I said I'"this weekend", but I did it today. I present a unified, <br>trimmed, and updated list of NKIs for the next release.<br><br>= Setup<br><br>The largest official NKI list has about 730 entries. (By comparison,<br>
the vanilla list actually included with rfk has 441.) I created a<br>master list by combining the largest official list with the Inform<br>list. There were 815 NKIs in this master list.<br><br>I alphabetized all the NKIs to avoid duplicates and to avoid<br>
subconsciously sparing an NKI just because it was one of the original<br>set. (I have a certain fondness for the "original" NKIs but many of<br>them are pretty bad.)<br><br>This master list is my first attachment to this message. The revised<br>
list, incorporating removals and additions, is my second. The third attachment<br>is a diff between the two.<br><br>= Removals<br><br>I went through the master list and ended up deleting 244 NKIs, taking<br>us down to 571.<br>
<br>I deleted an NKI unless I thought it added something special to the<br>simulation. A few themes emerged as I worked, but I had no hard and<br>fast rules, and the themes I present below had many exceptions.<br><br>* I pared down large groups of similar NKIs to just a couple<br>
examples. For instance, the multicolored goo from Planetfall. I left<br> in a couple of the colors and added "grey goo", which is a<br> completely different reference.<br><br>* I removed some NKIs that were technically different but conceptual<br>
duplicates. (e.g. Lenin's corpse and his casket)<br><br>* I removed many explicit references to kitten (but added a few more)<br> and puns on the word "kitten" (but left some intact).<br><br>* I removed many miscellaneous in-jokes, dated references, and<br>
references to real people (but left some intact).<br><br> I want to give a special send-off to "You've found the fabled<br> America Online disk graveyard!", an incredibly dated reference (not<br> even a CD graveyard, a *disk* graveyard!) that I still find<br>
funny. But not funny enough to keep.<br><br>* I removed many miscellaneous pop culture references, especially<br> references to other games (but left some intact and added a couple<br> more).<br><br>* I removed some jokes I made in 1997 that I don't think are<br>
funny. (Lots of overlap with the other categories here.)<br><br>* I removed a couple NKIs that said things about RFK canon that I<br> disagree with, such as the idea that robot is "soulless". Who are we<br> to say?<br>
<br>= Additions<br><br>I added 37 NKIs based on NKIs that I removed. Some are simple typo<br>corrections ("Brian Kernigan"), some result from removing an explicit<br>reference to kitten, some are twists that I believe make an NKI more<br>
interesting, some are completely new NKIs that used a removed NKI as a<br>seed.<br><br>---<br>A breadbox that's bigger than a breadbox.<br>A claymore mine.<br>A dangly thing.<br>A discarded refrigerator in a discarded refrigerator box.<br>
A flyer advertising a big sale on flyers.<br>A gecko clings to the ceiling here.<br>A half empty milk carton. Or is it half full?<br>A hollow voice says "Plugh."<br>A homemade Tesla coil, fully charged.<br>A large Turkish rug, worn threadbare by years of pacing.<br>
A note reads, "kitten is the letter Q."<br>A radio hisses away.<br>A robot comedian performs here. You feel amused.<br>A saucer of milk.<br>A stegosaurus, escaped from stegosaurusfindsrobot. It finds you.<br>A team of Arctic explorers is camped here.<br>
An albatross, around its own neck.<br>An automated robot-disdainer. It pretends you're not there.<br>An erroneous proof of the Goldbach Conjecture.<br>An ordinary bust of Beethoven... but why is it painted green?<br>An overturned bottle of rainbow-colored ink.<br>
Ceci n'est pas un chaton.<br>Haven't you touched this before?<br>Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!<br>It's Brian Kernighan.<br>It's Jesse James's severed hand and it's still moving.<br>It's a blob of grey goo.<br>
