I’d use a pencil eraser to polish off surface level tarnish, no need to bust out the grinders here. But otherwise your comment is on point.

Regarding the magnet contact area, the magnet was blocking most of the ambient air from the silver. Given that the spoon was where most spoons live anyways, the kitchen, consider all the food scents and vapors it has experienced on the fridge, that likely accounts for the sulphur oxidation others have mentioned.

The bottom side wear is probably largely wear from the spoon slightly wobbling every time the fridge door is opened and closed.

Meh, DOSBox is plenty suitable enough, and QBasic is easy enough to find…

https://winworldpc.com/product/qbasic/1x

I can’t promise that DOSBox emulated results will give the exact color results as original old-school hardware on an old CRT, but results should still be mighty close.

The raw input data files are pretty simple to generate with most graphics software, just downsample down to potato 80x25, then export to raw 888 RGB format.

Sure, have at it!

Sorry it’s not a full complete dump with examples, but it’s programmed in QBasic 1.1 and converts raw RGB pixel data into equivalent closest matching color halftone onscreen characters. I designed it in mind with DOS text modes of either 80x25, 80x43, or 80x50 text modes, but I’m sure the technique can work with any text mode that can properly render the old DOS block characters. But, I’m betting that whatever device you’re using right now is almost certainly not configured to display the old DOS block characters as they were back in the day.

Good luck!

REM TEXTPSET.BAS
REM over_clox - February 26, 2008

DECLARE SUB DisplayRAW (FileName$, W%, H%)
DECLARE SUB TextPSet (X%, Y%, R%, G%, B%)
DECLARE SUB TextPixel (Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%)
DECLARE SUB HTMtoRGB (HTMColor$, Red%, Green%, Blue%)

TYPE PaletteType
    R AS INTEGER
    G AS INTEGER
    B AS INTEGER
END TYPE

REDIM SHARED DOSPalette(15) AS PaletteType
REDIM SHARED FakePalette(15, 7, 1 TO 3) AS PaletteType

RESTORE
FOR I% = 0 TO 15
    READ HTMColor$
    HTMtoRGB HTMColor$, R%, G%, B%
    DOSPalette(I%).R = R%
    DOSPalette(I%).G = G%
    DOSPalette(I%).B = B%
NEXT

FOR C% = 1 TO 3
    C2% = 4 - C%
    FOR B% = 0 TO 7
        FOR F% = 0 TO 15
            R1% = DOSPalette(F%).R: R2% = DOSPalette(B%).R
            G1% = DOSPalette(F%).G: G2% = DOSPalette(B%).G
            B1% = DOSPalette(F%).B: B2% = DOSPalette(B%).B
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).R = (R1% * C% + R2% * C2%) \ 4
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).G = (G1% * C% + G2% * C2%) \ 4
            FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).B = (B1% * C% + B2% * C2%) \ 4
        NEXT
    NEXT
NEXT

'MS-DOS Text Mode 16 Color Palette
DATA 000000,0000AA,00AA00,00AAAA,AA0000,AA00AA,AA5500,AAAAAA
DATA 555555,5555FF,55FF55,55FFFF,FF5555,FF55FF,FFFF55,FFFFFF

CMD$ = COMMAND$
IF CMD$ <> "" THEN
    DisplayRAW CMD$, 80, 25
ELSE
    DisplayRAW "LOGO.RAW", 80, 25
END IF

'DEF SEG = &HB800: BSAVE "LOGO.BSV", 0, 4000

COLOR 7, 0

DO: Hit$ = UCASE$(INKEY$): LOOP WHILE Hit$ = ""

SUB DisplayRAW (FileName$, W%, H%)

    FileNum% = FREEFILE
    OPEN FileName$ FOR BINARY AS FileNum%
    CLS : WIDTH W%, H%
    ScanLine$ = SPACE$(W% * 3)
    FOR Y% = 0 TO H% - 1
        GET #1, , ScanLine$
        FOR X% = 0 TO W% - 1
            R% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 1, 1))
            G% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 2, 1))
            B% = ASC(MID$(ScanLine$, X% * 3 + 3, 1))
            TextPSet X%, Y%, R%, G%, B%
        NEXT
    NEXT
    CLOSE FileNum%

END SUB

SUB HTMtoRGB (HTMColor$, Red%, Green%, Blue%)
    Red% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 1, 2))
    Green% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 3, 2))
    Blue% = VAL("&H" + MID$(HTMColor$, 5, 2))
END SUB

SUB TextPixel (Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%)
    ' °±²Û (32,176,177,178,219)
   
    Diff% = 768: BGround% = 0
    FOR F% = 0 TO 15
        RDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).R - Red%)
        GDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).G - Green%)
        BDiff% = ABS(DOSPalette(F%).B - Blue%)
        NewDiff% = RDiff% + GDiff% + BDiff%
        IF NewDiff% < Diff% THEN
            Diff% = NewDiff%: Char$ = "Û": FGround% = F%
        END IF
    NEXT

