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First of 6 new HHGG episodes, Tonight!
Prof.Phreak writes "From HHGG: Twenty-five years after the original radio series of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero, Arthur Dent, are being brought to life in their original medium and with the (mainly) original cast. Episode 1- Tuesday 21 September 2004 6.30pm; In which Arthur wakes up, Trillian opts out, and Marvin is stuck fast..."
fdc9e07d05ed33212e41456b7b9c155e ?
Star Wars DVDs or HHGG Radio play? Well, I'll probably be in my car at the time, so Hello Arthur...
Phil
I do hope it's being streamed over the net - I can't get Radio 4 here... Sure, I may be in Loughborough and have a perfect signal, but I don't have a radio tuner at the moment, and my car aerial has snapped off! Grrr!
It's so awesome that Douglas Adams already recorded his part.. I'll be listening with a tear in my eye. :)
If you're out of reception range of BBC Radio Four, then you can listen online:
BBC Radio Player
It requires a Real player of some kind.
Belgium!!!
Woo hoo!
All's true that is mistrusted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtm l
Should appear there soon!
Rob.
So long and thanks for all the episodes.
So no need to destroy your mind with a homemade Total Perspective Vortex if you don't catch it first time. Though I'm sure a CD release will follow shortly.
On a slightly different note, the Earth won't be demolished for a hyperspace bypass. Rather for a new Sirius Cybernetics City box store.
I guess in jolly olde england where they only have two channels, and you have to pay a tithe to watch them, radio is still a valid form of entertainment.
Right then, bloody good show.
Seriously, they should make a movie or something. I dont even own a radio.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
my towel and I are ready!
-Teiresias
STAT....
I've been listening to the old shows on the way to work, and it still makes me laugh. The other people on the bus must think I'm nuts...
Bit torrent will have these ASAP. I've never read or heard Hitchhikers (yes I know, I'm sorry please forgive me I give up my geek status), but I plan to do so tonight. I can get radio 4 here (I'm in the UK) and I may even record it on TV (TV gets radio with satalite).
Is there an online option or any news of a CD/cassete release in the near future though?
I like muppets.
why choose? record the broadcast. then you can combine all of the resulting recordings and enjoy all kinds of sci-fi goodness without having to worry about being slave to someone else's scheduling dictates.
of course, since you're likely doing this already: you alreaday saw SW4-6. you've probably heard and even seen HHGG before but more changes here. IMHO, it's a no-brainer.
o, one last thing:
[cues all the "lucas is the devil/stole my childhood" posts]
ed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/mp3/hitchh ikers_trail.mp3
Well, it's at 10:30am Pacific and 1:30pm Eastern.
Anyone have backup audio links in case BBC's is overwhelmed?
I read HHGTTG when I was in 4th grade or something. It was neato back then, but I can't see myself ever being interested in it now.
Rabid adult fans of HHTTG scare me a bit, much like adult fans of Harry Potter. With the movie(s) coming up, and now this, I think I'm in for a frightful couple of years.
you're trying to slashdot the BBC !
So let's do the math...
The planet factory was 13 light/sec in circumferance. Light travels at approximately 3e8 m/s which puts the circumferance at 3.9e9 meters around.
3.9e9 / (2 * PI) ~= 6.2e8 meters which is the radius. That puts the diameter at 1.24e9 meters.
There is 6.2e-4 meters/mile, so 1.24e9 * 6.2e-4 = 7.7e5 miles. That's pretty close to the estimated 1 million mile diameter!
I really like the way this guy thinks.
This should bring you up to date. At the end of the last series: The gang have discovered the whereabouts of the guy who makes all of the desicions about the universe. Arthur Dent (the last remaining male human) has stormed off in the "heart of gold" (powered by the improbabilty drive) after hearing that one of his companions Zaphod beeblebrox was behind the destruction of Earth. So the rest of the gang are stranded and its making marvin depressed.
Dan
Just thought I'd let you know about the new O'Reilly book. The blurb on the back says "Learn to eliminate superficial bugs in SCC products - then stand back and enjoy a stunning view of all the fundamental ones"
What's with all these 503 errors???
If the editors were smart, Slashdot would Migrate to Windows Server 2003!
