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Technology

The HitchHiker's Guide in Your Pocket 115

Posted by Hemos from the don't-panic dept.
gilest was the first to tell us about Douglas Adams' newest development: a real life Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. The first version should be out next year, with a monster amount of content. Over the next couple years, they expect to incorporate GSM, and have a modem and Internet connection in the box. And, of course, they'll put the "Don't Panic" in large-friendly letters on the front of the machine.
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The HitchHiker's Guide in Your Pocket More

The HitchHiker's Guide in Your Pocket

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  • Re:Cool (Score:3)

    by phaedrus ( 351 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:55AM (#1666931) Homepage

    Douglas Adams was a keynote speaker during the JavaOne conference last June. He addressed the web site version of the Guide during the course of his speach. It was interesting to find that he was spearheading this collaborative effort to gather information, and it is very exciting to learn that we are likely only a couple of years away from a usable Guide. Very cool.

    Anyone may register and submit information for the database. The information is screened by a panel of editors before it is added to the Earth Edition of the Guide. The details regarding what qualifies as a "good" submission can be found at http://www.h2g2.com/A53209 [h2g2.com]. cheers.

  • I converted the vogon.com guide entrys (from the actual books) into isilo format for the palmpilot. It works spiffy.
  • Everything is the way to go. Once E2 is out it will be even better. We just need a Palm-type interface into it. As an everything contributer I would probably waste some money on one.

    Everythings entry on Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

    • The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a guide written to aid a galactic traveler in his or her or its journey through space.

    • Nah.

      What it *really* is is a massively cross-indexed, incredibly complex, impossible to maintain reference book several million pages in length. Lots of internet-culture stuff is from here. See earth, 42.

      It bears a striking resemblence to the Linux kernel source.

      Written by Douglas Adams.

    H2G2's entry for Everything:
    • Sorry it appears H2G2 is slashdoted. But everything is still up. hmmmm.
    Everything: 63004 nodes, 8816 users, 735448 links and counting.

    --

  • I sure wish they would build this thing out of an Itsy!
  • of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy, lies a small, unregarded, yellow sun...

    I can keep that up for hours.

    Seriously, I have been waiting 12 years for this. I've tried to build it several times myself. Once as a BASIC program, once as a HyperCard stack (a buddy of mine still has that little chunk of insanity on a Newton in a drawer somewhere.) Recently, when I was drunk, I've given thought to doing it in HTML.

    Glad to see Douglas is having a go at it.

    (I still keep in towel in my car. I'm comfortable with how big a geek that proves me to be.)

    Don Negro

  • I really hope that the device does include some proportion of quirky commentary on Life, The Universe and Everything.

    If it's too serious a tome, it will doubtless become a target for hackers who will make sure that there's a way for the universe to add a little bit of entertainment...

  • you've hit the nail on the head!

    now where do i sign up to be one of those editors? that's the real question...

    -garrett
  • The Guide?
    Restaurant at the end of the Universe?
    Life, the Universe and everything?
    So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish?
    Mostly Harmless
    Young Zaphod Plays it Safe?

    What I find funny is that these are now to be found in leather, gilt edged volumes, printed on that same onionskin paper reserved once for bibles.
  • Yeah, how much do you want? And is the towel Beeblebrox Brown or Solonoid Silver?

    Beer recipe: free! #Source
    Cold pints: $2 #Product

  • I like the paper format better. It's cheap, it doesn't really matter if you spill stuff on it or lose it, it's not desirable enough to get you mugged, and, oh yeah, it works without batteries. Plus it makes a keen pillow if you forget yer towel. ;)

    Beer recipe: free! #Source
    Cold pints: $2 #Product

  • Hitchiker's With Let's Go Guidebook. (Score:4)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:12AM (#1666942)
    I think it would be of extreme use if the Creators of the Hitchiker's (HandHeld) Guidebook work together with the Let's Go Guidebook people. This would allow The device to become more than just a "toy". Which is what I believe the website version is. The Let's Go Guidebook is *the* perfect guidebook for the hitchiker mindset. In my travels abroad, and even at home, the Let's Go Guidebook always provided me with the most succint (but not necessarily budget oriented) information. Let's Go has never failed me yet, where many other guidebooks have - many guidebooks leave out nightlife and travel arrangements.

    Joseph Elwell.
  • I wonder what the pay scale might be for a full time Hitchhiker's Guide Field Agent...

    ... and what currency you'd be paid in. Better make sure that Earth banks will accept it before you sign any contracts; you don't want to end up with a warehouse full of non-negotiable triangular rubber coins.

  • Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Sirrus Cybernetics Corporations and Microsoft?

    Well, since Douglas Adams is a Mac person, it's probably more than just a coincidence. It sure fits well, especially the bits regarding their products: "their fundamental design flaws are completely obscured by their superficial design flaws", or in other words you are "blinded to the essential uselessness of them by the sheer satisfaction of getting them to work at all".

