#Computer viruses in the 90s

[businessmemes]

if the octagon is right side up, do not duck. doing so will be deducted from your pay and incur the loss of up to all sick days.

[arconinternet]

(Most of) The Virus Books of Mark Ludwig (Mark Ludwig, 1990-1998)

You can read them here.

Note: Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution is the second volume of the Little Black Book.

[lorbanery]

I miss the movie genre of "normal, nerdy, possibly autistic woman gets drawn into Dangerous Shenanigans by an attractive charming man with her worst interests at heart and she privately fights for her life and quietly saves the world, going back to her normal life with a renewed sense of confidence and What Matters Most" that had its heyday in the late '80s to the mid-'90s

[topaz-mutiny]

Tumblr's new gross layout is giving this vibe so strongly right now.

apps that use pop-ups to try to trick you into turning on certain settings by quickly clicking yes literally never work on me. a pop up stops me dead in my shit and confuses the hell outta me, now i'm mad and there is no way i'm turning that stupid setting back on

[secondhand-sonder]

I've been watching youtube documentaries about major computer viruses and worms n stuff and they're so cool :0

[dj-of-the-coven]

How to Burn Your Own CDs - a guide for Windows users

Are you--yes, you!--tired of paying money to stupid shit like spotify for your music? Do you hate the way that the music industry takes almost all the profit that bands make through streaming and leaves them with pennies? Have you ever wanted to fire up that old CD-Radio in the corner of your bedroom, only to be stopped because all you have on CD is Weezer's blue album and a copy of Kidz Bop 16 that you don't remember buying? Well this guide just might be for you!

Materials you'll need:

A computer. Can't do it without this one.

A CD drive. It can be internal or external, but you'll need one either way. You can find them at Office Depot for fairly cheap and I've heard that some Walmarts carry them.

A pack of CD-Rs. CD-Rs, or CD Recordables, come in packs of 20, 50, or 100. A proper 100-pack should cost you no more than $30, so unless there's some special shortage in your area, don't buy from anywhere selling them at a markup. CD blanks are literally 50c a piece.

CD cases. Sold wherever CD-Rs are, but you can also find these at thrift stores pretty easily.

A sharpie or some kind of permanent marker

Software you'll need:

Jdownloader. You can acquire mp3s through Bandcamp if you're dedicated to righteousness, but for everyone else, install jdownloader or some other kind of open-source download program. I will be proceeding as if you have jdownloader available.

Windows media player. This should open automatically when you insert a CD-R into your CD drive.

Fre:ac audio converter. This is only for the occasion that you encounter OPUS or mp4a files that cannot be interpreted by your CD player.

Note: If you're very determined not to download software onto your computer, you can use free youtube downloaders and audio converters, but these are subject to viruses and other issues such as download speed. I will be proceeding as if you have the programs I listed.

The process:

Decide what you want to burn--anything goes, but keep in mind the time limit on your CD-Rs. Most will record 90 minutes or less.

Open jdownloader, switch to the linkgrabber tab, then paste youtube links in any order until you have all the music you want. I'd personally recommend doing it song-by-song instead of a full album stream, because a massive file will require a lot of work to separate back into searchable tracks.

De-select all files except audio on the right-hand side options menu.

Make a folder inside the music folder of your laptop and label it with the name of your mix CD.

In the properties tab of each song on jdownloader, change the destination folder to the folder you've just created.

Hit "start all downloads".

Once finished, open each folder. If everything is an .mp3 or a .wav, skip the next 2 steps.

Open Fre:ac audio converter to convert all audio files that aren't .mp3 or .wav into .mp3 or .wav.

Drop the converted files next to the unconverted files in your folder. If you wish, you can delete the originals to make the folder easier to browse.

Put your blank CD-R into the CD drive. If external, plug in your CD drive first or the tray will refuse to open.

Windows media player will open automatically. On the right-hand side, you will see the tracklist of your CD-R (which should be blank). On the left, you will see the audio that your computer is able to find in the music folder. Put your selected tracks IN ORDER onto the tracklist.

Listen to the beginning and ending of each track to make sure there isn't a significant time gap. This also prevents accidentally burning a youtuber's stupid outro if you missed it before.

When satisfied, hit "start burn".

On an external drive, the CD tray will open upon completion. You can reinsert it to ensure that the burning went smoothly.

Once satisfied, remove the CD from your drive. With your sharpie or permanent marker, write the name of the album on the front, then store safely inside a CD case.

you did it👍

Ask me if you run into any issues.

Legal disclaimer: this guide is purely for educational purposes and I do not admit to or take responsibility for any piracy committed using the instructions given.