The Windows platform offers a lower overall total cost than UNIX, and many companies are learning that Windows Server(TM) is an even better investment than "free" Linux.
w0000t! nice! hmm... i hope itll be streamed somewhere.
Where will they stop making episodes?
Will they stop at Fish, or continue on to Mostly Harmless?
I, for one, was deeply dissapointed with Mostly Harmless - it felt very mean-spirited, like DNA was saying "Alright, I want to do other work now, and you bastards won't let me, so I'll kill EVERYBODY off - THERE! Now can I write other stuff?"
Even Sir Conan-Doyle's termination of his main character wasn't so mean-spirited - Holmes died fighting Moriarity - he wasn't simply wiped from existance!
www.eFax.com are spammers
...will I be able to watch without a babel fish?
*slap* Thats for being off topic and wrong
Ok, what is the best way to capture this for listening to later on an Ipod?
Windows or BSD options are welcome..
And please, no lecturing about 'copyright violations', i really dont care to hear about it, nor will i respond.. I have the rights to time-shift.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Will we be able to download the program(me)s and archive them locally? I see one of the previews is in MP3 format, which would be perfect for my portable player. Will I be in luck?
Xesdeeni
Please note that the time listed is GMT+1 - adjust accordingly. Seems England "celebrates" daylight savings time as well.
This sig no verb.
it's a joke you fucking loser
So they say they're going to keep the latest episode archived and listenable on the BBC web site for seven days after the 2nd broadcast -- anybody know if this will be the same RealAudio version that's streamed live?
And if it is, how do you capture it for time-shifting (since RealAudio streaming works RealBad)?
You've got to love how easy some Mac software is to use. (and, no, I am in no way affiliated with them, other than I'm about to own their software.)
So, back when the books first came out, I read them all in paperback, individually. I'm sure I've been through at least three "complete" (to varying degrees) versions of the "Trilogy" in hardcover (one of them was even leather bound!). I played the Infocom game on various platforms and emulators, watched the BBC TV show recorded on VHS and Betamax, and recently picked up a copy of the DVD set at the library. There are at least two versions of the radio show that I know of, and both of those I've listened to completely. On my nightstand is a recently purchased, clearanced hardcover copy of the Trilogy that I haven't been able to get myself back into, though. It just seems like it's from a completely different era. Probably the reason why some people are really into the Trash 80's music, can't get enough of the culture, even though that decade is long gone...while others say "yeah, cute...let's move on." So you see, I can see this from both sides of the fence. I think HHGTTG is a classic, written by a phenominal author, and I'm very interested to see how they're going to update things...fashion, computers, scenery. I realize that an audio program leaves more to the imagination, but I'm certain that radio SFX have advanced significantly since even the more current edition of the audio program. My fear is that there may not be as much of an audience for this as there once was....
i've missed out on all these radio shows etc. where can i find digital version of these shows? for purchase or for legal free download.
In which Arthur wakes up, Trillian opts out, and Marvin is stuck fast...
...
If you view the HTML of the BBC page, you'll notice much longer introductions to each story, currently commented out...
Arthur Dent awakes to find that he has spent the last four years on prehistoric Earth, alone in all that time save for five minutes with an infuriating alien called Wowbagger who arrived, insulted him, and left. Reunited with Ford Prefect, Arthur discovers that the Hitchhikers Guide he threw in the river still works - and is being updated. Rescue appears in the form of a sofa caught in the Space-Time Continuum and Arthur and Ford disappear in a fashion which would cause stern looks from the Campaign For Real Time.
Aboard the Heart of Gold Zaphod Beeblebrox is nursing a large Pan Galactic Gargleblaster and two headaches. He believes that he survived the Total Perspective Vortex while pursuing a Hitchhikers Guide employee called Zarniwoop and that Arthur marooned him by stealing the Heart of Gold, which of course Zaphod himself stole (but then Zaphod thinks he alone has the right to indulge in excitement, adventure and really wild things).
His girlfriend Trillian (who, as Tricia McMillan, is the only human apart from Arthur to survive the Destruction of Earth by the Vogon Constructor Fleet) has no memory at all of these events and is therefore convinced that Zaphod has had a psychotic episode brought on by too many drinks. Tired of his selfishness she snaps and leaves him, having herself beamed by Eddie the shipboard computer in any direction but here.
