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

The 'Who's Online' list seems full , of people who, for various reasons, have not posted in many years. I know it is a glitch.

I have come to the conclusion that it should be renamed 'Schrodinger's Online List' because the names have a fifty- fifty chance of being online or not online.

Or a fifty-fifty chance of being cats,

For a while, every time I watched something on youtube.com, the suggestions would include some form of 'Paul Mc Cartney died in 1966' theories. Mentioned that to a friend. She read through some of them. We agreed that whoever he has been Paul for our entire lives and the rest doesn't really matter. So, applying the Schrodinger theory, maybe the online list is Paul Mc Cartney.

Some people accomplish whatever they're going to accomplish by the time they're 40 or 45 anyway. Whatever lifespan they have after that consists of fine-tuning or tweaking their legacy.

These theories go along the lines of : Early one morning, Paul was in a car crash, died and was replaced by a look alike. Paul or lookalike, he does a great live show, seen him twice in concert.

The depth to which some of the theorists have gone and for how many years is astounding and it would have been time better served by being put towards a career or degree or something else.

Maybe he's gone to live with Amelia Earhart, Hitler, and Elvis.

Some of the theories are even stranger than that.

From what I have read, that was not part of the youtube theories, but published biographies, there were doubles for each of the Beatles used as decoys at venues. There was no list of where that was done other than concerts in general.

The art of sonic verification has gotten pretty robust lately, though. Each person has a unique voiceprint. These supposedly "dead" singers made plenty of recordings that could be compared with the period *after* their supposed demise.

How much would someone's voice change from age 24 to 70?

Well, Julie Andrew's voice probably changed a bit because parts of her vocal cords were removed. Barring a significant voice operation, I wouldn't expect much change.

"age matters very little to a voice biometrics system – whether you are 25, 45, 65 or 85."
http://whatsnext.nuance.com/customer-experience/voice-biometrics-aging-customer-authentication/

That's good to know.

The current laptop pc has the cortana speech activated search. I don't use it for search, just reminders. It's getting more sarcastic by the minute. She greets with ''Hello'' now, she didn't at first. I asked what was she up to. She replied ''cruising down the internet highway with the windows down.''

It was 7 below zero (F) this morning at my sister's house. It peaked at 7 degrees here in Boston this afternoon. No way would I have any windows open.

Cortana is Microsoft's answer to amazon's Alexa, sort of.

Cortana won't freeze her chips off with the windows open. But, if windows freezes, she will be locked out.

Sorry, I have no desire to let her into my life, let alone my window.

Not even the bathroom window?


''Didn't anybody tell her?
Didn't anybody see?
Sunday's on the phone to Monday
Tuesday's on the phone to me''


I have had an entire facebook chat that was lyrics from Beatles songs.

How's it going?
Good day, Sunshine!

Really, that's not what the fool said,
He's on the hill if you want to ask him for yourself.

Well, Rita had a different opinion.
You know how meter maids are.

I had a little help from my friends,
Yeah, went on a tour, a Magical Mystery tour...

two hours... One of the funniest and most innately polite people I have ever met.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmZqb2VVc48

Early morning singing song...

I typed 'good morning' to Cortana. She answered 'Good morning to you too'. Then she added 'ask me for some bingo calls if you fancy a game'. I might ask her to sing.

Does she sing well?

I asked her to sing. She gave me three video links. I remember this: https://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/F84886?thread=209716 To this day, I laugh when 'Staying Alive' is on the radio or more likely the walmart in store radio... which has happened. The researcher who started the thread was 16, at university and bored at the time.

I saw a documentary called "Young at heart," about a senior citizen chorus in Northampton. I sort of chuckled when a portly gent in his eighties sang "Staying alive." I also respected him for being up to anything. He died not long afterward, though.