    Sounds rather familiar. Now what was that bit about being the first against the wall when the revolution comes? :-)
  • h2gt is Douglas Adams' baby. He was behind the sites creation (search slashdot, it was posted here). You're thinking of the PGG or Project Galactic Guide.

    From what I've seen on h2g2 entries are supposed to be real accounts of real things. Don't bother submitting reviews of the Venusian love godesses until you've a) been to Venus and b) sampled the Venusian love godesses; they won't be approved. That doesn't mean humour is outlawed but the humour should be about earthly things.

    The PGG is a fan driven implementation of the guide. Entries are ranked on a scale from real to unreal so reviews of Venusian love godesses are welcome as long as they're well written.
  • Actually its the other way around, supporting anything but GSM (which you're correct -- it is a cell phone standard) would leave 90% of the world unable to use it.

    Its mostly just here in the US that we use anything but GSM, the rest of the world does. And there's a lot more cell phone users elsewhere than here, as anyone who's been to the far east or Africa can attest to. (They're more widely used elsewhere because its cheaper to build cell networks than copper networks, and most of the world doesn't have 75 years of copper infrastructure already in place)
  • ... what you've just described is, effectively, h2g2. Users contribute content, submit it to an editor who looks over it before approving/rejecting it.

    -- Yoz

  • The word from the horse's mouth (Score:4)

    by yoz ( 3735 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @12:36PM (#1666948) Homepage

    Quick intro - I work at TDV and I'm one of the people behind h2g2.com and douglasadams.com. (My h2g2 homepage is here [h2g2.com]) I've just spent most of the evening frantically running around with one of my colleagues trying to optimise bits of the site in the face of the Slashdot onslaught (and it's not just Slashdot... PR put out a press release earlier and we weren't adequately prepared for the results... several lessons learnt there...)

    Anyway, time for some response to many of the points raised:

    • Most of you seem to really like Douglas's stuff and h2g2 too. We're very glad - the Slashdot crowd are legendarily hard to please!
    • Whilst there are lots of similarities between h2g2 and Everything, they're very different in many ways too. I like Everything a lot (I've got quite a few entries in there myself) and I like the way it's based on a single neat idea that's just expanded over a whole database. Everything is designed to be *without* editorial control - it's based entirely on user voting, so it looks and feels pretty random and organic, which is not a criticism - that's how it's meant to be. h2g2 has an editorial direction - to move it in that direction, it has a dedicated editorial team (most of whom are, like Slashdot's moderators, unpaid users). Another difference is that h2g2 has a whole load of community functionality much more akin to Slashdot than to Everything, along with quite unique features such as the user journals. (They're similar to the current fashion of "weblogs" like scripting.com and robotwisdom.com) And we're adding new features all the time - new ways of creating documents, new ways of using forums, and other entirely new sections.
    • Some of you are complaining that most h2g2 entries aren't very funny - a valid complaint, but we have good reason for it. Firstly, as most of you are saying, the Guide should primarily be useful and secondarily entertaining. Secondly, we've had to go out of our way to tell people not to try and be funny, simply because so many users were trying to write like Douglas and failing miserably. Writing like Douglas Adams is hard. (That's why it takes him so bloody long to get a book out.) Also, humour is a much more subjective quality than usefulness, and we want the Guide to be as universal as possible. We're not saying that we don't want entries that are funny, just that it shouldn't be a researcher's primary focus. (It should be noted, though, that there's nothing stopping you sticking up loads of random, funny nonsense up on h2g2 - it'll be visible to everyone, just won't be part of the core Guide)
    • As for the usefulness of the Guide's current content, we're working on that. The first problem we're tackling is streamlining the editorial process to get more of the huge submissions backlog into the Guide. Then there's a much bigger problem to tackle, which is how to classify all the information in such a way that it can be searched, linked and delivered intelligently. This is such a massive doozy of a problem that I'm not going to say much more, save to say that I can see information scientists featuring much more prominently in the web's future once the major sites have the simple problems of content management sorted out. But anyway: no, we don't have much content yet, but h2g2 is a young and rapidly expanding project with a universal subject domain. It'll take time and effort.
    • As for the gadget itself, we can't say that much because a) of lots of secret behind-the-scenes stuff with potential hardware partners and b) we're concentrating much more on the design of the information services (i.e. h2g2.com) than the platform it's delivered to. Ideally, we shouldn't have to do much platform design at all, as it'll be open, existing standards most of the way, which is (as I'm sure you'd agree) the most sensible way of doing it. But, yeah, we like shiny toys and want one with our name on it soon as poss.
    • h2g2 needs you. After all, don't say you never dreamed about being a Field Researcher for The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Now you can. Cool, huh?
    -- Yoz
  • Sounds a lot like a combined web browser and encyclopedia. If it has "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters on its cover, though, I simply *must* buy one.

