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

I've finally managed to get on to the site. I guess there was so much traffic in the wake of the TW broadcast that poor people like me stuck out in California just couldn't get on to it. Was the piece good?

Hi ~grin~... Me watched TW and it was kinda short... but interesting... mentioned h2g2 twice... and told people to go to the TW homepage to find the link to h2g2...

Welcome, Douglas!
I tried, but could not receive the show from Norway. But I do have a wap phone. The whole idea of wap is almost good. Funny, though, that when you apply pc funtionality to a phone, it starts acting like a pc. I feel a little peculiar every time (10 a day or so) I have to actually boot my phone. Progress, huh?

Well... sort of... if you blinked, you'd miss it. But there's piles of new people which we're desperately trying to welcome cheerfully, which I suppose is good news.

CAt about how long ago was it? I'm on a Time delay.

I think that the marriage of cellphones and internet content is currently at the Kitty Hawk phase - it just about struggles up into the air to prove that it can be done. So how soon will we get to the Concorde phase? Not by this weekend, even at Internet speeds, but it's going to start changing very fast now that people get some kind of glimpse of what might be possible.

Really I just checked I see no new people (just the 3 or four normal new people)

About 2 and half hours ago... from this posting Dirk...

Hello Douglas!

I was able to get a look at the system while vising in London. Mark was very proud. It looks very exciting!

I didn't get a chance to see the TW bit, but the traffic certainly increased dramatically around here and that would seem to me to indicate a raging success.

About 2 and half hours ago... from this posting Dirk...

thanks I jusyt saw the new people looks like it's taking time

You are right. I also think that when we catch that little glimpse of what can be done, we'll realise more and more that going to an office or similar place providing the appropriate cable and wiring is rather silly, when email and that sort of thing can be read in a park, or perhabs on Venice beach on a slightly windy sunday.

I thought Douglas left a long time ago?

No - I only just got here. Couldn't get on before.

Another item on TW tonight was the failure of the satellite phone network, and the fact that 66 satellites will have to be destroyed at great expense. Do you think that's phone technology going too fast?

*sympathy*

So what, I'm a kind of old newbie. Whose DNA? And Douglas didn't come until now?

Neither can a lot of people I think, I've been having trouble since about 7pm and that's with a university connection.

It's been busy all day though, the site's far busier than a couple of weeks ago even and really seems to be taking off

Looks like the site was pretty well slashdotted* and no many could get on from about 7:30 pm BST.

I'm waiting for the next gen of phones (UMTS) but it looks in the UK that the goverment is making sure airtime prices will be high with the auction for system licences.

*see [URL removed by moderator]

I don't understand what people mean when they say Is something going to fast? You want to stop it? How would you do that? And why? All that happened is that some people made a mistake, admittedly, an expensive one. They didn't see how crucial the shortcomings in their particular system would turn out to be. It seems pretty obvious that the trade-offs they accepted were bad ones, but we have 20/20 vision - hindsight. Other people will try other strategies, some will work and some won't. The ones that work will get built on, the ones that don't will pass into oblivion. Darwin mentioned something of the kind in 1859.