Top all-time · #1751
Douglas Adams
Personal blog · douglasadams.comwritingculture
Douglas Adams's personal blog at douglasadams.com covers writing and culture. Since 2009, 44 different Hacker News readers have linked it 55 times, most often “How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Douglas Adams's Official Home On The Web
Most-linked posts?
- How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999)11 people · 12 mentions · first linked 2009-09-03
- How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999)6 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2020-07-29
- Douglas Adams: What Have We Got to Lose? (1995)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2010-03-18
- Wouldn't it be easier if we all just standardised on one power supply?3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-06-13
- Riding the Rays (1992)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-07-28
- How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-06-17
- Pedants (1999)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-07-05
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-08-16
- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-02-16
- What kind of Apple Mac did Arthur Dent have?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-02-12
What Hacker News says?
Douglas Adams on Dongly Things: http://douglasadams.com/dna/980707-03-a.html Spolsky on Martian headsets: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/03/17/martian-headsets/ It turns out that making power/data cables work without irritating the hell out humanity as a whole is a task that humans are uniquely unsuited to solving. We'll have to wait for AI or aliens to fix this. Meanwhile, stop expecting the next standard to w…
Comment linking /dna/980707-03-a.html
on “USB-C was supposed to simplify our lives, but instead it’s a total mess”Submitted What have we got to lose? (1998) as a story · 184 points
HN discussionThat is a quote I'll have to remember. Appearently it was Bran Ferren who said it, and was quoted by Douglas Adams (source with broken https: https://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html )
Comment linking /dna/19990901-00-a.html
on “People expect technology to suck because it sucks”Submitted What kind of Apple Mac did Arthur Dent have? as a story · 174 points
HN discussionAnd look at the bloodshed that caused! https://douglasadams.com/dna/pedants.html
Comment linking /dna/pedants.html
on “Let's stop counting centuries”Submitted Riding the Rays (1992) as a story · 81 points
HN discussionIf you ever want to extend the analogy to include the perspective of the water here's one to read: "Over the last few years I've regularly been cornered by nervous publishers or broadcasters or journalists or film makers and asked about how I think computers will affect their various industries. For a long time most of them were desperately hoping for an answer that translated roughly into 'not very much'. ('People…
Comment linking /dna/980707-05-a.html
on “Fish don't know they're in water”Submitted How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet as a story · 35 points
HN discussionAnd for anyone who hasn't seen it, his short essay "Dongly Things" is worth the reading time: http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-03-a.html
Comment linking /dna/980707-03-a.html
on “Wikipedia is fixing one of the Internet’s biggest flaws”Submitted What kind of Apple Mac did Arthur Dent have? as a story · 25 points
HN discussionThis is my all-time favourite reply to a mundane fan question: http://www.douglasadams.com/cgi-bin/mboard/info/dnathread.cg...
Comment linking /cgi-bin/mboard/info/dnathread.cgi?1546,2
on “Why 42? - Douglas Adams Explains”Submitted Pedants (1999) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionI've seen this misattribution a few times today. Adams didn't say that. He was quoting computer scientist Bran Ferren in his (Adams's) article in The Sunday Times "How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet". It's reproduced on his personal website here: http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html The actual quote is slightly different: "Technology [...] is stuff that doesn't work yet."
Comment linking /dna/19990901-00-a.html
on “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: 40 years of parody and predictions”Submitted How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999) as a story · 7 points
HN discussion+100 It was great having Douglas around for ideas and contributions: he did many things for Starship Titanic beyond the core ideas, such as designing puzzles and even composing bits of the score. However, as anyone who ever worked with him knew, relying on Douglas to deliver serious amounts of creative work on a schedule was A Bad Idea. (I ended up writing the introduction page for his own site: http://www.douglasad…
Comment linking /introduction.html
on “The Starlight Lines Employee Forum RPG”Submitted The Little Computer that Could as a story · 6 points
HN discussionTDV seemed to be a magnet for oddball online communities. One day, irritated with all the abject nonsense, requests for him to do their English homework, and speculation about the number 42, that was posted to his main forum, Douglas requested to add a "Half Witted Crap" forum. I promptly set that up and, rather than being offended by it, the community took to it with relish. I believe it also developed its own rich…
Comment linking /cgi-bin/mboard/info/thread.cgi?426,0
on “The Starlight Lines Employee Forum RPG”Submitted Douglas Adams on the Internet (1999) as a story · 5 points
HN discussionWhere the hell is the charger cable for my Nook? If you haven't read it already, DNA wrote the definitive essay on the evils of proprietary power cables and connecters. It's a great read. "Dongly Things" by Douglas Adams http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-03-a.html
Comment linking /dna/980707-03-a.html
on “When hard books disappear”Submitted How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionDoes anyone know a place to play the Infocom game online? The original is here http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html but it requires java, and the BBC's illustrated version http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml doesn't work anymore. Oh well you can always download an emulator and the original Apple II disk images! http://www.virtualapple.org/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxydisk....
Comment linking /creations/infocomjava.html
on “Douglas Adams' 61st birthday doodle by Google”Submitted Douglas Adams on the Internet as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere's an amusing short story from Douglas Adams, who visited Australia back in the day where 'No worries' featured prominently. https://douglasadams.com/dna/980707-08-a.html "and get this, this is a very important and significant part of what happens to you on Hayman Island - staff who don't just say "No worries" when you thank them for topping up your champagne glass, they actually say "No worries at all". They t…
Comment linking /dna/980707-08-a.html
on “The other British invasion: how UK lingo conquered the US”Submitted How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet (1999) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this: 1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal; 2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is in…
Comment linking /dna/19990901-00-a.html
on “Fucking Tired of AI”Submitted Dongly Things (1998) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThat's not the point and you know it. http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/pedants.html
Comment linking /dna/pedants.html
on “The Milo Criterion”Submitted Douglas Adams: What Have We Got to Lose? (1995) as a story · 3 points
HN discussion"However, it’s (the internet) very new to us. Newsreaders still feel it is worth a special and rather worrying mention if, for instance, a crime was planned by people ‘over the Internet.’ They don’t bother to mention when criminals use the telephone or the M4, or discuss their dastardly plans ‘over a cup of tea,’ though each of these was new and controversial in their day" Douglas Adams, 1999 http://www.douglasadams…
Comment linking /dna/19990901-00-a.html
on “Just When I Was Ready to Give AirBnB a Try”Submitted How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