    I wonder if the interface will look anything like the Guide in the HHGTTG TV show? (What was on the screen there was an awful lot like what we see on the web today. And given the TV show came out in 1981, that's pretty impressive.

    Now I wonder what the entry for Eccentrica Gallumbits is going to look like ... ;)
  • But, in the last book, Mostly Harmless the vogons finally managed to destroy the earth, turning it into a sausage or something similar (its been a while.)

    So that makes the whole issue of creating the h2g2 moot, seeing as how we don't really exist anyway. Just have to wait around for Earth Mark 2, I guess.

  • I only hope I can get one (and an electronic thumb) before the Vogons clear out our planet in order to make way for a new interstellar bypass...

    I've been trying to learn to fly, but I don't have the whole "missing the ground" thing down yet.
  • I'm assuming that the content is going to come from http://www.h2g2.com/ [h2g2.com].

    In fact, I seem to recall at some point being told that's why h2g2 was set up in the first place, to collect info for an actual Hitchhiker's Guide.

    Plus, that's where the article says it's going to come from.

    But I'm confused by the line "Later versions could include GSM devices allowing the device to offer its user detailed information related to his location at that moment."
    Am I incorrect in thinking that GSM is a cell phone standard, and they actually meant GPS instead of GSM? I suppose you could get locality information from GSM, but that leaves out about the 98% of the planet not covered by GSM compatible phone systems. I can see GSM being useful to download updates, though, assuming you have GSM compatible provider in your area.

    Now I'm just rambling.

  • "What I find funny is that these are now to be found in leather, gilt edged volumes, printed on that same onionskin paper reserved once for bibles."

    I actually own exactly such a copy. A person has to look pretty closely at it to distinguish it from an actual bible. One nice touch you forgot to mention was that it also has the permanently attached ribbon / bookmark thingy also usually found on bibles.

    I just couldn't resist when I saw it on the bookstore's shelf. :)

  • 1. Cool! I just finished reading the book last night... stayed up until 2:30 PM. I guess it was just in time... :)

    2. (This is a necessity on /.) So, what OS is this going to run?

    --

  • The server is running IIS, which maybe accounts for the current speed I'm getting replies. Oh sorry, the lack of it. Slashdotted?
  • or have a go at it, that sounds like awesome fun, IF you can take it!

    Chuck
  • A *real* hitchikers guide would have one of the sub-ether hitchiking thumb do-hickeys!

    Erm.. I think that's how it was spelled!

  • Are you implying that this isn't a froody idea?
    (-:

    D.

  • http://www.netcraft.com/whats/?hos t=www.h2g2.com [netcraft.com] reports it to be running..... www.h2g2.com is running unknown on inetd in realloc(): warning: junk pointer, too low to make sense.... Maybe there webserver is located in the restaurant at the end of the universe and since its past the end of the epoch (2038) its blechin on trying to give the build date or something.... buzzbomb:~$ nc -vv www.h2g2.com 80 | head HTTP/1.0 200 OK Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:41:05 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0 Content-Type: text/html or not
    xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
  • http://www.netcraft.com/whats/?hos t=www.h2g2.com [netcraft.com] reports it to be running.....

    www.h2g2.com is running unknown on inetd in realloc(): warning: junk pointer, too low to make sense....
    Maybe there webserver is located in the restaurant at the end of the universe and since its past the end of the epoch (2038) its blechin on trying to give the build date or something....
    buzzbomb:~$ nc -vv www.h2g2.com 80 | head
    HTTP/1.0 200 OK
    Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 01:41:05 GMT
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/4.0
    Content-Type: text/html



    or not

    xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
  • Earth: Mostly Harmless.

  • I'll get one for you if you get one for me for my birthday. (on Aug 22nd also)

  • Actually, my guess is that it would return a suffusion of yellow.

    (oh wait.. that was the electronic I Ching)
  • Every now and then, I get reminded about how much of my personal philosophy I have gleaned from Douglas Adams's books. This is just one more example.


    The really scary part is- He comes up with the most absurd explainations for things, and sometimes I wonder if he's not to far off from the truth. Take, for example, how the human race came to be on Earth. Imagine if we are all related to a bunch of telephone sanitizers. That would explain a lot about society today.



    His "Last Chance To See" book with Mark Cardwine (sp?) was an excellent view of some of the world's endangered species. Very funny but very sad at the same time. I just wish I had half that man's talent for writing.



    Some other random thoughts:


    -When are we going to get Peril Proof Sunglasses?

    -Has anyone else noticed the similarities between Sirrus Cybernetics Corporations and Microsoft? Think Genuine People Personalities and the Office Assistant.

    -Are dolphins really so dumb?