Illegal disclaimer: cops suck my dick

[emma-is-swaggy-and-epic]

Happy valentine's day, i've been getting into sonic.exe lately so here's my rendition of an amy.exe

Watch the SPEEDpaint here!!! [LINK]

LORE UNDER THE CUT!!! (CW: mentions of gore and unreality...kinda, there's a TLDR at the end)

A few years after sonic CD was released, a strange cartridge for the game was created. Seemingly: the game had a mind of it's own; with it having strange anomalies such as aggressively telling players to stop controlling sonic after playing through the first few levels, weird reddish blobs of pixels could be seen in the background that look almost like gore to some people (though what they actually are is unclear due to them being few and far between and seem to be slightly obscured by various background elements) and a notable lack of other characters or enemies. Strangely though, the most well known anomaly related to this version of the game is an unusually distorted version of amy rose; as the years went by and the game became more accessable to the public via online emulators, many have reported her appearence changing more and more as time went on. When the cartridge was first discovered: her design mostly stayed true to her original, classic look though as years went by, she started looking more similar to her modern design (more notably so after rips of the game were posted to the internet). Occasionally, the altered version of amy would appear mid-gameplay and deliver threatening messages to the player about how she hates them, how they're getting in her way, etc. When played using an emulator, the game is known to install viruses onto whatever device the player is using in that moment. When the game was ripped, it was revealed that the name of the file was simply "phantom.exe"

What nobody knows about this version of the game, is that the cartridge was special in the sense that the world inside it was sentient; unlike the other versions of sonic CD: this specific cartridge had contained the actual classic sonic universe as a whole and the game was just a front, almost like another dimension that you cannot enter. All of the anomalies listed were the result of a strange event within the universe; with amy coming across the phantom ruby and it corrupting her, causing her to become a murderous fiend with a jealousy problem. Due to the unstable nature of an entire universe existing within such a tiny object like a game cartridge: amy has become aware of the fact that she is in a video game and is immensely jealous of the player for controlling sonic, although due to them living in another universe, she knows she cannot harm them so she just installs viruses onto their computer instead. After the game was ripped onto the internet and was exposed to a more modern culture than one from the 90's, amy's design and mannerisms slowly became more similar to that of the version of her in modern sonic games.

TLDR: there exists a version of sonic CD where the classic sonic universe just....EXISTS inside it (like the actual one, not just a game) and in that version of the universe: amy found the phantom ruby, it corrupted her and now she's a yandere and the game is now fucked up. Also amy is aware she's in a game and is jealous of the player for controlling sonic so she puts viruses on people's computers

In all honesty, i kinda just had two different ideas for what i wanted this to be. I wanted to make an EXE that is SOLELY self-contained and doesn't involve evil world-destroying gods possessing video games and entrapping souls like most EXEs i've seen (some of my favorite EXE/sonic horror AUs are starved eggman and sink sonic BECAUSE of this subversion) but at the same time: i was VERY married (no pun intended) to the idea of taking inspiration from old loveletter computer viruses and the whole haunted game schtick so i tried to mash them together as best i could, resulting in a sort of doki doki literature club/undertale-esque AU for lack of a better description. While yes, i am aware that yandere!amy rose isn't exactly an ORIGINAL idea (hell, i saw a fairly popular fanfiction called "amy.exe" with that EXACT premise) i mean.....i was (unfortunately) a yandere simulator fan as a kid so i kinda have a soft spot for yanderes, y'know? Besides, what else could you do with amy? You could probably do something with the fact she's into tarot cards but that'd probably get culturally insensitive REAL fast...

If i'm being completely honest, i only threw in the "amy's design and mannerisms changing due to being exposed to the internet" thing because i like amy's modern design more than her classic design and i wanted an excuse to make something based on it lol. Speaking of which: i actually had a tough time getting the preportions right on this, i've drawn sonic characters before and i usually have a tough time with the preportions since the sonic artstyle is so much different than mine and y'know....if the characters aren't drawn in a style that looks even VAGUELY like the sonic artstyle than it's just NOT a sonic character!!! (Also fun fact: amy's design in this is vaguely modeled after a creepy haunted doll bc i LOVE those things)

While doing research for this AU i realized i actually know a lot less about sonic lore than i thought lol, this is my first REAL attempt at writing horror so i hope it's not TOO terrible!!! (And, more importantly, that this makes sense to anyone who ISN'T me) anyway....again, happy valentine's day!!!

[totallyhextra]

People? In MY computer?? It's more likely than you think!

The following is a fanvertisment and is not connected to the show. ****Yet.*** *Also yes, this is the fourth time I'm posting this because TUMBLR WONT LET ME EDIT SPELLING MISTAKES!

