Why you kids today have it easy. When _I_ was young, we didn't have no fancy graphics programs for drawin's and stuff. We made graphics by lighting various segments of the LCD's on the front of the mainframe. We had IT-wide PONG tournaments that way. AND WE WERE GRATEFUL, you slackers!
Arthur C. Clarke: Oh, about half a century. I actually never left Britain until I was in my 30s or 40s.
O: Do you ever go back to visit? Have you been back since your knighting?
ACC: Yes, I've been back, but I don't know if I'll ever go back again. In fact, my sister, I just said goodbye to her. She stayed here for a few days, but she's leaving tonight, so there goes another link with England.
O: How did you originally come to move to Sri Lanka?
ACC: Well, I went to Australia to visit the Great Barrier Reef when I got involved in scuba diving, and on the way, I stopped at Colombo and met the local divers. They said, "Why don't you come back after you've dealt with Australia?" And that's just what I did. I wrote my book on the Great Barrier Reef, and then I came back here with my late partner, Mark Wilson, to do a book on Sri Lanka. He married one of the local beauties, and we just sort of settled down here.
O: What appealed to you about the country?
ACC: The quick answer I give to people who ask me about Sri Lanka is "30 English winters." [Laughs.] So it's a beautiful country. Historically, very interesting in every respect. Very nice people. All of my friends are here now.
O: How does living there affect the collaborations you do?
ACC: I think it probably helps. I wrote an article some time ago called "Co-Authors And Other Nuisances." And with e-mail, now, you see, you can get all the exchange you want.
O: How did you first get started with Time's Eye?
ACC: Well, I'm not quite sure. It's quite a while ago. I'm now in the middle of... I've dug into another book, called The Last Theorem. The beginning of Time's Eye was probably arranged by my killer agent. I can't remember if Stephen Baxter and I had ever had any contact before. It was quite a ways back.
O: Is that usual for you with collaborations? Someone else sets them up for you?
ACC: Well, I've only done a few collaborations. One of them with a guy called Stanley Kubrick.
O: What was that working relationship like?
ACC: I've done a book about that, called The Lost Worlds Of 2001, describing the things we might have filmed, but didn't. I'm very sad about Stanley. I can't believe he's gone... But again, that was years ago. I'd have to read my own book to find out what our partnership was like. [Laughs.]
O: Have you seen the movie recently at all?
ACC: No. I want to look at it again, and also 2010, which I did with [director] Peter Hyams, and which was also quite good. I can't remember when I did last see it.
O: Did you have any idea when you were working on it that so many of the elements would become such pop-culture icons?
ACC: No, I don't think we could possibly have done that. The monolith, of course, is an example--the endless jokes about that, and about HAL. But I'm quite happy that people remember it. I hope it inspires them to go buy my other books.
O: Are you ever disappointed that we haven't come any closer to the technology of 2001 than we have?
ACC: Not really, because we've already seen far more... For instance, these pictures coming from Mars right now. I never imagined... Well, I may have imagined, but I never hoped to see them within my lifetime.
O: Do you have any particular hopes for what they'll find in this round of exploration?
ACC: Well, I think they've already found life. There's some pictures from the laboratories which seem to me to be unmistakably vegetation--leaves and stems and things. I don't see what else it could possibly be. And where there's vegetation, you can bet there'll be something nibbling on it. I'm still hoping we'll find some Martians up there, holding up a sign that says "Yankee go home." [Laughs.]
O: Since you started your writing career, what technological innovation has most surprised you?
The most bestest solution seems to be remove the weakest link from the equation. Don't let people drive. Push the pentium a little harder, and at about 10x it's current strength you should have a beast that can drive better than I can. Maybe not better than a Nascar driver, but better than me. I'll happily let the car drive. Note that I'm not referring to a "Minority Report" style of driving. However, I do believe that 90%+ of my driving could be done better by a computer.
Slashdot Mirror
Are systems that can boot from a flash drive common?
