unicode snowman for you
October 11, 2008 4:24 PM   Subscribe

[unicode snowman for you]

(thanks, finite)
posted by not_on_display (72 comments total) 70 users marked this as a favorite
 
I want this not to be deleted.
posted by Jofus at 4:26 PM on October 11, 2008


٩๏̯͡๏)۶
posted by cillit bang at 4:27 PM on October 11, 2008 [13 favorites]


this is the best thing on the internet in like three months.
posted by knowles at 4:28 PM on October 11, 2008


Not to be deleted, this I want.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:29 PM on October 11, 2008


Unicode Snowman makes spending Canadian Thanksgiving alone a little more bearable.
Thank you.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 4:30 PM on October 11, 2008


❃ ❄ ❅ ❆ ❇ ❈ ❊ ❉ ❋
posted by stavrogin at 4:31 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


I predict ☁☁☁.
posted by -t at 4:32 PM on October 11, 2008


Snowman (U+2603) Font Support [via]
posted by finite at 4:37 PM on October 11, 2008


He looks more like a unicode shriner snowman.
posted by smackfu at 4:38 PM on October 11, 2008


Love the lil fez!
posted by leotrotsky at 4:45 PM on October 11, 2008


Can you smell carrots?
posted by mandal at 4:46 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


Fan-freaking-tastic.
posted by MrMoonPie at 4:47 PM on October 11, 2008


Unicode Snowman is impressive, but I'll always have a place in my heart for Tiny Running Man, crude though he may be.


posted by Rhaomi at 4:48 PM on October 11, 2008


Please don't





This thread!
posted by leotrotsky at 4:51 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


E*Ǝ
  ᵚ
posted by ryanrs at 4:53 PM on October 11, 2008 [5 favorites]


Small buckets, often sported at a jaunty angle, have been standard snowman fashion for centuries. Those Shriners just stole the idea from the snowmen, and never gave them credit. The Shriners did come up with the tiny cars thing all on their own. Look! Here they come now!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:54 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]



posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:55 PM on October 11, 2008


(Shriners and snowmen: a covert thread about They Might Be Giants' first album?)
posted by mykescipark at 4:58 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


My world needed this, although I didn't know it until now.
posted by Tehanu at 4:59 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Well, my snowman doesn't have a shriner's fez, at a jaunty angle or no. To describe the unicode snowman I see:
• big ball of snow on top of medium ball of snow.
• scarf in the middle
• smiley-face
• six big circular snowflakes, three on either side of snowman
• big ball of snow merges with snow on ground, creating an Ω(omega)-like base.

What would explain differences between my snowman and the one with the fez, which I don't see? (or: When I see blue, what color do you perceive, man?)
posted by not_on_display at 5:03 PM on October 11, 2008


400 ⌂⌂⌂

ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ ᴥ
ᵠ ᵠ ᵠ ᵠ
ᴽ ᴽ ᴽ



posted by Smart Dalek at 5:03 PM on October 11, 2008 [9 favorites]


In Recent Activity for this post, Unicode Shriner Snowman shows up as a Question Mark.

So, here's the Mysterians.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:04 PM on October 11, 2008


big ball of snow on top of medium ball of snow

strike that, and reverse it... big ball of snow is on the bottom
posted by not_on_display at 5:04 PM on October 11, 2008


"He looks like a shriner snowman!"

For years I was obsessed and confused by the Japanese version of the snowman: always with a red fez on top. Why in the name of Tarvu were Japanese snowmen shriners?

Eventually, after much discussion with a friend in Japan, the truth came out: that's not a fez, that's a fire bucket.

Apparently most Japanese homes and neighborhoods have red fire buckets lying around in case of.. uhh.. fire. When it's snowman time, you use the fire bucket to gather the snow to build the snowman, and as a grand finale, you plop the bucket right on top as a hat.

Go forth and let the knowledge spread.

(For the record, I own the domain ☃.net but have never pointed it to anything. Looks like now is the time!)
posted by cabel at 5:07 PM on October 11, 2008 [12 favorites]


I give this thread one (1) gold star:
posted by clearly at 5:08 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Arial Unicode Snowman is awesome.
posted by cillit bang at 5:09 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


Not_on_display, it depends on your font. Most fonts don't have pictures of snowmen, in which case the system will fall back to a default font (which should be fairly complete).
posted by ryanrs at 5:11 PM on October 11, 2008


"I predict ☁☁☁."

The forecast for today calls for immaculately arranged feces.
posted by clearly at 5:11 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Quicker than I even expected:

Officially mirrored at ☃.net !
posted by cabel at 5:13 PM on October 11, 2008 [7 favorites]


Actually, I found the snowman page genuinely useful. If you view source, you can see how to "embed" Arial Unicode MS in a web page. It's always been irksome that the major OS's don't provide even one near-fully populated Unicode font out of the box. Vista and the latest Mac OS might have changed that, I don't know, but there are still plenty people out there without a big Unicode font on their system.
posted by iconjack at 5:16 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Long have I waited for Zoso to appear thus. For now, this'll do.
posted by hal9k at 5:19 PM on October 11, 2008


I predict ☁☁☁.

