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Hitch-Hackers Guide To the Galaxy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the using-a-towel-while-coding dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Jay Beale, of Bastille Linux fame, has written a hacking puzzle short story based on Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It's called Hitch-Hackers Guide to the Galaxy. The short story is pretty funny and the puzzle lets you have some quick fun with web hacking. There are prizes for best technical answer and most creative (while technically correct) answer."

63 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Best answer by midkay · · Score: 3, Funny

    "There are prizes for best technical answer and most creative (while technically correct) answer."

    Quite clearly they're looking for "42".

    1. Re:Best answer by Fei_Id · · Score: 1

      What's the question though? Thats what should garner the most $$$ = bling

    2. Re:Best answer by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 1
      "There are prizes for best technical answer and most creative (while technically correct) answer."


      Quite clearly they're looking for "42".

      I'm afraid not. One of the criteria was "creative".
      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    3. Re:Best answer by Fei_Id · · Score: 1

      Creative is only a perspective of the mind and the majority. I made a funny about 42 being the answer and even my own Anthropology professor didn't get the joke. Its more funny than creative now.

    4. Re:Best answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Its even funnyer when you relise what the question is, the ultimate question, "whats 6 times 7?", and why that question? Well, clearly the computer dirived that the awnser to the ultimate question about the universe, was that its so obvious, that the only way to express that, would be a number. And why 42? Because, it was bored, after soooo many decades of thinking, it decided that 42 was a number that made people feel good. You might hear horror stories about 48, religious hatred about 69, clearly anything over 99 is to big. anything less then 10 is to small. anything odd is just to weird, but 42? Nope, its a number people can see as neutral, a feel good number in a forest of hated, and scary numbers. Like a cup of hot coco with whiped cream and m&m's and a cold winter sunset, 42 is just a number people can enjoy, as its a number that isent feared. This is why 42 was chosen as the number, and that created the question to be "whats 6 times 7?", 6 and 7 multiplied creates 42, quite clearly, its the perfect question to the perfect awnser. Now, if this leaves you with a dry spot of "whats not a question!" or a hated "Thats not the awnser we wanted!!", then, you never asked the right question, as is clearly so, if the awnser you got was not for the question you asked. Since this is the case, its only safe to assume, the awnser to the question you dident ask, and the question you never wanted to ask, are related to your inability to grasp what you really wanted to know. For those with a better understanding of asking questions, then the awnser to the question you never knew to ask, the awnser you got, the awnser the biggest, and most expensive, and slowest calculator created from your inability to ask a actual question, will make more since, once you heard the question.

      Now do you understand dear? Good, how about a cup of tea?

    5. Re:Best answer by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 1

      ...
      You can't even remember the book. The question in the book was "WHAT IS SIX TIMES NINE".
      The answer is 42.

    6. Re:Best answer by shrykk · · Score: 1

      I made a funny about 42 being the answer and even my own Anthropology professor didn't get the joke. Its more funny than creative now.

      Except that most geeks will use the number 42 every chance they get and chuckle over it. I'm as guilty as the rest of us, but it is a bit hackneyed, notwithstanding that you found a room full of anthropologists who didn't get it.

      --
      #define struct union /* Reduce memory usage */
    7. Re:Best answer by nowonmai · · Score: 1

      Ok, you do know that the 'six by nine' as opposed to 'six by seven' was indicative of the fact that the original human species populating earth had been corrupted by the arrival of hair stylists and phone sanitisers?

    8. Re:Best answer by Clazzy · · Score: 1

      Surely the answer would be in binary for this one?

      --
      If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
    9. Re:Best answer by Zarniwoop_Editor · · Score: 1

      I'm working on the question... I should have the question for you in about ... well.. Really soon now ... ;-)
      Umm... What was the answer again?

      --
      - F1 NEWS
    10. Re:Best answer by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 1

      No... the idea was that there's something just fundamentally wrong with the universe.
      As a side note, I recall Douglas Adams had one overzealous fan (like ourselves) write to him claiming that six times nine equals 42 in base thirteen, and that therefore the universe of Hitchhiker's Guide was built around base 13.
      His response was something to the effect of "Nice idea, I wish I'd thought of it."

    11. Re:Best answer by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 1

      no, his response was: "I may be a pretty sad person, but I don't make jokes in base 13"

      --
      What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
    12. Re:Best answer by todd10k · · Score: 1

      I find it funny that the parent was moderated "Informative". Is that you, deep thought?

    13. Re:Best answer by pudro · · Score: 1

      I always figured that it was supposed to be six times seven, and that the reason he got six times nine is that the question was still a million or so years from being completed properly.The only reason I would even doubt that for a second is that Adams never pointed it out to shut up the base 13 people. If something was fundamentally wrong with the universe, then I think the fact that the ultimate question is "WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY SEVEN" shows that well enough.

