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Today I clicked in this link in TeX StackExchange http://ctan.org/pkg/svg and I got this message (screenshot below).

In particular, what does it mean that "Latex Productions International has acquired the world wide exclusive rights from D.F.Knuth" !?

Obviously ctan.org changed hands or something, what happened to ctan.org? what would be a good link to use for TeX packages?

ctan

Martin Schröder
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alfC
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    Just weird, I got the same popup. I think that page has been hacked. – A Feldman Apr 01 '16 at 03:55
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    Just check the date:) – yannisl Apr 01 '16 at 03:57
  • Better keep the question here, for historical reasons... and so we don't fall again for the same! – alfC Apr 01 '16 at 04:01
  • And here I was thinking that a Microsoft shell company based out of Shanghai had acquired CTAN. – A Feldman Apr 01 '16 at 04:03
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    Did you note the name, "Donald F Knuth"? – Masroor Apr 01 '16 at 04:09
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    The character means "insanity". So there's a bit of clue to the joke. Nice job, whoever wrote this up! – A.Ellett Apr 01 '16 at 04:21
  • @A.Ellett if you hover the mouse over the symbol it says "cracy" (sic), (in line with all the other misspelled words.) – alfC Apr 01 '16 at 04:41
  • @AFeldman, why do you say "Microsoft shell company"? – alfC Apr 01 '16 at 04:42
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    It seems barbara had a hand in writing some, but not all, of the sentences. Either that, or some parts of the message are "official statements" and others are not. :-) – Paul Gessler Apr 01 '16 at 05:00
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    @alfC it was the "You can help latex to rule the World!" line at the end. I didn't truly rule it out at first because of SourceForge http://www.techrepublic.com/article/its-time-to-go-away-sourceforge/ and https://opensource.com/business/16/3/when-selling-site-means-selling-community-part-2 I guess some of the funniest jokes poke at legitimate fears. – A Feldman Apr 01 '16 at 12:17
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    @PaulGessler -- no, barbara didn't have anything to do with it! i only just now saw it when i logged in. (it's still early morning here, and i'm allergic to mornings.) check out http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb19-2/tb59hoax.pdf for an earlier instance of similar fun and games. – barbara beeton Apr 01 '16 at 12:30
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    using Comic Sans would have make the joke more obvious! – ebosi Apr 01 '16 at 13:09
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    I'd love to know what font that is! https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont doesn't recognize it :( – Olivier Dulac Apr 03 '16 at 20:43
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    @oliver-dulac The font is Courgette (https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Courgette). It is free and can easily used in (Lua)TeX. – Gerd Neugebauer Apr 03 '16 at 22:39
  • @GerdNeugebauer: many thanks! Really nice font :) – Olivier Dulac Apr 04 '16 at 16:21
  • Hilarious! When I first read the announcement I went ballistic with anger. I neither took note of the date, nor the "F" in Knuth, and was of course oblivious to the meaning of the Chinese character. I feel like a fool. So glad it was a hoax! – Reinhard Neuwirth Apr 06 '16 at 02:08

4 Answers4

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It's currently Friday, April 1 in Europe. Happy April Fools' Day!

(Just in case you didn't know, April 1st is a traditional day for people to play pranks on each other.)

Arun Debray
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    Also note that all links from the popup lead to unregistered domains. :-) – Martin Schröder Apr 01 '16 at 05:08
  • I was fooled as well by the popup, at the beginning!! :D AhAhAh!! ;D Nice joke!! :) – rmbianchi Apr 01 '16 at 09:48
  • In many countries the day of the practical jokes (if there are one) is not April 1. Probably this day many people believed that CTAN was the last hacked site as some weeks ago happened with Linux Mint. – Fran Apr 05 '16 at 21:06
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Our webmaster Gerd Neugebauer invented this joke. He did a great job!

Manfred Lotz -- CTAN team

Manfred Lotz
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It's April Fools' Day.

The Chinese character 疯 actually means "crazy", "mad" or "insane".

draw
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It caught me, I was livid and afraid to click onto anything, restarted all the usual things a couple of times. Good joke and nice to be caught out on April Fools! :) I got caught out by the 'Apple buys iFixit' joke a couple of years ago.

Tudor Eynon
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