☹. ☛☂✔.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:23 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


strike that, and reverse it... big ball of snow is on the bottom

big ball of snow is on the bottom
kids make 'em like that, cause that's how we taught 'em
if they try to put the big ball up on top
we say: uh-uh, and we tell 'em to stop
we say: put that little ball there instead
and then put a bucket on his head
and no, it's not a fez
that's right, it's a bucket
(should I write any more of this song?
nah, fuck it.)
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 PM on October 11, 2008 [4 favorites]


How did they decide that the world needed a snowman in the Unicode standard?
posted by empath at 5:38 PM on October 11, 2008


What would explain differences between my snowman and the one with the fez, which I don't see? (or: When I see blue, what color do you perceive, man?)

On Vista, I see your snowman. On Mac OS X, he has the fez.

Also, the blue is nicer on OS X.
posted by smackfu at 5:52 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


How did they decide that the world needed a snowman in the Unicode standard?

Unicode has a whole set of Miscellaneous symbols. Their explanation is, and I quote:
for snowy weather
I hope that clears things up.
posted by cillit bang at 5:53 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


http://☃.net/
posted by endquote at 6:01 PM on October 11, 2008 [4 favorites]


Here is a proposal to add 186 new "Japanese TV Symbols", including SNOWMAN WITHOUT SNOW (for light snow) and BLACK SNOWMAN (for heavy snow).
posted by finite at 6:02 PM on October 11, 2008


I don't want this post to be deleted either, and I wish the unicode snowman all the best. I think he might be at some risk....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 6:29 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


Unicode snowman made me smile a lot. Thank you.
posted by FritoKAL at 7:03 PM on October 11, 2008


smackfu: On Vista, I see your snowman. On Mac OS X, he has the fez. Also, the blue is nicer on OS X.

Actually, I'm using Mac OS X. But I agree: the blue is nicer on the Mac.
posted by not_on_display at 7:22 PM on October 11, 2008


For me? Thanks! Happy one year on MetaFilter.
posted by jessamyn at 7:24 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


For the curious, here is Snowman in Hiragino (a collection of Japanese fonts that ship with OSX, and which seem to be the font that Mac users will usually see Snowman from); Snowman in CODE2000 (a freely available full-BMP-coverage unicode font), and Snowman in Apple Symbols (another stock OSX font).

If you ask me, Hiragino Snowman looks a little sad, despite his jaunty fez, and the Apple Symbols snowman has I think been into the eggnog.
posted by hattifattener at 7:28 PM on October 11, 2008 [3 favorites]


Google hates unicode snowman.
posted by Pants! at 7:39 PM on October 11, 2008


There's a lot of fun junk lurking in Unicode-land:

⅋ = Turned ampersand
ↂ = Roman Numeral Ten Thousand
⇰ = Rightwards White Arrow From Wall
☄ = Comet
♨ = Hot Springs
⚰ = Coffin
⁂ = Asterism
⁝ = Tricolon
posted by smackfu at 8:04 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


I can has mor unicode?

where?
posted by Sam.Burdick at 8:22 PM on October 11, 2008


Sam.Burdick: I can has mor unicode?

Yes!

where?

Here!
posted by not_on_display at 8:30 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


cabel, I'm not gonna ask why you own ☃.net because that part actually makes sense to me ...but the how is something I'd like to know.
posted by billyfleetwood at 8:30 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


I'm sorry to be the pooper here, but - what is this about? No, really - what makes this interesting at all? Is it something that you have to be using a particular browser or something that shows something other than boxes, or what?
posted by yhbc at 8:38 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


yhbc: it's really driving me nuts, too: on some computers I'm using, the snowman and other Unicode characters come out like they should. On this PC I'm at right now, though: only boxes with numbers in them. I'm poking around to see how I can get this PC seeing unicode. In the meantime, my own post is FTW in one room, and FAIL in the other room.

But what is this about, you ask? It's about a Unicode snowman. For you.
posted by not_on_display at 8:52 PM on October 11, 2008


Hey now.
posted by everichon at 9:30 PM on October 11, 2008


✁☻ beats ☃

Really, which has more use, face-stab, or snowman?
posted by Freaky at 9:31 PM on October 11, 2008


Um. You are all aware that "☃" is the mayan glyph for "dead puppies", right? The "fez" is a numeric modifier meaning "more than one thousand." You're laughing at thousands of dead puppies.

I approve.
posted by Slap*Happy at 10:34 PM on October 11, 2008 [7 favorites]


Hmm. Just boxes with numbers in them for me. The main post links to a page which, for me, is blank. Perhaps it's a snowman in a snow storm? not_on_display - if you figure it out, let me know.

