When the muse has struck/knowledge and form are entwined/in geeky haiku

February 27, 2001 6:13 AM

When the muse has struck/knowledge and form are entwined/in geeky haiku - (how to decode DVDs) [via /usr/bin/girl]
posted by plinth (8 comments total)

Another day, another attempt to get round a meaningless law. I'm all for spreading the good word, but surely for those who wanted DeCSS to get out in the open, this isn't really going to work.
The MPAA (was it them?) will read this and laugh. Ordinary people (and folks, that doesn't include us) still haven't heard of DeCSS, and this is hardly going to change things.
Sorry, I've been reading too much about Napster's fortunes and getting too depressed about it. Hasn't the tide turned?
posted by flimjam at 9:00 AM on February 27, 2001

Surely you realize the difference between "attempting to get round a meaningless law" and "making a complete mockery of a meaningless law"?
posted by dhartung at 9:56 AM on February 27, 2001

this is true art. poetry in motion. thank you.
posted by howa2396 at 11:07 AM on February 27, 2001

Perhaps I am hopelessly uncool, but I am less concerned with the DeCSS aspect and more impressed with the concept and form. I am never going to bother trying to decrypt DVDs, but I am impressed with the poetic effort, even if it isn't a true haiku.
posted by mkhall at 11:12 AM on February 27, 2001

Wow. That is beautiful.
posted by Optamystic at 1:06 PM on February 27, 2001

Pretty weak as haiku (where are the nature references?), though it does conform to the scansion:

First: five syllables.
Second: seven syllables.
Third: Five syllables.

(Ron Padgett)

But you should really look at the rest of the Gallery, including DeCSS The Movie, the MIDI version, the Trojan Cow scheme, the Zapf Dingbats version, and the ASCII art version.
posted by rodii at 6:19 PM on February 27, 2001

I once read someone who composes haiku claim that the "strict" haiku form (5/7/5) is not written in stone, especially in English, since the language is so different from Japanese. The theme and tone are apparently far more important to serious haiku afficionados. Brevity is also important, but it's somewhat flexible.
posted by kindall at 11:10 PM on February 27, 2001

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
$_='while(read+STDIN,$_,2048){$a=29;$b=73;$c=142;$t=255;@t=map{$_%16or$t^=$c^=( $m=(11,10,116,100,11,122,20,100)[$_/16%8])&110;$t^=(72,@z=(64,72,$a^=12*($_%16 -2?0:$m&17)),$b^=$_%64?12:0,@z)[$_%8]}(16..271);if((@a=unx"C*",$_)[20]&48){$h =5;$_=unxb24,join"",@b=map{xB8,unxb8,chr($_^$a[--$h+84])}@ARGV;s/...$/1$&/;$ d=unxV,xb25,$_;$e=256|(ord$b[4])<<9|ord$b[3];$d=$d8^($f=$t&($d12^$d4^ $d^$d/8))<<17,$e=$e8^($t&($g=($q=$e14&7^$e)^$q*8^$q<<6))<<9,$_=$t[$_]^ (($h=8)+=$f+(~$g&$t))for@a[128..$#a]}print+x"C*",@a}';s/x/pack+/g;eval

posted by lagado at 3:36 AM on March 12, 2001