ANYWAY,

Once upon a time, back in 1987, Dire Straits put out this music video for “Money for Nothing”, which, as you know, was a song about wanting my MTV. 

The video was made by two guys (Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson) on a very moody computer. After the video went out, these two guys went to a pub:

Ian: “Hey, we should make a whole show like this!”

Gavin: “Dude, making three minutes almost killed us.”

And so it was decided!🎉

The two guys were joined by two other guys (Phil Mitchell and John Grace) and created the Hub, which then became Mainframe Entertainment. They got even more people, and then they all holed up in this hotel.

They were mad lads with a dream: a whole cgi animated show, and they made it happen a whole year before Toy Story!

Behold! ReBoot!

(Yes that fever dream was real)

Now before I get any of this:

Let me lay this down. If you can’t with the animation of the first season because it was CUTTING EDGE IN 1994, you can close your eyes and listen to it. ReBoot wasn’t just a CGI gimmick. The characters are fully developed, the voice actors are peerless, the plot is sharp, and there’s so many easter eggs that you’ll never find them all.

Never

(And yes the episode "Bad Bob" was the actual catalyst for Fury Road. Look it up)

ReBoot is about what life is like in a computer (in the 90s, because it was the 90s) called Mainframe (because of course it is). People are sprites, the guys that look like 1s and 0s are binomes (which represent 1s and 0s). Bad guys are viruses, and the good guy is a Guardian named Bob, who is a certified cinnamon roll.

In the first season the eps are light and self-contained, mainly because there was constant friction between the Mainframe studios and the Board of Standards and Practices.

They still got away with some pretty dark stuff, like Megabyte (virus) making Enzo (the kid) watch his dog get sliced open (dog got away, obviously) , Dot (sprite) have a hallucinatory breakdown, and the fridge horror of realizing the thousands of worm things (nulls) that plunged off a bridge to their death were actually people.

And Hex's (virus

best girl) scary face single-handedly traumatized an entire generation. 🙂

But busting through a window was a no go, because WhAt If tHe cHiLdReN dID iT tOo?

Anyway, halfway through the second season, ABC cut them loose, so they were like, fuck it, we’re going to start going hard. The story shifted from episodic to arcs and things start to get serious.

Third season the show moved to YTV in Canada, which gave no fucks about shielding the innocent children.

So it got DARK

How dark?

The UK refused to show the entire season, so the audience there had to wait until pirated copies made it across the pond to see how it ended.

Also by 1997, the animation was gorgeous. (Best example of third season animation I could think of that didn't have spoilers)

The show was green-lit for a fourth season on Cartoon Network, but halfway through production Warner Bros took over and the same fucking thing happened.

Because Mainframe was halfway done, they decided not to scrap all of it, but knowing they wouldn't be able to finish it correctly, Mainframe stripped anything that would hint at Season Four's true ending, then left what remained on a cliff-hanger of angst.

FOR 22 YEARS

(It's also why the last four eps of season four seem to make no sense)

And so it was.

Other crap happened, the soul left Mainframe, and its animated corpse spat out “The Guardian Code” in 2018. 

But never say die! The year is (almost) 2024, 30 years later. ReBoot shall rise from the dead, because here come the documentary!!

Do you dare see what you’ve been missing?

What the (UK) government doesn’t want you to know?? 

Then come on down to ReBoot!

We got:

Magnificent bastards with sexy voices!

(Tony Jay at his best)

Kickass women who could probably crush your head with their thighs and you’d enjoy it!

Innuendos in a kid's show!

💗 This adorable cinnamon roll!! 💗

Insane third season glow-ups!

YOUR NEW GOD

These guys!

(Gay roller-skating binome is my boi. I named him Jerry)

Nonstop cultural refs (You'll never find them all. Never.)

(There are literally videos dedicated to trying)

So many computer puns!

Body Horror!

Existential Crisis!

HAVE I MENTIONED YOUR NEW GOD?

This is it, folks! The real thing, the gem hidden in the moose-filled forests of Canadia!🌲🌲🌲

Take a trip inside a mid-90’s computer!

See the World Wide Web! (omg):

Witness the original purple Gamecubes that randomly fall from the sky when the owner of the computer (OUR GOOD LORD THE USER) wants to play a game. If it lands on people and they lose, they dissolve into mindless energy leeches, fated to tormented by their former bretheren for all of eternity.

Just like in real life! 🙃

So watch the eps! They on YouTube!

I think they're on Pluto, Hulu, Sling, and Tubi too! Also DVDs for people who have the patience to wait for them!

WATCH! BELIEVE! SUFFER THE SOUL-CRUSHING RAGE OF THE SEASON 4 CLIFF-HANGER!* (come on, its fun!)*

HYPE THE DOC!

