Slashdot Mirror
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.
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...
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
I guess, I'm really getting old: my favorite writers have started dying. What a sad day. :-(
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
I wouldn't expect the Slashdot audience to know much about quality writing, given that they read Slashdot :)
--
--
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...
--
--
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.
--
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
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.
--
I guess someone found his sub-eather thumb signal
--
James Michael Keller
"Linux is not our destination, it is simply the open road to tommorow"
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.
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.
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 rather like the one about being drunk:
It's unpleantly like being drunk.
What's unpleasant about being drunk?
Ask a glass of water.
--
--
"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.
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.
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.
#define NINE 8 + 1
#define SIX 1 + 5
int main() {
printf("%i times %i is %i\n", SIX, NINE, SIX * NINE);
return 0;
}
--
--
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.
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.
Why miss it?
a sad day indeed.
--
+&x
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
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.
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...
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.
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}}
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.
A coworker of mine managed to cite Douglas Adams.
It goes like (translated from german):
"... converges at 10x10x6 k-points, which can be reduced to 42 Points [Ada89] by applying symmetries."
where [Ada89] is the first entry in the Bibliography (alphabetical sorting):
[Ada98] D.Adams. The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. Harmony Books, ISBN 0517542099, 1989.
You can still get some mileage out of that joke, when you use it in unexpected places. Well, i laughed.
"By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing... kill yourself." -- Bill Hicks
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
--
People as creative as Douglas Adams don't have "unfortunate obsesions with Macs", they understand that the Mac is the computing tool of choice for creative people. Just like you understand what made him great, he understood what make Macs great.
--
Lord Nimon
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
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
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
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.
I just made a font of DNA's handwriting,
http://fonts.tom7.com/fonts98.html
I will miss this man.
At any rate, this is a rotten way to start the day. I suppose I'll have to dig out that leather bound edition of the first four novels and thumb through it for awhile....
sig not found
(I've just finished reading "So long, and thanks for all the fish" yesterday. I feel really sad.)
--
This space left intentionally blank.
> 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.
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.
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.)
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
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.
At a talk at Carnegie Mellon in '99, he said part of the reason for the ending was that he hated having to spend 100 pages collecting all the characters into the same place so he decided that if he made them all dead, they'd at least be in the same place.
Go Badgers! -- #include "std/disclaimer.h"
Douglas Adams is dead. But Jack Valenti goes on and on and on...
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
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
So Long, Mr. Adams, and thanks for all the memories.
--
--
We have fought the AC's, and they have won.
Well, yes, but... Many many years ago, everyone dies on a Hagunennon Battle Cruiser (tweaked into Disaster Area's sundive ship forthe books). There was no way any of them could possibly have survived the end ofthe first series. And yet, somehow, Arthur and Ford managed to survive to get stranded on the prehistoric Earth, millions of years beforew any possible rescue method, and, yet...
If DNA had wanted to have another go with the characters, he undoubtedly had the creativity to come up with a get-out from the apocalypse itsef (bill arrives, pay for the meal, deal with the queueueue for the parking lot and head on home to put a penny in a savings account).
Thanks Douglas.
TomV
"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).
Losing Douglas Adams is like losing Jim Henson. Too soon, too great a person to keep around.
See you at Milliways...
/Brian
Carousel is a lie!
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
He will be sorely missed.
--
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
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.
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"
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
Dave
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.
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
"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
Maybe he knows something you don't.
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"
It's hard enough without Asimov...
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.
"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.
He also wrote for Monty Python occaisonally, and even appeared in one 4th season episode I believe.
...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
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 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
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
The BBC already used that one... prepare for the writ ;)
Seriously... I'm finding it hard to express how upset I am about this. I got into Hithc-hiker's Guide more than twenty years ago (my father made me listen to it on the radio because they went to the same school)... devoured the books, taped as much as I could manage when the radio series were repeated in 1985-6, then listened to those obsessively ever since.
Douglas Adams, his unfortunate obsesion with Macs aside, was always interested in computers, ever since the original InfoGames adaption of HHG as a text adventure. I saw a piece on that on the BBC's 'Microcoputers' show & taped the audio for that, too - I remember him saying that he offered to do the actual programming, to which the developers "politely told me that they'd like it to come out this century, and if I could stick to writing the jokes,..."
If you haven't heard the original radio shows, do yourself a big favour and get them now *NOT* the audio book - IMHO they're better than the books, as well as following a different (and more coherent) plot as well. And there's lots of stuff that didn't make it to the books: Zaphod and Ford falling from a mysterious cold white cave, fifteen miles up in the air...
Ford: I can't stand heights!
ZB: Don't worry, we're on our way down... listen, we may be alright, we might land in the water you know? Can you swim?
Ford: I don't know.
ZB: You don't *know*?
Ford: Well, I never liked to go into water in any great detail...
ZB: What kind of traveller are you, man? Don't like heights, don't like water...
Ford: Simply natural. I just get a kick out of being on the ground.
ZB: Well any minute now you'll have the biggest kick of your life...
I feel as if I've lost a member of my family. It's only 90 minutes since I heard this, and it still hasn't sunk in.
I really hope the HHG site doesn't get any more messed up by the BBC (see this week's NTK... and I hope the film still happens, as he was sounding really upbeat about it last I heard (his Ask Slashdot interview I think.)
--
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.
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.Perhaps there are the scribblings of Salmon of Doubt somewhere among his worldly things. I'm sure any scraps of his genius will be gathered up and published.
Oh, what might have been.
Quote "I love deadlines... I love the wooshing noise they make as they go by..."
Goodbye Doug, you will be sorely missed :|
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!
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."
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.