Main site page gone and server depressed

http://www.swat-portal.com/php…threadid=16123&boardid=70

The server is Depressed? Oh my, we better find some prozac quick!

Ok I know Op and I can assure you he is never done with his work. That is one of the things that many in this community do not appreciate, is the continued and countless hours he has spent and will continue to expel to be better than the rest. A good quality if you ask me, but at the same time some cooperation from the players, instead of complaints will certainly go a long way^^

I read that thread before.

yes the whole thing

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Originally posted by Hellraiser
OK i got it,
Who is Douglas Adams?

Douglas Adams a famous English writer now sadly no longer with us died of a heart attack aged 49 in 2001.

His most famous book is known as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy a trilogy in five parts.

These books were comedy sci fi with some interesting concepts that have stuck in the minds of a couple of generations.....

1. The answer to life, the universe and everything. Is 42!
2. Marvin the paranoid robot brain the size of a planet constantly being asked to go and open doors for people, he is soooooooooo depressed.
3. That Earth was commissioned to be built by a bunch of mice who were interesting in the ultimate question of life the universe and everything ie the answer is 42 but what the hell is the question?
4. The Heart of Gold star ship designed with a new physics engine powered by the mathematics involved in the numbers surrounding the relationship between customers and a night out in a restaurant
5. The book itself has the letters DONT PANIC on it.
6. Humanity was not descendants of earlier cave men but from a bunch of useless hairdressers and telephone cleaners that crash landed on the planet
7. Where the game cricket actually came from...(damn horror story)

And lots more

Here is the wiki link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…r%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

And I would encourage anyone to read a few of his books or even watch that recent Hollywood film

THE PLOT

The various versions follow the same basic plot, but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation. In all versions, the series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman who, with his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse (not from Guildford after all) and researcher for the eponymous guidebook, escapes the demolition of Earth by a bureaucratic alien race called the Vogons. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President, unknowingly saves the pair from certain death. He brings them aboard his stolen spaceship, the Heart of Gold, whose crew rounds out the main cast of characters: Marvin, the Paranoid Android, a depressed robot, and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington who he soon realises is the only other human survivor of Earth's destruction. After this, the characters embark on a quest to find the legendary planet of Magrathea and the Question to the Ultimate Answer, 42.

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Originally posted by Hellraiser
How is the answer to life and everything 42?

It just is

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Originally posted by Hellraiser
HE wrote the book?

yes

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Originally posted by Hellraiser
How was the answer calculated?

the computer deep thought calculated it for 7.5 millions years

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Originally posted by Myric

It just is

If memory serves, the characters in the book asked something similar:

"If the ultimate answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything is '42', then what is the question?"

After several million more years, Deep Thought responded:

"What do you get when you multiply six by nine?"

Hellraiser... the five-book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe "trilogy" is pretty funny. But don't expect it to make sense!

For example, the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Trall is incredibly dangerous. Luckily, it is so stupid that it thinks that, if you cannot see it, then it cannot see you.

So just put your towel over your head and it will wander off.

(and don't ask about the towel... just read the book!)

There is no doubt the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. As mentioned above - the second most powerful computer of all time and that would ever existed took 7.5 million years to calculate - and this time also including some double checking of the essential calculations and algorithms.

Deep Thought - as the computer was known - then designed a new even more powerful computer to work out what the actual question was - for example. the answer to life, the universe and everything is not an actual question is it?

So a new computer was designed, a very large one, that was so complex it included biological lifeforms as part of its calculation matrix - this computer was called "Earth" - which apparently demolished by the Vogons a few hours before it was to give its answer...

Deep Thought is a computer that was created by the pan-dimensional, hyper-intelligent race of beings (whose three dimensional protrusions into our universe are ordinary white mice) to come up with the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Deep Thought is the size of a small city. When, after seven and a half million years of calculation, the answer finally turns out to be 42, Deep Thought admonishes Loonquawl and Phouchg (the receivers of the Ultimate Answer) that "[he] checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."

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Originally posted by Azadur
There is no doubt the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42. ...

"I think the problem, to be quite honest with you is that you've never actually known what the question was."

Great quote, Azadur!

The part about the question was picked up again in a later book (resulting in the "multiplying six by nine" thing), but I'll be darned if I could find the reference. I am thinking that it was after dinner at Milliway's (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe), but I am not sure.

Memory gets a bit fuzzy because, as mentioned earlier, the story was re-written each time for radio, TV, book, and movie... so there are many versions!

I'm not sure about that book, bu I've seen the movie... or it was something like a video... the answer was made by the best first computer brought by another race on their planet... but the people was concentrated on waiting those millions of years for the answer, instead of evolutioning more.
Result = FAIL !!

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Originally posted by Hellraiser
Cmon guys stop kidding.

We are not kidding, Hellraiser. The quotes above are from the books of the legendary Douglas Adams.

Of course, Adams was kidding... about pretty much everything. He was the master of sci-fi-comedy.

As for the 7.5 million years, time travel is routine in the Hitchhiker's galaxy. The main characters travel in a stolen star ship (the Heart of Gold) which has a prototype infinite improbability drive. The infinite improbability drive allows the characters to do some things that are not impossible but are merely infinitely improbable... such as being in two places at the same time, for example.

You will have to read his books if you want to understand this stuff. There is simply no effective way to describe it.

Note that the CF Guide uses the Hitchhiker's theme, including the friendly words, "Don't Panic", on the cover.

The books and the audio recordings (made for BBC radio) are the best, IMHO. The TV mini-series and the movie have amusing moments, but they do not have the depth of humor found in the books and the radio broadcasts.

EDIT: If you have a bittorrent client, here are links to several versions of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

http://thepiratebay.org/search/hitchhiker*%20guide/0/7/0