I doubt anybody is seriously interested in this, but here it is anyway...
Current version: 0.7 Released: September 11, 2020
[September 11, 2020]
- replaced deprecated CGI.pm Perl module by functionality from URI::QueryParam and HTTP::Headers to re-enable running nonsense in a default CGI environment
- added weight factoring for tags and literals
[February 10, 2001]
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An article on TechDirt.com mentioned a Slashdot Simulator over at BBSpot, while commenting "Yeah, well, when does someone make a Techdirt Story Generator? Huh?" Well, they asked for it...
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Added a template for Humorix (http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/)
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Added code to generate trademarks (either company names made from nonsense word fragments or prescription drug names).
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Added the obligatory Haiku generator
[December 21, 2000]
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Toni Viemero pointed out that users could read arbitrary files on the system using the CGI interface. I changed the code so that all special characters (except dots and hyphens) are removed from filenames, which should prevent users from requesting files not in the current directory.
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Added a "CGI Security" note to the README. I'd recommend that, if you actually want to use this on a public website, you should wrap it in a server-side include or customize the source code.
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Added more improvements to the Slashdot simulator. Jon Katz ramblings are now produced, although this still needs some more tweaking.
[December 14, 2000]
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Peter Suschlik, [email protected], submitted small improvements and cleaned up some regex's.
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Templates can now contain a header (anything before a line with "BEGIN") specifying meta-data, such as any prerequisite datafiles.
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Added code to handle state variables; this a hash table of data that can be used to maintain context and make the output more realistic.
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Created a template for the Slashdot homepage. It makes extensive use of state variables so that, for instance, the headline and body text of each article matches.
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Cleaned up the code in places.
[October 29, 2000]
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CGI support contributed by Fred Hirsch ([email protected]). The same Nonsense script can now be run as a command-line app from the console or as a CGI program from a web browser.
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Created a form.html file that acts as a front-end to the CGI script for testing purposes.
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Added 'bullets' and 'spacers' to go with each item in a list.
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Added shows.data which creates television show titles.
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Added "CongressCritter" to default.data; for when you want to poke fun at a member of the US Congress.
[October 15, 2000]
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Added newspaper.data which contains news, sports, tabloid, and other headlines
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Created newspaper.html.template, which simulates the front page of a small town newspaper
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Added cookie.data which contains silly fortune cookie predictions (the kind you would expect at an Americanized all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant)
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Added insults.data incorporating that list of "Shakespearian Insults" that have been floating across the Net for years
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Added "OrgPolitical" to default.data; this creates a grandiose name for a radical political organization
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Command line parameter -F loads in all datafiles
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It's now possible to embed newlines, braces, and other literal characters using the new {\character} tag
[December 14, 2000]
Some things I have planned (but may or may not get around to implementing):
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"Letters to the Editor" written by ranting local-yokels that you might find printed in a small town newspaper
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Horoscopes
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Absurd patent applications (i.e. "Circular object built in such a way that all points are equidistant from a center point, allowing said object to rotate freely around a center axis." -- in other words, a wheel)
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Term paper or scholarly thesis containing nothing but rambling, incoherent bullshit and illogical mathematical "proofs"
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Random name for a rock band
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More types of insults