h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Recently I was listening to an audio book recording of Douglas Adams reading his own book "Mostly Harmless" on CD. It is somehow not funny at all hearing Douglas Adams complain about how stupid people who design things are on a CD that didn't seperate the chapters into seperate tracks, so that every time the old player goes bing I have to start that hour-long section of the book all over again to hear the end.

I "finished" the book, or rather I was finished *with* it, without hearing the end. That doesn't matter as such, because I have read the print version before, but it is extremely annoying.

If you ever write a novel and are asked to record an audio book of it, please please please ensure that they seperate the chapters into seperate tracks on the CD or make it easy to scroll between them in whatever new technology is invented by then, as it would save listeners a whole lot of headache and annoyance.
Nerd42

Traveller in Time with many failing devices
"Perhaps the new technology will have players that hick up the chapters in the wrong sequence

I think it is not fair to blame the audio book of beeing recorded in a strange way if your equipment fails. "

No no there are multiple levels of bad design here.

First of all, the CD players aren't designed to handle fast-forwarding and rewinding in an effecient manner. In my portable, for example, if there are two tracks, you can get them to loop, so that rewinding from Track 1 will get you to the end of Track 2. But if there's only one track, rewinding from the end of Track 1 won't get you to the end of Track 1. Also, there's no way to skip to "somewhere generally in the middle of" a track without fast-forwarding at a constant (non-increasing) speed. Thus, to get 40 minutes into a CD that only has 1 track could take 10 minutes. This is unbelievably stupid.

The second level of bad design was the one I was complaining about mostly though. The people who made the audiobook CD didn't seperate the chapters into seperate tracks. This, as well as the first level, is unbelievably stupid.

The third level of bad design here is the fact that for some reason, even though the little battery indicator in my portable CD player looked "mostly full" after about ten minutes it died, forcing me to walk home listening to my own bored and annoyed silence instead of somewhat interesting audio content.
Nerd42

That also, I failed to mention just now, was unbelievably stupid.
Nerd42

*is clapping, at "the wonders of a modern-and technologically -predisposed,_ series of nations.*

... *tiny bit of a smirk*
Right, I'm a d@*n American, so,- things aren't >really< that much better here. The attempts at "manners" suck,- for starters.
Yes, technology can be a bit -of-a bother.
<- That is why it shall be _great fun - to be able to take down scores of mobile troop type robots, in the future... just like in some sort _of an apocoalyptic type-future movie.

I'm an American too
Nerd42

I've given up, just about on San Jose-ean girls.


... for the most part they are all simply too much backstabbing and emotionally immature, as -well as quite filled-up with themselves.
Where along the lines it was that, "I like you..." got popularly misinterpreted as "... so treat me like ", is of no matter.
... *Tries not to sulk*

What on earth are you talking about?
Nerd42