It's not easy to make software amusing, as a recent contest (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/02/20/uml_jokes/) to crack jokes using Universal Modeling Language (UML) demonstrated.

But flowcharting George Lucas' plan to kill off the Star Wars franchise? Now that's not just funny, it might also be true.

A Cracked.com (http://www.cracked.com/article_16030_20-insane-supervillain-schemes-in-flowchart-form.html) competition has invited geeks and practitioners to map out the top twenty insane super villain schemes using flowcharts.

Among Reg Dev's favorites: L. Ron Hubbard's history of Scientology, landing at number 16, and the adolescent villain, coming in a number 12.

The competition shows that the art of flowcharting is alive and well - even if it has little to do with programming nowadays.

Back in the 1960s, of course, IBM's handsome green flowcharting template was a prized tool that every programmer coveted. There were other templates - but the IBM version was the one to have. It was thinner, the symbol shapes were neater and they were rare. You had to be an IBMer - or know somebody - to get hold of one. Now flowcharts - if they are used at all - are prepared with graphics programs such as the open source Devflowcharter (http://sourceforge.net/projects/devflowcharter) and, sadly, you are unlikely to see a programmer toting a plastic template.

But enough of this. If you missed out on Cracked.com's flowcharting competition, there is another opportunity to demonstrate your smarts. This week's competition (http://www.cracked.com/forums/topic/32156/photoshop-contest-ending-3.19.08-error-messages-you-never-want-to-see) is: Error messages you never want to see, which ends on Wednesday, 19 March, and comes complete with a $50 prize.

Funny things, error messages... (http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/01/28/error_messages/)®

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