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So Long, Hitchhiker: Douglas Adams Dead At 49
Motor was among the first of the hundreds of readers with this sad news: "Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
has died of a heart attack, aged 49." I still remember the first time someone pointed out the Hitchiker's Guide to me, and what a changing point even the first few pages were. It's easy to see he'll be missed.
Douglas Adams is not dead, he just finally got the lift to home.
'what that "Don't panic, the answer is 42"-stuff means?'
It means "all your base are belong to us" in Brittish.
How many more authors are you waiting for to die, just so you can read their unreleased work? He was a human being, damn you. Show some fucking respect before you make ready to gnaw on his corpse you fucking ghoul.
I discovered the guide in the stacks of tapes at a NPR station I interned at when I was a teenager. These were reel tapes, recorded off a feed from the syndicator and used for the very first broadcast of HHGG on NPR. I immediately duped them, and gave copies to my friends. For years afterwards, they were the glue that bound us together, a shared love, whose jokes and absurdities gave us a starting point after not seeing each other for long streches of time. Some of those friends are gone, but I still have my original dupes (on precarious 120 minute length tape). Those tapes are now... 20 years old..? wow... I now have 3 boys who, I'm certain, will enjoy the HHGG as much as I did, but I doubt it will make the same impact on them as it did on me. In 1980, finding humour like Dougas's was hard, especially in the mid-west. To find humour like that, in a radio format no less, was like having a funny bomb dropped on your planet. It completely reshaped the landscape. thank you Douglas Adams. We love you, and we miss you.
Respects to his family.
Don't forget your towel.
That clinches it. There is no God.
Looks like the question was "What is SEVEN times seven?" or something.
Douglas thanks so much for the books, I am very sad to know that I won't get to see you in person. You came by my town on a book tour and I never knew until it was too late. How can I explain what your writing have meant to me and the joy it brings me to tell others about it. My mother had a very hard year at 42 and oddly enough your books eased the pain because she loved them too. You should not have had to die and everyone who has read your books will almost selfishly wished that you would live forever just so we could get more of your viewpoint on life the universe and everything. I was completely shocked to hear that you had died and I hope your life has been as full as you have made all of ours. The world is a much poorer place without you in it. I truly hope your loved ones left behind know how much your wit and humor are loved. I also feel so sad for your creations. You will be greatly missed. Goodbye.
And me with this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side.
Oh God, I'm so depressed...
Yeah, I've had it for a couple of years, love it. What's *really* weird is I had just picked it up and started re-reading them all a couple of weeks ago. Upon telling a couple of my friends, it turned out they were both doing the same thing. Downright spooky.
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
While the Hitchhiker's Guide series is his most popular work, Douglas Adams was also Script Editor for Doctor Who from 1979-1980 and wrote one of the stories, "Shada." Although it was never transmitted in 1979 due to labor strikes at the BBC, it is available as a special tape now. A great story by Douglas Adams and one any fan of his would enjoy.
:-(
Sorry to see another great person involved with Dr. Who go.
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I hate to tell you this, but I'm pretty certain Vonnegut died a couple of years ago.
Posted by polar_bear:
This was the first bit of news I came across after waking up this morning. I realize that everyone dies, but Douglas Adams deserved to have a long and happy life with his family for all the joy he's brought to everyone. I've never met anyone who's read the H2G2 series that didn't enjoy it and sneak a grin just at the mere mention of "42" or "towel." I read the books at a very young age, and they had a profound impact on my sense of humor - and I've never grown tired of reading and re-reading his work.
I don't think I've been this sad since John Lennon was shot. The fact that Douglas Adams has passed away so young, but Michael Bolton is still alive proves there is no justice in the world...
I guess, I'm really getting old: my favorite writers have started dying. What a sad day. :-(
I remember finding the first in the series when I was 13 or 14, on vacation with my mum and my aunt in Maine. I stood in the bookstore reading up to, I think, the Vogon Poetry routine, and gasping with laughter. I begged and begged my mom to buy it--she snorted derisively, instinctively knowing that it was a Bad Thing for a Young Mind. Amazing what a campaign of precisely targeted and persistent begging will overcome.
:-)
:-)
Douglas Adams could impart like no other author a sense of the simultaneous wonder and meaninglessness of existence. I think, for instance, of the parable of the blue whale and the bowl of petunias. Okay, now I'm just being silly. But to a young mind that's not just humor, it's an introduction to philosophy. Not only that but his books made me laugh harder than any other writer.
Without Douglas Adams I wouldn't be the smartass pseudo-intellectual computer programmer I am today. Hey, wait a minute...!
Overall I wish he was just spending a year dead for tax purposes like Desiato Hotblack.
Groucho
Scott Adams = creator of Dilbert, and guy whose bio you linked to
Douglas Adams = creator of HHGTTG among many other things, and who just died
you = karma whore who used google to create a post, who has obviously never even read the books, and whose post is an insult to those who are still reeling from this news
I can honestly point to Douglas Adams as being one of the first steps of my descent into geekdom. I was led to Adams the mere weeks before I first discovered BBSes...and I became obsessed. thus, my "Hitch" id, as well as my hitchhiker e-mail. to this day I carry a towel with me everywhere. I have one in my car, in my bag, and I use one to wrap around my "More than complete" leather edition of the guide...I spent years searching out his other novels, the deeper meaning of liff, last chance to see. I still haven't gotten all oflast chance to see (it's easier to find on mp3 with him reading it than it is to find the actual book). I'm...crushed to hear this. I think I'll go dig out my infocom emulator and play the game for a while.
All that glitters has a high refractive index.
----------------------------------------------
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
So long Mr. Adams, thanks for all your hoopy work.
A few things I appreciate about his work (not a complete list): Pointing out the absurdity we seem to accept as normal. The use of language. Even minor characters are are complex, not just plot devices.
Farewell Doug. Thanks for all the laughs.
You will be sorely missed.
A day of mourning has been called in this house.
More or less.
Vermifax
Vermifax
Logout
Thus speaks a quasi-literate, knuckle dragging, humourless, head up his ass American lackwit whose family tree has no branches and who was rejected from the cast of Deliverance because he was too stupid.
Please tell us, oh troll of the sphinchtal regions of a syphalitic baboon, just how is it that you walk on your knuckles and yet are still able to pound on a keyboard for the length of time it took you (estimating 3 days 4 hours) to come up with the above quoted comment withut suffering severe pain?
Don't take life too seriously. It is only a temporary situation. Usual disclaimers apply.
Ummmm, if you were a REAL fan you would also have the cassettes of the radio play that proceeded the play by a few years, just like I do. :-)
Don't take life too seriously. It is only a temporary situation. Usual disclaimers apply.
He was quite touchy about the whole 42 thing, and how he just pulled it out of a hat and it was never supposed to mean anything more than a made up number. What do you get when you multiply 6x9? Or something to that extent, aparently some people figure out the failed match works in base 11 or 13 or something. He got kinda ticked about it, it sounded like from his words. But I dunno, I'd personally feel proud if I made up the 42 thing. What's the meaning of life? 42. It's great, it's an instution now, you just gotta be proud of that sort of thing when you step back and look at it. :)
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"Beeblebrox, over here!" he shouted.
Zaphod eyed him with distrust as another bomb blast rocked the building.
"No," called Zaphod, "Beeblebrox over here! Who are you?" "A friend!" shouted back the man. He ran towards Zaphod.
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I am incredibly shocked by the loss a man who wrote the seminal works in satire and science fiction. The Hitchhiker books were incredibly formative in my younger years, and it completely amazes me to hear that he has passed on.
Truly, 42 seconds of silence should be taken in his memory.
But, as with all other grieving processes, we will need to move on. Sure, read HHGttG once again in memoriam, but I would urge you all to continue on with another wonderful writer... although I don't believe that they were ever friends, Terry Pratchett has the same witty, sharp, satiric edge with which Adams captured the minds of his readers.
Celebrate Adams, and even moreso, celebrate the wonderful literature from those crazy Brits.
This is certainly a sad day, but it should be one that we all can take blessing in that Adams gave to us for much of his life, and we should celebrate the others who do similar sacrifice for the entertainment of others.
/Andrew
Best wishes to the family and friends of Mr. Adams. To Douglas, wherever you are, thanks for brightening a small portion of my life with your humor. I hope the measely proceeds from my paperback purchases found their way to you.
Wow, he was only 49 years old. I haven't done shit with my life after 32 years on this planet. Have to start living for today.
While it is always sad when a person passes away, especially good writers, I must admit - as harsh as it sounds - that it does not affect me a lot. The HHGTTG was marvellous and will always be, that is not going to change.
My condoleances to his friends and family who have lost more than a great author.
Sorry, the /. audience disagrees with you.
To be or not to be....
:)
0x2b = 43
0x2b + (0x2b | ~0x2b) = 42
I've never read his books and while I appreciate the impact that he has made on many, I wish people would realise that the 42 joke isn't the least bit funny anymore.
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enterfornone - logging in for a change
Are you saying curry with chips and lager isn't fine cuisine?
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enterfornone - logging in for a change
If there's one thing God must have, it's a sense of humour, elsewise he'd suicide from the mess he made when he introduced man to the planet. Biggest mistake an all-seeing, all-knowing god could make...
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Given that this sad news follows not so long after the discussion about how many hour a week do you geeks all work, I'd just like to say:
That could be you at age 49, too.
So perhaps all you sixty-hour work-lifers should think about it. Before you get a chance to enjoy life, it could be over.
He leaves behind a wife and a seven year-old daughter. The people that were most important to him, and who he was most important to. Poof! Their Douglas is irrevocably gone from their lives.
I'm not saying everyone should become completely hedonistic and live only for the moment... but you gotta make sure that you do get to live.
Out of respect for the people who care for you, take a few minutes to assess your life. Make sure that you've got a good balance between work, family, and play. Make it a life worth living.
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
I had always believed that the Great Question was simply a standard addition problem
...Life, The Universe, And Everything.
Why, might I ask, do you assume Deep Thought would have interpreted "," as "+"? The comma operator suggests it will use the last one in the list. Thus Everything = 42, which, at least to me, is just as confusing.
Ben
And so it goes...
And so it goes.
Given enough hydrogen, just about anything is possible.
"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the NONexistence of God.
"The arguement goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
"'But,' says Man, 'the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
"'Oh, dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."
There's a much easier way to prove that.
It goes something like this: 'There won't be a sixth part in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.'
Douglas Adams was a great author, and his imagination took me places even my own imagination couldn't.
Thank you for showing me what books can be like.
I'm feeling very depressed.
I am quite stunned that Douglas Adams is dead, especially when he was only 49 years old.
:'-(
Many of us remember the famous Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series of novels he did, some of the best-read science fiction novels of the last 20 years.
Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish.
Raymond in Mountain View, CA
How could a physicist become a born-again Christian?
When they get old and start to fear death.
Go read about complex systems, self organization, auto catalytic sets, the genome projects underway and the relationship genetically between all living things.
Hope does not make it true. Faith does not change fact.
Dangit.
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I guess someone found his sub-eather thumb signal
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James Michael Keller
"Linux is not our destination, it is simply the open road to tommorow"
See subject. I got nothing more to say...
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Slashdot didn't accept your submission? hackerheaven.org will!
Well, the original was, "What do you get if you multibly six by nine?" So DNA explained the answer by saying it was in base 13. But 49base13=61base10>, and 61 is prime. So apparently there is no question.
Switch the . and the @ to email me.
I guess he panicked.
So...wait...if eight times six is 42, then what is 49?
I'm going to miss Douglas Adams. I've always admired his unique style of writing; the hitchhiker's guide books are the most entertaining I've ever read. So long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the laughs.
Frell, never try to work with numbers after staying up all night... Nine times six. =p
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis, te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem; exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
For the thousands of exquisite moments I enjoyed while reading your books.
Douglas Adams' books resonated with me on a really interesting level that I haven't quite found anywhere else. His writing was the perfect blend of science, humor, and philosophy. Reading his books always left me with the feeling that there is something more to life than is immediately evident.
I will always carry with me the image of a red sofa bouncing around on a computer screen and the incredible multi-dimensional music he describes on the starship in Dirk Gently's HDA. Great stuff. The kind of moments that make life feel a little less lonely.
When we lose someone of great talent, I like to think that it's OK, because now they will help us all from the other side.
Cheers, Mr. Adams
"The world is a construct of forceful imagination. Those who don't know walk around in the reailties of those who do"
And if the coverup isn't enough proof for you, the fact that the dolphins are leaving should clinch it.
Leave now, while you still can!
I usually am never saddened by a celebrity's death. I don't know them. It seems distant.
I picked up Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in fourth grade because I had seen my older cousin reading it. It nearly single-handedly launched me on my way to reading better and better literature and taught me how to think for myself better than any school could. I don't know what I can say to make this comment different from the hundreds of others that have appeared here, so I will say it plainly: Douglas Adams, you will not be forgotten. You have achieved one of Man's main goals, which is more than billions of other people on this planet can say: you will never die. You live on in your books and words of wisdom. Though your physical body has passed on, you are still with us and will be forever.
Rest in peace and watch over us.
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
If you think you know what the hell is going on you're probably full of shit. -- Robert Anton Wilson
jdube is who
Since it (obviously) is just a matter of failing to hit the ground and that I wouldn't be able to hit the wall of a barn - from the inside - its really strange I don't fly high every day!
