Top all-time · #964
Patrick Gillespie
Personal blog · patorjk.com · on HN as patorjkprogramminggames
Patrick Gillespie's personal blog at patorjk.com covers programming and games. Since 2010, 72 different Hacker News readers have linked it 88 times, most often “Pronouncing SQL: “S-Q-L” or “sequel”?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- Pronouncing SQL: “S-Q-L” or “sequel”?8 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2012-04-21
- Keyboard Layout Analyser - which layout is best for you?7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2010-09-24
- How to Make Cool Comments in Code6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-03-14
- Text to ASCII Art Generator4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2024-03-16
- Subpixel Snake3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2025-01-24
- Cracking MaGuS’s Fate Zero Encryption (2012)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-11-11
- /keyboard-layout-analyzer/2 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2015-07-01
- /keyboard-layout-analyzer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-12-13
- Text Ascii Art Generator2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-02
- /blog/2012/05/03/cracking-magus-fate-zero-encryption/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-04-12
What Hacker News says?
Keyboard layout shootout: qwerty vs dvorak(s) vs colemak http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/
Comment linking /keyboard-layout-analyzer/
on “My Friends and I Bought an Island”Submitted Code theft: Asciimo: Where have I seen this before? as a story · 172 points
HN discussionNot exactly what you asked for, but this might interest you: > Old School Gaming Filters: Takes a photo and converts it into what it may have looked like on an old school gaming console. http://patorjk.com/old-school-gaming-filters/
Comment linking /old-school-gaming-filters/
on “Game Boy Camera Canon EF Lens Mount (2018)”Submitted Keyboard Layout Analyser - which layout is best for you? as a story · 55 points
HN discussionFunny I was just searching youtube for any videos of VB 3.0 found this guy going through his old programs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKctfEqXVZ4 If you google image search for 'aol progz' there are pictures of FateX, AOHell, Revolution, Icy Hot, Rampage Toolz. Crazy trip down memory lane! Apparently we're not alone: "Steve Case Confirms Zuckerberg as Former AOL Hacker": https://patorjk.com/blog/2014/04/27/stev…
Comment linking /blog/2014/04/27/steve-case-confirms-zuckerberg-as-former-aol-hacker/
on “Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)”Submitted Show HN: Text to ASCII Art Generator (TAAG) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionFurthermore, there's the QUEL language, and SQL is probably going off that, especially with the original name of SEQUEL. Here's an interesting post on it: http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-... FWIW, I use sequel as that's how I learned it. But I also dislike unnecessary syllables so that's my justification.
Comment linking /blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/
on “Learn SQL Interactively on Khan Academy”Submitted Patorjk: Thoughts on Marak Squires / Asciimo Controversy as a story · 9 points
HN discussionIn the demo, he was quick and he didn't even seem to use much autocompletion. However, I wonder if using a different keyboard layout would be helpful. Dvorak a Colmak, for example, place the more frequently used letters on the home row so you'll spend more time with your eyes there. You can evaluate different layouts with a tool like this: http://patorjk.com/keyboard-layout-analyzer/
Comment linking /keyboard-layout-analyzer/
on “OptiKey – Full computer control and speech with your eyes”Submitted Text Ascii Art Generator as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSearched for an ASCII Font generator, but didn't see one. Here's one tool I use: https://patorjk.com/software/taag/#p=testall&f=Graffiti&t=He...
Comment linking /software/taag/
on “Show HN: CSS generator for a high-def glass effect”Submitted How to Make Cool Comments in Code as a story · 4 points
HN discussionBoth pronunciations (SQL/sequel) refer to the same thing, and both are correct. http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-...
Comment linking /blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/
on “This Is 2016 Not 2012”Submitted ASCII Art Generator as a story · 3 points
HN discussionMark is actually an old school AOLer and AIMer and used to program CC chat programs and punters. http://patorjk.com/blog/2013/04/09/was-mark-zuckerberg-an-ao...
Comment linking /blog/2013/04/09/was-mark-zuckerberg-an-aol-add-on-developer/
on “Is your son a computer hacker? (2001)”Submitted Where is Bob? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIn 2001, I submitted a AIM password decryption program to patorjk.com . It's still there today. Ctrl+F "AIM PW Decrypter" @ http://patorjk.com/programming/vb6examples.htm I recently rewrote the code in Javascript just for fun. I'll have to post it somewhere someday. --- Tangentially related, I once stole a 4-character AIM screenname from someone who infected a computer at my school with some backdoor. I found his IP…
Comment linking /programming/vb6examples.htm
on “What hacking AOL taught a generation of programmers”Submitted Visualizing bls.gov data for Computer Science related jobs as a story · 3 points
HN discussionWhat a scene-- these are great: https://patorjk.com/blog/2012/05/03/cracking-magus-fate-zero... I looked further and found each cipher was simply doing a character offset, meaning each cipher was a Caesar Cipher. The offsets were 70, 97, 116 and 101, respectively. If you look up the corresponding ASCII code for those numbers, you get the word “Fate”. I tried out this new decoding strategy and was able to successfull…
Comment linking /blog/2012/05/03/cracking-magus-fate-zero-encryption/
on “What hacking AOL taught a generation of programmers”Submitted Text to ASCII Art Generator as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI think the jury's still out on that one. I've always spelled it out (and I always will, dammit!), I've had professors either spell it out or pronounce it, and it very much seems to be a mix of regional preference and past experience. Of course, there's two arguments here: One is that SEQUEL was changed to SQL to avoid possible trademark issues (thus implicating that this also necessitated a change in the pronunciat…
Comment linking /blog/2012/01/26/pronouncing-sql-s-q-l-or-sequel/
on “English has been my pain for 15 years (2013)”Submitted Was Mark Zuckerberg an AOL add-on developer? (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionClean links for mobile users Game: https://patorjk.com/games/subpixel-snake/ Code: https://github.com/patorjk/subpixel-snake Resource for subpixel geometries: https://geometrian.com/resources/subpixelzoo/
Comment linking /games/subpixel-snake/
on “New book-sorting algorithm almost reaches perfection”Submitted Subpixel Snake as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYour comments led me to discover Figlet ( http://www.figlet.org ) and ASCII art generator ( http://patorjk.com/software/taag ). Weekend customization times! :-)
Comment linking /software/taag
on “Butterfly: Your everyday terminal in your web browser”Submitted Text to ASCII Art Generator as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere were these things called API spies back in the VB6 days that would figure out the appropriate way to refer to whatever you clicked. The one from PatorJK would even produce code to do things to it from downloadable templates. It's still around: https://patorjk.com/blog/software/ I wonder why no one ever made something like this for the web.
Comment linking /blog/software/
on “I miss the programmable web (2021)”Submitted Pronouncing SQL: “S-Q-L” or “sequel”? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThat page isn't loading for me, but he was not the Magus behind the famous Fate X AOL prog. I actually talked to that Magus and several of his friends a few years ago [1]. I'd heard Lamo claimed to be Magus, and maybe he went by that handle in some cases, but he was not the author of Fate X. [1] http://patorjk.com/blog/2012/05/03/cracking-magus-fate-zero-...
Comment linking /blog/2012/05/03/cracking-magus-fate-zero-encryption/
on “Adrian Lamo has died”Submitted Pronouncing SQL: S-Q-L or Sequel? (2012) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
