179 lines
8.1 KiB
Plaintext
179 lines
8.1 KiB
Plaintext
# @(#)Notes 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
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# $FreeBSD$
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Warning:
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The fortunes contained in the fortune database have been collected
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haphazardly from a cacophony of sources, in number so huge it
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boggles the mind. It is impossible to do any meaningful quality
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control on attributions, or lack thereof, or exactness of the quote.
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Since this database is not used for profit, and since entire works
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are not published, it falls under fair use, as we understand it.
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However, if any half-assed idiot decides to make a profit off of
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this, they will need to double check it all, and nobody not involved
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of such an effort makes any warranty that anything in the database
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bears any relation to the real world of literature, law, or other
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bizzarrity.
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==> GENERAL INFORMATION
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By default, fortune retrieves its fortune files from the directory
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/usr/share/games/fortune. A fortune file has two parts: the source file
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(which contains the fortunes themselves) and the data file which describes
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the fortunes. The data file always has the same name as the fortune file
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with the string ".dat" concatenated, i.e. "fort" is the standard fortune
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database, and "fort.dat" is the data file which describes it. See
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strfile(8) for more information on creating the data files.
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Fortunes are split into potentially offensive and not potentially
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offensive parts. The offensive version of a file has the same name as the
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non-offensive version with "-o" concatenated, i.e. "fort" is the standard
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fortune database, and "fort-o" is the standard offensive database. The
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fortune program automatically assumes that any file with a name ending in
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"-o" is potentially offensive, and should therefore only be displayed if
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explicitly requested, either with the -o option or by specifying a file name
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on the command line.
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Potentially offensive fortune files should NEVER be maintained in
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clear text on the system. They are rotated (see caesar(6)) 13 positions.
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To create a new, potentially offensive database, use caesar to rotate it,
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and then create its data file with the -x option to strfile(8). The fortune
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program automatically decrypts the text when it prints entries from such
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databases.
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Anything which would not make it onto network prime time programming
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(or which would only be broadcast if some discredited kind of guy said it)
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MUST be in the potentially offensive database. Fortunes containing any
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explicit language (see George Carlin's recent updated list) MUST be in the
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potentially offensive database. Political and religious opinions are often
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sequestered in the potentially offensive section as well. Anything which
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assumes as a world view blatantly racist, mysogynist (sexist), or homophobic
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ideas should not be in either, since they are not really funny unless *you*
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are racist, mysogynist, or homophobic.
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The point of this is that people have should have a reasonable
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expectation that, should they just run "fortune", they will not be offended.
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We know that some people take offense at anything, but normal people do have
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opinions, too, and have a right not to have their sensibilities offended by
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a program which is supposed to be entertaining. People who run "fortune
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-o" or "fortune -a" are saying, in effect, that they are willing to have
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their sensibilities tweaked. However, they should not have their personal
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worth seriously (i.e., not in jest) assaulted. Jokes which depend for their
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humor on racist, mysogynist, or homophobic stereotypes *do* seriously
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assault individual personal worth, and in a general entertainment medium
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we should be able to get by without it.
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==> FORMATTING
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This file describes the format for fortunes in the database. This
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is done in detail to make it easier to keep track of things. Any rule given
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here may be broken to make a better joke.
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[All examples are indented by one tab stop -- KCRCA]
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Numbers should be given in parentheses, e.g.,
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(1) Everything depends.
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(2) Nothing is always.
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(3) Everything is sometimes.
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Attributions are two tab stops, followed by two hyphens, followed by a
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space, followed by the attribution, and are *not* preceded by blank
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lines. Book, journal, movie, and all other titles are in quotes, e.g.,
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$100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at
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which time it will be worth absolutely nothing.
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-- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
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Attributions which do not fit on one (72 char) line should be continued
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on a line which lines up below the first text of the attribution, e.g.,
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-- A very long attribution which might not fit on one
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line, "Ken Arnold's Stupid Sayings"
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Single paragraph fortunes are in left justified (non-indented) paragraphs
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unless they fall into another category listed below (see example above).
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Longer fortunes should also be in left justified paragraphs, but if this
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makes it too long, try indented paragraphs, with indentations of either one
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tab stop or 5 chars. Indentations of less than 5 are too hard to read.
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Laws have the title left justified and capitalized, followed by a colon,
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with all the text of the law itself indented one tab stop, initially
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capitalized, e.g.,
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A Law of Computer Programming:
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Make it possible for programmers to write in English and
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you will find the programmers cannot write in English.
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Limericks are indented as follows, all lines capitalized:
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A computer, to print out a fact,
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Will divide, multiply, and subtract.
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But this output can be
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No more than debris,
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If the input was short of exact.
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Accents precede the letter they are over, e.g., "`^He" for e with a grave
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accent. Underlining is done on a word-by-word basis, with the underlines
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preceding the word, e.g., "__^H^Hhi ____^H^H^H^Hthere".
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No fortune should run beyond 72 characters on a single line without good
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justification (er, no pun intended). And no right margin justification,
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either. Sorry. For BSD people, there is a program called "fmt" which can
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make this kind of formatting easier.
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Definitions are given with the word or phrase left justified, followed by
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the part of speech (if appropriate) and a colon. The definition starts
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indented by one tab stop, with subsequent lines left justified, e.g.,
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Afternoon, n.:
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That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted
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the morning.
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Quotes are sometimes put around statements which are funnier or make more
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sense if they are understood as being spoken, rather than written,
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communication, e.g.,
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"All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that
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keeps us sane."
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Ellipses are always surrounded by spaces, except when next to punctuation,
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and are three dots long.
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"... all the modern inconveniences ..."
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-- Mark Twain
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Human initials always have spaces after the periods, e.g, "P. T. Barnum",
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not "P.T. Barnum". However, "P.T.A.", not "P. T. A.".
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All fortunes should be attributed, but if and only if they are original with
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somebody. Many people have said things that are folk sayings (i.e., are
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common among the folk (i.e., us common slobs)). There is nothing wrong with
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this, of course, but such statements should not be attributed to individuals
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who did not invent them.
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Horoscopes should have the sign indented by one tab stop, followed by the
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dates of the sign, with the text left justified below it, e.g.,
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AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18)
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You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You
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lie a great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be
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careless and impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over
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and over again. People think you are stupid.
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Single quotes should not be used except as quotes within quotes. Not even
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single quotes masquerading as double quotes are to be used, e.g., don't say
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``hi there'' or `hi there' or 'hi there', but "hi there". However, you
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*can* say "I said, `hi there'".
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A long poem or song can be ordered as follows in order to make it fit on a
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screen (fortunes should be 19 lines or less if at all possible) (numbers
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here are stanza numbers):
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11111111111111111111
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11111111111111111111
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11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222
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11111111111111111111 22222222222222222222
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22222222222222222222
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33333333333333333333 22222222222222222222
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33333333333333333333
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33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444
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33333333333333333333 44444444444444444444
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44444444444444444444
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44444444444444444444
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