Pico-mangled Pictures

The 10th Edition manual's Volume 2 featured altered images of various contributors, done by Gerard Holzmann's Pico program, which was described in the manual, and also in his book Beyond Photography: The Digital Darkroom, Prentice-Hall, 1988; ISBN: 0130744107. In its paper version it is, regrettably, out of print. But fortunately, Holzmann has recently put its contents online; it includes many more examples.

The try-out version of the program remains available, under the name popi, in the Bell Labs netlib archive.

The images sometimes appeared just before a paper by the pictured author; more often they were used as page-filler bonbons much more charming to find than This Page Intentionally Left Blank.

Here is a sampling of some of these tweaked images. Unfortunately, some of those appearing in the manual don't seem to have been saved.

[画像:Ken and Den] K and D as seen by Gerard. Our foreheads were growing even then, although I don't think I ever achieved quite the Elvis hair quality pictured, and neither of us ever grew such luxuriant beards.

[画像:Andrew Hume] Andrew Hume, successively transformed on the page just before the Introduction. I wonder whether they could be photos of him at Usenix board meetings.

[画像:Doug McIlroy] Doug McIlroy, in which Gerard employs a transformation that is maybe too obvious.

[画像:Gerard Holzmann] Gerard Holzmann, who did the alterations depicted, and didn't spare himself.

[画像:Brian Kernighan] Brian Kernighan. It's unclear what was being strived for here; many of the other images are recognizable as characterizations, but this one is probably best appreciated just as an image.

[画像:Rob Pike] Rob Pike. Rob presumably helped to select this one for printing: he likes interestingly altered or otherwise unusual images.

[画像:Rob Pike 1] Rob Pike again. This one was apparently second choice, and didn't appear in the manual, but it was saved in the Faces directory. Presented because I like the melting effect.

[画像:Tom Duff] Tom Duff. This is one of the images that were heavily manipulated manually instead of algorithmically by a formula that moved pixels around.

[画像:Dave Presotto] Dave Presotto. Only minimally altered.

[画像:Howard Trickey] Howard Trickey.

[画像:Norman Wilson] Norman Wilson. He was our main standby for understanding of VAX hardware, setting up systems, and much adminstration for years.

[画像:Peter Weinberger] No compilation of images from our history would be complete without one of Peter Weinberger.

The original picture of Peter on which all others were based is available. Also, the AT&T Logo-style version, created by Tom Duff (but not with Pico) should be visible. This appeared on T-shirts and even (briefly) stencilled using spray-paint on a water-tower at Bell Labs. It is best viewed at a distance.