/Unicode deprived
posted by routergirl at 10:50 PM on October 11, 2008


Ah. Spoke too soon. Code 2000 fixed it for me.
posted by routergirl at 10:57 PM on October 11, 2008


No I'm never gonna do it without the fez on...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:01 PM on October 11, 2008


If you view source, you can see how to "embed" Arial Unicode MS in a web page.

Uh, isn't this something you're not supposed to do with fonts you don't own?
posted by ghost of a past number at 11:21 PM on October 11, 2008


OH NOES THEY BE STEALIN MAH FONTS
posted by finite at 11:25 PM on October 11, 2008 [2 favorites]


You won't be laughing when Unicode Snowman gets a call from THE FONT POLICE.
posted by ghost of a past number at 11:36 PM on October 11, 2008 [1 favorite]


Unicode, fonts, snowmen, japan, cluelessness, intellectual property arguments, wikipedia articles with hilarious discussion pages - this thread has it all.
posted by mai at 12:02 AM on October 12, 2008 [1 favorite]


iconjack: Actually, I found the snowman page genuinely useful. If you view source, you can see how to "embed" Arial Unicode MS in a web page. It's always been irksome that the major OS's don't provide even one near-fully populated Unicode font out of the box. Vista and the latest Mac OS might have changed that, I don't know, but there are still plenty people out there without a big Unicode font on their system.

Perhaps the reason that operating systems don't provide fully populated Unicode fonts out of the box is because people made Unicode ridiculously large and complicated by putting things like pictures of snowmen into it.
posted by Mitrovarr at 12:11 AM on October 12, 2008 [2 favorites]


The only character I've ever found missing is the n-umlaut. In MacOS, the combining-diaresis doesn't render correctly for n. Compare:
ä (a, combining-diaresis)
(n, combining-diaresis)

Früsträtïng.
posted by ryanrs at 12:44 AM on October 12, 2008


Perhaps the reason that operating systems don't provide fully populated Unicode fonts out of the box is because people made Unicode ridiculously large and complicated by putting things like pictures of snowmen into it

That would undermine the entire point of Unicode, which is to put every character that's ever existed in any character set into one single list, such that it can directly substitute for any of them. I can only assume previous character set designers included weather symbols.

Sadly, I don't think Unicode publishes its deliberations or its sources, so we'll probably never know.
posted by cillit bang at 3:50 AM on October 12, 2008


Yes, Unicode being huge is the point. Wanting a single font that covers all the code points is the silly part.
posted by smackfu at 8:06 AM on October 12, 2008


Now this is just serendipitous. I spent yesterday installing about a trillion fonts into my shiny new Arch install and I see every single symbol presented. Yay!
posted by Skorgu at 10:07 AM on October 12, 2008


Wanting a single font that covers all the code points is the silly part.

Why is this silly? Maybe it would be silly to require every font to cover every code point, but asking for one complete system font seems quite reasonable.
posted by ryanrs at 12:05 PM on October 12, 2008


Why is this silly? Maybe it would be silly to require every font to cover every code point, but asking for one complete system font seems quite reasonable.

Making a complete font would be rather nontrivial, for one thing. The DejaVu project is working in this direction, but according to the link they have run up against problems having to do with combining characters from different scripts in a single font.

As a side note, the DejaVu fonts can be freely embededd, maybe Unicode Snowman would like to check them out.
posted by ghost of a past number at 12:28 PM on October 12, 2008


(ryanrs, that's actually not a MacOS bug, that's a Firefox bug — firefox renders text in some bizarre way that prevents it from displaying composed characters that don't have a precomposed representation in Unicode. Pasting your comment into TextEdit shows a proper umlaut, though it's positioned a little lower than I think is ideal.)
posted by hattifattener at 1:51 PM on October 12, 2008


I don't use Firefox, I use Safari (albeit a somewhat old version).
posted by ryanrs at 6:05 PM on October 12, 2008


Yeah, I'm all frustrated in that I posted this, I LOVED it on some computers, and I get to other computers and [box with numbers].... it annoys me. I wanted all of you to get a unicode snowman. Still, thank you to those who appreciated it, and I love the way this thread has turned out.

Metafilter: ☃☃
posted by not_on_display at 6:47 PM on October 12, 2008


A bit of a footnote: There's a small program squirreled away in Windows (XP, I don't know if it's in Vista) named 'eudcedit' that allows you to create a character from scratch. The file path is C:\WINDOWS\system32\eudcedit.exe
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 8:16 AM on October 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


ryanrs: n-umlauts totally show up in Firefox, just check out the article on Spinal Tap. The problem appears to come up when you try to type it in. Every time I cut and paste it in, it shows up, indeed, as n̈.
posted by Deathalicious at 12:48 AM on October 18, 2008


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