    FOR C% = 1 TO 3
        C2% = 4 - C%
        FOR B% = 0 TO 7
            FOR F% = 0 TO 15
                RDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).R - Red%)
                GDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).G - Green%)
                BDiff% = ABS(FakePalette(F%, B%, C%).B - Blue%)
                NewDiff% = RDiff% + GDiff% + BDiff%
                IF NewDiff% < Diff% THEN
                    Diff% = NewDiff%: Char$ = CHR$(175 + C%)
                    FGround% = F%: BGround% = B%
                END IF
            NEXT
        NEXT
    NEXT

END SUB

SUB TextPSet (X%, Y%, Red%, Green%, Blue%)
    TextPixel Red%, Green%, Blue%, Char$, FGround%, BGround%
    LOCATE Y% + 1, X% + 1: COLOR FGround%, BGround%: PRINT Char$;
END SUB

Yeah, I don’t think that’s particularly feasible with my prime directives in coding things meant to render on a potato. If I’m ever gonna revisit that old code again, I want it to continue to be able to run on old-school 286 CPUs, real raw hardware.

Like sure I don’t mind writing old QBasic/QuickBasic code under an emulator, but if I’m writing on such an antiquated language for legacy hardware, I wanna be able to transfer it to a floppy disk and run it on actual hardware from the era.

Other than that, going back to the good old days, I don’t see much reason to do such coding on modern systems. Though I will say this much, neofetch and the newer fastfetch are pretty awesome character based sysinfo utilities!

I just don’t see myself trying to jump through conversion hoops such as ASCII to ANSI for such a project to even keep me awake…

I’m not exactly sure how I’d incorporate both techniques into the same rendering system though.

My method doesn’t use letters, numbers or punctuation characters, mine uses the DOS mode block characters, blank space, 25%, 50%, 75% halftone characters, and the 100% solid block character.

I could probably get a little closer to sharper shape edges with my method if I add in the upper half block and lower half block characters, but when using those characters I’m no longer able to use the halftone dithering and would be limited to 8 background and 16 foreground colors…

I dunno where I’d really even start (over) again to use alphanumeric characters with my text rendering method…

I made one myself many years ago for DOS, but mine renders in 512 pseudo halftone colors from a base palette of 16 colors. Results look pretty nice for whatever it’s worth, but yeah mine doesn’t focus on their efforts to get more crisp edges.

Still neat though, food for my thoughts even, should I ever revisit my old project.

I was just joking too, but dad seriously said that, almost every time we had friends over and a doobie going around…

Umm, okay. I still have ashes available, you gotta roll it and smoke it yourself though…

Just tell the dude you’re refilling the grave, as you toss the bones back in…

My dad wanted us to roll his ashes into a joint and smoke him.

We respected his wishes to be cremated, but I’m sorry daddy, I don’t think anyone’s gonna be smoking your ashes…

Is it even looking for black and white / greyscale photos?

What if I give it a B&W of my own face? 🤔

Just use a picture of your dead grandpa, I’m sure he won’t mind…

That’s cool 👍

I’d still end up cleaning it, both to avoid future corrosion, plus that soot freaking stinks!

Extreme case story here…

I had a fella bring his computer into our shop for diagnostics and hopefully repair after a house fire. The case was originally light grey, but it was covered outside and even inside with nasty stinking black soot and the front panel was mostly melted.

We checked it out though, the PSU had failed. So we pulled out our test PSU and tried that, and the nasty stinking computer actually booted up!

Well, the boss didn’t want to be responsible for this mess, so he told me I could take it as a side job if the customer really wanted it fixed. He already knew that I’ve successfully salvaged flood damage computers, so why not?

Anyways, I took the motherboard and expansion cards out and took them to our local car wash. I soaked the boards with tire/engine cleaner, then pressure washed the crud away with plain water. Then I used an air compressor to dry it as best as I could, and then left it on the roof of my car in the hot sun for like 4 hours.

Everything worked fine after all that, so I hooked him up with a spare computer case I had laying around to replace his nasty half melted case.

You can actually pressure wash the circuit boards as long as there’s no power (do NOT pressure wash the PSU at all!), as long as the boards are completely dry and clean before reassembling and powering it back up. Just, be careful around any sensitive parts, and do not pressure wash the CPU socket, unless you like all your precious pins bent. Also, don’t pressure wash the fans or mechanical drives or such.

This technique isn’t for the faint of heart though, and I usually only reserve such drastic measures for boards that have already failed due to spill damage, corrosion, or other extremes where the board would otherwise end up in the scrap pile.

So, snow flurries jizz?

Well damn, now I need a condom umbrella…

Indeed its not a problem, just an inconvenience for him.

It’s not the end of the world, I was just asking advice on his behalf.

No hurry at all, just asking on his behalf.

But how we ever know if a weiner dissolves in acid otherwise? 🤔