    -What would you do for a good cup of tea?


  • as I recall from the original /. article discussion, the problem is not the server, but the bandwidth it's on.

    It was even worse when it was just started. It got previewed on TV in England (apparently) and shortly after mentioned on /.. Double-whammy.

    --

  • is already a bit like the Guide, but not as well organized [snigger]. Perhaps the makers of this "guide" will pick up on it and go with the same model.
  • How many of you immediately thought upon seeing this (in no particular order):

    How much is it?!
    When can I get one?!
    Smurf me! I gotta have one of these!
  • Actually, no. Or, at least, only by the first trilogy. In So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, after the new Earth is created, Ford notices all the pages upon pages of information he ever wrote about the Earth being re-uploaded back into the Guide. So there's a lot more there now, anyway...
  • FINALLY! I've been reading those books for so long, and have re-read them so many times that I can't even count them any more! I've always wanted to read that. I wonder if it will include the recipe for a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster... hmmmm...

  • Good Idea (Score:3)

    by BugMaster ChuckyD ( 18439 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:28AM (#1666972)
    I think the main advantage of this device over a Palm pilot with a city guide & maps on it is that it can have up-to-the-minute info. If you're in some place you've never been before & want to go to a movie, not only could this thing tell whenre the nearest cinema is but also tell you whats playing today at what times and what the ticket prices are. The idea of a constantly upgraded info base with user feed back is much much better than simply putting Fromers (or whatever) on a handheld
  • Or 42.blockstackers.com

    Or, the ultimate:

    A hack this box challenge for "TheQuestion.blockstackers.com"

    Woudln't that just make the world a better place?

    Humbly yours,
    -efisher
    ---

  • Oh so nifty... (Score:4)

    by gleam ( 19528 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @04:55AM (#1666974) Homepage
    Question 1: Couldn't a similar thing be done with any connected organizer? Just paint "Don't Panic" on the cover and give it an encyclopedia that gets updated through a modem from time to time. I could probably do it with a Palm IIIx, but it would be even easier with one of the new Visors. If this takes off, will we see copycats?

    Question 2: It struck me that www.h2g2.com is basically everything.blockstackers.com... Rob, why don't you go to work and make one of these! Everything is more complete and generally funnier than h2g2. If only you could use the name and logo, right?

    Just a thought or two :)

    -efisher
    ---
  • you forgot:

    does it run linux?
    wow, I wonder how fast this would be as a beowulf?
  • Actually, If I remember correctly... Infocom made some peril proof sunglassess to go with the original computer game.. I could be wrong..

    They also had a microscopic space fleet and a ton of other stuff
  • (quickie post ^_^) I just wanted to say how nifty Douglas Adams is from my experiances. Last year at macworld, my girlfriend, my friend Ian, and I were at macworld where he was giving away free copies of the beta of starship titanic.The thing is that we got there the last day, so we were obviously out of luck to get one.

    Obviously no one had told Ian about it being even there, so when he saw it, he rushed towards the sign giving out a squeal of delight and holding his arms out like he was going to hug the sign. He starts to look around for where to bum a copy of it and Douglas Adams leaves the conversation he's in the middle of to walk up to Ian and tap him on the shoulder. The conversation went something like this...

    "sorry, we're all out."

    "awww man, oh well..."
    "well, I don't want you to go home empty handed, you can keep the sign."
    "whoa, thanks."

    me and my girlfriend both give Ian an odd look after we walk away and he looks back, "What are you looking at me like that for?" "that was Douglas Adams man!" "holy spit! you serious?!?"

    well, by that time, Mr. Adams had faded back into the crowd and we lost him, so Ian never got it signed, but he still gloats about speaking to Douglas Adams... even though he just thought he was some guy ;-)



    -confidential

    AIM: confdntl98 ICQ: 150685 E-Mail: above... you can figure it out ^_~
  • I picked up a copy in order to re-read the series (and to read Mostly Harmless and Young Zaphod for the first time.) I took it along on a long weekend to my new in-law's house. I had my mother-in-law impressed because I was so intent on reading the Bible.

    One thing that I've noticed though, "Zaphod" is misspelled on the spine as "Zaphoid." Anyone else notice that, or do I have an ultra-rare copy?
  • I got the big fat hardback version of ALL five books + Young Zaphod Plays It Safe in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble for 5 bucks once.

    Best five bucks I ever spent....


    -Andy Martin
  • Hoopy = really, amazingly together

    Frood = a really, amazingly together kind of guy

    Or something like that.

    --
  • There is one thing I prefer with the h2g2 site over Everything site. The h2g2 articles are generally of much higher quality. Many of the things on everything are "only" funny, they are not particularaly useful.