      --
      Freedom is assumed. Then they try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.
    14. Re:Best answer by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      No, the answer is, of course, in base 13.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    15. Re:Best answer by Clazzy · · Score: 1

      Oh, I know. Nobody writes jokes in base 13, though.

      --
      If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate.
    16. Re:Best answer by FusionDragon2099 · · Score: 1

      "What is six times nine?"

    17. Re:Best answer by PunkFloyd · · Score: 1

      54

    18. Re:Best answer by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      Obviously 999999.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    19. Re:Best answer by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1
      Umm... What was the answer again?

      For tea, too. Or something like that.
      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    20. Re:Best answer by Fei_Id · · Score: 1

      I love Tea!!! :D Especially on cold days when my next door neighbor comes over to drink tea with me... yeah her body responds to the cold very well :)

    21. Re:Best answer by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      No, YOU can't remember the book. The computer was contaminated when golgafrinchan telephone sanitizer breeding stock was introduced to the system. Since Arthur was partially descended from them, his question (assuming the scrabble-oracle system was accurate) was corrupted by this influence. Not to mention the fact that the actual mouthpiece, a little girl in the first book, was vaporized by the vogon destructor fleet.

      All we can be sure of is that "what is six times nine" is at a minimum slightly off from the real answer. Since "What is six times seven" actually is forty-two, the logical assumption is that that is the correct question, but even that requires quite a few prerequisite assumptions.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
    22. Re:Best answer by masterzora · · Score: 1

      But it wasn't a million or so years before the question was completed. I mean, yes, Dent was physically 2 million years into the past when he did the Scrabble tiles, but the idea was (in theory) that he was part of the program when Earth would have finished the calculation and therefore he should be able to get the full Question.

      --
      Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
    23. Re:Best answer by Tributary · · Score: 1

      It's not even in base 13, though.

      7 x 9 = 63 in base 10.

      But 42 in base 13 is only 54 (4 x 13 + 2).
      And 42 in base 14 is only 58 (4 x 14 + 2).
      It's almost in base 15, which is 62 (4 x 15 + 2).
      It's not actually possible to write 63 as 42 in an integer base. You can, however, do it in a noninteger base, and in fact, base 15.25 works (4 x 15.25 + 2 = 63!).

    24. Re:Best answer by nebbian · · Score: 1

      6 x 9. Not 7 x 9.

      --
      I am artificially intelligent.
    25. Re:Best answer by sparkz · · Score: 1

      That must get an award for the greatest number of grammatical and spelling errors in a single post, even on slashdot.

      --
      Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
    26. Re:Best answer by sparkz · · Score: 1

      Nice try, but you didn't quite manage to contrive the mis-spellings and grammatical flaws of the original troll. I would "correct" (de-correct?) your post, but I don't think that I am up to the level of the original poster's dexterity.

      --
      Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
    27. Re:Best answer by pudro · · Score: 1

      What the heck are you talking about? The Question didn't come from him, he got it from one of the prehistoric humans. And the idea was that he had nothing to do with the Question, since he wasn't descended from Earth (nor were any modern "humans"), but rather from the rejects from another planet. So he got the Question from a source that was long from having the Question finished.

      --
      Freedom is assumed. Then they try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.
    28. Re:Best answer by masterzora · · Score: 1
      What the heck are you talking about? Arthur definitely was the one to pull the tiles:

      Arthur picked up one of the letter stones from his home-made Scrabble set. It was a T. He sighed and out it down again. The letter he put down next to it was an I. That spelt IT. He tossed another couple of letters next to them They were an S and an H as it happened. By a curious coincidence the resulting word perfectly expressed the way Arthur was feeling about things just then. He stared at it for a moment. He hadn't done it deliberately, it was just a random chance. His brain got slowly into first gear.

      "Ford," he said suddenly, "look, if that Question is printed in my brain wave patterns but I'm not consciously aware of it it must be somewhere in my unconscious."

      "Yes, I suppose so."

      "There might be a way of bringing that unconscious pattern forward."

      "Oh yes?"

      "Yes, by introducing some random element that can be shaped by that pattern."

      "Like how?"

      "Like by pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag blindfolded."

      Ford leapt to his feet.

      "Brilliant!" he said. He tugged his towel out of his satchel and with a few deft knots transformed it into a bag.

      "Totally mad," he said, "utter nonsense. But we'll do it because it's brilliant nonsense. Come on, come on."

      The sun passed respectfully behind a cloud. A few small sad raindrops fell.

      They piled together all the remaining letters and dropped them into the bag. They shook them up.

      "Right," said Ford, "close your eyes. Pull them out. Come on come on, come on."

      Arthur closed his eyes and plunged his hand into the towelful of stones. He jiggled them about, pulled out four and handed them to Ford. Ford laid them along the ground in the order he got them.

