Code X was a 60-step algorithm I wrote that fetched the Google news page once a day at one minute after midnight, transformed the text into an image, and then uploaded the image to a website where it could be viewed along with all previously generated images. Although seemingly identical, every image, like a fingerprint, was unique.
The first version of the program, which produced black-and-white images, ran from 8 April 2006 to 3 June 2008. A revamped version of the program, which produced color images ran from 23 December 2007 to 6 November 2008.
Code X ended when hardware it was running on, a headless Dell Dimension 4100 desktop, had to be removed from service.
In 2010, I used the images Code X generated during its lifetime to create Flash animations. The running speed is six images per second. In the color version, a format change is noticeable around two-thirds of the way through. It was needed to accommodate an apparent increase in the amount of text on the Google news page starting around the end of May 2008.
A review of Code X by Christian Bök appeared on Harriet, the blog of the Poetry Foundation.
The last Code X image:
Code X 2008-11-06