Monthly Archives: March 2026

MCICR: The Color Crunching Algorithm Time Forgot

You know, when I wrote that initial post on PageMill, I wasn’t expecting to find a new rabbit hole to go down every time I explore the CD-ROM. It’s just happened that way! There’s so much included on it, so many weird, forgotten relics of the 90s, software you can’t find elsewhere, graphics from companies long gone, that I keep wanting to write about.

For today’s rabbit hole, I only ask you, my reader: are you a gambling sort? Today’s program involves just that, random chance, high stakes, and lawfare. I’m being more than slightly facetious. Sort of. Monte Carlo algorithms aren’t nearly as fun as Monte Carlo itself, but I do regularly downsample full-color PNGs to 256 colors for GIFs and things, and a program on the PageMill CD-ROM proved to be, if nothing else, an impressive and completely forgotten stab at doing just that. Let’s talk about why and look at some Somnolian art and photos along the way.

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