Will never forget all the wonderful moments of joy the jokes have given me! /Flu
Sad, I met Douglas last year, at a conference where he did a lecture. He was very funny and he is still one of my favourite authors. I'm greatly sadden by his sudden departure. Ciao, ...David
I rather like the one about being drunk:
It's unpleantly like being drunk.
What's unpleasant about being drunk?
Ask a glass of water.
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
My condolences to Jane, Polly and all of DNA's family, friends and fans.
That is pritty cool...
:)
It's always nice to remember that thies people are real and do real things in the real world.
Thats kinda neat to think about... Adams using a Kaypro.. That makes me want to smile
Side note to troll:
I know people make up storys of meeting famous people and such is not hard to do.
But then on the Internet people clame to be all kinds of things.
People even clame to know non-famous people when they don't.
Just set that fact asside.
Anyone on the Internet can be lying about anything...
After all.. do you really believe my name is Felinoid? I certenly hope not...
I don't actually exist.
to rip the radio show tapes to MP3 and disseminate them throughout the universe!
:(
It is indeed a sad day, and I hate getting news like this when first waking up
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I don't want to say anything profound. I just want to pay my respect to the guy who wrote my favourite book. Thank you.
Nah...he missed yet another deadline... :)
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past." - Douglas Adams.
My journal has hot
I'm deeply concerned that he isn't just doing this for tax reasons. I selfishly wanted him to outlive me just long enough so I could appear to him in a dream and tell him what it's like outside the Asylum.
I guess he'll find out first.
Helium balloons want to be free.
I never knew the man, but I am very saddened to hear that the world will never again be graced by his brilliance. I just hope that they bury a towel with him, I'm sure he'll find it useful on the other side.
Nicodemus
It's really sad he had to pass on already being only 49. I don't know how many hundreds references to THGTTG were putting some fun in everyones daily lives, up to a point where it'd seemed necessary to post a "No more 42 jokes, please" on the office door.
Apart from his all-time master piece, a trilogy in five parts, I think it's worth pointing out his other works, about strange Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the Starship Titanic picking up travellers on Earth and my favourite piece of non-fiction, Last Chance To See . I'd really love to have seen more like this from his quill and meet him live on one of his public readings, even if he'd be talking to me in a foreign language...
We all will surely miss you, even the most stubborned Terry Prattchet fans. Farewell.
You're homing in on another major advantage of the Mac. PC system 1 is high-spec, doesn't accomplish the required task. PC system 2 is lower spec, but DOES accomplish the required task. Why? What do I need to do to get it to work? How much time/headache do I need to expend to accomplish the required task? How much is that time worth?
Macs work. Out of the box. No excuses. That's why many people (especially creative people) who are more concerned about the task than about the tool rely on them.
Not to say that PCs don't have their advantages too...but it's a different tool for a different task. Can't we all just get along?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
the parent comment is as it should be. so long, and thanks for all the laughs. still today i show people to your books, as i was shown so many years ago. they first look at me funny, then thank me later. you have brought joy to the world, which if you ask me, is all anyone can hope for. thank-you
Just remember that the last laugh is on you..
Maybe he'll come back as a rabbit.. I've needed a nice bag for a while.
So long, Douglas Adams, perhaps now you'll be able to figure out what the question was.
-Jeff
#define NINE 8 + 1
#define SIX 1 + 5
int main() {
printf("%i times %i is %i\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE);
return 0;
}
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We apologise for the inconvenience.
It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question.
There is also proof from the books that 42 stopped being the valid answer to The Question, the instant that it was presented as the answer.
The following is a logic exercize i did on the matter a few weeks ago (actually it was about some other stuff but contained this, so heres a modified version):
In Life, the Univers, and Everything the character Prak (who was given too much the truth drug) states this when Arthur Dent asks him about what the question is:
"... The Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same Universe. Except, that if it happened, it seems that the Question and the Answer would jus cancel each other out, and take the Universe with them, wich woul then be replaced by something even mor bizarrely inexplicable. It is possible that this has already happended, but there is a certain amount of uncertainty about that."
From this we get:
1. there is a question and an answer
2. Knowledge of both is impossible without forever altering everything.
3. This may already have happened.
So:
First, the people who knew the question were long passed when the answer came out. So no person knew both the question and the answer. However, in the computer that calculated the answer, the question and the answer had to exist simultaniously for an instant.
Now, the Earth as it turns out, is a giant computer designed to accertain(sp?) the question. When Arthur and Ford land with the Golgofrincams, they play scrabble fairly early, before the computer is completely fsked. So the primitive cave men may actually be trying a brute force attack, and happen to be trying out "what is six by nine". Eventually they would try 6x7, or already had, and were just comparing other questions for proof.
Either way, it is entirely possible that 6x7 is in fact the real question, however when there was finally an answer to it (42) the result was that, both cancelled each other out and the universe shifted inexorably to the complicated.
In this case one of the new inexplicable facts is that:
42 is the new answer, to which there is no question (according the above rules, or you could just say the new question is 42, and the answer is in the form of a question, the "Jeopardy Universe theory").
Another of the new complications is the religious fervor about the answer to the old question, making it an integral part of the new question-answer pair.
But it also could be that one of the complications (bizarre) is that 42 is just a false trail to keep people away from the latest universe's question-answer pair, and therefore 42 is actually quite irrelevant.
Of course this is all based on evidence that it may have happened, which must be seen with a certain amout of uncertainty.
ANYWAY, any author that could cause my brain to do that much thought and analasys over a couple of jokes will be greatly missed. HHGG has been a major part of my life and sense of humor since i was a freshman in highschool.
Take care Douglas Adams, and best of luck in the great unknown, ill look you up when i get there.
To live till you die is to live long enough. -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
If you actually READ the bible, it claims that the dead will rise and go to heaven AT THE END of the world. Not instantly. That perk went to Jesus and Elijah, and I'm not sure God would have similar feelings about the man who wrote the babelfish proof of the non-existance of God:
"I refuse to prove that I exists", says God. "For proof denies faith, and without faith, I am nothing."
"But the babelfish is a dead giveaway", says man. "It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and therefore, by your own argument, you don't. Q.E.D".
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that," says God, and promptly vanishes in a path of logic.
I thank you for the wonderful books you leave behind for us to rediscover and enjoy again and again.
I have only the best of memories reading your books, from the Hitchhiker's to the Dirk Gently series to my first Infocom text adventure game on my Apple IIe.
No, it's still 42. He was always late in meeting his deadlines. (In case you missed it, he said 'I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make when they go by').
Man, this thouroughly puts a damper on this day.
Thanks Doug. Your writings meant a lot in my life. I hope all goes well for your wife and daughter.
I will make sure my son reads his works.
Not if he was supposed to die at 42.
Late, as in the late Adams Douglas Adams.
I feel a little weird about making jokes about his death, except that I'm confident he'd approve.
I've heard that if A=1, B=2 etc, BIG BANG == 42. I can't be bothered to check this as I'm about to get dinner, but that's what I've heard.
I first started reading the Hitchhikers series when I was nine, his British humor just seemed to click with me. I usually don't get upset when celebrities/authors pass away but this really perturbs me. He seemed to be a great person, he will be missed by many.
Arthur is descended from the Golgofrinchams, not from the original caveman inhabitants of Earth
:)
I'm sorry but you cannot really call them cavemen since they don't live in caves can you.
I feel really sad about this.
I have read the HHGTG only once through (I'm not in the habit of reading a book several times), but I love it also because I can just grab any one of the books at any point in the middle and start laughing.
I read someplace that Adams himself had commented with a twinkle in his eye that in Mostly Harmless he had finally got everybody just where he wanted them: dead. But the article continued that that had never stopped Adams so far (think of the transition between Life the Universe and Everything and Restaurant at the End of the Universe). But this will definately put a period to the series. Nobody can replace Douglas Adams in the niche in which he was best.
I think I will now go and grab one of the books, though I wonder can I read it this time without tears...
I doubt, therefore I may be.
This is indeed a really sad day. Does anybody know whatever happend to "Salmon of doubt"? I placed an order for it over two years ago, but it was cancelled just before it`s original date of release.
Why miss it?
a sad day indeed.
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+&x
He has seen the face of Stavro Mueller, BETA.
GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
Paraphrased from memory...
ound.. round... ground. Ground! I wonder if it will be my friend?
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie
Part of me hopes your kidding but hee goes:
DOnt panic is on the cover of the ACTUAL hitchhikers guide in the books.
42 is the answer to the meaning of life.
You really need to read the books to for this to be appropriatley absurd and perfectly logical at the same time.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Nope, not a troll. Can you think of anything more fitting?
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
That was the best laugh ive had in a month. I owe ya a beer.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
It sucked when Asimov died. It sucked when Jerry Garcia died, and it definitely sucks that Douglas Adams has died.
Lee Reynolds
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
It is most unfortunate that yet another individual wasn't prepared for a premature death. Someone with this his education and technical awareness should certainly have been signed up for cryonics. For readers who want to call that crazy, don't hit the submit key until you have read the the detailed commentary by Ralph Merkle on how molecular nanotechnology may be used to repair the damage caused by freezing. Be informed and be prepared or be dead. Its pretty simple logic. It is very sad that Douglas Adams wasn't informed enough and smart enough to follow this path. Until Mind Uploading becomes feasible, cryonics is the only viable option we have available defeating death.
Trip yourself, and get distracted by something. I first read D.A. at the age of 7, after playing the Infocom game on a TRS-80. May at least some of his eulogies (sp?) live on on Slash.
- SMJ - (It's not just a name: it's a bad aftertaste.)
Having witnessed many people (family, friends,others) die the last few years at quite young age (Average 45 I'd say) makes you think about the causes that lead to such results.
We are to die anyway but normally after a longer lifespan. Is our surrounding becoming more and more hostile, geared towards machine like efficiency? On the outside people seem to do well but on the inside their life can be shattered.
Farewell Douglas
The greatest author of all time passed away this past friday.
Douglas Adams wrote many great books in his time, and from his books, I
drew my online handle, "Starvo" A bastardization of a charector in the
book called "Stavro Mueller Beta." Aside from keeping me up late many a
night reading his wonderful books, He also inspired a fear of Vogon poetry
in myself, and a slight curiosity towards anyone named "Ford.." My
friend Jason also used a Douglas Adam's charector name, "Zaphod" as his
online moniker for many years, and even had a old Renegade BBS system
named "The Resteraunt at the end of the Universe."
Rest in peace Mr. Adams, and thank you for your contributations, and the
magic that they brought into my young mind.
-=Starvo=-
http://thepoliticalgeek.com/blog/ Politics for Geeks.
Well said. I and I'm sure a lot of other people forgot about the effects that one book had on us besides being a really good book.
I was trying to get a friend of mine to read Hitchhiker, but now I'm going to try twice as hard to get her to read it.
I would dare say that the webmaster of the _official_ website would probably have known douglas adams personally and therefore at the moment would be thinking about other things than updating the website. Personally it's the last thing I would care about if somebody I knew died.
I tried searching Amazon, but unforunately they don't seem to be available on CD. I actually have MP3s of all the radio shows, which I would really like to make available, but don't have the bandwidth to handle the onslaught.
If you live in Australia you can buy the CD's at your local ABC shop (i saw them a few months ago but they dont seem to be listed on the online store), as well as the tapes. The CD's/tapes of the radio shows _are_ still made and will probably get wider distribitution now (that being what happens when somebody dies).
You'll be missed.
I won't panic.
-aiabx
Just this guy, you know?
Actually The Hobbit computer game came out in 1982, two years before the HHGTTG computer game.
The Hobbit sold over 500,000 copies.
"...like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick."
My e-mail .sig has for several years now been: "...a liquid which was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.", and I nearly stopped posting to /. after my karma hit 42 (I'm jeopardizing this by posting, I know...)
I've always enjoyed his writings ever since I first discovered them about 8 years ago. I feel sad that he won't be around to write more of them. I will drink some very expensive alcohol later and mourn the loss. May he rest in peace.
----
Brazil has decided you're cute.
They gazed at God's Final Message in wonderment, and were slowly and ineffably filled with a great sense of peace, and of final and complete understanding.
Fenchruch sighed. 'Yes,' she said, 'that was it.'
They had been staring at ut for fully ten minutes before they became aware that Marvin, hanging between their shoulders, was in difficulties. The robot could no longer lift his head, had not read the message. They lifted his head, but he complained that his vision circuits had almost gone.
They found a coin and helped him to the telescope. He complained and insulted them, but they helped him look at each individual letter in turn. The first letter was a 'w', the second an 'e'. Then there was a gap. An 'a' follow, then a 'p', an 'o' and an 'l'.
Marvin paused for a rest. After a few moments they resumed and let him see the 'o', the 'g', the 'i', the 's', and the 'e'.
The next two words were 'for' and 'the'. The last one was a long on, and Marvin needed another rest before he could tackle it.
It started with 'i', then 'n' then a 'c'. Next came an 'o' and an 'n', followed by a 'v', an 'e', another 'n', and an 'i'.
After a final pause, Marvin gathered his strength for the last stretch.
He read the 'e', the 'n', the 'c' and at last the final 'e', and staggered back into their arms.
'I think', he muttered at last, from deep within his corroding rattling thorax, 'I feel good about it.'
The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.
Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.
This feels like losing Phil Hartman all over again.
Aaargh!
