15 oct 2002 12:28:34
What does ZNC v. 1.01 do?
ZNC is a browser that translates html (the code of internet pages) into ascii numeric code, this then is used to pitch sounds and create colors.
Every character (letter or sign) of a html page (as for example "a" or "@") can be translated in an ascii number ("a" is number 97 and "@" is 64). In total there are 256 (0-255) ascii numbers. These numbers are: 1. linked to a tone. This tone will variate in pitch depending on the the ascii number. So the ascii number of 98 (which is the character "b") will create a tone of 98 hertz. 2. linked to windows standard 8-bits color palette (which contains 256 (0-255) colors) so every character wil result in a specific color for each ascii number. So the ascii number 98 (the character "b") will produce the color deep purple.
Manual
To work with ZNC v. 1.01 you need a pc with Windows (win2000/winXP) a soundcard and an internet connection. The faster your connection the better. On opening the browser a module will pop- up and download the html code of the url http://znc.ctrlaltdel.org/go.html. When the download is ready the characters of the html pages will be shown one by one in the module. The downloaded html code will be automatically looped. Which means that after the last character is played it will jump to the first character. The user can control the speed of the looped html page, thus controlling the speed of the sound and color variation. testing the browser showed that especially pages that use ascii art give often nice sound compositions. Try for example http://wwwwwwwwwwww.jodi.org. Also pages with russian or chinese characters work suprising because of the use of characters with high ascii numbers. Another thing that should be kept in mind is that more of the same characters behind it's other will give a longer tone. For example 9x a b (=bbbbbbbbb) will give a long 98 hz and not 9x a 98 hz tone. Note: because low frequency tones will be generated by most webpages a standard pc speakersset will not be sufficient to get a maximum soundresult. Use of a quality speakers or headphone is adviced.
Screenshot module
Community
special made html pages for ZNC browser (add your own)
Presentations
ZNC v. 1.01 is a slightly adapted version of ZNC v. 1.0 which was first presented at the Kiev Media Art Festival, Ukraine 15-21 oct 2002
Online Reviews
Readme 2.03 by Matthew Fuller
mediumturm.at by Gunther Reisinger
neural.it
More indepth information
The order of color in the windows standard 8-bits color palette.
Links for further information:
http://www.w3.org/MarkUp
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm
http://www.asciitable.com/
note: znc v. 1.01 is only compatible with windows XP & windows 2000 older windows versions are NOT supported