Show HN: Mapping the Unix Magic Poster – An Interactive Annotation Project
15 comments
·February 11, 2025jthemenace
Thank you for doing this! When I first came across this poster, I was like "I NEED A PRINTED COPY OF THIS". I had a large custom canvas printed with it on it and it's hanging in my office. I didn't even realize / notice a few of the items that are pointed out on this site. I'm excited to see what other nuggets get added.
lqet
I spend way too much time finding a printable scan of this some years ago. The Internet Archive has a very good version:
https://ia801707.us.archive.org/15/items/unix-magic-poster-g...
yapyap
Bit of a faster link, same content:
https://github.com/tyingq/unix-magic-poster/raw/main/ump.png
JKCalhoun
Thanks. I see Thread and Fork now, ha ha.
VTimofeenko
Love the project! I have the whole triptych printed and hanging on the office wall.
Looks like on mobile Firefox if I scroll down the page, the numbers on the picture disappear.
biofox
I had no idea this was part of a triptych! A quick google search tells me there is also "Unix Feuds" and "Unix Views".
Any idea where I can find them?
EDIT: For those interested, this is what they look like together. Unable to find high-resolution scans of all three though :(
VTimofeenko
I used the high-res versions from this link:
https://archive.org/details/unix-magic/
(use left and right to get all three)
There is also a version of Unix Magic with slightly different colors out there.
If I recall correctly, I downsized the images a little bit and used Walmart printing services to print the posters.
null
yapyap
on mobile safari the numbers change position if u want to zoom in.
lqet
Every time I looked at this poster in my office I wondered what the meaning of the farmer outside the window could be. Now I know!
bronson
It appears he's reaping processes.
vt102
I love this poster. I have an original in my office. Somehow, I never noticed the pipes…
yapyap
such a fun poster, thanks for sharing
matrss
Now I am wondering what kind of unix magic "oregano" must be...
lqet
> The oregano is reputedly referring to an incident in which one of the original folks involved with BSD was hassled for coming across the Canadian/U.S. border with a bag of what was assumed to be an illegal substance, and turned out to be oregano.
https://groups.google.com/g/comp.unix.wizards/c/qkiqSJWgEPE/...
Hi HN,
We've discussed the Unix Magic poster before (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27029196). Like many of you, I love this poster and all the Unix references hidden in it.
I built this as a static site that lets us annotate the Unix Magic poster by placing markers on references and adding descriptions to explain them. I've added a few so far, but there's much more to document.
What I love about this approach is that contributions happen not just on the site itself but also through PRs, where we can discuss and refine the details of each reference. Feel free to send a PR!
Code: https://github.com/drio/unixmagic Live site: https://drio.github.io/unixmagic
Would love feedback, suggestions, and PRs from the community!
Thanks!
—drd