Per TDobes' comments:
* INSTALL.txt corrected to use 4.3.3, not 4.33.
* .htaccess: removed allow_call_time_pass_reference. two confirmations that a) the setting was wrong in the first place, b) there were no adverse affects for the incorrect setting, c) the PHP docs say it is deprecated.
* .htaccess: removed short_open_tag. Running grep -r "<? " * across the entire directory tree of both core and contributions only brought up contributions and no core. I agree that the fuller form is better. The following contributions will need to be updated: modules/edit_template/edit_template.module, sandbox/garym/themes/marvin_2k/templates/page.tpl.php, sandbox/killes/compare.php, sandbox/paolino/import/click.php, themes/spreadfirefox/block.tpl.php. For error's sake, I also did a manual verification for "<?" (no space) across core and came up against nothing in addition to the above contribs.
Per Goba's comments:
* .htaccess: Moved session.auto_start back.
* sites/default/settings.php: Removed track_vars.
Per mailing list comments:
* INSTALL.txt: Added text about the files/ directory, creating it, and permissions.
* INSTALL.txt: Added an example of why Drupal requires cron (the search.module) in an attempt to justify why a crontab is a good, nay, required step.
And my own further analities:
* .htaccess: cleaned up some whitespace valleys (i hate 'em, hate 'em!) and fixed a few stray colons.
* settings.php: minor whitespace error.
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