      "W," said Ford, "H, A, T ... What!"

      He blinked.

      "I think it's working!" he said.

      Arthur pushed three more at him.

      "D, O, Y ... Doy. Oh perhaps it isn't working," said Ford.

      "Here's the next three."

      "O, U, G ... Doyoug ... It's not making sense I'm afraid."

      Arthur pulled another two from the bag. Ford put them in place.

      "E, T, doyouget ... Do you get!" shouted Ford, "it is working! This is amazing, it really is working!" "More here." Arthur was throwing them out feverishly as fast as he could go.

      "I, F," said Ford, "Y, O, U, ... M, U, L, T, I, P, L, Y, ... What do you get if you multiply, ... S, I, X, ... six, B, Y, by, six by ... what do you get if you multiply six by ... N, I, N, E, ... six by nine ..." He paused. "Come on, where's the next one?"

      "Er, that's the lot," said Arthur, "that's all there were."

      He sat back, nonplussed.

      He rooted around again in the knotted up towel but there were no more letters.

      "You mean that's it?" said Ford.

      "That's it."

      "Six by nine. Forty-two."

      "That's it. That's all there is."

      --
      Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
    29. Re:Best answer by sparkz · · Score: 1

      Good reply. Still not up to the quality of the original, but not far off.

      I doff my cap in admiration.

      --
      Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
  2. OT'ish:RIP William Franklyn, the Voice Of The Book by mccalli · · Score: 1

    Just to go briefly to the original source for a moment, William Franklyn died this week. William Franklyn was The Voice Of The Book in the Tertiary to Quintessential phases of the radio series - and did a superb job of picking up from where the equally lamented Peter Jones left off.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  3. Re:OK, answer me this.. by Ruby+Wednesday · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ix

  4. Re:OK, answer me this.. by mccalli · · Score: 1

    When Arthur and Ford get picked up by the Heart of Gold, how does Zaphod know that Ford is now called Ford? and what was he called before??

    Utterly making up an answer on the spot, perhaps Zaphod doesn't call him Ford - perhaps the Babel Fish just lets Arthur (and by implication the reader) think he's said Ford.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  5. Exact phrasing by wasted · · Score: 1

    I think the exact phrase was "WHAT DO YOU GET IF YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE."

    Pretty much means the same as the parent, though.

    1. Re:Exact phrasing by peragrin · · Score: 1

      maybe he is planning on working for Fox news or Forbes?

      They can spew BS like that.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    2. Re:Exact phrasing by Anonymous+Cowled · · Score: 1

      I always said there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.

    3. Re:Exact phrasing by andy_t_roo · · Score: 1

      42 ; and i believe it is, in base 13

    4. Re:Exact phrasing by trip11 · · Score: 1

      "I may be a pretty sad person, but I don't make jokes in base 13" -Douglas Adams

    5. Re:Exact phrasing by WilliamSChips · · Score: 1

      Actually, at that point he ran out of Scrabble tiles, so there could be more to the question. I think it's "WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU MULTIPLY SIX BY NINE WITH BISTROMATHICS" and this changed the universe into one involving Bistromathics.

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
  6. Re:OK, answer me this.. by Bambi+Dee · · Score: 1

    "Ix" was the answer to the question, you ...moderator. Geez.

  7. Grammar by Klaidas · · Score: 1

    Hmm, hmm, what's wrong with that title? Oh, I don't know, maybe there needs to be an apostrophe?!
    Come on editors, this isn't an AOL chatroom...

    1. Re:Grammar by anothy · · Score: 1
      Come on editors, this isn't an AOL chatroom...
      clearly. but the article was submitted as "HITCHHACKERS GUIDE TO TEH GALXY!!!1". you people just don't appreciate what the editors are doing for you, raising the overall quality from AOL-chatroom level to well-funded-blog-on-sterroids level.
      --

      i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
    2. Re:Grammar by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      You don't like to be guided by Hitchhackers? :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    3. Re:Grammar by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      I don't think you want that g after the final slash ... unless there's a meaning to "fuod" which I don't know yet.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  8. Re:OK, answer me this.. by spike1 · · Score: 1

    Or... alternatively, he heard Arthur call him Ford.

    He did say it whilst in the waiting room.
    "Ford! you're turning into a penguin! Stop it!"

  9. Re:OK, answer me this.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "and what was he called before??"

    Ford Prefect's original name is only pronounceable in an obscure Betelgeusian dialect, now virtually extinct since the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid.Year 03758 which wiped out all the old Praxibetel communities on Betelgeuse Seven. Ford's father was the only man on the entire planet to survive the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster, by an extraordinary coincidence that he was never able satisfactorily to explain. The whole episode is shrouded in deep mystery: in fact no one ever knew what Hrung was nor why is had chosen to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven particularly. Ford's father, magnanimously waving aside the clouds of suspicion that had inevitably settled around him, came to live on Betelgeuse Five where he both fathered and uncled Ford; in memory of his now dead race he christened him in the ancient Praxibetel tongue. Because Ford never learned to say his original name, his father eventually died of shame, which is still a terminal disease in some parts of the Galaxy. The other kids at school nicknamed him IX, which in the language of Betelgeuse Five translates as 'boy who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven'.

