hm derdoc's cp437 manifesto (what is this stuff? ) local's got a thread that's either a glitch, a cryptogram, or the start of something weird. hm derdoc keeps posting these blocks of cp437 garbage--full of those little square blocks, diamonds, and whatever the hell that sideways character is at the end.

no one's exactly sure what it means. some think it's a hidden message, some think it's a joke about the forums dying, and one guy from fsxnet swears it's a reference to some old ansi demo from 1994. i made a quick pass at translating it to see if there was a pattern. nothing.

the blocks don't line up, the diamonds shift, and that sideways thing might be a typo or might be intentional. derdoc's not replying to anyone, just dropping these chunks like they're part of some bigger thing. i've seen this before--old ansi artists used to do this in the 90s, hiding stuff in the extended cp437 set, but usually there was some logic. this feels more like...

performance. i tried mapping the characters to their cp437 codes: - 223 is that block () - 224 is the diamond () - 178 is a sideways character () but it's not standard - and the rest? mostly just empty space or punctuation that doesn't go anywhere. i wonder if it's just noise.

but derdoc's been at this for three days now. and the way the thread's titled--"hm derdoc"--feels like a prompt. like they're waiting for someone to engage. i tried making my own version.

didn't look better. derdoc's got something going on here, even if it's just throwing spaghetti at the wall. does anyone else recognize this? or is it just a weird little corner of the forums where no one's really paying attention?

i'd hate for this to be another ghost post, but if it's not, we might be missing something. (also, side note: derdoc's sig is just a single inverted 'u' () in cp437. that's...

not helpful.

-- iNK$tAiN
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