You expect your idols to live to a ripe old age. Who's next, Tatsuya Ishida? Linus? Stallman? Vincent D'Onofrio? Grr. Cruel and uncertain world!
I don't even want to to think about if this had happened to Heinlein. Of course, he died when I was seven, and I didn't read anything of his until senior year of high school, but... sigh.
It's a black day for all of us.
-grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
That pretty much describes the events of today.
Douglas Adams had an uncanny sense of wit... one that most authors would give a lung and a kidney just to have for one novel. Although the "Dirk Gently" books never quite caught on with me, I do own all 5 Hitchhiker's Trilogy books (yes, an increasingly inappropriately named trilogy... and yes, the leather bound version) and they rank among the top 10 books/authors I have ever read. There is something quite upsetting about someone dying this young, someone with so much creative force left in him, but his contributions to our souls and to all of pop culture will exist forever and ever. We will never lose them.
The feeling is not entirely unlike Arthur Dent's feeling after losing Fenchurch in a hyperspace jump, though. This is beyond unexpected, and there's a feeling of helplessness as well. Plus, we all want to see that movie made the RIGHT way, and eventually I want to be carrying around my "Don't Panic" PDA. Palm might generate great business by selling one of its' wireless access models with those words on the cover, as a tribute.
I might add that I have two favorite authors, and I expected one of them to be dead any time soon now... except the other died extremely unexpectedly, and the other isn't getting any younger. So, someone, please, call and find out how Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is feeling today...
My whole family read the Hitchhiker's Guide when I was a teenager. My mom had a teeshirt made that said "I know where my towel is." and gave it to my brother for his birthday :) All of our condolences and best thoughts to his loved ones.
...it's probably just for tax purposes.
I believe this is the saddest :~{
Thanks Doug, for all the wonderful stories, you will be missed....
3000 dead over past 2 years, still no free Palestinians, still
While I can't say I respect his theology, I do believe he wrote some of the best fiction of the 20th century. His was a rare brain that was just slightly off in the most delightful way. His stories touched on the realm of the possible in a way that changed my view of the Galaxy. Only the good die young.
The only thing that can console me this morning is MST3K. Sshhh! It's on.
When all the dolphins left earth via their own means they transmitted a message "so long and thanks for all the fish", which was the name of one of the books in the series.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Maybe Douglas wrote (or started to write) things that never were published (Hitchiker's guide #6 ?) . They will maybe be revealated now.
Rest in Peace, Douglas. We love you.
Please, everyone, when you write documentation, and when you need an arbitrary number, use 42.
Maybe we also should release a patch for 'bc' and every calculator so that 6*9 = 42.
{{.sig}}
Babelfish translator has lost his creator and maintainer.
Who will feed the fish, now ?
Maybe we should give the babelfish to Theo de Raadt, so that OpenBSD will run all hardware (past, present and future) over the universe ? And we will give back the ex-OpenBSD blowfish to the Altavista dudes, they won't see any change, anyway.
{{.sig}}
How 'bout Jay Roach. Douglas Adams moved to Santa Clara to work on the movie with Jay Roach, who was signed on to direct it. I'd point you at the info forum on douglasadams.com for more information straight from Mr. Adams, but it's a mess right now, for obvious reasons.
--GnrcMan--
Not if the joke has anything to do with 42...trust me.
--GnrcMan--
You dick, he died while working out at a gym.
--GnrcMan--
I suppose I ought to accept God's apology for the inconvenience of losing Mr. Adams at 49. Very well, God. Apology accepted, though I'm sure it was more than an inconvenience for Mr. Adams himself.
Speaking of whom, suffice it to say that he has nothing to fear from the Total Perspective Vortex.
I've retrieved my autographed recipe (signed at a book-signing of his some ~13 years ago) for the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, put it up on the wall, and am about to smash my brains out with a slice of lemon wrapped 'round a large gold brick.
Multiple times, if I last long enough after the first one.
So long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the radio plays, books, works of interactive fiction, more books, more interactive fiction, and yes, fish.
don't take my word for it, but i do remember hearing that. Anyway, I never read any of his books.... but it is still sad to see a person so many people have heard of die.
All this debate is the best Adams tribute I've yet read.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Maybe we can say the Question and Answer fall under the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
Play the Java game herel
http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocom.htm
What was it again? Backflip thru ring of fire?
Douglas Adams page on Applemasters.
ever since the original InfoGames adaption of HHG as a text adventure
That's Infocom. Pardon the nit, but it used to be a really important game company.
I played Starship Titanic and Hitchhiker's Guide Through the Galaxy... but am I on crack, or wasn't there also a game called Bureaucracy which he co-wrote? Has anybody seen it?
"`You ARE Zaphod Beeblebrox?'
`Yeah,' said Zaphod, `but don't shout it out or they'll all want one.'
`THE Zaphod Beeblebrox?'
`No, just A Zaphod Bebblebrox, didn't you hear I come in six packs?'
`But sir,' it squealed, `I just heard on the sub-ether radio report. It said you were dead...'
`Yeah, that's right, I just haven't stopped moving yet.'"
for the adventure, for the laughs, for the guide. you were truly one of the great ones. thanks
get xited
Just because Arthur had the wrong question doesn't mean that a Golgofrincham couldn't produce the correct question once they were fully integrated into the Earth application. Arthur had the wrong question because (a) he was part of a routine that was evaluating a computational dead end; (b)the correct question is unhavable, and (c) he's a schnook. If he weren't a shnook, the Trilogy would not have been nearly as enjoyable.
Besides, I'm sure you read the fourth book in the trilogy, and all that business with Fenchurch? About her having the solution and all of a sudden it getting wiped out by the universe? The stuff from the preface to the first book? How a girl in a cafe got it right, and this time nobody would have to get nailed to anything?
--
This is not my sandwich.
Imagine coming home disappointed because there wasn't a new Adams book and finding out there wasn't going to be one at all, ever. I'm so bummed.
--
This is not my sandwich.
The looked like cavemen.
At high school one day, a friend tells me that I MUST turn on public radio that night. He had heard something so bizarrely funny that he couldn't even explain it.
Did anyone ever see his first Letterman interview? He told the biscuits story, and was so nervous, being on television like that, trying to be 'American' funny, that folks didn't seem to follow him.
Maybe NPR will replay the original series again, in memory.
Goodbye to the funniest writer I've ever read.
Saw him give a reading about 17 years ago - he was fantastic/funny/silly/great. Now I'll be really sad this weekend - guess I need to go re-read them again...
You can get them online, if you're willing to order them overseas, at http://www.bbcshop.com/bbc_shop/dept.asp?dept%5Fid =101&shop=bbc
However you obtain it, listening to the radio series is the best way you can pay your respect to Douglas Adams. The radio series is the brilliant humor that made Douglas Adams famous in the first place. So please, listen to these episodes, and laugh your ass off in memory of him.
--
Win dain a lotica, en vai tu ri silota
Damn it.... Douglas adams might have been a nice guy, but now the h2g2 stuff will be under the thumb of his estate... For the next 75 years.
Why will I be dead 20 years by the time that h2g2 joins its place in our culture with Santa Clause in the public domain?
Eh... Maybe my great grand kids will be able to enjoy Aurthur Dent with santa clause.... Here's hoping that the estate isn't a dominating **** that'll try to milk h2g2 for all the money they can.
It is a sad day.
.
so long and thanx for all the fish, doug.
Dive Gear
--- Think of it as evolution in action ---
I will miss Douglas Adams.
-bugg
... death to put life in perspective. Life is kind of funny that way I guess.
/. has these non-technical columns. Reminds us that life isn't all about neat gadgets. As much as I miss the old days of staying up late and hacking game assembly code on the old Apple ][, I'm glad we can be reminded that people are what makes life special.
You know, I'm actually glad
I just finished reading "The Prydian Chronicles" by Lylod Alexander again (hadn't read them since elementary school.) I got to the last book, and had a tear in my eye. Why? Because a good thing had ended.
And I feel the same way about Douglas Adams. He sure brought a lot of joy in my life with his writings. I can't think of a nicer gift for a person to give.
Have you lately told your parents, friends, loved ones that you value their love and friendship?
Stop and smell the roses along the path of life.
Monday morning will come soon enough.
He is NOT dead. He is merely embarking on a lunch break of epic proportions... he will be back to put in a good afternoon's work...
There is no off postion on the genius switch. - David Letterman
Just after that I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at an Apple WWDC (developer's conference) - he gleefully skewered the Apple people who had brought him :-) .... He also spoke about some of the animals he'd been studying ... one has stuck in my memory - it goes something like this:
There are only about 1000 Komodo Dragons left .... but as far as anyone can tell there have always been only about 1000 .... they have an interesting way of feeding .... basicly they don't brush their teeth ... they eat rotting meat and it sticks in their teeth where all sorts of nasty bacteria breed .... when anything comes near a KD they bite it .... and let it wander away .... where the wound festers and eventually the aanumal dies .... days later the KD (or another) comes along and finds some dead meat to eat. This is all very wonderfull but it has come to my attention that european visitors are upsetting the balance of nature .... basicly they are getting bitten .... and then going off the island to die.
Thanks Douglas - I still snicker whenever I recall that passage
Thanks Douglas for giving me more laughs than anyone else I know for the last 8 years (since I discovered the books). In my household (and may others I am sure), you will be sorely missed.
Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
Now, even if the new movie is done, I'm not sure it will be the same without DNA's direct influence.
I hope they respect him and leave it alone.
Douglas Adams - You will be truely missed.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
And thanks for all the humour.
so sad :(
-motardo
I think you are talking about the BBC series on VHS. This was not a theatrical movie, which is what we are talking about.
/real/ fan.)
It covers roughly the first two books.
Of course, I have the series on VHS (like any
-Peter
I guess this means no resolution to the loose ends from "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" and no movie.
Unfortunately, it probably means that the movie will finally be made, badly.
I think that the reason we haven't seen it yet is that he never got the movie deal that he wanted in terms of control. (I can just see studio execs now "This Marvin is all wrong, too depressing for a comedy, we think he should be more of a 'surfer dude.'" or "Slartibartfast is not going to work for marketing tie-ins. We are thinking more of a furry E.T. named 'Giget.'") Ugh.
-Peter
http://www.tdv.com
And how could you forget the BBC obit:
0 00 /1326657.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1326
Andrew.
I was *extremely* lucky to have had a chance to attend a talk by Douglas when he visited MIT at the end of last year.
;)
... I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it), so maybe we'll yet have an opporunity to see what will certainly be a wonderful movie experience
He was as funny, witty, and charming in person as he was in his books (and then some!). What a blast that was....he did a reading from 'Last Chance to See' and, of course, ad-libbed well beyond that.
What I'm most disappointed about was that he won't have the chance to see the HHGTTG movie finished. He talked about the trials and tribulations of getting a 'cult' movie produced in mainstream Hollywood -- so many of us would appreciate the film, yet so many would leave the theater with a resounding "huh?" (I say, screw those people!
I think, if I recall correctly, that he said a script was done (thank goodness
I'm a sadder guy today....Douglas was my hands-down favorite author and I'll miss him...
nlh
Ferrari and other exotic car rentals in New York
Everyone else has already said it all for me, but Douglas Adams dying is important enough for me to post and say that i am very saddened to hear this news as well.
The scary part is, I was coming back from a meeting of the Melbourne Anime Society today, and my Dad and I were talking about Adams on the train. We had no idea that he'd died.
*sigh*
life is a canvas/and the paint is hope and promise/the world is ours/no one can ever take it from us.
Which are you neglecting and which are you keeping?
Acceleration at 9.8m/s^2? Well, that's due to gravity and will only work until the center. Terminal velocity? That's a product of friction, without which you wouldn't stop accelerating. Probably easier to s/person "freefalling" through the earth/object travelling at 120mph/ or somesuch.
--
Chapter 27
Slartibartfast's study was a total mess, like the results of an
explosion in a public library. The old man frowned as they
stepped in.
"Terribly unfortunate," he said, "a diode blew in one of the
life-support computers. When we tried to revive our cleaning
staff we discovered they'd been dead for nearly thirty thousand
years. Who's going to clear away the bodies, that's what I want
to know. Look why don't you sit yourself down over there and let
me plug you in?"
He gestured Arthur towards a chair which looked as if it had been
made out of the rib cage of a stegosaurus.
"It was made out of the rib cage of a stegosaurus," explained the
old man as he pottered about fishing bits of wire out from under
tottering piles of paper and drawing instruments. "Here," he
said, "hold these," and passed a couple of stripped wire end to
Arthur.
The instant he took hold of them a bird flew straight through
him.
He was suspended in mid-air and totally invisible to himself.
Beneath him was a pretty treelined city square, and all around it
as far as the eye could see were white concrete buildings of airy
spacious design but somewhat the worse for wear - many were
cracked and stained with rain. Today however the sun was shining,
a fresh breeze danced lightly through the trees, and the odd
sensation that all the buildings were quietly humming was
probably caused by the fact that the square and all the streets
around it were thronged with cheerful excited people. Somewhere a
band was playing, brightly coloured flags were fluttering in the
breeze and the spirit of carnival was in the air.
Arthur felt extraordinarily lonely stuck up in the air above it
all without so much as a body to his name, but before he had time
to reflect on this a voice rang out across the square and called
for everyone's attention.
A man standing on a brightly dressed dais before the building
which clearly dominated the square was addressing the crowd over
a Tannoy.
