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

Old Hairy was a cantankerous old electrical engineer who wrote entries for the Guide on Boolean Logic. He died last year, of lung cancer.

He left one entry in Peer Review which was so complex that nobody could understand it. I volunteered to rewrite it in a form that somebody might be able to understand, although I think even my version is still difficult. I've been working on it over the last few months, a bit at a time. I finally finished it this morning. Now all it should take is minor tweaks before it joins OH's other entries.

Well done, Gnomon; I know getting that finished was a struggle but it seemed really important to you. Glad you got it sorted!

It is sad that we have lost researchers such as Bels and Old Hairy in this way.

How can one make precautions that h2g2 is told in such cases?

In Bels's case, his daughter was also a researcher, although she left after he died.

In Old Hairy's case, some member of his family contacted the editors.

But it is hit and miss. There are many researchers who have just disappeared. They may have died or may have just got bored.

That's what I thought. If someone does go missing, people do check up. I'm still worried about Bossel, though. I don't think anything's happened, but how come he's not dropped a note somewhere?

Now that I don't share h2g2 with my friends I intend to add something to my will next time I update it. Don't laugh. I've got a lot of friends who've become real life friends on here, and it's going to be a lot easier on my parents if they can just ask one of my brothers to sign up and post than have to go through my address book and ring everyone because I don't have their home addresses stored anywhere vaguely useful.

After over 5 years it looks like I'm here for the rest of my life anyway...

Long live Mina - and long live hootoo

Well done, Gnomon, both for taking on the project and for seeing it through

Linked to what others have said, I've been worried about an 'older' friend of mine for a while now, as he hasn't posted in ages. But he may have just given up hootoo (!) or computing...or anything. I may never know

Jules

Gnomon:

I'm so very sorry to hear about OH. He was certainly brilliant at times, but fun and helpful as well.

It was at least nice that word got back to the community. I don't know exactly how old Old Hairy was, but I'll miss his penetrating mind.

I hope your health is well, and thanks for taking on the project. I don't remember OH's version, but your entry reads very well. If it needs tweaks at all, they won't amount to much; I'm sure.

Thanks for the news, sad as it is,

You have done a good job on rephrasing the almost impenetrable explanation OH provided. Now it is only 'difficult' to understand It is a fine line that must be judged to have a clear direction, without diversions, for the explanation of the entry, avoiding examples early on which are only more fully understandable later. It does mean that the entry becomes clearer the more times you read it...

I would suggest submitting your version to PR and advising in PR thread about authorship and original version.

Pimms

Thanks, Pimms. I've done that now.

The revised entry has now been accepted, so the ghost of Old Hairy is finally laid to rest.

I am fascinated By boolean logic and look forward to your entry.
johninf.