Meanwhile in the swamps of Squornshellous Zeta, Marvin the Paranoid Android pivots helplessly in circles on an artificial leg, his only company a talkative mattress called Zem
While you're waiting for the broadcast you can always play the game.
Where's the Kaboom?
There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
... you might think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts compared to space.
Oh and it is realplayer so it works fine under linux.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Duh, the preview is available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/media/hitc hhikers_trail.ram
:(
Took two attempts to guess this one
Though I don't have RealPlayer so can't listen to it
If you point your browser in the direction of http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 and fire up your horribly proprietary RealPlayer, Hitchhikery goodness shall be yours.
A HH fan friend of mine in the States has already done a test run, and has commented on how clear the stream sounds.
Thank God the Olympics are over, or all net listeners would be SOL.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
From the sounds of it, they turned the entire original second season into a dream sequence!
That really sucks. I wish they'd pick up at the end of the second season, where Arthur learns from the strange old man that the Earth was destroyed by an alliance of psychiatrists (who were afraid that the revelation of the ultimate answer would cause them to lose business) and Zaphod, and flees in the Heart of Gold.
Damn.
By the way, for those of you who are in the U.S..... 6:30 pm British time is 1:30pm Eastern time. So be ready... it'll be broadcast in about an hour.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
The original Infocom HHGTTG game : http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I just used vsound to capture a BBC Jazz Legends program. The tricky part is that the BBC web pages used javascript or something to hide the stream URL quite effectively; I had to use ethereal to capture 5-10 seconds of packets, then pick out the stream address from the packet data. Once I had the URL, I could open it in stand-alone RealPlayer, not some funky browser-embedded version that disables rewind, etc.
GET A LIFE!!!!!
Movie, Radio Series 1, Radio Series 2, 5 books, and now this one. Anyone else get really confused between all the different timelines? Care to help us out?
please remove any extraneous spaceso 4/live/r4_dsat_g2.ra
mplayer -dumpstream rtsp://rmlivev8.bbc.net.uk/farm/*/ev7/live24/radi
I Don't Work Here
Yanno Bill later recanted this statement. He used to think trekkies were geeks with no life. Then he later came to love them and enjoy star trek conventions himself. He not only wrote a "get a life" type book, he wrote a second book reversing that position just like I said.
I'm not sure if it was for money or ego or he had an honest to goodness change of heart, but one thing is for sure... the trekkies assimilated him!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I also remember that, i was looking forward to getting some Dr Who episodes..
Have not heard about it since.. Must have died...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/live_feed.shtml
That will get it to play online for you. It starts in 15 minutes. Please mod this up so everyone can enjoy this.
You know, what I really really want to know is when will the movie come out? If we can do LOTR, this should be easy?! I just have to say BCC rules, I wish CBC here in Canada can still push something like this. I can't wait to get my hands on it...
weink dot net
ISTM this is one of the few cases...
I Seem To Mean?
If Sung Too Much?
Islington Standard Time Meridian?
The original BBC productions were practically an auditory orgasm thanks to the fine work of the (now disbanded) Radiophonic Workshop, so I'll be wanting to capture from a slightly better source than RealAudio, to get the full effect.
Thus I shall be:
1. recording from digital cable to minidisc
2. capturing audio from the minidisc using KDE's fine audio utilities (from which I could quite easily capture straight from the stream, without add ons, you can record the output to the soundcard)
3. encoding to Ogg Vorbis and/or mp3
and Robert's a close relative
I realise there will be a slight loss of quality as it will be encoded twice (once as ATRAC3, and then to the final format) but I can show my wife how to use the minidisc deck (I'm away from home ATM) so I'll have to live with it.
"The dew has clearly fallen with a particularly sickening thud this morning"
you bastards...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Its just started on the radio :)
Hope the servers are ok for all you foreigners...
Aint Real Alternative great..
:)
The sound isn't half bad, considering i'm on the other side of the pond, hope the bbc's servers keep up to this...
It's excellent so far...
Ah, the BBC... Listening to the program right now, and it makes me really, really, really want to read the books.
Not because I'm getting nostalgic for the stories or anything lovely like that, but because the radio programs are SOOOOOO bad. I need the written word to erase the utter horribleness of the BBC's enactments from my memory.
Ugh.