The more people hype, the better the chances of actually getting it finished.

NOW SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE!

And now I will leave you with this screenshot from the ep "Painted Windows", where dicks can clearly be seen drawn upon the wall behind the fleeing anthropomorphized television.

(PS: If you heard the clown pic at the top of the page in your head, you're welcome)

IMPORTANT UPDATE

This message is now approved by Gavin Blair! He's an awesome guy. Show him some love on TWITTER (fuck you musk) at @TheRealMrSweary Also, if you want to share this with non-tumblr friends, here is my attempt at a webpage version:

theseventhstarprojects.com/REBOOT.html

[trainsinanime]

Early 90s hacker AU. Totally radical teenagers Marinette "M-Net" Dupain-Cheng (always online because she's into it, on a computer she cobbled together out of scrap) and Adrien "Double_A" Agreste (always online because his father won't let him out the house, on the most expensive computer there is, with 133 MHz and several gigabytes of hard drive) are normal hackers. Until one day, they find weird magical modems in their rooms. Upon connecting them, they are greeted by the magical sentient computer viruses T.kki and Pl4gg, who help them transform into the magical super-hackers: The Lady-Bug and Ch4t N01r. Together, they are going to clear the information superhighways of Cyber-Paris from the evil influence of InterGabrielSoft and the mysterious HardMoth.

[boringkate]

Playing console games in an emulator when there's a PC port available always feels so silly, but it's just so cozy having a bunch of games that all launch the same way in a nicely resizeable window and probably with savestates etc all without them even needing to be individually installed and set up.

Plus I grew up in the 90s! Obviously I gave the family computer hella viruses! Running random illicit executables (with like cracks that might even be setting off virus scan false positives) still spooks me sometimes lol! Which is like not a concern with console roms!

[tyrantisterror]

Wife Goals: Hexadecimal

Hey fuckers. It's February, my Seasonal Affective Disorder is at its peak, and romance is on my mind whether I like it or not. So I'm going to ramble/gush about some of my favorite female characters in fiction, in a painfully honest and deeply cringe way, because fuck you that's why. We live in a post-Muncher society, you can't fucking stop me.

We're beginning with Hexadecimal from the 90's early CGI cartoon Reboot. I feel like most of tumblr's userbase was too young to watch that show. A lot of you were probably born after it aired. God I'm old. I'm so old and alone. Fuck.

Anyway, the premise of Reboot was that there was an entire world within your computer, with every program and file being people who lived inside the big city that makes up the computer itself. The city everything takes place in is called Mainframe, the main character was a security program, most of the citizens were shaped like 1's and 0's (binary code, get it?), everyone talked about things taking nanoseconds because one of the other conceits is that the people inside the computer experience time differently than humans, etc.

The villains of Reboot, at least initially, were computer viruses. One, the primary antagonist, was Megabyte, an evil overlord who wanted to take control of Mainframe by force - sort of the picture of a Lawful Evil villain, in D&D terms. The other, his sister, was Hexadecimal, the self-professed Queen of Chaos, who is more of a wicked witch (get it? Hex-adecimal!) that existed to cause mischief and mayhem for the sake of it. The Chaotic Evil to Megabyte's Lawful Evil, if you will - though as the series went on, calling Hex "evil" became more and more inaccurate.

Reboot was one of the first fully CGI cartoons, and it used the limitations of that early technology as a jumping off point to get creative with its setting and character concepts. Hexadecimal is very much a case in point for that - rigging face animations, especially on a humanoid face, is complicated and time-consuming, which is why there were very few humanoid characters in the first season of Reboot (and hence most of the case being made of 1's and 0's). For Hex, they decided to get around this by giving her a gimmick: Hexadecimal doesn't have a true face of her own, but rather dozens upon dozens of masks that she switches between with a wave of her hand. The result is that 1. the animators didn't need to work on in-between frames for her change in facial expression, saving a good bit of time and money and 2. Hexadecimal's mood changes are really, REALLY weird and unsettling to witness, selling her as some sort of supernatural monstrosity. She is magical in a dark, spooky way, even when just expressing feelings, and the result is a visual that really sticks with you - one that never would have been done if not for the limitations of that early CGI.

Of course, one of the other reasons Hexadecimal might have stuck out is that she was, uh... well, sexualized qutie a bit. Look, I'm not going to mince terms, there were some horny bastards working at Mainframe Entertainment (the company that made Reboot). These are the same animators who reportedly based Blackarachnia's design in Beast Wars after a stripper they saw while going out after work one night. In the first season of this show Hexadecimal full-figured and prone to walking in a very sultry way. When the show got dropped by ABC and picked up by another network, they put her in a full-on dominatrix outfit. Hex was always intended to be sexy.