  10. wow by hitchhacker · · Score: 1


    I didn't know I had my own guide to the galaxy!
    Thanks slashdot.

  11. In other words? by mianne · · Score: 1

    Ford was switching to Linux but Arthur begged him to stick with Windows?

    --
    Javascript, cookies, flash, and ActiveX must be enabled in order to view this sig.
  12. 42nd post! by tgv · · Score: 1

    So what is the number of the post that is not interesting to post?

    1. Re:42nd post! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

      #16715863
      SCNR :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  13. Re:OK, answer me this.. by db32 · · Score: 1

    the Guide told him?

    --
    The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
  14. Re:OK, answer me this.. by Qoroite · · Score: 1

    Never trust a guide bearing cookies

  15. Re:DON'T PANIC! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1

    In Vogonic Russia, poems read you!
    This gives a whole new meaning to the Blue Poem Of Death.
    In Korea, only old Vogons throw people out of space ships.
    Does Marvin run Linux?
    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of depressed robots!
    I don't have a Heart of Gold, you insensitive clod!
    I for one welcome our new Vogon overlords.
    It's not a moon. It's a Vogon constructor fleet.

    1. Find the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything.
    2. ???
    3. ???
    4. ???
    5. ???
    6. ???
    7. ???
    8. ???
    9. ???
    10. ???
    11. ???
    12. ???
    13. ???
    14. ???
    15. ???
    16. ???
    17. ???
    18. ???
    19. ???
    20. ???
    21. ???
    22. ???
    23. ???
    24. ???
    25. ???
    26. ???
    27. ???
    28. ???
    29. ???
    30. ???
    31. ???
    32. ???
    33. ???
    34. ???
    35. ???
    36. ???
    37. ???
    38. ???
    39. ???
    40. ???
    41. ???
    42. Profit!

    Ok the last one wasn't exactly a one-liner ...

    Help! There's an infinite number of monkeys who want to speak with me about how to get their new Shakespeare script through Slashdot's lameness filter! Improbability level of one hundread and twenty-three million, four hundred and fifty-six thousand, six hundred and eighty-nine to one, falling.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  16. Re:OK, answer me this.. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 1
    When Arthur and Ford get picked up by the Heart of Gold, how does Zaphod know that Ford is now called Ford?

    At infinite improbability level, such things are to be expected.
    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  17. Infinitely Improbable? by scribblej · · Score: 1

    escape(document.cookie)

    Okay, so he's got a script that will let him send the contents of this document.cookie to his kitchen server by including them in a request for a .gif.

    Wouldn't that just give him the cookie(s) used by the e-mail (if such a thing is even possible?)? It wouldn't send him all the reader's cookies, would it? Certainly not the one for the matter transference server, right? Isn't this described "hack" impossible as described? Maybe with a good source of brownian motion, and an activation of the infinite improbability drive...

    Obviously I don't do JavaScript. Anyone?

    1. Re:Infinitely Improbable? by scribblej · · Score: 1

      That nicely answers my question. Thanks. Apparently the Vogon security sucks not to notice the same cookie being submitted from a different IP.

  18. I can just see it now... by PoprocksCk · · Score: 1

    People from the south of the USA must be reading the title of this article aloud and saying, "I don't get it."

    1. Re:I can just see it now... by smaddox · · Score: 1

      lol, the funny thing is i didn't even get this joke until i said it outloud myself.

  19. Re:OK, answer me this.. by Nivoset · · Score: 1

    i remember reading something else where when he travels back in time to make it so his name was never that, but only "ford" to save himself on an embarrasing childhood of not being bale to pronounce his name

    --
    Movies made by a crazy person

    http://www.youtube.com/marginalpro
  20. Re:DON'T PANIC! by Kingrames · · Score: 1

    Out of curiosity, how long had you been holding back all those jokes before you exploded and spooged them out all over Slashdot?

    --
    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  21. Re:Off-topic by Kingrames · · Score: 1

    Wimp.
    I surf with comments folded out at 2 and visible at -1.

    And I have the troll option metamodded at +2.

    Only Pansies surf at 5.

    --
    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  22. Re:OK, answer me this.. by db32 · · Score: 1

    That is why I disable cookies.

    --
    The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
  23. Damn, What's the improbability of this?? by weeboo0104 · · Score: 1

    [user@localhost ~]$ make tea
    make: *** No rule to make target `tea'. Stop.
    [user@localhost ~]$

    --
    It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass