How can one explain the phenomenon that is Michael Niedermayer? Perhaps
he is a superintelligent alien sent to observe us, who hacks on ffmpeg
for amusement, and employs a disarming writing style to direct attention
away from his superintelligence. It's also possible he's either a
cybernetically enhanced human, or a wildly successful AI project.
Either way, there must be great wisdom contained in his writing. Perhaps
most of this is contained in code. But for laypeople, studying some of
his quotes might provide some benefits.

I have tried to identify the most prototypical M.N. posts. A large
fraction of his posts fall into one of the formats below. A few of the
posts highlighted below are special and don't belong into any large
category.

Here are a few top ranking candidates. IT IS VERY IMPERATIVE THAT YOU
READ EACH AND EVERY LETTER OF EACH AND EVERY ONE.

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/20008 ("use cvs")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19791 ("use cvs, jerk")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19444 ("use cvs, n00b")

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18810 ("fixed")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19755 (samples help)

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19563 ("applied")

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18473 ("rejected")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19462 (also rejected)
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19384 ("patch kinda sux")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19284 ("ur patch sux")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19734 ("3 sux 1 ok")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/20583 (very busy guy)
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/26551 (even mn has limits)

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18750 ("ogg sucks bad")

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19559 ("read bugreports.html")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19118 ("read bugreports.html")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18647 ("ur bugreport sux")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18369 ("rtfm")
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/18443 ("make distclean")

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/20578 (bad posting howto)

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19385 (nice 1-liner)

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/19216 (nice flamewar)

http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/x264-devel/2005-12/msg00004.html (P4 slam)

and finally:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/15641 ("grep free snow.c")