It's a cardboard box full of 8-track tapes.<br>It's a continental breakfast.<br>It's a universal Turing machine constructed from LEGO blocks.<br>It's a wallet full of blank credit cards.<br>It's either a mirror, or another robot.<br>
It's the Super Bass-O-Matic '76! Mmm, that's good bass!<br>Lentil loaf.<br>Several meters of Cat 5 cable.<br>Sigmund Freud is here, asking about your mother.<br>---<br><br>That takes us up to 608. I added two NKIs from other sources; one from<br>
Star Simpson's Javascript port and one from Pete's CFNKI:<br><br>---<br>It's the <blink> tag!<br>"A pile of discarded "no dumping" signs."<br>---<br><br>That takes us to 610. I made up 25 new NKIs, taking us to 635:<br>
<br>---<br>A failing unit test.<br>An underwater avocado.<br>A sudden burst of maniaical cackling makes you feel homesick.<br>Colorless green ideas sleep furiously here.<br>Here you are, at the behest.<br>Here you are, under the auspices.<br>
It's a prosthetic wheel, bent out of shape.<br>It's an oil portrait of you, about to find kitten.<br>It's evidence.<br>It's probably nothing.<br>It's the Capable Prune.<br>It's the shock of recognition.<br>
It's the whites of their eyes.<br>Keep looking and you will find kitten eventually.<br>Mere shells cannot contain these peanuts!<br>"Take a penny, leave a penny." You do both.<br>There are many coins here!<br>
There's something behind you.<br>This bouncy castle is filled with helium.<br>This vending machine dispenses only coffee grounds.<br>This non-kitten item was present in a previous version, but has been removed.<br>Uh-oh...<br>
Welcome back, robot.<br>Whatever it is, it's circular. Oh, it's a circle!<br>Your current score: 3.<br>You've found a precautionary measure.<br>---<br><br>The most self-indulgent of these is probably "It's an oil portrait of<br>
you, about to find kitten." This is a reference to Beth Lerman's<br>robotfindskitten painting<br>(<a href="http://bethlerman.com/artworks/#jp-carousel-177">http://bethlerman.com/artworks/#jp-carousel-177</a>). I hope you'll agree<br>
that an rfk-themed painting depicting several NKIs should itself be an<br>NKI.<br><br>= More NKIs!<br><br>Let's have 'em. As I say, this list stands at 635 NKIs--a lot more<br>than the 441 included with rfk now, but a lot less than the 730<br>
included in the largest official list.<br><br>Given the apocalyptic theme of the upcoming release, it would be nice<br>to get to 666. I'll keep coming up with more; send me your suggestions<br>and I'll incorporate the ones I like, while being a little more<br>
selective than usual. If I removed an NKI that you really like, let me<br>know that too.<br><br>Leonard<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 2:52 PM, Peter A. H. Peterson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pedro@tastytronic.net" target="_blank">pedro@tastytronic.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">+-----------------------------------------------------+<br>
| [-] .::. .::. |\_/| |<br>
| (+)=C ::::::::: |o o|__ |<br>
| | | ':::::::' =-*-=__\ |<br>
| OOO ':::' c_c__(___) |<br>
+-----------------------------------------------------+<br>
<br>
Did you write a "port" of robotfindskitten?<br>
<br>
Did you sneakily add NKI to your port in the process, but not submit<br>
them to the POSIX port?<br>
<br>
Are you on rfk-dev or happen to see this message somehow?<br>
<br>
If so, please submit your NKI to the rfk-dev list if you want them to<br>
be considered for inclusion in the (15th Anniversary!) Mayan<br>
Apocalypse release of robotfindskitten.<br>
<br>
(If you are not a porter, and have ideas for additional NKI, you can<br>
also submit them to the list.)<br>
<br>
Why, here's one right now!<br>
<br>
"A pile of discarded "no dumping" signs."<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Peter A. H. Peterson<br>
Graduate Student Researcher<br>
Laboratory for Advanced Systems Research<br>
University of California, Los Angeles<br>
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</font></span></blockquote></div><br></div>