Some things just don't come across well in all formats. For instance, Monty Python is best when viewed. Listening to them is okay, and reading is just downright worthless. Tolkien and Adams are best when read and diminish in quality when brought to the screen or the spoken word. And so, my desire to completely stop up my ears and open the freaking books.
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
I'm recording it, so I can listen to it when the children are in bed
Dig http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm
bamph
I can say without a doubt that they've bloody well ruined the whole thing. They've distroyed subtle humour and brilliant storytelling with blindingly stupid and obvious half-flashbacks, off-tone loops, and idiotic music. It is at best distracting and irritating.
What ever happened to just telling a good story? Is that so hard to do without silly sounding gingerbread trim? What deluded the producers into believing that something as spectacular as the original BBC HHGTTG radio shows needed tarting up with flashy music and annoying sound effects?
I have no reason to doubt that these shows were put together by the same kind of people who think laughtracks make stuff funny.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
They're calling this series the "Tertiary Phase", but as far as I can tell they're not bothering to tie up the threads left dangling at the end of the "Secondary Phase" (i.e. the second series). Instead, it sounds like they're rewinding all the way back to the end of the "Primary Phase" (i.e. the first series) and then following the books from there.
(If you didn't already know, the books and the second radio series follow completely different storylines.)
At the end of the second series, we'd just learned from the Man Who Rules the Galaxy that Zaphod had secretly conspired with his psychiatrist to destroy the Earth, to prevent the people of the galaxy from learning the Ultimate Question and thus becoming mentally stable and content.
Arthur, justifiably angered by this revelation, stole the Heart of Gold and took off with Lintilla, the cloned archaeologist, and Marvin, the paranoid android.
Ford, Zaphod, and Zarniwoop were left abandoned on the tiny, rain-soaked planet with the Man Who Rules the Galaxy and God, his cat.
I am listening to it as a type, welcome back - I missed it.
I just finished listening to the episode.... I need to get the CDs of the original shows now.
Douglas Adams, we miss you dearly.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
The music was the same. It's by The Eagles, and was used in the '80s HHGTTG.
:-)
Also, the weird flashbacks, and particularly the stuttering on the book, were to bring everything up to speed. It has been twenty years you know! Of course, the first episode was going to be slow going. Although, to be honest, I'm glad I recorded it because I found it as hard as ever to follow
Wow ... I suddenly feel sixteen again, sitting and hacking and giggling quietly to HHGG on the radio. Even though the technology has changed in just about every way -- the feelings were identical.
The mechanism used to gloss over the absence of Peter Jones was a bit disappointing at the beginning, but after a few minutes I was thinking more about the dialog than the speaker.
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
Good to hear it once again on radio (abet via the net!).
Thank you Douglas Adams, you will be sadly missed... 42 over and out.
I particularly liked the mattress, though the program as a whole wasn't as fast moving as Primary and Secondary.
That was superb, so glad to have them back. :)
People that believe in their opinions don't post AC.
I just heard the first episode, and I enjoyed it. Not quite as manic as the original radio series, but it's managed to blend in where the characters were and where they need to be going. I especially enjoyed the mattresses, I'd forgotten about Zem.
Bodes well for the rest of the series!
"What if they're using IE?" "I've dumbed Mozilla down to cope with it." - BOFH
There is enough "new" stuff and difference for it to be intresting to those of us who haved read the books to often.
If I must be critical it seems the acting is slightly less fluid then the originals.
On the whole a "sequel" that doesn't disappoint and rapes my memory. George Lucas should take note.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Yes, I had to Google because I couldn't remember the album name, yes I laughed at all the Google Gamers with lyrics pages for an instrumental.
Where's the Kaboom?
There's supposed to be an Earth-shattering Kaboom.
Just plain Awesome.
/sig
I said "half-flashbacks." You know, the kind of things where the characters repeat what the narrator just said.
For example:
NARRATOR - "Ian was surprised."
IAN - "I'm surprised."
It's annoying, irritating, childish, and stupid. This "technique" belongs in the rubbish heap next to the laugh track.
Also, the music didn't feature so prominantly 20 years ago.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
Why would anyone want to listen to something like this if they're going to use a proprietary format? My friend recorded a sci-fi comedy show that's distributed in Ogg Vorbis format, any everyone should listen to that instead! Plus, that capitalist pig Douglas Adams copyrighted everything he wrote. I can just download some Free sci-fi comedy books instead of reading HHGG books that cost $5.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
Anyone? Buehler?