And, like, ten-year old me didn't fully understand that when watching this show. But I do think that it was at least part of why my pre-adolescent brain because very obsessed with Hexadecimal, moreso than any of the other Reboot characters. She was interesting, for a lot of reasons, some of which I understood (funny scary monster villain lady) and some that I didn't understand but, like, vibed with intensely in ways that were formative and probably life-ruining.

Thankfully Hexadecimal was also just a very well-written character, perhaps the best in all of Reboot. Her first episode establishes the base components of her characterization that the rest of the show would build upon. Hex unleashes a computer bug using code from a paint program, which turns everyone who encounters it to stone. She specifically unleashes it by hiding it in a package and pretending to guard it, which makes her brother/rival villain, Megabyte, think it's some important mcguffin that he should steal. He does, and ends up the first victim of the medusa bug, which then spreads through all his minions, and then through all the different ways he has to sneak into the heart of Mainframe city, eventually infecting almost every citizen.

Already we establish several things about Hex: first, her schemes aren't about conquering people, but causing mayhem and havoc for the sake of it. Second, despite her chaotic nature, she's smart enough to make proper evil schemes. Third, she's a good judge of character in her way, as she figured the easiest way to get Megabyte to take the bait was to pretend she had something valuable for him to steal. Fourth, despite also being "evil," she's not on good terms with her brother/rival villain, and in fact wants to take him out first before anyone else. Fifth, holy shit she is SO much more powerful than the main bad guy, it's her first episode and she already almost won!

Almost. Of course, Bob, our hero security program, goes to Hexadecimal to try and stop her, at which point we find out Hex has something of a manic crush on Bob (as she articulates later in the series, "Oh Bob, I don't know whether to kiss you OR KILL YOU!"), and is actually willing to hear him out when he comes in doing his hero routine. Luckily, Bob is clever too, and decides to beat Hex the same way she beat Megabyte - he tells her that she should be proud of how orderly she made Mainframe. After all, with everyone turned to stone, nothing will change - it'll all be the same forever, quiet, calm, peaceful, and boring. Hexadecimal, the self-professed Queen of Chaos, immediately realizes she's made a nightmare for herself, and undoes her evil scheme with a wave of her hand before letting Bob go out of gratitude for keeping her from making a horrible mistake.

Which is the most important thing we've learned about Hexadecimal in her debut: she values freedom. Oh, she calls it chaos, yes, but Hexadecimal's biggest belief is that people should have the freedom to make their own choices, no matter how violent and destructive they may be. She's an anarchist first and foremost, and she values freedom so much that she'd gladly admit she was wrong and undo a successful scheme if someone correctly points out that said scheme goes against her ideals.

Especially if that someone is the guy she likes.

Hexadecimal is a supremely powerful villain who can't really be overpowered, but can be reached and defeated emotionally. As the show goes on, dealing with Hex increasingly becomes focused on building a relationship with her, and for most of the runtime Bob is the only person who is both brave and compassionate enough to try and give it a shot. While he doesn't share Hexadecimal's romantic feelings, he nonetheless feels there is something good buried deep beneath her mania, and that she is worth reaching out to.

And we in turn see that is is 100% correct. For all her supervillain antics, her ranting and raving, her violent outbursts and maniacal schemes, Hexadecimal is at her core an intensely lonely person, someone who craves affection but drives off almost everyone who gets close because of her psychological instability. She deeply wants people to love - she dotes on her little cat-like follower, Scuzzy, and she's also kind to nulls, creatures made from broken programs in the computer world that most people regard as vermin. And there are so many times when Hexadecimal's latest scheme is something Bob just... talks her out of.

Given the nature of serialized storytelling, Hexadecimal's vast strength did not stay insurmountable, and there were several times where she was humbled to show how great the new threat in the story was. Perhaps the most important was when Megabyte finally managed to get one over on her, literally shackling her with a control collar like she was a rabid dog and forcing her to be a living power source for his weaponry. Eventually Hex broke free (as she says, "Chaos will always triumph over order! It is the way of things!"), but at the cost of breaking herself further, which is visually represented by a crack forming on her mask. Bob, who'd been away for some time at this point (watch the show to know why), finds her and helps her fix her map - and this act of kindness, of care, of healing allows Hex to express emotions without swapping her mask for the first time, and, in the process, express herself with more self control. The children's cartoon show equivalent of finally getting this poor woman the meds she needs.

