster which was drawn in 1986? There are lots of bad
photos of the poster floating around, but certainly nothing good
enough to turn into a poster of any size.

Via Twitter, Jaume points to a 32MB PNG (3675 x 5475) which I
download and convert to TIFF. I then ask around a bit and find a shop
willing to print that onto a material which looks exactly like what I
want.

image detail

The material is called Aluminium Dibond which, and I quote, makes for
a "matte, reflection-free print using a state-of-the-art, 7-color
printing method. White and brighter parts of the image have a subtle
sheen. With the aluminium Dibond backing, this print combines high
picture quality and perfect durability". Quite a mouthful, but the
result, which I got in two days, is astonishing.

the side

I was a bit skeptical and shy of spending EUR 80 on the picture, but
I can say without reservation, that I'm very happy with what
Whitewall has made for me, and thanks to Jaume for the file!

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unix :: 09 Apr 2021 :: e-mail