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Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

opensource.microsoft.com

161–170 of 198 posts

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#161

Hi, I'm Robert Standefer, the guy who made this happen, with lots of support. I'm excited to see the enthusiasm about Comic Chat being open sourced. How this came to happen is a very interesting story that spans a six-year period with success that hinged upon being in the right place at the right time, literally. I want to point out that, while I (along with Scott Hanselman) made the Comic Chat open source release ha…

amazing i'd love to have the hardware to run this

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#163
post #159

Microsoft Comic Chat - the only place where using Comic Sans is appropriate

I'm Comic Sans, asshole!

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole

>Listen up. I know the shit you’ve been saying behind my back. You think I’m stupid. You think I’m immature. You think I’m a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I’m Comic Sans, and I’m the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

One other place: We shipped The Sims 1 using Comic Sans, and it did ok.

The Sims, Pie Menus, Edith Editing, and SimAntics Visual Programming Demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-exdu4ETscs

Dumbold Voting Machine for The Sims 1:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/dumbold-voting-machine-for-the...

The Sims 1 Crowd Sitter:

https://donhopkins.medium.com/the-sims-1-crowd-sitter-1f478b...

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! My only experience with Comic Chat is reading Jerk City comics. Always thought it was a neat concept but never used it

Jerk City lives on, and is now known as Bonequest. Here's today's comic: https://www.bonequest.com/

Man those are absolutely deranged. Awesome.

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#166
post #113

Hi, I'm Robert Standefer, the guy who made this happen, with lots of support. I'm excited to see the enthusiasm about Comic Chat being open sourced. How this came to happen is a very interesting story that spans a six-year period with success that hinged upon being in the right place at the right time, literally. I want to point out that, while I (along with Scott Hanselman) made the Comic Chat open source release ha…

Open sourcing code is always welcome. However it's kind of weird that you choose this very explicit 1996 Embrace, extend, and extinguish piece of software to showcase. In this case it was IRC. In other cases it was Java, the web, etc.

Yeah, that's right, it was all Microsoft's evil plan to extinguish proper serious legitimate grown-up fonts by rolling out Comic Sans.

JFC dude, the US Government is being taken over by narcissistic fascists, currenty embracing, extending, and extinguishing Democracy itself, and you chose this hill to die on.

It doesn’t even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I’m famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob. I’m in your signs. I’m in your browsers. I’m in your instant messengers. I’m not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature, and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book-inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#168
post #19

Comic Chat is a piece of Internet history, but I remember that it was somewhat reviled when I first started being active on IRC. This was around 2002, so it was probably due to some cultural memory rather than anyone having actually used it in years. The issue, as I remember it, is that Comic Chat extended the IRC protocol with support for explicitly indicating the appearance and emoting of your comic character, rath…

How far we’ve sunk! Back then we got irritated by attempts to use open systems, nowadays a system like this would use a closed proprietary system from day one.

How dare they pay an artist like Jim Woodring to draw cartoons for them! All art should be free!

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#169
post #98
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I really wonder how they expected people would react to that.

Comic Chat had its own IRC servers ran by Microsoft. You weren't supposed to use it on "regular" servers.

Nah it was just the default server in the dropdown list. Out of the box it also supported UnderNet, IRCNet, and more.

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#170
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft also apparently "rebranded Office to Microsoft 365 in 2022"[0], causing a lot of confusion about what "Microsoft 365 Copilot" on their homepage meant, but I think it would translate to "Cloud Office Suite + Cloud AI" [0]: https://www.theverge.com/tech/856149/microsoft-365-office-re...

Microsoft 365 means Microsoft Online, according to the translator. And it makes sense: they are positioning Office as their core product, not just one of many products. They are renaming Microsoft Office to just Microsoft; this is the online version (which happens to be the only version); and it has AI, which they are prominently showcasing. Hence, Microsoft 365 Copilot. It means "Microsoft Online, now with AI" Of co…

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