AIM
From Tractatus
Some of you may have noticed that I have started using an AIM icon which looks like this: 
. You may be wondering about the origin of this mysterious box. Due to my involvement with the Gallery of Suprematist Art You might think that it is a homage to the great Suprematist master Kasimir Malevich
. But, it is not.
In fact, this is a homage to one of the most fascinating works of art I have ever seen. I was visiting the Tate Gallery in London in the summer of 1998 with my brothers and parents. Naturally, the highlight was their collection of drawings, paintings and prints by William Blake. However, in a nearby gallery there hung a work whose name I don't remember. Colored an apparently uniform red-orange, it hung, without frame, lit by spotlight in the middle of a gallery wall. At first I thought that this was a minimalistic joke. Then I started to wonder if the painter had really just painted the entire canvas orange, or if there was in fact a gradation of color, or layering. This turned out to be difficult to determine, because portions of the painting were brightly lit, making contrast hard to sort out. I spent about 5 minutes attempting, by examing from different angles, and attempting to block the light to determine if the color was uniform.
Through this close examination I believe I was able to divine the artist's intent. So that this lesson might not be lost, I have attempted to faithfully reproduce the work of art. Although I am not entirely happy with the result (color correction, and avoiding the loss of subtleties through compression proved difficult). I took my full size image, and carefully selected pixels for the icon itself. Much of the grandeur of a 1 meter by 2 meter canvas is lost, but that is the price we must pay in this digital age. Enjoy!
--Iain 00:05, 13 Sep 2005 (EDT)
Well, I really liked the above, but I decided to change my Logo to something more personal. I may go back to the more artistic icon, but for now, I will use 
image.
I first saw this symbol when it was drawn by Neil Ferrin. My interest in it grew as time passed.
The symbol is produced by drawing a regular octagon, and numbering the vertices from 0 to 7 clockwise. Start at the vertex numbered 0. Add one by drawing a line to the vertex labeled 1. Add two by drawing a line to the vertex numbered 1 + 2 = 3. Add three by drawing a line to the vertex numbered 3 + 3 = 6. And so forth.
I drew the logo using the following postscript
%!
/symbol{
gsave
newpath
% move to the location stored on stack. This is the center of the symbol
moveto
% Now the other parameter is the diameter of the symbol.
% move to the start point.
% This is found by rotating 22.5 degrees, and moving left.
22.5 rotate
dup 2 div neg 0 rmoveto
-22.5 rotate
% Then rotate back
% Now, we compute the side length
dup
22.5 sin
mul
% And finally, we compute the side length div root 2
dup
2 sqrt
div
% So now the stack is:
% diameter, side_length, offset length
% First move is forward, one side length.
2 copy [0 1 0 0 0 0] transform rlineto
-45 rotate
2 copy [0 1 1 1 0 0] transform rlineto
-90 rotate
2 copy [1 1 1 1 0 0] transform rlineto
-135 rotate
2 copy [1 1 2 0 0 0] transform rlineto
-180 rotate
2 copy [1 0 2 0 0 0] transform rlineto
-225 rotate
2 copy [1 0 1 -1 0 0] transform rlineto
-270 rotate
% No need to copy the last one
[0 0 1 -1 0 0] transform rlineto
1 setlinecap
1 setlinejoin
stroke
grestore
} def
8 setlinewidth
199 99.5 99.5 symbol
Isn't postscript cool?
I also like the fact that the symbol can be percieved to contain 'I' and 'A' and 'N'. I was always partial to octagons.
--Iain 00:05, 13 Sep 2005 (EDT)