Unfortunately, most of the other characters weren't willing to forgive Hex for her past actions, and she spent the final season regarded with suspicion and coldness by all the other people of Mainframe even as she tried to turn over a new leaf. And while Bob cared about her, he didn't love her, a fact she had trouble accepting. The tragedy of this came to a head when the main threat of the fourth season, a new virus named Daemon whose plot was even more apocalyptic than anything Hex came up with in her villainous prime, unleashed a doomsday infection that could only be stopped by another virus - and even then, that virus would be sacrificing their life to pull it off. Hexadecimal willingly chooses to do it, happily even, with a smile on her face - because while she was going to die, the people she cared about would live, and perhaps think a little better of viruses like her as a result.

I think that is what made Hexadecimal stick with me more than anything - more than the cool mask, the awesome villain antics, or the 90's cartoon age-inappropriate sexy character design. Hexadecimal, more than anything else, is defined by her love for others and her desire for them to be free to live their lives as they choose. That means they can choose not to love her, not to forgive her, not to include her. They're free, that's their choice, just as it's her choice whether or not to love them in spite of it, and her choice to die for their freedom and happiness. She loved so, so deeply, and the thing that sticks with me, the thing that broke my heart as a kid and breaks it now, is that no one ever loved her back.

Yeah, she was creepy and maniacal and almost killed a bunch of people a lot of times, but she was also so full of love, and all she really needed was for it to be reciprocated! She needed people who were willing to care for her, even just a little bit - and she deserved people who cared a lot more than that, because if she was willing to do so much good for so little, imagine what good she could have done if someone loved her as much as she loved them.

Anyway, while I had many precocious crushes before Hexadecimal, I'm pretty sure she's the reason why my "type" seems to be "women who are made entirely out of Red Flags." And maybe that's ok.

...

no it's not ok why am I like this

[maream-zaream]

honestly going off nothing I thought fresh was born out of maybe some sort of glitch in a destroyed universe because he’s kinda one of his kind in the multiverse— (in the same branch as endermites and endermen from minecraft?? Maybe because of Error or something..) But the actual lab backstory makes a lot of sense! I just wish it would have been finished or we could have gotten the script for it (but I’m sure I’m not alone in this ajsjdhjssj)

Anyways you said you had headcanons? I don’t have much about him so feel free to share more :DD

Though as I think more about him I’m starting to have a few too. Like true fresh being light sensitive? Ofc the glasses are for hiding him and all but.. it does align with that Headcanon too. (And… I think it would be fun :> )

About the scripts: Me too, buddy, me too T_T. Though honestly the bit of Fresh lore that I'm still mourning over is the forever-awaiting TimeParty Pt. 3- IT LITERALLY LEFT OFF ON A CLIFFHANGER!!

And yeah, despite Fresh being a relatively popular character, his actual lore bits and character stuff (the Roleplays) aren't actually all that well known. Though, I definitely see where you got the glitch stuff lol. I mean, Fresh's comic debut was in Ask-Error lol. And honestly now that I think about it, you could probably make a connection regarding Fresh and (computer) viruses, especially considering his plan during LoveBall...

Anyways, I really like your headcanon regarding Fresh and light!! Actually, I think I'm gonna adopt it myself, especially considering how well it fits with my own HC, like you mentioned!

But yeah, some other head canons I have are (it's long):

One of the reasons Fresh goes after taller bodies is due to how his actual body is quite small. My guess is that he would probably be no bigger than a hand, so he would feel pretty insecure regarding his size lol. Particularly, he would be scared about how, without a host, he's basically a sitting duck. Too small and weak to really defend himself from any attack or find nourishment... I think Fresh is all too cognizant of just how much he needs his hosts. Well, he'd probably never admit that out loud but he definitely knows it lol. So in short, I guess you could see Fresh's use of taller bodies as a sort of overcompensation for his actual size.

After using the 90s as a facade for this true self for so long, I think that Fresh genuinely doesn't know how much of it is fake anymore. Like, I think that Fresh first adopted the 90s stuff purely based on how it would allow him to create a goofy, disarming persona. But over time, Fresh has adapted aspects of it as part of his actual personality and likes/dislikes. Like, I think Fresh genuinely likes stuff like Furbies and rap music, but other stuff like his dislike of drugs and alcohol is a bit exaggerated/put through a 90s-based filter.

Actually, speaking of the drugs and alcohol, I think Fresh dislikes them due to two reasons. 1) They lower the quality/health of a body, making them last for a short time period while not making them the best to feed off of. 2) Fresh himself would never partake because of their mind-altering effects and how they could lead him into dangerous or life threatening situations. I mean think about, this guy's entire thing is how terrified of death he is, why in the world would he use something that makes him vulnerable and less alert to danger and could potentially kill him with excess use? (Also, I think I remember Crayon Queen talking about this aspect of Fresh somewhere in more depth, but that may actually be a false memory idk)

Also, adopting neon-draws-sometimes's HC, I find the idea of Fresh finding some kind of kinship with Furbies really interesting and cute! I mean, it probably speaks to some level of isolation and alienation to find kinship with Furbies' uncanny bahavior and appearance, but I find it endearing never the less! It makes me think of a scene of Fresh hugging a Furby like a lifeline after a particularly bad day, preferably in an alleyway. Though, I guess a more light heartened take could just be him liking how Furbies scare people while still looking "cute" or disarming.