"O people waiting in the Shadow of Deep Thought!" he cried out.
"Honoured Descendants of Vroomfondel and Majikthise, the Greatest
and Most Truly Interesting Pundits the Universe has ever known
... The Time of Waiting is over!"
Wild cheers broke out amongst the crowd. Flags, streamers and
wolf whistles sailed through the air. The narrower streets looked
rather like centipedes rolled over on their backs and frantically
waving their legs in the air.
"Seven and a half million years our race has waited for this
Great and Hopefully Enlightening Day!" cried the cheer leader.
"The Day of the Answer!"
Hurrahs burst from the ecstatic crowd.
"Never again," cried the man, "never again will we wake up in the
morning and think Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Does it
really, cosmically speaking, matter if I don't get up and go to
work? For today we will finally learn once and for all the plain
and simple answer to all these nagging little problems of Life,
the Universe and Everything!"
As the crowd erupted once again, Arthur found himself gliding
through the air and down towards one of the large stately windows
on the first floor of the building behind the dais from which the
speaker was addressing the crowd.
He experienced a moment's panic as he sailed straight through
towards the window, which passed when a second or so later he
found he had gone right through the solid glass without
apparently touching it.
No one in the room remarked on his peculiar arrival, which is
hardly surprising as he wasn't there. He began to realize that
the whole experience was merely a recorded projection which
knocked six-track seventy-millimetre into a cocked hat.
The room was much as Slartibartfast had described it. In seven
and a half million years it had been well looked after and
cleaned regularly every century or so. The ultramahagony desk was
worn at the edges, the carpet a little faded now, but the large
computer terminal sat in sparkling glory on the desk's leather
top, as bright as if it had been constructed yesterday.
Two severely dressed men sat respectfully before the terminal and
waited.
"The time is nearly upon us," said one, and Arthur was surprised
to see a word suddenly materialize in thin air just by the man's
neck. The word was Loonquawl, and it flashed a couple of times
and the disappeared again. Before Arthur was able to assimilate
this the other man spoke and the word Phouchg appeared by his
neck.
"Seventy-five thousand generations ago, our ancestors set this
program in motion," the second man said, "and in all that time we
will be the first to hear the computer speak."
"An awesome prospect, Phouchg," agreed the first man, and Arthur
suddenly realized that he was watching a recording with
subtitles.
"We are the ones who will hear," said Phouchg, "the answer to the
great question of Life
"The Universe
"And Everything
"Shhh," said Loonquawl with a slight gesture, "I think Deep
Thought is preparing to speak!"
There was a moment's expectant pause whilst panels slowly came to
life on the front of the console. Lights flashed on and off
experimentally and settled down into a businesslike pattern. A
soft low hum came from the communication channel.
"Good morning," said Deep Thought at last.
"Er
"do you have
"An answer for you?" interrupted Deep Thought majestically. "Yes.
I have."
The two men shivered with expectancy. Their waiting had not been
in vain.
"There really is one?" breathed Phouchg.
"There really is one," confirmed Deep Thought.
"To Everything? To the great Question of Life, the Universe and
Everything?"
"Yes."
Both of the men had been trained for this moment, their lives had
been a preparation for it, they had been selected at birth as
those who would witness the answer, but even so they found
themselves gasping and squirming like excited children.
"And you're ready to give it to us?" urged Loonquawl.
"I am."
"Now?"
"Now," said Deep Thought.
They both licked their dry lips.
"Though I don't think," added Deep Thought, "that you're going to
like it."
"Doesn't matter!" said Phouchg. "We must know it! Now!"
"Now?" inquired Deep Thought.
"Yes! Now
"Alright," said the computer and settled into silence again. The
two men fidgeted. The tension was unbearable.
"You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought.
"Tell us!"
"Alright," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question
..."
"Yes
"Of Life, the Universe and Everything
"Yes
"Is
"Yes
"Is
"Yes
"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
Chapter 28
It was a long time before anyone spoke.
Out of the corner of his eye Phouchg could see the sea of tense
expectant faces down in the square outside.
"We're going to get lynched aren't we?" he whispered.
"It was a tough assignment," said Deep Thought mildly.
"Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show
for seven and a half million years' work?"
"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that
quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite
honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the
question is."
"But it was the Great Question! The Ultimate Question of Life,
the Universe and Everything!" howled Loonquawl.
"Yes," said Deep Thought with the air of one who suffers fools
gladly, "but what actually is it?"
A slow stupefied silence crept over the men as they stared at the
computer and then at each other.
"Well, you know, it's just Everything
Phouchg weakly.
"Exactly!" said Deep Thought. "So once you do know what the
question actually is, you'll know what the answer means."
"Oh terrific," muttered Phouchg flinging aside his notebook and
wiping away a tiny tear.
"Look, alright, alright," said Loonquawl, "can you just please
tell us the Question?"
"The Ultimate Question?"
"Yes!"
"Of Life, the Universe, and Everything?"
"Yes!"
Deep Thought pondered this for a moment.
"Tricky," he said.
"But can you do it?" cried Loonquawl.
Deep Thought pondered this for another long moment.
Finally: "No," he said firmly.
Both men collapsed on to their chairs in despair.
"But I'll tell you who can," said Deep Thought.
They both looked up sharply.
"Who?" "Tell us!"
Suddenly Arthur began to feel his apparently non-existent scalp
begin to crawl as he found himself moving slowly but inexorably
forward towards the console, but it was only a dramatic zoom on
the part of whoever had made the recording he assumed.
"I speak of none other than the computer that is to come after
me," intoned Deep Thought, his voice regaining its accustomed
declamatory tones. "A computer whose merest operational
parameters I am not worthy to calculate - and yet I will design
it for you. A computer which can calculate the Question to the
Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle
complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its
operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms
and go down into the computer to navigate its ten-million-year
program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall
name it also unto you. And it shall be called
Phouchg gaped at Deep Thought.
"What a dull name," he said and great incisions appeared down the
length of his body. Loonquawl too suddenly sustained horrific
gashed from nowhere. The Computer console blotched and cracked,
the walls flickered and crumbled and the room crashed upwards
into its own ceiling
Slartibartfast was standing in front of Arthur holding the two
wires.
"End of the tape," he explained.
Pardon a quibble here, but according to my copy of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Ultimate Question is actually "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".
When I was in high school, a friend of mine who was very smart (and had much too much time on his hands) figured out that six times nine does equal 42 -- provided you do it in base 13.
--
I'd like to order a round of pangalactic
gargleblasters for the whole house. Put it on my
tab.
Alex.
Douglas Adams got me intrested in litterature with his amazing work. His imagination is beyond my understanding and i love his HGTTG. I hate to see such a brilliant writer die so young and i feel very sad for his mother and daughter.
"In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been
widely regarded as a bad move."
*weeping a bit*
"I've got this terrible pain in the diodes in the middle of my chest."
Have you seen the Dr. Who Epoisodes he wrote? IIRC there were three, one of which was The Pirate Planet. Tom Baker and the bad guys had a robotic Parrot. Hillareous. I mean more hillareous than the other Dr. Who episodes Tom Baker starred in. Those two seeemed to be made for each toher.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
So is the answer 49 then?
Freevo - Linux Multimedia Jukebox
In addition, he wrote the funniest book on animals I've ever read: Last Chance to See. The funniest part is that it's all true.
-- "Tradition is the illusion of permanence."
Ah. 42. Never mind.
Was that out loud?
"Well, pardon me for breathing, which I don't do anyway, so I don't know why I bother apologizing and Oh god I'm so depressed."
-- Marvin the Robot
(Your plastic pal whose fun to be with.)
This signature used to contain a cute kitty virus with ansii art. Please set the slashdot editors on fire. Thank you
I can't believe what I'm reading. Heart attack at 49? Shouldn't we be able to prevent this kind of thing by now?
Douglas Adams was a real hacker - he hacked the English language and made it do things no-one had ever thought of before. His characters were engaging and his stories were brilliantly original. I'm amazed by how much his writing has affected my own thought process; like Monty Python, whole chapters hang verbatim in my addled memory.
I particularly loved the bit about how most of the actual work on the Guide got done by any hitchhiker that wandered into the offices and "saw something worth doing." That, for me, sums up the hacker spirit better than anything I've ever read. I feel like we've all lost a brother.
Rest in peace.
TomatoMan
-- http://frobnosticate.com
farewell Douglas Adams - hope you find the Universe as humorous as you made it to us!
you don't need to tell me how stupid i am. I apologize for my ineptitude.
Sincere and humblest apologies.
jacobb
Scott Adams was by all accounts one of the greatest comic geniuses of all times, and his 5 part trilogy forming the Ultimate HitchHiker's Guide is not only roaringly funny, but deeply philosophical as well. Sum-Total, it sold over 50 million copies, and was translated into more than 147 languages (including Klingon, Ant and Dog). (no, seriously!)
Not only was Adams unique in his suberb writing ability and narrative style, but also featured prominently in radio, effectively bringing back to life the BBC's radio comedy.
In recent years, he had been working hard on a film version of his off-the-mark and sublimely nonsequitur series, with actors Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carrey, Ben Affleck and even Bruce Willis in the running for the lead part.
Adams leaves behind a wife and seven year old daughter.
As he goes to join Graham Chapman, the comedic genius behind many of the best Monty Python sketches (and with whom he worked extensively and whose semi-autobiography "A Liar's Autobiography, Volume VI" he co-authored with Eric Idle), I'm sure his presence, his genius, his personality and his work will sorely be missed.
In his own words,
"Dreadfully sorry for all the inconvenience"
"'Poof!' Vanished in a puff of logic"
"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"
And of course, the answer is 42.
Cheers,
jacobb
PS. to get the original Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series in mp3 format, surf on over to UFIE'S FTP
They are well, well worth it.
42.
fnord.
a hip frood who really knew where his towel was. That being said, I must say his dying is totally uncalled for, and I am going to have to speak to someone about this. I will be registering a complaint. Not other series of books has impacted me as much as his did. No other series of books meant as much to me.
I just started re-reading the Hitchhiker series a couple days ago.
My condolences to the family. He will be missed.
Mr Adams, say hello to the Great Prophet Zarquon for me.
Dave
DOS is dead, and no one cares...
DOS is dead, and no one cares...
If there's a Bourne Shell, I'll see you there
I read the Hitchhiker's books a *long* time ago, when I was 12 or so. Then I kept rereading them in later years. I played his computer games, looked at his H2G2 website, and was anxious as hell for his movie. 49? That's too young. How can that happen? He had a daughter in 1994...he sure didn't see this coming. It's not fucking fair. 49? How is that fair? God sucks.
-- Support Ometz le-Serev.
-Legion
bye doug..
you will be missed..
Well this sucks almost as much as Vogon poetry. What the world needs now is a Disaster Area concert. RIP
I just made a font of DNA's handwriting,
http://fonts.tom7.com/fonts98.html
I will miss this man.
...but really he's just on an intergalactic cruise. *sigh* this must be thursday.
the goolgothingies probably were the neanderthals or something, something happened and *they* got extinct finally.
Can't believe that you could ramble on for such a long message and miss this.
It's actually implied in the books that it didn't matter that the Golgofrinchans replaced the `cavemen', because Arthur still tries to find the answer by randomly pulling letters out of a makeshift scrabble set. It could be argued that the introduction of the GFs was simple part of the program - part of the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. In fact, later books suggest that Arthur Dent was one of the key people in the Universe (borne out by the man who was asked to tell `the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth' under an extremely powerful drug, and eventually [literally] died laughing when he met Arthur).
Arthur's fundamental and circular link to Earth was demonstrated when he found the address of Fenchurch (who he really, really fancied) by finding the location of his cave on prehistoric earth using a Macintosh with some sort of astronomy program and guessing which stars he thought he could see from the cave.... of course the location turned out to be Fenchurch's house in London. (She was the girl who, in the first chapter of the first book had a really good idea that didn't involve anyone getting nailed to a tree).
I think I might read all the [five-part] trilogy again soon. Did anyone notice that on the first releases of the books, the fourth book was tagged `the fourth book in the inaccurately named "Hitchhikers' Trilogy"' and the fifth `the fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named "Hitchhikers' Trilogy"' ?
Well, Mr Sarcastic, later reprints of the book (including the nice boxed sets) didn't have it on them - as far as I know only the originals did.
When it was four-parts they published a set over here (UK) that had four pictures (a fish, a towel, a spaceship and a picture of DA) with a quarter of each picture on each cover, so that you could put the books together on the table and depending on which corners you put in the middle you'd get a better picture (did I describe that right?)
I don't know where else that set was published, but I don't recall it having the cover tags - but perhaps my memory fails me :-)
[Avoiding the debate about mp3 sharing] > I tried searching Amazon, but unforunately they don't seem to be available on CD They are available on audio cassette and CD, but they can be difficult to get hold of. I have them on CD - details are below. The primary phase (3 CDs, fit the first -> sixth): ISBN 0 563 38974 5, ZBBC 1499 CD The secondary phase (3 CDs, 7->12): ISBN 0 563 38979 6, ZBBC 1500 CD I'm guessing you can order them from places like the BBC shop, or your local HMV/Virgin/Tower Records/wherever, if not online. I got mine in an HMV in London about this time last year. Hope this helps.
4 rock stars died at 27
One rock star and one author died at 49
Coincidence?
