+-----------------------------------------------------+ | robotfindskitten TI-83+ v1.0 7 September 2009 | | It's a readme, folded into the shape of a crane. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ | | | An Introduction | | | | You all know the score. You're working on a hard | | problem for math class. You're using y=, 2nd+ | | calc+whatever, fnInt( . And you desperately need | | to know one thing: where are the Zen simulations | | on your calculator? | | | | Look no further. robotfindskitten is in fact a Zen | | simulation. And it's for the TI-83+. And the 84+. | | And Linux. And the PalmOS. And the Sega Dreamcast. | | And your Web Browser. And an empty pop can. The | | application of this to the previous sentence 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 the | | 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 avaliable | | to all for the cost of a download. The license? | | GPL, of course. | | | | Enjoy. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ | | | robotfindskitten for Your Calculator | | | | robotfindskitten will work on the TI-83+, TI-83+SE,| | TI-84+, and TI-84+SE. To use it, first send | | prgmRFK and prgmRFKDATA to your calculator. You | | must include both. Futher more, prgmRFKDATA must | | be archived. This is to free up more RAM. If you | | don't like it, feel free to change it. | | | | robotfindskitten will work from any Ion-compatible | | shell, including MirageOS, Noshell, and Crunchy. | | robotfindskitten will also work without a shell. | | If you are such a shell-less person, you can run | | it by pressing 2nd+0, selecting the Asm( item, | | pressing Enter, and then selecting prgmRFK from | | the Prgm menu. Run the command. | | | | The simulation itself should be pretty straight- | | forward. The game will briefly explain itself. | | Pressing any key on your calculator will start the | | simulation. Use the arrow keys to move. It is also | | possible to quit by pressing Clear, but you would | | never want to do that before finding kitten, would | | you? | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ | | | A FINAL THOUGHT | | --------------- | | | | "Day and night I feverishly worked upon the | | machine, creating both a soul which could desire | | its goal, and a body with which it could realize | | it. Many who saw my creation called it an | | abomination, and denied me grant money. But they | | could not dissuade me from my impossible task. It | | was a spectre that tormented me always, a ghost I | | had to give a form and a life, lest it consume me | | from the inside. And when at last my task was | | done, when the grey box on wheels was complete and | | when it, as well as I, knew what had to be done, I | | felt deep sympathy for the machine. For I had not | | destroyed the phantom, but merely exorcized it | | into another body. The robot knew not why this | | task had to be performed, for I could not imbue it | | with knowledge I did not myself posess. And at the | | same time, I felt a sweeping sense of relief sweep | | over me, that somehow, the dream that had driven | | me for my entire life had come one step closer to | | fruition. "As I vocally activated the robot, I | | realized that it was following my instructions, | | but not out of any desire to obey me. Had I | | remained silent, it would have performed | | exactly the same operations. We were two beings | | controlled by the same force now. And yet, seeking | | vainly to hold some illusion of control over the | | machine I thought I had created, I gave my final | | command. | | | | "`GO!' I told the box as it began to roll out of | | my workshop into the frozen desert beyond. `FIND | | KITTEN!'" | | | | --The Book of Found Kittens, pages 43-4, | | author unknown | | | +-----------------------------------------------------+ r o b o t f i n d s k i t t e n +-----------------------------------------------------+ | [-] .::. .::. |\_/| | | (+)=C ::::::::: |o o|__ | | | | ':::::::' =-*-=__\ | | OOO ':::' c_c__(___) | +-----------------------------------------------------+ -- finding kitten since 1997 --