+-----------------------------------------------------+
| robotfindskitten.org v1600005.334b |
| It's a webpage, folded into the shape of a crane. |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| An Introduction | .[rfk)
| |:-[home)
| You all know the score. You detail the advantages |:-[rfk news)
| of Linux to your boss. You're pushing hard to get |:-[software)
| free software's foot in the door. You bring in |:-[submit a port)
| charts, reports, even copies of Jesse Berst's |:-[screenshots)
| Anchordesk. But in the end, it all comes down to |:-[download)
| one thing: where are the Zen simulations for |:-[the source)
| Linux? |:-[lists)
| |:-[devteam)
| Look no further. robotfindskitten is in fact a Zen |:-[sponsors)
| simulation. And it's for Linux. And the PalmOS. |:-[contact info)
| And the Sega Dreamcast. And your Web Browser. And |`-[afterword)
| an empty pop can. The application of this to the |`-[PLAY)
| previous paragraph is left as an exercise for the |
| reader. |
| |
| History of robotfindskitten |
| |
| P. A. Peterson II originally stumbled across the |
| contest concept 'robotfindskitten' when perusing |
| Jake Berendes' web pages in 1996, which he found |
| via the Crupper Scupper Supper Upper and the |
| Flupperdupper Maleatora's early vision into |
| search-engine (and Web- Counter(tm)) tom-foolery. |
| Not led by the promise of porn, but instead by the |
| 10k-per-day hits their site got in 1996. |
| Jake had a contest for his friends called |
| "robotfindskitten", wherein they would submit |
| pictures depicting, well, robotfindskitten. |
| |
| Apparently not too many people submitted. |
| |
| Well, ok, two people submitted, but both of those |
| were drawings of a robot obliterating a kitten in |
| some way. kitten remained unfound. |
| |
| Later, Peterson started "Nerth Pork", a |
| now-defunct webzine for the output of some good |
| stuff and a also a quite a lot of crap. Peterson |
| thought that moving the "robotfindskitten" contest |
| to Nerth Pork would be useful, fun, and might |
| attract submissions. |
| |
| It didn't. # |
| |
| Well, not many. |
| |
| Leonard Richardson (of Crummy and segfault.org |
| fame) originally wrote "robotfindskitten" for DOS |
| in 1997 as his submission to the robotfindskitten |
| contest. It won first prize (the fact that there |
| were no other entrants may have had something to |
| do with it). |
| |
| In 1999, Richardson decided to rewrite |
| robotfindskitten for everyone's favorite operating |
| system called Linux: Linux! Almost two years |
| later, robotfindskitten was rediscovered by |
| a bunch of free-software lunatics who thought that |
| rfk love needed to be spread around. |
| |
| Hilarity ensued. |
| |
| Actually, everyone found great fulfillment in |
| simulatedly being robot, finding kitten, and so |
| they decided that robotfindskitten needed to be |
| brought to the rest of the world. |
| |
| And then came a PalmOS port. And then a CGI. And |
| then Dreamcast. And then GameBoy. And then |
| someone wrote robotfindskitten for an empty pop |
| can... you get the idea, and the rest... |
| |
| ...is history. |
| |
| Yet to be written. |
| |
| Now, kitten-finding-by-robot goodness is available |
| to all for the cost of a download. The license? |
| GPL, of course. |
| |
| Enjoy. |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
r o b o t f i n d s k i t t e n . o r g
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| [-] .::. .::. |\_/| |
| (+)=C ::::::::: |o o|__ |
| | | ':::::::' =-*-=__\ |
| OOO ':::' c_c__(___) |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
-- finding kitten since 1997 --