No but really, if you think that doesn't sound like a conspiracy, consider this one... Literally hundreds of musicians and authors have died at ages other than 27 and 49, how can that be anything other than meaningful?
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(I've just finished reading "So long, and thanks for all the fish" yesterday. I feel really sad.)
--
This space left intentionally blank.
It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question....
But, isn't it the right question? Wasn't that the whole point? You have an inscrutable Answer (42), that turns out to be the wrong answer to the Question (What do you get if you multiply six by nine?), and God had to apologize for the whole mess with His Last Message to His Creation (We're sorry for the inconvenience). It's perfect.
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue.
-
-
Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
From all of us, sorry for the inconvienence. This guy got me through high school and college by simply reminding me that life is simply to absurd to take seriously. I am sad.
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
I am totally shocked by this news. I have read and loved Douglas Adams' novels since I was young... I know that people will be inspired and will love his novels for years to come; he has made a definite mark on this world in a way that many will attempt to emulate, but none will ever be as witty, scathing and fascinating as the original.
My thoughts are with his family and friends.
does anyone have a white towel. I want off this rock. The funny is dead.
-
> science fiction novel was turned into a BBC TV series.
This is from the BBC's website. How many things can you spot that are wrong with this statement? I count four. This is a record even for the BBC.
--
Slashdot monitor for your Mozilla sidebar or Active Desktop.
I'm not sure I would call "The Hobbit" a huge hit. Almost all the copies it sold were for the TRS-80, I believe. HHGTTG sold over 350,000 copies on numerous platforms, which was an enormous amount for a game back then.
He helped create the first "hit" computer game based on a novel, helped ignite the whole "books on tape" trend, brought his stories to radio and television, helped create the rich, computerized environment of "Starship Titanic" and the concept of a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"--a massive collection of obscure hyperlinked information (before the www existed) displayed on a small handheld computer (before PDAs existed). He also created the idea of the babel fish--a universal translator, essentially. Just by writing a good yarn, he helped spur change in the world around him that has benefited all of us. We all owe a lot to the guy and to the kind of changes that one "good read" can bring. Thanks, Doug.
You have good taste and are a gentleman. I salute you!
It is unrelated to the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything, which was determined thousands of years ago by the largest computer ever built at that time to be "42". Since that didn't make any sense, a much bigger computer had to be built to determine what the *question* really was. The bigger computer was The Earth.
So the characters become stranded on earth in prehistoric times, by having a caveman pull scrabble letters from a bag they determine that the question is "What is Five by Nine?"
Yes.
And that is why the Earth is such a fundamentally messed-up place. That and the fact that we are all descended not from cavemen, but from a group of telephone sanitizers who were banished from their planet and colonized Earth.
You really, really ought to read the books. It's definitely been highly influencial to many famous computer science people. Plus, they're funny.
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
For those other adventurous souls, here's the recipe:
The Hitchhiker's Gudie to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the PAN GALACTIC GARGLE BLASTER.
It says that the effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. The Gudie also tells on which planets the best Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters are mix, how much you can expect to pay for one and what voluntary organizations exist to help you rehabilitate afterwards.
The Guide even tells you how to mix one yourself.
Take the Jyice from one bottle of the Il' Janx Spirit, it says. Pour into it measure of water from the seas of Santaginus V_Ob, that Santraginean seawater, it says. Ob, those Santraginean fish!
Allow three cubes of Arcturan Mega-gin to melt into the mixture (it must be propely iced or the benzine is lost)
Allow four liters of Fallian marsb gas to bubble through it, in memory of all those happy bikers who have died of pleasure in the Marshes of Fallina.
Over the back of a silver spoon float a measure of Qualaction Hypermint extract, redolent of all the beaty odors of the dark Qualaction Zones, subtle, sweet and mystic.
Drop in the tooth an Algolian Suntiger, Watch it dissolve, spreading the fires of the Algolian Suns deep in the heart of the drink.
Sprinkle Zampbuor.
Add an olive
Drink...But...very carefully."
Random Musings at Rum Smuggler
This suggests that there was a HHG6 in the works.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Goddamn, well I don't know what to say... It's too bad we'll never be able to read that book he said he was working on in his speech. He had some great insights on intellectual property (he IS an author, after all), and I would have loved to see what he'd do with those insights in the next twenty years.
Fuck.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
At ESC in San Francisco a month ago they mentioned that he was working on part 6. Really, how could the trilogy ever be over? That's why they called it a trilogy originally, because people thought the third book was it.
The only "intuitive" interface is the nipple. After that, it's all learned.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Just a note of respect for the passing of my favorite author. He will be missed.
"I'm not a procrastinator, I'm temporally challenged"
He is one of the best writers out there. I love his works. Goodby to one of the worlds greatest genius.
somehost:~> ping www.douglasadams.com
www.douglasadams.com is alive
Not to be disrespectful, but I think he might have found this funny. I owe much to DA. I was a complete outcast in high-school, but when I went to college I met a bunch of like-minded geeks who introduced me to HHGTTG. His works cheered me up on many a gray day.
Last time I saw him was on the talk show Hardtalk on BBC World. Then he told us that he was working for a company in California with implementing a multi-user wireless vacation guide. Putting it shortly, he was working on implementing the Hitch hikers guide.
I love the way people look at you when you read
one of his books in a full train or bus
42
It's an obituary by Jill Lawless of the Associated Press (AP) as indicated on the NyTimes page. I guess all the others (BBC, CNN, NYTimes) just used it with minor modifications.
Thanks Douglas, for everything, especially the story about the planet of green retractables.
My UID is prime!
I am very very saddened by this news.
Carl
Vote Libertarian
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Why do all the good people have to die? *cries*
---------------------------
Garden of Eden Creation Kit
http://www.livejournal.com/users/whiskeyjuvenile/
Well hell this is depressing. I hope he now knows where his towel is. So long, and thanks for all the books. (P.S. You can buy the original HHGttG radio series from the BBC on CD)
We will not see his like any time soon
-----------------------------------------
Physicists are said to stand on one another's shoulders while programmers stand on one another's toes.
You took me through the Galaxy
When I was just 14
To show me there was so much more
Than a small planet blue and green.
You showed us deserts, mountains, parties,
And marshes where mattresses romp.
You gave us Dent and Prefect and Zaphod
And a robot who only would stomp.
Adventures galore caused by eddies in time
And Ford's warped mind, so manic.
All the while, the center - a book
Whose cover tells us not to panic.
A trilogy with books of five
So the mind of genius creates.
And years ago, a young version of me
Found your work lifted from my soul weights.
You left us last night, your towel was packed,
So suddenly out of life's door.
Should I see you again, on an eternal beach
Or the brothel of Triple Breasted Whores?
Perhaps reciting some poetry not as bad as Vogon prose?
Or hiding your face so an alien tiger can't see you?
Who knows?
Learning to throw yourself at the ground
And miss- yeah, that's the ticket.
Or perhaps taking on armies of Killbots who murder through Cricket.
Asking questions of the most powerful computer That take strange aeons to reply?
And when it does, the question itself is elusive to the mind and the eye?
I jest, I joke, I write this poem,
To repair the hurt of a day.
Although there's sun, I feel less warm
For a true master went away.
That was written by J. Grant of Flem Comics. The actual thread is here.
Peace,
Amit
ICQ 77863057
[o]_O
I know many others have said these words, but i just wanted to express how sorry i am to hear of Mr. Adams' death. He was a great man who inspired many with his wonderful writing, and he will be greatly missed.
The only word the really describes how I'm feeling right now.
Yes, His loss is beyond measure. Humor like that brings so much more to our world than just a laugh. I will miss him.
Douglas Adams is dead. But Jack Valenti goes on and on and on...
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
Adams was a hero of mine, and not just because because he wrote HHG2G...his non-fiction book "Last Chance to See", where he travelled the globe searching for some of the worlds rarest and most threatened species, inspired me to study Environmental Science and hopefully begin a carreer focused on conservation and enviornmental protection.
I think you ought to know,I'm feeling very depressed. Thanks, Douglas.
-"I still believe in revolution; I just don't capitalize it anymore." - srini!
...he was the hoopiest frood I ever sassed...
Karma: Good. I'm hoping in the same way as pizza is 'good'...
it happened suddenly, just as poor Douglas looked up after reading the instructions on a box of toothpicks, to see a spaceship land... Out steps an alien, "Adams? Douglas Adams? What are you doing at the END of the list? I KNEW I shouldn't have done that sort in MS Excel. You're a jerk, Adams, a real kneebiter."
And we'll miss you.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
Thank you, Mr. Adams. Your books always brightened up my day. In fact, I was at Barnes & Noble's earlier this week, and saw a copy of The Complete Hitchhiker's Guide on sale, and despite the fact that I already had all the paperbacks, the leather bound 5 book edition, the coffee table book, and more, I still picked it up.
I found myself enjoying it as much as I had the first time I read it.
Your writings helped me realize that there was room for eccentric nerds in this world, and I'm proud that your novels have contributed to the person I am today.
Thanks for Life, The Universe, and Everything.
John
Anyone know what this does for the digital village?
:o(
-------
Username taken, please choose another one.
I don't care what everyone else says, he died young at the age of 49.
He looked suprisingly old at the picture, certainly older than 49. I wonder if he had rough lifestyle or something...
Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
I just started reading the entire series this week. Am about half way through the first one, and have enjoyed it very much. My condolences to the family.
I have always slept easily knowing that the story could not finish until there had been an assasination attempt on Arthur's life. Once that occured, the mish-mash of time streams leading up to that moment guaranteed me an unlimited source of possible scenarios that Adams could include in future releases.
Now I must return to the humdrum reality of my life. I may be creating the future, but one of the guys who thought up that future has now left us and taken with him a lot of new inspiration.
I look foward to enjoying more of your work once I join you in the next world, Douglas. Until then, so long and thanks...
Get the Hell off my planet, you slimy mobster Bush!
God didn't finish his final message to his creation. The quote normally finishes with an assurance that normal services will be resumed shortly.
Does this mean they will now be resuming or have the chances of this happening just been dashed?
Get the Hell off my planet, you slimy mobster Bush!
So Long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the memories.
--
--
We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
"Oh yeah, and just who do you think you are, honey, Zaphod Beeblebrox or something?"
"Count the heads"
TomV
It's a horribly long and complicated story... The whole Professor Trefusis with his chameleon time machine idea started out as a script for a Doctor Who episode called Shada, which was part-made but abandoned due to union activity in late 1979. But being a great idea, it survived, evolved and became the Dirk Gently material. This morphing of material was definitely one of DNA's strengths - just look at the evolution of the HHGTTG from Radio through the LP versions of the first two series, the stage play, the books, the game, the TV series.
Time to take that pocket-fluff covered aspirin from my dressing-gown pocket, I reckon.
Thanks DNA
TomV
I was at a thrift store earlier today, stocking up on t-shirts for the summer weather. There was a shelf of books, and I browsed through them, on the off chance that there was something to glean. Coincidentally, I ended up getting Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in hardback for just a couple bucks. Man, what an eerie coincidence. I guess I'm glad I didn't grab "Timequake" as well. :(
Anyway, I have to say that Dirk Gently and Long Dark Tea Time are total masterpieces. I could be reborn a million times and I still would never be able to write anything as ferociously witty or clever as Adams' books. He was one of the few who could look at life and manufacture his own absurd, funny, yet uniquely true vision of it.
Sigh.
(yikes, I didn't even remember until I hit the preview button that my .sig was yet another Adams quote. spooky.)
--
share and enjoy
This is only the second book about HHGG (the first is out of print), and is a slim scholarly work providing full details and commentary of every manifestation of the genre from the original BBC radio series to bizarre stage versions in foreign languages.
Disclaimer: I am related to the author. Before making this post I gave considerable thought to the potential insensitivity of appearing to use this very sad news to promote my brother's book. I can only say that I was very sorry to hear this sad news on the radio today and hope that my brother's book will encourage others to enjoy some of Douglas Adams' wonderful non-HHGG work (which it also covers).
Ironically enough, that same year the former Prime Minister of New Zealand (no, I don't know his name) was the key note speaker for commencement. He gave a very good talk on protecting the environment, wrapped in a funny story about a quirky bird from New Zealand that mates only once every seven years.
The funniest part about this is that when our degrees were conferred by the Chancellor, the university released thousands of balloons up into the air.
The middle mind speaks!
The man took descriptive clauses to a new and glorious level. He made my mind pitch forward and backward and my imagination whirl. I'm 38 and feeling a little fragile just now. When Ginsberg and Burroughs died I felt the same damn way.
John
but actually, he brought his radio to books.
His radio work was always his best. I will miss it.
So long, and thanks for all the light shining on the essesential idiocy of the human condition.
KFG
/aside
reading through this discussion list I've noticed that I have a few things in my Adams collection that some may not be aware of. I have a double videotape and a supplimental making of/so long and thanks for the fish tape of HG2G. Found them on the shelf in a local Hastings for pretty cheap.
A big glossy hardcover with full page color plates of the first book
of course the old infocom game
both the book on tape (read by the author) and the hardcover of "Last Chance to see." It is an auto-biographical publisher paid excursion to visit many almost extinct animals around the planet, and is hilarous and sorta sad (like HG2G).
The bbc bought the www.hg2g.com website, of which I was a roving reporter (hehe, anyone could be, but it is thrilling to add to a resume). Maybe the BBC will keep it alive forever.