    I imagine that what Adams is thinking about here is more of a *real* travellers guide, with a twist. And that would be, IMHO, much more useful. Actually I wanted something like this myself as I was travelling around Europe this summer. Finding the "great places" can be quite hard. And I would gladly provide some info about some of the neat stuff I find when out travelling. It would be like a travellers society or something. Could probably be of much use for backpackers and such if it had a decent price. (And a fairly big database.)

    But the system could be rather fragile as well. I mean, if I get commercials on it I'm not going to be very happy. So I recon it needs quite a lot of work to keep it healthy.

    Or some sort of "community moderation" as here on Slashdot.

    Interesting problem though. Looking forward to seeing their solution. It would be great if we could get some kind of "module" for the Visor as well. :-)

  • it had better be funny (Score:3)

    by Kevin T. ( 25654 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @07:14AM (#1666982) Homepage
    Personally, I'd rather have an expensive palm top device that dispenses meaningless trivia and advice on what cocktails can be made with the remnants of my smouldering, broken-down automobile/ laptop/ hotel room, than have an expensive palm top device that dispenses meaningless blather submitted by a bunch of jerks web-wide. The content on the Guide should be edited, not moderated. The editors should be a crack international team of dedicated lunatics and drunkards.

    Any attempt to make the Guide more useful than amusing will Miss the Point. If you press the "Where Am I?" button, it should not give you lattitude and longitude. It should say "Earth," or possibly "Milky Way, western spiral arm."

    It should also come with a (small and slightly worn) towel and a TI-81 reprogrammed to function as the I Ching Calculator from The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, which will cast your fortune, but reports any result that has an absolute value greater than 2 as "A Suffusion of Yellow."
  • Another must have toy/gadget for us computer/cultural literate.
  • Can I sell you an official HGTTG(tm) Hitchhiker's Towel to go with that?
  • No, but for any equation with an answer greater than three, the calculator would just display the answer as "A suffusion of yellow" :-)

    ----
    Dave
    All hail Discordia!
  • My comments:

    I think they they are going about it the right way, who is to say that this concept won't be a combination of the Yellow pages (the information aspect, not the advertising aspect), Frommers (or whatever travel guide you might use), travel atlas, etc.) there is no reason it would not become indispenable within 10 years...

    The sheer volume of data needed on a continual basis would necessitate a non-linear editing/moderating system that would be a cross between the hitchhikers guide (as represented in the book) and slashdot as opposed to the traditional structure of editing and writing current books.

    as matter of fact, I am so impressed with the concept that I am surprised that I have not seen it in a Stephenson or Gibson novel!!

    Its not to late to open source it! we don't want MS buying up the rights to the name Hitchkikers guide...

  • Maybe they're doing it because GSM is pretty much everywhere except the US and Canada. You whacky people, starting your own standards up ...

  • The ISBN on mine is 0-681-40322-5. It's the leather bound version with the bookmark thingy.

  • Re:hmm (Score:2)

    by jfunk ( 33224 )
    Ah, you beat me to it! :-)*

    However, you did leave an error for me to correct:

    "1 + 1 it could manage (2) and 1 + 2 (3) and 2 + 2 (4) or tan 74 (3.4874145), but anything above 4 it represented merely as `A Suffusion of Yellow.'"

    Other recommended features:

    - The playing of MP3s by the band "Pugilism and t he Third Autistic Cuckoo."

    - Some method of determining which car knew where it was going. Screw GPS, let's go with Zen navigation!

    Ah, to be Dirk Gently...

    Interestingly enough, I found my copy of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" in a local mysticism shop. How appropriate...
  • Another must have toy/gadget for us computer/cultural literate.

    Uh...
    a) i iz not a eenglish perfesser or anything... but, shouldn't it be "culturally"?

    b) i am not particularly cultural literate :) but, i don't really see how a (very, very funny) geek SF standard is "cultural"

    anyhoo... there's my two bits. i think i got overcharged...

    ps. i am not trying to start anything here. i absolutely _loved_ HHGG, i just don't see it on a par with the Iliad or Hamlet and such...

    pps. i will most likely be first in line to buy one :)

    V .sig goes here V
    "Respect was invented to fill the space where love should be." - Anna Karenina

  • 42 (Score:1)

    by Zurk ( 37028 )
    from what i know (and please correct me) the number 42 comes from the ratio of the gravitic constant to the electron charge constant - its 10^42 but it became 42 in the hitchhikers guide..

  • Re:Oh so nifty... (Score:4)

    by spiral ( 42436 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:47AM (#1666992)
    >It struck me that www.h2g2.com is basically everything.blockstackers.com

    Good point. We've already got Everything. All we need now is Life.blockstackers.com
    and TheUniverse.blockstackers.com and we'll be set.
  • "Field Agents" could write in with their entries, and it would be looked over and possibly submitted by volunteers over the network.

    I wonder what the pay scale might be for a full time Hitchhiker's Guide Field Agent...