Why you kids today have it easy. When _I_ was young, we didn't have no fancy graphics programs for drawin's and stuff. We made graphics by lighting various segments of the LCD's on the front of the mainframe. We had IT-wide PONG tournaments that way. AND WE WERE GRATEFUL, you slackers!
Preventing (prematurely?) a /.'ing of the site...
The Onion: How long have you lived in Sri Lanka?
Arthur C. Clarke: Oh, about half a century. I actually never left Britain until I was in my 30s or 40s.
O: Do you ever go back to visit? Have you been back since your knighting?
ACC: Yes, I've been back, but I don't know if I'll ever go back again. In fact, my sister, I just said goodbye to her. She stayed here for a few days, but she's leaving tonight, so there goes another link with England.
O: How did you originally come to move to Sri Lanka?
ACC: Well, I went to Australia to visit the Great Barrier Reef when I got involved in scuba diving, and on the way, I stopped at Colombo and met the local divers. They said, "Why don't you come back after you've dealt with Australia?" And that's just what I did. I wrote my book on the Great Barrier Reef, and then I came back here with my late partner, Mark Wilson, to do a book on Sri Lanka. He married one of the local beauties, and we just sort of settled down here.
O: What appealed to you about the country?
ACC: The quick answer I give to people who ask me about Sri Lanka is "30 English winters." [Laughs.] So it's a beautiful country. Historically, very interesting in every respect. Very nice people. All of my friends are here now.
O: How does living there affect the collaborations you do?
ACC: I think it probably helps. I wrote an article some time ago called "Co-Authors And Other Nuisances." And with e-mail, now, you see, you can get all the exchange you want.
O: How did you first get started with Time's Eye?
ACC: Well, I'm not quite sure. It's quite a while ago. I'm now in the middle of... I've dug into another book, called The Last Theorem. The beginning of Time's Eye was probably arranged by my killer agent. I can't remember if Stephen Baxter and I had ever had any contact before. It was quite a ways back.
O: Is that usual for you with collaborations? Someone else sets them up for you?
ACC: Well, I've only done a few collaborations. One of them with a guy called Stanley Kubrick.
O: What was that working relationship like?
ACC: I've done a book about that, called The Lost Worlds Of 2001, describing the things we might have filmed, but didn't. I'm very sad about Stanley. I can't believe he's gone... But again, that was years ago. I'd have to read my own book to find out what our partnership was like. [Laughs.]
O: Have you seen the movie recently at all?
ACC: No. I want to look at it again, and also 2010, which I did with [director] Peter Hyams, and which was also quite good. I can't remember when I did last see it.
O: Did you have any idea when you were working on it that so many of the elements would become such pop-culture icons?
ACC: No, I don't think we could possibly have done that. The monolith, of course, is an example--the endless jokes about that, and about HAL. But I'm quite happy that people remember it. I hope it inspires them to go buy my other books.
O: Are you ever disappointed that we haven't come any closer to the technology of 2001 than we have?
ACC: Not really, because we've already seen far more... For instance, these pictures coming from Mars right now. I never imagined... Well, I may have imagined, but I never hoped to see them within my lifetime.
O: Do you have any particular hopes for what they'll find in this round of exploration?
ACC: Well, I think they've already found life. There's some pictures from the laboratories which seem to me to be unmistakably vegetation--leaves and stems and things. I don't see what else it could possibly be. And where there's vegetation, you can bet there'll be something nibbling on it. I'm still hoping we'll find some Martians up there, holding up a sign that says "Yankee go home." [Laughs.]
O: Since you started your writing career, what technological innovation has most surprised you?
ACC: Well, of c
USPTO: Doesn't know how to use a search engine to find prior art Slashdot: Doesn't know how to use a search engine to find prior art(icles)
The most bestest solution seems to be remove the weakest link from the equation. Don't let people drive. Push the pentium a little harder, and at about 10x it's current strength you should have a beast that can drive better than I can. Maybe not better than a Nascar driver, but better than me. I'll happily let the car drive. Note that I'm not referring to a "Minority Report" style of driving. However, I do believe that 90%+ of my driving could be done better by a computer.