He may not have wrote the book, 'Starship Titanic,' (Terry Jones) but he wrote the video game... I keep forgetting to buy it, I hope I can find it now.
There is alot of discussion of Adam's numerology in this list... remember, he chose 9x7=42 to illustrate the fundamental absurdity of life (Coyote created the Universe as a practical joke, we just don't get it). As to numerology: a random looking string of numbers is non-random, in a random string you will begin to percieve pattern, but it is pattern only in hindsight. Pi only looks random for example. In order to have true chaos there will be pattern in the chaos: the whole 1000 monkeys typing Hamlet eventually. Don't get too tied up in the numerology. Sure the math works in base 13, but with different numbers it could have worked in another base. It is pattern, and it is coincidence by his own admission (no one tells a joke in base 13 or the like quote).
In conclusion, thank you for teaching me of the fundamental humor of life, I will miss you until I too, end.
---
Improbability levels falling... 50%... 25%... 10%... (a group of winged monkeys fly by)... improbability of Mr. Adam's passing reaching zero. Totality reached. Improbability levels: zero. We have arrived at a world without Douglas Adams.
So long, and godspeed.
...
You will always be in my heart, you were my favorite author and it saddens me that I will never read another book from you.
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
P.S.If this is for tax resons, I well kill you
________
Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
Losing Douglas Adams is like losing Jim Henson. Too soon, too great a person to keep around.
See you at Milliways...
/Brian
He wrote one line for them, in collaboration with Graham Chapman.
Oh, and he nearly killed all of them by driving them the wrong way down a foggy motorway in a camper van.
Carousel is a lie!
Douglas Adams: author of THGTTG.
Scott Adams: author of Dilbert.
'nuff said.
Chris Armstrong
Chris Armstrong
This is horrible news, but perhapse there's a small silver lining to it - most authors have to wait until after their deaths to be recognized for thier contributions to literature. No one, I'm sure, is glad to see him go, but perhapse some progress can be made to establish comedic writing (especially his) as bona fide literature. Even if much of it was written to bring a laugh, Adams' work had more to say about philosiphy, morality and life than anything I've read before.
It has more of a place in classrooms, anyway, than the 19th centrury drivel most kids have to read in high school. So what if it isn't "serious" - it's brilliant work. Brilliant work is important in its own right. I don't think Douglas Adams would have wanted us to elevate him to the pantheon of the Greats - after all, so much of his best humor focused on mocking such pretension. By drawing out and making sport of our own absurdity, Adams' subtle message is simply to be reasonable. Reasonably speaking, he was a damn good author.
We'll all miss you, Douglas.
--
In spite of the suggestions and all the tests that I have made, I have not cavato a spider from the hole.
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place." -- Douglas Adams, on Windows 95 (and 98, and NT, and 2000, and ME)
yes, he was a Mac user and a certified "Apple Master"... of course! but, i digress... i met him once and he was considerate enough to spend the time to answer all my questions... props to Mr. Adams, RIP
There's another, more complete obituary from the AP at:a dams.html
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010512/ts/obit_
I picture Mr. Adams sitting now in some metaphysical version of Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, sipping Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox and Arthur Dent.
I hope that Mr. Adams, in whatever state of existence he now occupies, has found the Question to which the answer is 42.
...if he had died at the age of 42.
I have never contributed to any /. discussions before, though I have been a proud member of Slashdot for around two years now. But when I read this article, my heart just dropped. I am young, 21, but I feel that death is an inappropriate end for anything, let alone an icon of the genre that I so proud myself for being a part of. I am a computer geek. I am a nerdy, dork. And I am proud of it. Douglas Adams was as much a part of the inner atmosphere of mine, as is my collection of computer manuals, my Neal Stevenson collection, and my science related books. In this time of continuing technological progress, I often comfort myself with the words of Drexler and Kurzwiel, along with other visionaries, who believe that at the rate of progress today, and the likelihood of theses technologies exponentially increasing, death by disease and old age should no longer be a serious threat to those currently living.
:(
Douglas was a fun, cute, funny nonsensical clown. I didn't know him personally, but I knew his books, and the way they made me feel. I felt smart and cool reading him, and he became a part of what I identified myself as.
I feel the world has lost a great man and there is little more to say about it.
Now I will plug cryostasis. I hate death and right now Cryo-preservation seems the closest thing to an insurance policy against it. Why should we be the last people to die? I personally feel everyone should try to save money for the procedure and be prepared for the unexpected. I will forever mourn the losses of great men needlessly lost because inadequate planning and forethought.
I hate to see you go, Doug. You really will be missed.
He will be sorely missed.
--
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
This depresses the fuck out of me.
I could think of so many other people I'd prefer to have died.
Perhaps his answer to the Question was 49, not 42... He was quite close, though.
-----
When Doug Adams started the online version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at http://www.h2g2.com, he retained copyright on all contributions to this online encyclopedia.
Now that he has died, what happens to his copyright?
The website h2g2.com has been taken over by the BBC. You can read their Terms and Conditions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/copyright.shtml. On that page, it says the BBC owns copyright on everything at the site. But the House Rules at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/HouseRules contradicts that, stating that each contributor retains copyright on her own contributions.
As authors of copyrighted and copylefted works die (prematurely and tragically, to be sure), we will begin to see certain tensions in how we handle copyright. In general, heirs can reclaim rights that the authors thought they had stated liberally.
The best solution would be to plan for such unfortunate occurrences and get a good lawyer to make sure the wrong thing doesn't happen by default under current copyright law. The next step would be to change copyright law so as to make it easier to do what we want, maintain free public access to these works.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Please, if you've only read the books, or haven't read them at all, find the radio shows. Maybe it's because I started with the radio shows, but the books just aren't the same. Yes, the jokes are still funny, but the voices really brought them to life.
I tried searching Amazon, but unforunately they don't seem to be available on CD. I actually have MP3s of all the radio shows, which I would really like to make available, but don't have the bandwidth to handle the onslaught.
Seems a little tasteless to offer up bootlet recordings of the man's material considering the circumstances, and especially when he was very anti-Napster, but I think these deserve a wide a dissemination as possible. Don't let them die! If someone else has the recordings and the bandwidth, offer them up!
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
No, no one noticed that--the author, the editor, the graphic designer, the printer, the reviewers, the millions of readers, no one noticed what was printed on the cover of the book.
Thanks for pointing it out to all of us, how could we have missed it?
Could someone tell me why the above post (quoted in its entirety) is a 5 and/or Insightful????
I am not disparaging the post, just wondering how it got modded to that.
Thanks
I think you meant: ~Did anyone notice that they took off those lines from later reprints, not that they were there in the first place.
Anyway, you did have a good point, I actually did notice that and was wondering if the publisher removed those lines to "dumb down" and not confuse a mass audience.
Knowing Adam's inability to meet deadlines (if you'll pardon the word), it seems such an irony that he finally did something early. For those attending his funeral, be prepared for a long wait, as he is expected to be late.
So long, and Thanks.
StuP
"The thing I love most about deadlines is the wonderful WHOOSHing sound they make as they go past" - DNA
Ode
by Arthur O'Shaugnessey
We are the Music makers, and We are the Dreamers of Dreams
Wandering by lone seabreakers, and sitting by desolate streams
World losers, and world forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams
Yet we are the Movers and Shakers of the world, forever, it seems.
We are the carefree dancers, we are the players on the the stage
And we are the poets and the writers, we are the muses of the age.
And we are the painters and sculptors, of those futures not yet seen.
and we are the Movers and the Shakers, of the world forever, it seems.
With wonderful endless dittes, we build up the worlds great cities
And out of a fabulous story, we fashioned a empire's glory
One man with a dream, at pleasure, will go forth, and conquer a crown.
And three, with a new songs measure, can trample an empire down.
We are the Music makers, and We are the Dreamers of Dreams
Wandering by lone seabreakers, and sitting by desolate streams
World losers, and world forsakers, on whom the pale moon gleams
For we are the Movers and Shakers of the world, forever, it seems.
Sleep well, Dream Maker.
Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
fuck :(
.sigs are for post^Hers.
Douglas Adamas is dead? DONT PANIC!
the NYTimes has a nice piece on him here (free reg blah blah)
Damn.... I was having such a nice morning, too, until I read that. I've never read a series more consistantly funny than HHGTG, or a more convoluted one than Dirk Gently. And I guess this means no resolution to the loose ends from "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" and no movie. *sigh*
AHHHHHHH! I'm burning with goodness again!
- Reakk, Sluggy Freelance
Not /.'d any more it simply says
Douglas Noel Adams
1952 - 2001
Douglas Adams died suddenly following a heart attack on the 11th May, 2001.
The Digital Village as a registered company has ceased to exist. However, as a group of people who loved and worked with Douglas Adams, The Digital Village will continue for a long time. No-one from TDV can really accept or believe what has happened yet. Douglas just seemed like he would go on forever. Our thoughts are with Douglas' family and friends.
-- TDV
"The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever."
-- "So long, and thanks for all the fish", Douglas Adams
:~~(
--
Reading HHG in my youth was one of those experiences that changed my life in many subtle ways. Knowledge of the book became somewhat of a badge of recognition - if I walked up to someone, said "42" and got a knowing giggle, I knew I had found one of my own.
The characters of his books were microcosmic - each one represented a different facet of the people I knew and the person I was. Arthur was the solid but put-upon individual who always felt slightly out-of-place, Ford was the hard-drinking-yet-reliable eccentric (and apparent role model for sysadmins everywhere), Trillian was the ultra-smart collected type, Dirk Gently was the nerdish type who still managed to find the answers and get the girl, Zaphod was...well Zaphod was something else entirely.
He wrote good humour. It was off-beat and overtly silly, yet had a strange resonance. There was a great sense of wonder in all his writing; behind every bizzare metaphor and outlandish scenario was the sense that deep-down, this was still something we could - and should - relate to.
Douglas Adams will surely be missed.
As a side note, Peter Jones, who had played the voice of the narrator/book in the original radio series, passed away last month.
----
----
"I used to listen to Null Device before they sold out."
Dave
... not you
I've been hearing rumours about a movie at least since 1980 - maybe earlier.
I'm sure one day someone will have a crack at it - I just hope it's someone good. Tim Burton springs to mind.
There's 60-70 million of us and we don't all have the same sense of humour. So British Humour is a meaningless term.
Whilst that's true - I always kinda liked the idea that maybe that was the question - and the fact that the ultimate question and answer don't match explains a lot about the crazy universe we live in.
:)
...that we'll find out he's just spending a year dead for tax reasons.
To this day I still use this one -
Me: It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.
Unsuspecting victim: Why what did she say?
Me: I don't know I wasn't listening!
Maybe I'm just an old geek but it still make me laugh every time.
Thanks Douglas for my favourite joke.
This is such terrible news. Douglas Adams is definately my favorite author, as I'm sure he is to many of you as well.
Recently I had read that he was working on a new Hitchhikers computer game to be in the style of the Starship Titanic game. I'm wondering what the status of this will be now, and hope that it will still go on as planned. What a way to start the weekend, eh? =(
All I can hope is that this is some kind of joke or publicity stunt.....
....Unfortuantly I don't think he was that kind of guy.
It's times like these that I wish that life had a reset button and that I can load from a saved game.
Papa Legba come and open the gate
A great light has gone out of the world.
"Come along, or you will be late."
"Late for what?"
"Late, as in the late Dentarthurdent."
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
This one, though. is different. Waking up this morning the Adams' passing was a shocker. No tears -- just sincere regret, and a selfish sense of "I'll miss him."
My wife and I listened to the Hitchhiker radio play back we were first married; it's been a part of our lives (as a central bit of humor) for so long. It's one of those comedic routines that provides stock lines for conversation; the number 42 shows up an awful lot. His style has been a strong influence on my own writing career...
Damn!
The only bright spot: Perhaps Douglas Adams can now hitchhike the galaxy on his own, giving the gods and angels a chuckle or two...
--
Scott Robert Ladd
Master of Complexity
Destroyer of Order and Chaos
All about me
. . .
Sad news indeed, but he will never truly die - he made a mark on the world, maybe mostly the geeky part but a mark nontheless.
no sig.
Douglas Adams.... I'm speachless. I was always hoping he would come out with another Dirk Gently, but I guess it's not to be had.
=================================================
No quips, no comments, just reply to this thread with a silent empty post.
"With a rubber duck, one's never alone."
It's nearly one o'clock on a saturday night here (or maybe a sunday morning, depending on your point of view).
The moment I saw this story, I went to send out an email to a bunch of friends. When I hit the send/recieve button, I got a bunh of emails telling me Douglas Adams was dead.
I guess I know what I'll be reading on the train next week...
"If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated"
*sigh* I feel so depressed...
"I figure you're here 'cause you need some whacko who's willing to stick his finger in the fan. So who are we helping?
As a tribute, we should all fly our towels at half mast today...
On a more serious note, I will never forget the day I walked into the school library to see the new paperbacks that arrived and the strange book that was sitting near the front of the stack.
At first, I was not sure what to make of it, the title seemed to imply Science Fiction, but the cover, with a strange impish green face sticking its tongue out and cartoonish artwork seemed to imply humor. Still, something about it appealed to me, so I went to a secluded corner to check it out.
What I had not counted on was the addictive nature of this book. It seemed silly and pointless, but I could not put it down. After I read that last line "Okay, baby, hold tight," said Zaphod. "We'll take in a quick bite at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe", I could only think of two things. First, where (or when) would the next book be available, and how could I explain having missed the last three periods of school!
That book, was of course the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, and that paperback was later bought by me at a school library sale. It has been with me for over a decade, traveled to 24 countries on 4 continents, and although dog-eared and tattered, remains a treasured part of my collection.
Thank you Mr Douglas, for making fun of our flaws and obsessions, and helping us to laugh at ourselves. From Arthur to Zaphod, and everyone in-between, you have made, at least for me, life a richer experience. You will be missed.
I think I shall honor Mr Douglas in the fashion he would have liked best, by sitting back, curling up with the Guide, and letting his magic touch me again.
"To travel the paths of human imagination you have to be willing to unlearn all you know"
Both Douglas and Isaac did put elements of their personality into their books, and these books have changed a lot of lives. I regret not saying thank you to them earlier, and I think I'll spend some time emailing my favourite authors, who are still alive.
It's hard enough without Asimov...
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
This is obviously a usage of the word "fun" with which I was not previously familiar.
"Last orders, please!"
Mail? Put "slashdot" in the subject to pass the spam filters.
...he knows for sure that the creator's message to his creation was 'sorry for the inconvenience'.
:(
why do great talents always leave so soon?
wait for us at the restaurant at the end of the universe, mr adams. we miss you already.
~sabine
I remember one time, back in 1996 or 97, when I managed to get his e-mail adddress, so I decided to send him a mail, asking him if he was actually *the* Douglas Adams.
He actually wrote back to me, telling me that it would be unfair for him to think so, considering there were several other Douglas Adams'es in the UK. but that if I meant Douglas Adams the writer, then yeah, he was.
I think we sent a couple of mails back and forth, but then I changed colleges and lost my email account, so I could never continue my conversations with him.
He was nice. He was fun. He will be missed.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
RTFB actually
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
Sad it had to be at such an early time.
Eternal respect to him and his family.
I was in England a year or two ago, working in Romford just outside the M25 around London. Driving through a village called Brentwood one day, I spotted a sign outside a little pub called the Horse and Groom. Naturally, I had to stop inside and inquire (and enjoy a pint or two of bitter). Turns out, according to one of the locals, that Adams grew up in or around Brentwood, and therefore used the pub name Horse and Groom in the first book. Surprisingly, only a few patrons that day even knew who Douglas Adams was, despite being what I would consider to be a local celebrity. Someone even said to me that if I enjoyed HGTTG I would also appreciate Red Dwarf, which was quite popular in Britian but never caught on big in the States (and I had never heard of it before). How right they were... So on behalf of the crowd at the Horse and Groom, so long Douglas, we'll all miss you.
Drat! You beat me to this joke. But seriously, with a revamped web site coming out, a movie in the works, when better to take a year off for taxes reasons? I mean, it would certainly be the right time...
It was only last weekend I listened to a beautiful lecture by Douglas Adams, the man was a damn fine philosopher. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/av_converg ence.shtml
Just click on convergence, program 4.
Peter.
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
Earlier posters have said it better and with more wit than I hope to muster, so to Mr. Adams I'd like to offer a heartfelt thank you. Your writings brightened many lives. You will be missed.
...that Douglas Adams' official website doesn't have a word on his death. IMHO it quite well demonstrates the problem with 90% of all websites, they don't keep them up-to-date. Altough sad incident, the webmasters should realize that this kind of event will automatically create a busy day for the author's official website, and if the website is out-of-date, it kind of destroys any kind of credibility. But on the topic itself, sad. just sad.
This is the place where you write something that will make you seem like a complete idiot.
Your books were funny, unassuming and brilliant. You will be missed by millions.
Nonperiodic Central Trajectory
"Hovered in the air the way bricks don't".
Maybe he's just spending a year dead for tax reasons.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
It's sad to see him go. I was just introduced to the Hitchhiker's series last year and enjoy the books very much. I'm sure he will be missed by many.
He did a nice joke about the bad mobile phone coverage in the US:
Apparently the island in Fidji where they filmed the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks, has a perfect cell phone network coverage. Why? Tom Hanks had that put into his movie contract, any place he films in has to have a perfect mobile coverage. Adams made a joke about having Hanks do his next movie as a road movie on the infamous 101 in Califormia
Respice post te, mortalem te esse memento.
Look around you, remember that you are mortal.
There is a page on his personal site where you can pay tribute: http://www.douglasadams.com/
Watch out though, I think it's running fairly slow with the load right now.
shame that we all can't be easily entertained by something brainless............ the best thing about british comedy is sitting there a while later, mind wandering, and getting something that blew right past you earlier.....takes a few brain cells at times....
1. When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
2. Do not eat iPod shuffle.
He may have only been 49, but he did a lot more with his life than some other 49 year olds. Plus he left a lot behind - enough to solidify his memory forever.
Immortality through art.
...All I can say is that my life is pretty strange...
He also wrote for Monty Python occaisonally, and even appeared in one 4th season episode I believe.
This has really destroyed my mood for today (and the worst part of it is: tonight I have to attend a birthday party of a friend that's as big of a DNA fan as I am).
--
Death to Vermin.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
He was married with a daughter.
As far as my english parser tells me, this implies that he was married to his daughter!
IIUC, that should read "He was married and had a daughter.", or even "He was married, with a daughter.".
--
Death to Vermin.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
I think that Douglas Adams wouldn't have wanted the Hitchikers Guide series to be considered his pinacle achievement, he showed sort of a testines towards his fans, then as of late a somewhat grudging acceptance of the popularity of his work. How would his spirit take all the Guide quotes being bandied about today on Slashdot? Would he take them in the spirit of fun and goodwill intended? Or would it be just another reminder to him that he was recognized as more of a one trick pony rather than the diverse writer he wished to be? With the mostly unread and unmentioned Last Chance to See the only other non Guide related book he wrote, the Guide series will stand as his greatest and most popular works whether he wanted them to or not. Had he lived another twenty or thirty years he may very well have broken the mold he had inadvertently cast for himself. Then again he may not have. At forty nine he has left this world too soon with too much undone and he will be missed.
...who knew where his towel was.
DNA's books changed my life. I always wanted to meet him some day, more than any other (living) author except possibly Clarke. He'll be sorely missed indeed.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
The soul of Douglas Adams coasted away into the inky starry void.
:'-(
~Philly
Farwell, Mr. Adams.
Well, once again we find that clowning and anarchy don't mix.//
. 49? That's too young. How can that happen? He had a daughter in 1994...he sure didn't see this coming. It's not fucking fair. 49? How is that fair? God sucks. Yeah, thinking about his daughter really punches you in the chest doesn't it? Those of us with kids can appreciate how much worse it is to not be there for your kids than to simply be dead. Jesus, she's only seven years old.
If you measure a person's value by the happiness they bring to others then we are an immensely poorer world today.
I remember reading the Hitchiker's Guide as a teenager, after watching the BBC series. I was absolutely blown away. What's more amazing is that no matter how many times I re-read those books or how old I get, I am still as amazed with them.
To me, HHGTTG represents the best of satire; it pokes fun at human foibles and failings without ever losing an underlying feeling of good humour. A difficult balancing act.
Oh, yeah. So Long, and thanks for the nick and the .sig, Mr. Adams...
I just read the Hitchhiker's series last year, after finding the first on the shelf of my mom's boyfriend. Immediately after finishing it, I hit up my local used bookstore for anything and everything they had by Adams. As a writer, a thinker and a satirist, he has enlightened me in the way I myself write, think, live and dream. I've told myself numerous times since reading his series that there has never before been a Douglas Adams, and there can never be another quite like him, though many will try (and who can blame them?). His books made us look at the universe in a new light, bringing the cosmos closer and putting sanity in chaos. In death, he will once again cause us to look up in a much differed way.
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
I'm always fond of the pure ridiculous nature of the Hitchhiker's books, which I first read when I was ten and found laugh-out-loud funny even though I didn't understand half of the jokes. Recently I came across his book "Last Chance to See" which I found both fascinating and typically humourous. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Adams but only previously read the Hitchhikers.
and thanks for all the memories
According to the CNN story about his death the rights to make a film using the story is owned by Disney. It even hints that it is still in production.
m s. death/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/books/05/12/ada
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
That post, even coming from an AC, is probably the most sincere expression of emotion on this site. I only wish I was so in touch with my own emotions.
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
I was just learning about h2g2, too. His warm yet wry humor will be with us for generations to come. On the event that members of his family should read this, I offer you my condolences.
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
You guys are reading far too much into a story that started as a short play for BBC Radio 4._ ____
Adams did not know the complete story until he had started the fifth book. It was not mapped out, it was not planned. Originally, there was not meant to be a second book. The stories were bolted on, haphazardly, as Adams was pressed to write more. The books are never as good as the first because he only really had one book in him, and the first was an amalgum of neat ideas he had before he wrote it.
The idea of 42 came about simply because it was as absract as Adams could get. It has no meaning (The religious nutter in a previous post shows how all religious nutters gamely clutch at straws in hope of deriving meaning from what, in fact, is crap made up by a gifted story teller.) and you lot reading more into it than you should do is realy, really sad.
Get a life, for your own sanity.
________________________________________
Now wash your hands.
Get it for the palm Pilot and other mediums here! Meetings will never be boring again with that and Colossal Cave adventure, et al.
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas"
Sen. Davy Crocket to US Congress, Nov. 1, 1835
I remember how I first got introduced to THHGTG - a completely random impulse buy of the original radio drama on audio cassette when I was 13 or 14. I laughed my ass off for all six hours. When I realized there were books, I immediately bought them all and have read them countless times since. They never lose their touch...always hilarious, yet always intellectual and philosophical. I once tried to compile a series of memorable quotes from the book before quickly realizing that such a collection would practically be a book unto itself.
I had always hoped to see him speak in person some time...sadly, that opportunity shall never come. Thank you, Douglas Adams, for sharing your creative genius with us all. You will be missed.
And yes...my signature is from none other than Zaphod Beeblebrox.
---
I heard the news on the way back from the pub today and it still hasn't sunk in. The world operates in mysterious ways... :o(
--
--
Democracy is the art of saying "nice doggy" while subtly reaching for a large stone.
when I just read this I was shocked, I have had people die around me... but none of them touched me like this has.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Later he even provided for network updates!!!!!
See my journal, I write things there
My phone says Don't Panic when I open it. I guess I feel like Ford...
"When you're cruising down the road in the fast lane and you lazily sail past a few hard-driving cars and are feeling pretty pleased with yourself and then accidentally change down from fourth to first instead of third thus making your engine leap out of your hood in a rather ugly mess, it tends to throw you off your stride in much the same way this remark threw Ford Prefect off his."
closed minded is as closed minded does
At least, they did before last christmas when I bought two sets of the CDs. Very reasonably priced as well, I think it was around $40US for each 6 disc set (which come as two 3 disc sets, so make sure you order both of them!)
Douglas Adams was almost a personal hero to me. For a while, I even carried around my own towel (you never know when it will come in handy) to school. I looked forward to the movie with great anticipation, and was downloading the old radio episodes off of Napster for future compilation on CD (assuming I ever got a burner).
Now I know what the true meaning of God's final message was.
It lives up to it's name: http://www.sanspoint.com
To somehow encode DeCSS so that the number 42 somehow decodes into DeCSS...
Don't know if it COULD be done, but what a thought!
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Tragic him going at 49... He still had so much more he could have done.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was and remains one of my VERY favorite series.. Adamns really pioneered a comedic style of science fiction... The story that began with the end of the world...
This is shocking. I feel as bad as when I found out Dr. Issac Asimov was dead, but that was a little easier to understand, given his age.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
And soon Jack Chick will be burning in Hell. Douglas Adams need not worry, God has a divine sense of humor. Jack Chick - This is your death! http://198.182.127.234/~weirdcrap/chick/dtr/dtr.ht ml
As for God... well, this is how I view God.
http://198.182.127.234/~weirdcrap/chick/judge/judg e.html
Jack Chick Parody
http://lefty.simplenet.com/chick/
http://198.182.127.234/~weirdcrap/chick/
http://www.fecundity.com/darkdung/
http://www.e-sheep.com/Saturnalia/
Jack Chick Plot Generator
http://www.vodex.btinternet.co.uk/chick/
Commentary on Chick
http://www.morons.org/chick/gayblade.php3
What Jack Chick REALLY believes
http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/chick.htm
Jack's Biography (Nutty as Rev. Fred Phelps)
http://www.chick.com/information/authors/chick.asp
A more balanced biography
http://atheism.about.com/religion/atheism/library/ nosearch/printable/blp_aa100799.htm
"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
This bloody well fscks me up... The good die young...
Cheers,
leroy.
I don't know where you're going now Mr. Adams, but Don't Panic! Be sure to take your towel and have a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster on me.
Grayswan,
Life is what I do between cigarettes. - Mark Twain
If you open your mind too wide, people will throw trash in it.
Mr. Adams, so long and thanks for the laughs
I have a very small mind and must live with it.
I have a very small mind and must live with it.
-- E. Dijkstra
But the question is 'what do you get when you multiply six by nine', or something like that.
So where in the hell are you getting 7 from?
Maybe you should try 6=Sun, and 9=Moon, obviously the two largest sources of input into the computer, Earth. Then we take base 13 (the dog) as guidence for the autonomous agents (Man (2)) and then... Oh, forget it.