    Ender

    Pondering a future career change...


  • How is it going to tell me how to get out of that Turkish prison I'm in?

    Or will it just provide me with a colourful history of the building and local area?


  • The article implies that the box will somehow be integrated to the current h2g2 site. While the h2g2 site is certainly entertaining, its not the kind of _information_ that I'd spend a (probably) large amount of information to have access to at anyplace.

    Existing products already provide a similar level of information... there are several GPS products with information about roads, services, resturaunts, etc.

    Integrating the system with a cell to get feedback from the general populace on a resturaunt that you've never been to in the city you're visiting would be interesting, but I can see the potential for abuse already. It only takes one rumor of a roach sent all over the internet to ruin a resturaunt's business. Once you start moderating, then you might as well have a (much less expensive) static database on a Palm or such.

    But a Palm doesn't have a "Don't Panic" button... hmmm...
  • (I still keep in towel in my car. I'm comfortable with how big a geek that proves me to be.)
    Once, some years ago, I was on a date with a woman (it happens occasionally) when it began to rain as we were walking back to my car. We got soaked.

    I reached in the back seat and handed her...my towel.

    "You keep a towel in your car?" she asked, incredulously. She was not a geek girl. Very pretty, but not a geek girl. I think she thought it was really strange to keep a towel in the car, despite the fact that it was right then an incredibly useful thing to have.

    Hmmm, maybe in the personals ad I placed recently I should have said, "ISO a woman who knows where her towel is."

  • can you imagine if MS did buy this up
    we would have to get plug-in's so that it would work in other contries
    and if there was a staff that updated articles in the book it would take them years to get them in there and the entry would be something like "mostly harmless"
    or for a restruant "mostly food"
    and if MS did control it it would only work on every third tues. of the forth month of the second moon phase (i.e about how offten windows works perfectly)

    just a thought
  • I'm as thrilled to hear of this as any self-respecting geek would be... I'd probably buy one even it's just a dressed up pocket calculator.

    But one thing concerns me... Does anyone notice the European bias in this story? For example, the plans to support GSM? I have a funny feeling that they're not planning on releasing this device in the states, at least not initially.

    I hope I don't have to buy some imported, untranslated British version...
  • Am I the only one who knows about megadodo.com?

    It's an outgrowth of alt.galactic-guide and trying to build the real HHG via articles on the web. I submitted some myself when I was younger and sillier. ;-)

    Check it out. IMHO it would be a great starting point for some of the more ... odd ... topics to be covered in the H2G2.
  • if they decide to make it serious - they should make it like Everything. Except a little more moderated. "Field Agents" could write in with their entries, and it would be looked over and possibly submitted by volunteers over the network.

    Well, Everything [blockstackers.com] is definately a better choice to base it off of them h2g2. I've played with them both, and h2g2 got boring. However, I've spent more than my share of time on Everything.

    We've already mentioned the idea of The Handheld Everything [blockstackers.com] on there, so it's not like the idea is anything new.

    Everything is starting to show that a large community-maintaned database is not necessarily a bad thing, because of collaborative filtering and all. Everything 2 [blockstackers.com] should give an even better demonstration as to how well it works, as it starts to become the ultimate reference guide [blockstackers.com].
    ---
  • But they are resourceful enough to get their hands on one anyway.

  • Cool! (Score:3)

    by GnrcMan ( 53534 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:38AM (#1667002) Homepage
    That's neato. As a side note, I don't know if any of you have had a chance to check out www.douglasadams.com [douglasadams.com], but it's a really nice site. Also there's a web-board that Douglas reads. He's really a pretty nice guy and makes himself as available as possible, considering his busy schedule, although he can get kind of short with blithering idiots.
    At one point he requested (publicly on the message forum) that a new "stupid crap" forum be created, and that all posts relating to: 1) tech support for Starship Titanic 2) "I'm writing a report for school and was wondering if you could answer this involved question which was not very well thought out in the first place." 3) Anything similar to some of the lesser AC posts here.
    Also note that Mr. Adams has officially retired from answering any questions relating to the number 42.

    GnrcMan
  • ...you'd have a single entry reading:

    Earth: Mostly harmless

    "There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

  • Surely a simple version of Mozilla with 'DON'T PANIC' chrome running on a Palmtop would do the same?

    Surely the WWW as a whole is more analogous to the HHGTTG than some individual site, with dubious content.

    I think i'd want some serious storage on my Palmtop to handle this type of app though... say, 128 MB RAM and a 4-10 GB HDD or equivalent storage medium. Not many palmtops boast this kind of spec, and sadly, modem access won't really cut it IMHO. I spose it'll be fine for small, infrequent updates, but imagine the thousands of updates that would be spawned if this thing becomes popular.

    I can see it now .'OK, i'm standing in front of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, i better consult the guide to find out what to do..'