And yes, I know "Each episode will be available for 7 days following the Thursday evening repeats.", But I'd rather not wait until then, only to find out BBC's servers are slammed.
of those lame "42" jokes that aren't funny in the first place? :(
...its rubbish!
welcome our new lame "42" punchline spitting overlords...
I was delighted, personally. I sat there with towel in hand and was enraptured throughout. The pursuit of the sofa was wonderfully realised, and Marvin's conversation with Zem was a classic. Looking forward to meeting the killer Krikkiters in episode 2. And I shouted for joy when I heard Ford mutter under his breath 'oh, belgium...'
What I'm still wondering about, though, is how they'll handle the cliffhanger from the last episode of the old series. Arthur knows that Zaphod ordered the demolition of the Earth; that was never an issue in the books. How will this affect the development of the plot, I wonder?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
"You should be more mattressy. We live quiet, retired lives in the swamp where we are content to flummop and volue and regard the wetness, in a fairly floopy manner *popopopopopopopopopopop*"
Actually, having lived in the UK and the US I think that fewer channels is actually better. My experience is that there is the same amount of good TV to watch but that with 100 channels its a lot harder to find!
-1 Overrated?
Get it while it lasts!
http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/~drg/
here...
u nds.radio.bbc.highspeed
:)
alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc,
alt.binaries.so
(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Tertiary Phase - e01 - 160/44) yEnc - "BBC Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Tertiary Phase - e01 - 21-09-2004 18-30.mp3" (01/87)
Quality is 160kbps
there...
alt.binaries.sounds.radio.bbc
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - s03e01 - "H2G2TNG-20040921-C01.mp3" yEnc 26304K (01/71)
quality is 128kbps
and everywhere...
alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.comedy
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - The Tertiary Phase Part 1 of 6 - "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - The Tertiary Phase Part 1 of 6.mp3" (01/11) 25.3 MBytes yEnc
quality is 128k
enjoy
I don't think they will try - the last radio series ended with Arthur abandoning Ford and Zaphod on the planet of the Ruler of the Universe - the new series picks up at the beginning of "Life, The Universe and Everything" - with Ford and Arthur stranded on prehistoric earth (ie the end of the first radio series - Fit the Sixth).
In the second series Ford and Arthur are rescued by Zaphod Beeblebrox in Fit the Eighth - Trillian has vanished, and Marvin is on Ursa Beta Minor.
Basically, the new series bypasses Series 2 to get the whole thing back on track with the books.
Simon
does anyone have a link to an online book version of HHGG? There was one posted last time a HHGG article was on /. but I haven't been able to find the site again.
And then the weasels ate my karma...
No good deed goes unpunished. - Avon, Blake's 7
Free is usually good, but sometimes you get what you pay for. HHGttG is worth a whole lot more than $5.
Given the vast quantity of steaming crap labeled "sci-fi" a familiar, quality author on the book spine has real value.
A friend of slashdot Geoff's free ogg comedy sci-fi is statistically very likely to be the first file deleted when the revolution comes. Quite possibly sooner.
cheers man, wouldn't be listening right now without you...
Yeah, do it!
Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
Ask and you shall receive! torrent
What is really, really sad is that I personally found the second series much more entertaining than the way the book continued the series. I loved Lintilla, the abandoned space freighter and Arthur just abandoning Ford, Zaphod and Zarniwoop on that rock.
Like DNA once wrote, it was ironic that the first radio series had such a definite ending designed to prevent a sequel, and that the open end of the sequel was never developed in a sequel.
The radio series should have maintained its seperate timeline/story. I always saw the four incarnations (radio, tv, book and Infocom) as seperate stories with unique timelines. They were seperate branches, each telling its own story.
Unfortunately, it seems nobody at the BBC has the imagination or the courage to develop the series from the original ending, possibly due to a fear of pedantic fans. It reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke writing 2010 as a sequel to the movie, throwing out the alternative setting from the novel version--but at least he explained himself, and the change was minimal.
but an audio version of the first book: Audio Book
well nothing really happened. no extended amounts of dialog, it just cut between plotlines seemingly every 30 seconds.
Ah... so the whole thing was the result of a double psychotic episode brought on by too many Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters, then? ;-)
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.