I saw this cat mask hanging on a house door near Prospect Park awhile back. It reminded me of kitsune masks. Despite thinking the mask is cute, I was a little creeped out when I first saw it from a distance in the dark.
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Pierrepont Family Monument in Green-Wood Cemetery
The Pierrepont Family Memorial designed by Richard Upjohn is one of my favorite hilltop sites to visit in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. It’s surrounding by trees, but you can easily see the undulation of the ground upon which this great city of the dead rests. I took this photo last Saturday when the snow was lightly falling.
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Haiku Master 2.2, a Haiku Generating Hypercard Stack for Macintosh
Continuing my work exploring pre-AI generative technologies, I found a copy of Andrew Stone’s Haiku Master, a HyperCard stack for Macintosh that generates haikus, on the archived version of TextWorx Toolshed page, which links to other text generating and manipulating programs for Macintosh and MS-DOS. Haiku Master requires the user to have a copy of Apple’s HyperCard Player installed on the system. I have HyperCard Player 2.4.1 installed on the emulated System 7.5.5 installation on SheepShaver used for these screenshots.
Haiku Master is a lean HyperCard stack at only 32K on disk and 16,704 bytes actually used. It was created on 16 July 1998.
After double clicking on Haiku Master, the stack automatically launches HyperCard Player and the user is presented with this main window. In the center, a haiku is already generated.
vibrant dream cell
breathes quantum fire
hungry sensuous syllables.Instead of a 5-7-5 syllable line arrangement, it seems to generate haiku that are a total of 17 syllables.
Unlike some of the other text generators that I’ve looked at here, Haiku Master has a singular focus to just create haikus of a certain variety. Other text generators from this era seem to do several different types of text generation, perhaps because once one kind of assembly algorithm is made, it might not be too challenging to alter it for a different kind of text generation, or it might be over time those other programs acquired new features with subsequent new versions.
By clicking on the Haiku button in the bottom center, another haiku is generated.
Clicking on Library prompts the user to open a file, perhaps a corpus of words? The documentation built into the stack doesn’t explain what a library is or how it is used, and there is no additional documentation or files included in the downloaded archive.
Clicking on Edit Words opens this screen titled Haiku Master Vocabulary with lists of word lists broken down into 10 sections: 1) intro. words, 2) adjectives, 3) nouns, 4) verbs, 5) adjectives, 6) nouns, 7) 1 syllable end, 8) 2 syllables end, 9) 3 syllables end, and 10) 4 syllables end.
Clicking on the Help/? question mark icon in the lower left opens this screen of text titled “How the HAIKU MASTER Works.” It explains how it pieces together a haiku of 17 syllables using the words from the 10 categories of word lists as needed. The following two images continue the explanation.
Clicking on “See Saved” on the screen above or from the main haiku composition window leads you to a running list of previously generated and saved haikus shown below.
From this screen, you can click on “Save to Text File” to save the haikus in an editable text file, or you can click on “Haiku” on the bottom of this screen to take you back to the main composition window shown below.
Clicking on “Haiku Master” above the haiku composition area leads you to the about screen shown below.
The about screen provides Andrew Stone’s contact information, including his GEnie username. It noes that this copy was “modified & distributed with ‘If Monks had Macs…’ with Andrew’s permission.” The modifications were made by Brian Thomas in 1989. It notes this is Haiku Master version 2.2.
Brian Thomas is the developer who put together If Monks Had Macs . . .. It was distributed by The Voyager Company, a company that innovated early ebooks for Macintosh called Expanded Books and multimedia CD-ROM titles, which I’ve written about previously here, here, here, here, and here.
This reminds me that during my first year in Brooklyn, Bob Stein, co-founder of Voyager Company, co-founder of The Criterion Collection, and co-director of The Institute for the Future of the Book, reached out to me (I think on Twitter–I hadn’t left the platform yet at that time–as I had shared some things about William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy Expanded Book published by Voyager) and graciously spoke with me at his home in Williamsburg one snowy afternoon about Voyager Company, Expanded Books, and personal computer pioneers he was friends with.