    PLEASE WAIT 3 HOURS WHILE THE GUIDE IS UPDATING ITS ENTRIES.... OH, AND DON'T PANIC.

    Good advice, but waiting for a 56k modem to d/l content is like watching paint dry. /me shudders and thinks of 'NT Option Packs' and 'Internet Explorer' web browser downloads...

    Of course, since i switched to the world of Linux i don't need to download the bloat so much, but i seriously don't think a dial-up connection will be adequate for this type of app.

    Perhaps it would be a good project for something like Jini/Javaspaces, where all the information is kept in a distributed network, and the individual device knows nothing about where it is retrieving/storing information.. Perhaps Sun should have called Jini 'Sub Ether' or whatever it is in HHGTTG. This would require fulltime (or close to it) connection to the network which implies wireless, Ricochet or Iridium style access.

    Still, if theres one device that would give Iridium a reason for exisistence, it's this.

    Perhaps we could just get 'DON'T PANIC' graphics for Everything.Blockstackers.Org, and we'd have the equivalent, for free.



  • Interview with DNA (Score:3)

    by cetan ( 61150 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:12AM (#1667005) Journal
    After poking around h2g2.com [h2g2.com] for a bit, I came across a great interview with Dougals Adams here at ZineZone.com [zinezone.com]. It is complete with images, audio clips from the interview and more. I would highly recommend stopping by there to take a look. Insite and more into the life of DNA.
  • Okay, so everyone knows what to get me for my birthday next year (Aug 22nd . . . you all missed it this year)

    And I don't mind if each of you only chip in a nickel towards the purchase; it's the thought that counts, really :-)
  • Hm... Sounds exactly like a more lighthearted version of HP's "e-services" that they keep talking about like they actually *do* that stuff...
  • Yesyesyesyes! We could have a Handspring Visor with Springboards for every country/region! Add the Palm VII wireless capabilities (after major work done on it to make it useful and FREE) for automatic information upgrades, and you got your Guide!
  • Is that a Hitchiker's Guide in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
  • so if the hitchhiker's guide is real does that mean that the vogon's are real? perhaps they should also be working on the electronic thumb, i want off this planet. 'cause if the vogons are real then goodbye earth and hello bybass!

    on a related note: i wonder if i could program it to find out the question for '42'. and if so, would the universe be instantly obliviated to reconstitute into something even more bizarre?

  • H2G2 (Score:4)

    by HBergeron ( 71031 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @10:52AM (#1667011)
    Ever since the advent of the web, I (and innumerable other Hitchhikers fans) have noted the similarities - a huge collection of data from countless contributors with incompetant editors, often faulty information, and a great deal of humor. The creation of a true hitchhikers guide using the web was pleasently inevitable. I've often thought /. would eventually come closest to approximating it.

    Unfortunately, H2G2 has far too much of the incompetent editing and too little of the clever humor and actually useful information. Just witness the lengthy expositions on black helicopters, the CIA plot to kill Clinton, and wrong instructions on how to do things. One poster noted how great this would be if ones car broke down in the middle of nowhere and they could get instructions on how to fix it. Given the quality of the content, PANIC might be a better slogan.

    That being said, a mobile device that always knows where it is and has access to all the information you could possible want (and more) is an exciting concept. Not only could it tell you about the local culture and architecture of the Turkish prison you're in (another post), but also how to bribe the judge, carve your way out with the side of the "Guide" case, or how to use your towel to prevent some unfortunate prison experiences.

    Maybe the guys here at /. could give Adams some pointers on building a community and group moderation - the "one cockroach" rumor that could screw a far flung restaurant doesn't work if the posters are rated and moderated.

  • Douglas Adams @ JavaOne (Score:3)

    by Ribo99 ( 71160 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:00AM (#1667012) Homepage Journal
    Douglas Adams did the last keynote speech for the 99 JavaOne connference and he talked about this project. He is also a reallly funny guy.
    Not only is this a going to be a sort of "electronic guide book" using spatial coords to look up information, users can also submit entries to to guide. Say you're traveling and when you come to a restraunt the guide recommends but it has gone out of business, you can update that information to the guide. You can write your own reviews for other people to read when they come to that place.
    Imagine coupling this system with a Augmented Reality system. Virtual Graffiti drawn in 3d space!
    I'm going to have to pick one of these bad boys up. :)

    Ribo
  • I know where my bonus is going next year. I'm not clear from the article if the content is going to be about Earth or it is actually the fictional content from the book.

    Matt
  • The only thing I would worry about if it wasn't released here is the price, considering the poor exchange rate. Judging by the fact that you seem to have a good grasp on English, you shouldn't have trouble translating. ;)
  • as matter of fact, I am so impressed with the concept that I am surprised that I have not seen it in a Stephenson or Gibson novel!!

