RIP Douglas Adams... Better Late Than Never
Scorp1on
software distributor) back in late 1999 or early 2000 in Brisbane,
Australia. Douglas was, at the time, fascinated with bringing e-books
to a state where they would be both functional and non-eye-straining
and during lunch he expounded endlessly on the technology of
backlighting without glare and finding a way to present a matte-like
appearance on the appliance and dark enough letters with sufficient
background white to make it pleasant to the eye.
I was too distracted by a bottle of the best wine (a South Australian
Shiraz) I had ever tasted to hear most of his stories and left my boss
to engage with Douglas while I drank half the bottle myself. While I
have read his books and could be considered a fan, I also was not one
to moon over famous people and e-books were not as interesting to me
as this fine Shiraz.
Now, having just purchased my wife a Sony e-reader which my duaghter
has taken to reading like a fish takes to swimming, I decided I would
look him up and see if he ever made any money out of the venture as I
know he would be pleased as punch to see how the Kindle and the other
e-readers were starting to take off. It was only a few moments ago
that I found out that he had passed just a year after I met him. As
always, he was ahead of his time. I was deeply sorry to hear that he
never held a proper e-book in his hands.
Nemo
It's interesting how anecdotes float hidden for so long, and then pop
up to
reveal another fragment of his thoughts, etc.
Reminds me of the sadness we all felt, but makes me happy that you
have shared
.../Nemo
Tian
> I had the pleasure of having lunch with Douglas (and his local
> software distributor) back in late 1999 or early 2000 in Brisbane,
> Australia. Douglas was, at the time, fascinated with bringing e-books
> to a state where they would be both functional and non-eye-straining
> and during lunch he expounded endlessly on the technology of
> backlighting without glare and finding a way to present a matte-like
> appearance on the appliance and dark enough letters with sufficient
> background white to make it pleasant to the eye.
> I was too distracted by a bottle of the best wine (a South Australian
> Shiraz) I had ever tasted to hear most of his stories and left my boss
> to engage with Douglas while I drank half the bottle myself. While I
> have read his books and could be considered a fan, I also was not one
> to moon over famous people and e-books were not as interesting to me
> as this fine Shiraz.
Fascinating anecdote! Thanks for sharing. :-)
> Now, having just purchased my wife a Sony e-reader which my duaghter
> has taken to reading like a fish takes to swimming, I decided I would
> look him up and see if he ever made any money out of the venture as I
> know he would be pleased as punch to see how the Kindle and the other
> e-readers were starting to take off. It was only a few moments ago
> that I found out that he had passed just a year after I met him. As
> always, he was ahead of his time. I was deeply sorry to hear that he
> never held a proper e-book in his hands.
>
Ummm... There were good prototypes floating around silicon valley as far
back as the 1990ish time frame. The question was how to make something
that could be mass produced cheaply, not "Is is possible to make one to
show?" He could have held a fairly good one. That might have been part
of the inspiration for his well informed comments above.
--
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
Crossing TX, NM, AZ and CA on I-10, I saw that where there are no lights
at night there is also usually poor radio reception. What a coincidence!
Kie
> Crossing TX, NM, AZ and CA on I-10, I saw that where there are no lights
> at night there is also usually poor radio reception. What a coincidence!
I read the newest book on a Sony e-reader (Pocket). It somehow fitted
with the guide perfectly! I popped on here to share a few comments
about the book and stumbled across this pleasant anecdote.
Kie,
"Life, don't talk to me about life."
ThorneSteve
> > Crossing TX, NM, AZ and CA on I-10, I saw that where there are no lights
> > at night there is also usually poor radio reception. What a coincidence!
>
> I read the newest book on a Sony e-reader (Pocket). It somehow fitted
> with the guide perfectly! I popped on here to share a few comments
> about the book and stumbled across this pleasant anecdote.
>
> Kie,
> "Life, don't talk to me about life."
seeing as I did not know how to reply, i just answered this message,
and am now cheekily adding my own beneath it. You can call it grafitti
I suppose, but in a way it is. Scrawling my message over someone
elses, in order to be heard. If you don't know how else to do it, what
choice do you have?
anyway...
I loved the hitchhikers guide, and was given the salmon of doubt last
year for my birthday. It was then I found out that the man who changed
my life as a teenager had died, and I never knew. I know it was a long
time ago now, but I still feel the need to write down somewhere
important thanks for giving me hope!