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Beware Banging on Sun Drenched Brittle Plastic in a 2013 Toyota Corolla: Replacing Center Console AC Vents
Before driving back to Brooklyn, my 2013 Toyota Corolla’s center console began rattling something fierce! It began as an occasional annoyance, but it quickly became insistent and unavoidable.
The rattle, of course, manifested while I was driving. So, I began holding and pressing around the center console that I had recently disassembled a few days earlier to try to identify the culprit of the noise. I figured out that the sound came from the air vent assembly at the top of the center console. Impatient, I rapped and then banged on it with my fist. One ill-placed strike busted the air vent assembly’s top in a spray of plastic puzzle pieces. The picture above shows them carefully reassembled. Of course, the rattle was amplified by this destruction, so I ripped out the top of the assembly and made the long drive with the top off. When I got to Brooklyn, I ordered a replacement (sans clock assembly as it was significantly cheaper) on eBay. When it arrived, I installed it and restored the interior look of the car.
Above, you can see what the air vent assembly looked like when I drove back to Brooklyn. I completely removed the top so that it wouldn’t make any rattling during the long drive.
To begin the replacement, I pulled the silver plastic covers from the top of the center console. These pull off directly toward you and are held in by plastic clips. Using a thin plastic shim helps you get a hold on these. On the right side, you can open the top glove box to make their removal easier.
This is a close-up of the broken air vent assembly before removing it.
As I pulled the air vent assembly out directly towards me, I unplugged the cable from the back of the caution lights switch, because this would need to be re-installed in the new air vent assembly.
The caution switch is held in by two plastic clips–one on the top and one on the bottom. If these hold tight, you can use a plastic shim to depress the clip from the back and free the top and then bottom of the switch so that it pulls out easily.
Since I had a clock in the old air vent assembly, there was a corresponding plug on the same run as the caution lights switch cable. I used a twist tie to secure it. I pushed this cable between the two air vents so that there would be minimal possible movement by them once I put everything back together.
This is the replacement air vent assembly that I purchased on eBay for $21. Unlike my old console kit, it doesn’t have a place for a clock, which is fine for me. This saved about $20. Also, it doesn’t include the caution lights switch, which is also okay as I will be reusing my old one.
The first step for reassembly is installing the caution lights switch in the air vent console assembly. I ran the cable through the hole of the air vent where the caution switch goes, plugged the cable into the old switch, and pushed the switch into the hole. Unfortunately, the hole for the switch was slightly too large and the switch’s plastic prongs wouldn’t catch and hold it properly. I solved this problem by cutting small pieces of masking tape and putting two layers on top of each prong–top and bottom. Then, I pushed the switch in and it held securely in place.
The penultimate reassembly step was to line up the air vent assembly with the air ducts and clip receptacles. Perhaps because this was a new replacement, it was very tight to push back in. I took my time and checked and double checked the alignment as I worked it into place.
Eventually, it clicked on both sides and was flush with the radio below and dashboard above.
Finally, I pushed the center console’s side covers in place and double checked the caution light switch to make sure it was working.
I think it looks better than new now–at least that one part!
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Robo Riter 3.1, an Automatic Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, and Limerick Text Generator for Macintosh
Continuing my exploration of pre-AI text and image generating software, I would like to share some screenshots and information about Robo Riter 3.1, a text-generating program for Macintosh that specializes in haiku, French lai, ballade, and limericks, created by Douglas L. Lieberman, a writer and producer in television, film, and computer multimedia projects.
Robo Riter has the tag line, “Composes poetry at the click of a button!” And, on his archived website’s contact page, he offers it for download if “you can’t afford to hire a writer.”