    Well, we have seen something similar to it in Stephenson's The Diamond Age. The Primer in that book isn't that dissimilar to the Guide. A bit more surreal, but still a general "Don't Panic" kind of guide to life.
  • I imagine some sort of contextual cache mechanism would work. If your last three queries were for information on Des Moines, Iowa, the 'Guide' could pull down likely targets for the next search. If you had just requested the Linux-Networking howto, it could pull down copies of (or links to) the Ethernet and Hardware howtos. As for the British accent, that would be kind of easy. I've done speech synth on boxen with far less power than is required to churn out MP3 files like some of them are doing. Festival runs quite nicely on a DX 75, while real time mp3s usually require at least a P90. (Yes, I'm dated.)

  • Don't Panic! (Score:4)

    by technos ( 73414 ) on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @05:07AM (#1667017) Homepage Journal
    I can see a myriad of used for the Guide, if they implement it something like the literary equivalent. Imagine losing a fan belt out on US-71, and not knowing how to put it back on.. Not only will the Guide keep you from panicking, it could potentially tell you which service stations you could call, as well as how to put the belt back on yourself. You're having trouble finding your destination? Grab a map off of the Guide; it's easier than finding the Interstellar Spaceway. Can't get the firewall to cooperate? Pull the specs from the Guide, and then use it to SSH onto the box. Have a german engineer you need to communicate with? The Guide includes an electronic Babelfish. In a meeting and you NEED the 'netcat' manpage? Don't panic, the Guide has it! Some hints on beating a Sun boot PROM into submission? Hit the Guide first. Wake up on a strange spacecraft with a towel in your hand? Is the Tlaziam empire tightening her grip on the Acensus Cluster? Well, those may not be covered in the Guide, but I'm sure you see the point..
  • Maybe Handspring will come out with a HHtG Springboard module for the Visor. If it does, I think geeks will be legally obligated to get one.
  • yet agian a thing that i have wanted for ever .
    this will real be nice once it is up and running.
    realy . this will come in handy when travinling .
    and might even be good with a gps to run a map and mixed with a couple ibm micro drives , this thing could realy be more then a toy and in my opinion better then a palm pilot. and if you can report from the field with one of these i would have no truble to in doing being a field reporter.
    i will even get my spelling right or maybe a spell checker would be good to incorperate hah.

  • Earth? Harmless.. It's the other things in the book i'm curious about. :)

  • Not that I don't love the idea but:

    1) How much would you be willing to pay for a dedicated device that offers witty insight and meaningless trivia?

    2) Why is this hardware instead of software?

    Assuming integrated GMS/GPS I'm guessing the device wouldn't go for under $200 which is well above my price range for cool but useless toys.

    Far better to offer this as a service (I'm guessing there would be a monthly fee anyway) for any GPS/GMS equipped lap/palmtop computer through software.

    This is a toy for pure geeks, and most of them are already toting a mobile computer of some sort. I doubt many of them are gonna want to try to find a pocket for one of these too.

    Now if they could make one that could be fitted onto a pair of eyeglasses then they'd be in business ;)
  • if they decide to make it serious - they should make it like Everything [blockstackers.com]. Except a little more moderated. "Field Agents" could write in with their entries, and it would be looked over and possibly submitted by volunteers over the network.

    now we just have devise a means for interstellar space travel.

    ---
  • Your phone is GSM but not on the same frequency as Eurpeans (or the rest of world)'s GSM standard.

  • Most of these things sounded pretty serious, except for the last stuff :)

    To behave similarly to the Guide (using current technology), I think you'd have to have a wireless connection to access humongo databases from a central server.

    The good part would be this: allow anybody who has a Guide to write new entries for the Guide. New entries will be saved in said previously-mentioned humongo databases.

    There might be a human staff to review new entries to see if they are informative/funny, replace an existing entry if the new one is better, or perhaps put them both in so that you get a choice or a random selection of entries when you ask.

    Each Guide could probably cache an index & whatever entry contents were asked for.

    Would it be computationally feasible/cost effective to have the Guide read the entry in a British accent?
  • How wonderful the radio series was, and I bought all the books, but I will not let Douglas Adams rip me off with this toy.

    He has enough of my money. If he wants more, let him create something.

  • That sounds really neat! (Score:3)

    by KilobyteKnight ( 91023 ) <bjm@midso u t h . r r .com> on Wednesday September 22, 1999 @04:52AM (#1667026) Homepage
    Of course, I still think digital watches are neat.

  • In the universe of Slashdot this post is an infinitesimally small dot on an infinitesimally small dot, but that's beside the point. I sure hope this will be open source, or at least will accept moderated contributions. Don't You?

    bf
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • The thing I'd be worried about is if this handheld had an integrated calculator in it. Would you always get 42?

    regards,
    larry

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