Admittedly this is less so a head canon and more so a story idea or detail: but I imagine Fresh 2.0 as kind of like in-between a stress-induced hallucination and a specter from the future/fandom? Kind of like how the ghosts from A Christmas Carol can work both as just Scrooge's guilty conscious manifesting nightmares or as actual, literal ghosts, if that makes sense. 2.0 works in an ambiguity between reality and fiction, though the emotional harm he inflicts upon Fresh is still very much real.

Actually, expanding a bit more on that, I see 2.0 as representative of all of Fresh's worries and stresses. That 2.0 literally represents Fresh's fear of death and oblivion by showing just how easy he is to be replaced. Just how easily Fresh could die, just how easily Fresh could become disliked and thrown away.

Ok, now let's get to relationship head cannons!! Whoo!:

Ink (also, quick disclaimer, I'm not as well-versed in Ink lore as I am in Fresh lore, so apologies if I misinterpret Ink egregiously here!):

I think that Fresh would try to have a somewhat amicable relationship with Ink, just because Fresh acknowledges how popular and beloved Ink is to the fandom. This would make a relationship with Ink beneficial, as it ensures Fresh doesn't become irrelevant or (hopefully) boring. Furthermore, Ink's status as "Protector" of the multiverse and their close relationship with the Star Sanses makes a more antagonistic relationship a bit more of a gamble. It becomes kind of hard to hunt down a new host if you have two AU-hoppers on your tail, doesn't it?

Though, I'd imagine in actuality Fresh kind of dislikes Ink. Now, I do think that Fresh would understand Ink through the lens of doing his best to make sure that the fandom/creators keep creating in order to keep producing their food/energy source (the paints). Additionally, Fresh would also understand Ink through their mutual sort of self-importance (albeit Ink's is a bit more existential as they see themselves as the only "real" person in the multiverse). Though, I feel like the sticking point would be 1) Ink's reverence of emotions and 2) just how unpredictable Ink can be.

The former is due to how Fresh is shown to absolutely detest his new emotions in the roleplays, becoming scared and angry due to the confusion they bring him. The latter assertion is due to how what Ink does is based on what they think is best for the story/audience. What Ink does depends on what he thinks the creators want from them, making them somewhat unpredictable as they may let even their closest friends die if they think it's what is best for the story. Basically, Fresh doesn't trust how self-sacrificial Ink can be.

Error:

Similar as to what is shown in both Error's and Fresh's blogs, I think Fresh messes around a lot with Error. Error is definitely a very bullyable and entertaining target due to how short his temper is and how easy it is to press his buttons lol. Though, I do think that Fresh has to be sort of careful about keeping out of Error's blast radius whenever he does his pranks.

Though, borrowing from xxwish-bonexx, I do think that Fresh would absolutely hate Error if he ever messed with someone Fresh grew attached to. Heck, it may not even take Fresh forming a relationship with something, I think Fresh would hate Error too if he destroyed/messed with an AU Fresh was planning on using as a food source. Though, if this were to happen, I imagine Fresh would still prank and mess with Error, it would just take on a meaner edge to it.

Dream:

Sees Dream as someone he has to appeal to/ keep on the good side of. This is due to the aforementioned reasoning in Ink's section about how Dream could very easily hunt Fresh throughout the multiverse. Though, I think Fresh is especially weary due to how Dream literally benefits nothing from his continued existence, as well as how Dream is much more motivated by justice than Ink (who would be more tolerant of Fresh due to the creators).

Also, I think that while Fresh is aware of Dream's aversion to killing and belief in second chances, he's also seen Dream's fights with his brother and wants no part in that lol.

Additionally, I think that Fresh would pretty easily be able to predict Dream, as he adheres to a set of moral guidelines that are pretty easy to guess and manipulate.

Nightmare:

Similar to Dream, Fresh would just try his best to stay off NM's radar. While Fresh would more directly benefit from an alliance with NM (NM feeds off of Fresh and his hosts' negativity + NM leaves people vulnerable to possession after attacks), I think that Fresh would hesitate to ever make a formal alliance with him due to the bad cred it would give him. Like, it would make him a direct enemy of the Stars and many of the inhabitants of the Omega Timeline, it would make life unnecessarily harder.

