pleroma.debian.social

pleroma.debian.social

Dave Langford, of Ansible fame, describing a piece of software he wrote in the 80s -

One day for Chris’s amusement I fudged up an IBM PC-DOS program called Drivel that spewed out endless Extruded Fantasy Product titles. A Scroll of Steel, Gemhunter of Giantfalcon, Eye of Starnymph, The Bluebull and the Dreadflame, The Chaos Leperstaff … and so on, forever.

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@jezhiggins Langford as in "Langford's Basilisk"?

“Make it more versatile and we could sell this!” said Chris, and Drivel duly became A.I.Q. (a name meant to suggest Artificial Intelligence, but deniably) with a wide variety of lexicons to generate cod Shakespearean verse, revolting recipes, banal aphorisms, terrible pulp SF and even – as a selling point for authors – plot ideas for short stories.

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@kittylyst @jezhiggins the very same
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@kittylyst @jezhiggins None other. A long term UK SF fan who used to be seen at Eastercon gathering gossip for his newsletter before his increasing deafness made it too much hassle for him. He also has quite a collection of Hugo awards scattered round his house (29 of them, before he declined further nominations, perhaps for lack of storage space)