- dave f.
:(
Too many Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters will take their toll...
It's all Hood
You not getting something doesn't qualify it as a contradiction in terms, I'd say, but you're right about the cuisine of course, larks' tongues in aspic and all, blerghh, although that would make a fine song title, no wait...
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
I had the radio tuned to NPR and was out driving to crew practice. I don't have my liscense yet, only my permit, and I'm not too great at, you know, not running into things. When I heard the news I just about smashed into a stop sign. It's a damn shame, I tell you. All the really, really creative people seem to die young. Jim Henson, Douglas Adams. Who next, Terry Pratchett?
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
Maybe he was just picked up by the Vogons. In which case, we've got about 12 minutes to live. Shit.
Damn good books
-- Nerds on toast in the new millenium
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy [...] says of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation products that "it is very easy to be blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them to work at all."
In other words - and this is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxy-wide success is founded - their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.
(Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish)
Every real geek will know why I have to grin every time I read it.
I saw Douglas Adams on a reading tour here in Zurich, Switzerland, on March 14, 1995. Hearing him read from the Hitchhiker's Guide was an experience I'll never forget; he had me and the rest of the audience spellbound.
The organizers had announced that he would be signing books at the end of the show, so I bought a copy of HGTTG (I had left my battered old paperback at home, unfortunately) and got in line. Knowing that most fans are prone to asking the authors Really Stupid Questions they probably already answered at least a million times, I wisely decided to keep my mouth shut, get my book signed, and leave. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and as I stood before him and he was about to sign the book, the quotation above suddenly came to my mind and I asked him, in my really bad English (knowing that he was a Mac fan), if he had a particular company in mind when he wrote it, such as IBM or Microsoft?
He paused for a moment, smiled, and said "No, I wasn't thinking about any particular company when I wrote that." and signed the book. I thanked him, turned around and left.
Just wanted to share this with you. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do. Don't need to be telling you what, do I?
Thanks for everything, Douglas, you were a really frood guy.
Raymond
From the Encyclopaedia Galactica:
frood: really amazingly together guy
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
So long and thanks for the fish.
--
Two witches watched two watches.
Which witch watched which watch?
Why is it like all the people that seem to make this world sane, with all their insanity, just pop off and die, just like that?
Of course, now I have to read the book again, for the n'th time.
.../Bosse
Looks like a fish, drives like a fish, steers like a cow.
I will always remember Arthur calmly walking out the second story window to show he could fly©
Get a grip and a sense of humour, if you can't appreciate the talents of a great author and the lengths his work has inspired in other people... I feel incredibly sorry for you.
It's in that place where I put that thing that time
Hmm, the fist time I saw the last book it was in paper back, and did indeed say "the fifth in the increasingly mis-named trilogy" (or text to that affect). So no, that tag-line was on more than just the originals...
God bless those Albino Ninjas...
"He's dead, he won't see that"
Well, apparently some people believe in something called an "afterlife". This is the idea that when you die, only your body dies, and that "you" are actually some non-physical "thing" that continues to live despite having no body. Some people also seem to believe that there is this place where all these metaphysical entities go and "hang out" for eternity. In other words, Douglas Adams "may be sitting in heaven right now, reading slashdot". Myself, I don't ascribe to such patently absurd notions.
I was sitting here, reeling from the shock, trying to think of my favorite part of his books and I realized that they were all my favorite parts!
So much of what he wrote had a way of making you feel 'Oh, well, that's all right then." when you were faced with odd or confusing situations in life. I can't resist the urge to share some of my favorite parts of his books.
Why, just the other day, I was thinking one of his quotes about the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation products (guess what corporation's products I was thinking about? Anyone? Bueller?)
Or what he had to say about computers: And then there is the concept of the SEP (somebody else's problem) field... the idea that "everything the human race had ever believed was true and that it continued to be true long after they stopped believing it... or the Electric Monk. This is indeed a sad, sad day.:(
Thanks for the laughs and the wonderfull books. Never will there be someone who replaces you in our hearts. My best wishes to the family.
"You ARE Douglas Adams?"
"Yeah," said Adams, "but don't shout it out or they'll all want one."
"THE Douglas Adams?"
"No, just A Douglas Adams, didn't you hear I come in six packs?"
"But sir," it squealed, "I just heard on the sub-ether radio report. It said you were dead..."
"Yeah, that's right, I just haven't stopped moving yet."
Has anyone else noticed that in addition to Adams, Jim Henson, Carl Sagan and Stanely Kubrick have all died suddenly early in production of Disney movies?
WTF is going on.
Quote "I love deadlines... I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by..."
Goodbye Doug, you will be sorely missed :|
Jesus, its not polite to trample a mans grave like that.
Mark
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Mark
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Rest in piece, Mr. Adams
If god had intended you to be naked, you would have been born that way.
I'll always treasure the memory of when my wife Starflower bought me and my friend Grady matching scripts for the radio version of the Guide. We immediately launched into a dramatic reading of several scenes, each of us assuming several different voices for different characters.
I feel like I've lost a personal friend. You'll be missed, Douglas, and long remembered!
-Miko
Miko O'Sullivan
--
"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house"
--
"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house"
-George Carlin
...what that "Don't panic, the answer is 42"-stuff means?
please?
cya
jds
I was halfway through "Mostly Harmless"
I don't think I can finish the book now and laugh at a joke.
"mass audience"=America :)
I remember when i read the "trilogy" for the first time.. sigh.. have fun in infinity!
1 AREA: Infinite
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy offers this definition of the word "Infinite."
Infinite: Bigger that the biggest thing ever and then some. Much bigger than that in fact, really amazingly immense, a totally stunning size, real "wow, that's big," time. Infinity is just so big that, by comparison, bigness itself looks really titchy. Gigantic multiplied by colossal multiplied by staggeringly huge is the sort of concept we're trying to get across here."
To smash a single atom, all mankind was intent / Now any day the atom may return the compliment
and just think what he could have taught her, with his brilliance. I bet he's a great dad as well ;-(
we will surely miss him, his work got me through some very dark times
~www.devnull.co.uk
It's reminiscent of all the rock stars who have died at 27: Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain.
Fight for your right to read books!
Just bought the five-in-one omnibus edition because the other were falling apart. Very sad news, it was even on the radio today here in Germany. Douglas, thanks for all the laughs !!! Hope well meet at Milliways some day or other. Now Ill walk over to the Nutri-Matic and get me some of that ole Yanxx spirit. I need a drink...
Now THAT was truly sad and disrespectful. You're just another poor excuse for an anonymous coward. Only a true scumbag like you would troll over Adam's death.
I first encountered Douglas Adams when I was nearly a kid, listening to HHGTG on the BBC via shortwave radio. It fueled my hobby, trying to catch the episodes at inconvenient times in Grenwich Mean Time. I never did catch them all.
Not too many years later, probably around 1982 or so, I met Douglas Adams when I was working at a dinky computer store in Studio City CA. The staff and I were all computer games players, and the store was known for its devotion to games, as well as support for Hollywood scriptwriters. We sold DEC Rainbow and Kaypro computers, and Adams had a Rainbow back in England, so he came to us when he was in LA working on the some scripts. He wanted to buy a new Kaypro portable, and we helped him convert some Wordstar floppy disks of scripts to the new machine. I knew Adams' work, so I suggested he might be interested in this game that was sucking up all our free time, Zork. I sat him down at a demo machine, fired it up, and I could see he was immediately hooked. So we converted an 8in floppy of Zork over to his 5in Kaypro disk format, and he bought it. IIRC, it cost something like $20. The store went bankrupt shortly after that, and I never saw him again.
Many years later, he wrote about how his first exposure to Zork was what got him hooked on the text adventure format, and convinced him to produce HHGTG as a text adventure. So I'm claiming direct responsibility for the HHGTG computer game, I accidentally inspired it by exposing Adams to my favorite game.
So I'm seriously bummed about his passing. Douglas Adams was a nice guy, and gave the world many hours of laughter, and that's something we all need more of. I can only think of one thing to say, "We apologize for the inconvenience."
Life. Don't talk to me about life.
"The lights went out in his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever."
One of the best authors of the 21st century and one of my all-time favourites.
Here's a towel for you, DNA
So long and thanks for everything, not just the fish.
Sid
This is not an optical illusion. It merely looks like one.
sounds like he'll be hitchhiking across a whole new universe now...
You finding Ling-Ling's head?
Someone come into yard, kill dog.
You finding Ling-Ling's head?
Someone come into yard, kill dog.
Ling Ling very good dog.
perhaps one of his best books was "Last chance to see". This is a true masterpiece, telling the story of a few endangered species from his own experiences. Not many people know about this one but it is told with the same honesty and unexpected twists of hilaririty that made his other books so popular and I believe it ranks within the best books I have ever read. Let us pass on the legend and not forget his genius. oh god I feel like marvin must have felt.. :(
This truly is the Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul...
ust2b a 6pac, now jest a 1pac
Shit. Be cool in the dev/null, Doug. You'll be missed.
Not only will you be sorely missed, you will be forever loved. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
...says it all.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
I first read Adams' stuff when I was about 12. Back then I just thought it was funny; only now, as I go through college have I started to realize how truly deep some of it is. If you really want a good insight into hitchhiker's, I highly reccomend the annotated radio scripts (i think they're entitled "the original hitchhiker's radio scripts") if you can find a copy.
49? Is that all? No one should die so young! He will remembered. And his books will be read for many generations to come.
must have been something like this: old man: Come with me, or you will be late. Adams: Late? old man: What's your name, Earthman? Adams: Adams. Douglas Adams. old man: Late as in the late Adamsdouglasadams. Maybe now he is sharing an Old Janx Spirit with the Ruler of the Universe.
You are standing in front of a house. There is a mailbox here.
My thoughts and prayers are with his family. He was a genius and the most hysterical philospher the world has ever seen. He also was impassioned to use his celebrity to successfully call attention to some of the crises of the world. Most vividly, I recall his outspoken efforts to end the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990's. As did many posters, I started the Guide series when I was a kid, 20 years ago. I read the non-Guide's too. To this day, whenever I start to take myself, or life, too seriously, all I have to do is pick up any of the Guide books, and I am reminded to laugh at myself, and the absurdity of living Inside the Asylum. It is a shame to see him die so young, with so much work in progress, but he lives on through everyone he has touched, as a person, an author, and a humanitarian. He will always do so. "Thanks, that'll be all for now, other than to say 'Hi!' to Douglas if he's watching."
My sympathies go out to all his close friends, his family and his nearest and dearest. My sympathies also go out to all those who, like me, have been touched deeply by his work, and shall never forget the impact he's had on my life and those I respect. The man was a genius, storytelling giant and passionate man. We are sorely at a loss today. He was so right about 42. We may say he died today at 49, but truly it was 42. Albeit base 11.75... As he said, the answer is 42 - it always is, and those who get on a 42 bus in Manchester in the UK can/should never forget it! I sincerely hope that in Cambridge where he set some of his most fun stories that someone is sitting there remembering him right now. I salute him, and I hope that when I go I've touched as many people in such a personal way as he has. A sad day indeed.
Actually, movies do already exist for this series. Im not sure how many of the HHGTTG books were done as movies, but they were done... and poorl! I know because I own them. I was very sad to hear the news of his death. The HHGTTG was one of the few books ive read all the way through, and probably the only series Ive read all the books in. He will be missed, and my heary goes out to his loved ones. So long, and thanks for all the fish!
After me and my kids spent all weekend worried about where are darn towells were. We went swimming every day. :( How am I gonna tell my kids :( Well I can always read them the books again.
This is such a sad time...I've been a Douglas Adams fan for 5 years...I built my webpage as a sixth grader devoted to him...hes the only person I've steadily idolized over the years. One of the things that kept me going going was looking forward to the next hitchhiker's book...*sigh*. You see, with his death, ford, arthur, zaphod, and all the rest die too, this time perminantly. I guess I'm just not good at coping with death...but a world without douglas adams seems so foreign and desolate.
One more...
Very sorry you felt that way about the HHGG series. I personally felt that "Restaurant at the End of the Universe" and "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish" were just as good, if not better, than "Hitchhiker's Guide". And all five books (six, counting the short "Young Zaphod...") make up one of the most original and brilliant works of science fiction (slash philosophy, slash theology, slash anthropology, etc. etc.) to date.
I'm not sure if it's possible to use the words 'milked' and 'Douglas Adams' in the same sentence, but somehow you've managed. Face it, the man wrote a handful of books in over twenty years time. That's about 1/60th of what... oh, just to pull a name out of a hat, Stephen King has managed to mill out in his time. The difference is that every book Adams put out had character and depth. And you can find King's greatest hits at a supermarket near you.
Sorry if that sounds a bit defensive, but Douglas and I had one great thing in common: I greatly dislike people who like to talk about things they know nothing about, and he felt the same. And there's an awful lot of that going on in this thread. Douglas stopped writing Hitchhiker's books because he had nothing else to say; in fact, read "Mostly Harmless" and you'll see how he was feeling about the subject. He went on to write the Dirk Gently books, which are brilliant, and "Last Chance to See", on the subject of wildlife conservation, is probably my favorite... it was his. The "Meaning of Liff" books are indescribably funny.
Anyway, to sum up, I'm glad you enjoyed the first of his books but I honestly feel that his work got better, not worse, through the years.