Lieberman wrote the follow abstract when he submitted his program to the pre-1999 info-mac archive (there was a massive purge of software on info-mac that removed Robo Riter and other software from later versions of the info-mac archive after 1999):
#### BINHEX robo-riter.hqx ****
From: rocketriter@earthlink.net
Subject: Robo Riter
From: (Douglas L. Lieberman) rocketriter@earthlink.net
Subject: Robo Riter
Robo Riter -- the automatic poetry machine! Composes poems at the click
of a button, no two ever alike. Robo Riter can create profound and
deeply moving Haiku, French Lai, Ballades and even Limericks. Amaze your
friends! Mystify your neighbors! Be the first on your block to own Robo
Riter, for Poetry On Demand!
Created with SuperCard 3.0
System requirements:
* System 7.6 and above
* Power Macintosh or 680X0 with at least 16 MB of RAM
* 2 MB of hard drive space
--
Douglas L. Lieberman
Rocket Riter, Inc.
Screenwriting for Interactive Media, Stage & Screen
Visit my website at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rocketriter/I am indebted to adespoton on MacintoshGarden.org for finding a copy of Robo Riter stored in a 1998 archive of info-mac that was once hosted by Apple Computer. You can browse the directory of programs that includes Robo Riter here.
Before launching Robo Riter, the Get Info window shows that it was created on 3 Mar. 1997. It is a “fat” application, meaning that it can be run on 68k and PPC Macs. It’s suggested memory size is 5,107 K, and its minimum and preferred memory sizes are populated with that value. As I’m running this in SheepShaver, I can’t turn on virtual memory to realize that 1,011 K memory savings mentioned in the Note at the bottom of the window.
When Robo Riter is first launched, the window above serves as the main interface for the program. It has tabs across the top of the window for Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, Limerick, and HELP. Below the tabs is the monogram, “From the Desk of Robo Riter” followed by a blank space. At the bottom of the window are two buttons: Compose Poem and Save Poem as Text File. Unlike some of the other text generating programs, there are no options and there are no editable corpus or word lists external to the program itself.
Before looking at Robo Riter’s compositions, let’s check out the two menus. The Apple menu yields “About Robo Riter.”
The About Robo Riter window indicates that it was built using SuperCard, an application development environment that is like HyperCard on steroids. At the time, Allegiant Technologies had acquired SuperCard.
Robo Riter’s File menu only has the option to Quit the program.
Returning to the main window and the Haiku tab, clicking on the Compose Poem button results in a haiku written by the program after the program shows a series of three messages or thoughts with corresponding musical notes. For example, it displayed “Letting my mind go whoosh!,” “Counting syllables on my chins,” and “Meditating with profound fervor” before showing the resulting “ONE LONELY HERO” haiku, which appears a word-at-a-time like watching an LLM reply in a chat.
After clicking on the French Lai tab, I clicked on Compose Poem. It’s pre-generation text was: “Researching a rather violent subject,” “Illuminating its dynamic aspects,” and “Developing theosophical influences.” Then, the “SHINING SUN” French Lai played across the screen.
Next, I clicked on the Ballade tab and selected Compose Poem. It’s pre-generation text was: “Developing a down to earth topic,” “Overlaying sea-faring themes,” and “Selecting perfectly matched rhymes, and rhythms.” Then, “THIS SWIFT FRAIL NUN” appeared in the composition area in the window.
The Limerick tab proved a little irreverent compared to the other composition tabs, which is fitting, I suppose, given the genre. After pressing Compose Poem,” “Selecting a theme and a punch line” appeared with a corresponding musical tone. Then, “Assembling ill-considered rhymes” appeared with a fart sound, and finally, “Convulsing at my own jokes” with a recorded “whoops” sound before showing “THE MODEL FROM PLINKETT” limerick.
The HELP tab has sub sections accessible via selecting the radio button next to Haiku, French Lai, Ballade, or Limerick.
Each of these help sections provide an explanation of that genre of poem’s construction, context, and purpose.
Robo Riter is more a black box than some of the other text generating applications that I’ve written about before. But, it’s compositions through several iterations seem quite good and interesting. Lieberman seems to have done good work behind the scenes to make his program produce what I read on the few trials that I did.