Also, again similar to Dream, Fresh has seen NM's fights with his brother and wants no chance of being caught in the crossfire.

Honestly, I see Fresh as acting as a sort of vulture in regards to NM, swooping in to get a host from an emotionally and physically vulnerable person after everyone's left before getting out of dodge.

Additionally, now that I think about it, both Fresh and NM are pretty self-serving, which I just think would push Fresh even more towards not interacting a lot with him. Fresh recognizes how dangerous Nightmare can be, and unlike Dream NM just sees killing as an inconvenience rather than a taboo.

Bad Sanses (Killer, Horror, Dust/Murder):

I don't honestly have much to say about these guys? Uhm, I think that Fresh would see them as any other Sans, as a potential food source and pawns. Though, Fresh would never go after these guys due to their close relation with Nightmare, best not poke a bear and all that.

Though, honestly, I doubt Fresh would go for them even if Nightmare wasn't in the picture. Horror no doubt has horrible physical and soul health, Dust is too determined and would put up too much of a fight, and I don't even know if it's possible for Fresh to feed on Killer with his soul out like that.

Blue/Swap Sans:

Similar to above, Fresh would see him as just another Sans but can't mess with him due to his close relationship with Ink and Dream.

Now, some aspects of my HCs about Fresh's relations are most likely subject to change, but I think this is a good sort of overview of everything! Honestly, I see Fresh as someone who likes to stay away from big battles and powers as much as possible, so any close relationships he has are probably gonna be with weaker/lesser known characters.

[arconinternet]

Hard Drive (Book, David Pogue, 1993)

By technology and science writer, TV presenter and Mac journalism veteran David Pogue. You can digitally borrow it here.

[princess-of-the-corner]

While I don't know Winx, what I'm reading about this reboot is reminding me of a thing I found on Netflix some years ago.

A terrible attempt at a sequel to the 90s CG series ReBoot. It was turned into a Super Sentai show a la VR Troopers. They also put in a human villain who is not only completely without any kind of goal, but also practically a sorcerer considering what they had him doing with computers.

Like somehow controlling the weather with a satellite.

The original ReBoot was a show about the life of programs in a computer mainframe, with their main issues outside of interpersonal things being losing a game program that comes in will destroy part of the city and the sibling viruses Megabyte (Lawful Evil) and Hexadecimal (Chaotic Yandere).

oh dear

[firespirited]

Hackers 1995:

The computer nerdery is terrible (do watch Halt and Catch Fire if you want a history of computers) however the film does start out with social engineering and blind folder browsing using common passwords before it devolves into throwing viruses at a private server to 'overload' it.

The costuming is impeccable early 90s : well-off rebellious girl in rip curl, genderbending grunge, stretch tees for your futuristic cool guys.

Missing the heap of badly rigged computer junk that makes the room overheat and puts wires everywhere. Also missing in action : scraggly facial hair, terrible posture, the huge levels of racism and homophobia (yep, even coded into the programs).

You all were wrong about Matthew Lilliard as Cereal Killer being transfem... that was gangly white boy with postpunk swag in the 90s. There's a cartoon-cat-girl wearing phone hacker in high-waisted-trousers, leopard print and dancer's body language right there. Wild how the codes changed in the mid 90s, like how Barbie's Ken was sporty and bold then seemingly overnight he was gay if he wore a dash of colour with his suit.

The story and pacing weren't bad, the bad guy had period accurate pickup artist clothes and general vibe. The stakes weren't too silly.

It definitely has the pre-2001 optimism that permeated the web before the patriot act and y2k bug conspiracies. I miss that, a sweet spot between cyberpunk, cheap geek jokes and the hackers-as-villains trend.

It's just fun. Lilliard gets the best comedic lines, Miller is doe eyed and baby faced, Jolie gets to kick off her streak of strong female leads with an adorable pixie cut and lots of sporty ocean blues. Nikon appears late, Phreak and Joey are in jail half the movie so they get less attention which is a shame, I really liked their characters.

Highly recommend watching with the pause and rewind button to look at background costume and set designs for the club. Pretty camp, getting camper with time. The type of film to rewatch with company and quote at eachother.

This film was tailor-made for teen me: it would have landed perfectly: the music is spot on, the tech, the fashion, the sense of community and fun.

[just-a-queer-fanboy]

"Why do you talk about pirating so much" I understand you may be into movies you can get on Netflix or the local library but I enjoy the type of horror movies that permanently ruin your life and can't be accessed without acquiring 37 computer viruses on a sketchy piracy website. Also 90% of the directors for it are literal monsters and I would like to indulge morbid curiosity without giving some abusive freak ad revenue