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

Interesting that you should mention this. My original PS mentioned several things I'd never done at the time, including - but not limited to - buy a CD player (which I have since done), buy a DVD player (still haven't), buy a computer (which I have since done), buy or own a personal stereo of any kind - Walkman, Discman or iPod (still haven't), and watch a 'Rocky' film. I seem to have be having no trouble whatsoever maintaining that last one.

My wife has surpassed me on my claim to fame. One of her most attractive features is that she refuses to get drawn into the mainstream. She ploughs her own furrow. The other day she asked 'Has there been more than one Star Wars film?' Classy!

When it comes to technology, I'm something of a late adopter myself. I buy things not because they look neat, but because thet are obviously useful. I only got a DVD player a few months ago. Having young kids I don't get out to the cinema much, but now there are lots of online rental companies and I can get hold of the artsy-fartsy titles I want. I've no obvious need for a personal music player - but if iPods and the like get cheap enough, it will be damned convenient to be able to put away my piles of (unboxed!) CDs. I have an ancient FrankenPC (lots of bits added, wires sticking out). It's adequate for web stuff - but now I'm doing digital photography and I really need to upgrade to something that will run Photoshop a little faster. Oh - and I'm a strong advocate of not buying the latest, best model. Why pay for functionality you don't need? Just get something 'good enough'.

I'm not a technophobe, though. I can't understand why anyone would want to walk round a supermarket putting stuff in a trolley when you can do it from home.

I once knew a guy who had never eaten pizza!

I think you and I are on the same page as far as technology is concerned. There was a time when I was something of an audiophile and yearned for (but could never afford) the best or most expensive (not always the same thing) in the way of hi-fi equipment, and that desire sort of migrated to PCs during the late 90s. But it's really not necessary, and the latest whizz-bang 3GHz, 200GB hardrive, a gig of RAM, latest video card PC would be utterly wasted on me.

Like you, I may at some time in the future buy an iPod because (so I understand) they can be used to store all sorts of files, not just mp3s. That's pretty useful if you need your files to be portable, but in the meantime I store most of the files I don't want to lose on a gmail account I set up specifically for the purpose.

"Something good enough"... plus 10% I would suggest. I always thought I wouldn't need a particularly fast PC because I use it almost exclusively for navigating the internet, but now I find that I spend a lot of time streaming radio stations, which can slow this machine down somewhat. There's a sizeable trade these days in reconditioned PCs - companies upgrade and sell of all their old PCs to a company who tidies them up and sells them off at ridiculously low prices because they're relatively old-fashioned. There are some incredible deals on what I would consider a halfway decent box.

I'm not an audiophile myself. I like music. A lot. But any really decent equipment would be entirtely wasted in my listening environment. Basically, I don't live in the Linn sales room. (Although I do live about half a mile from it). Plus...I have a tin ear.

Most of it is just toys for boys, though - isn't it? 'Oooh! My camera is 5 Megapixels!' Which is fine if you intend blowing up your holiday snaps to the size of the wall...

I've just found a copy of the Guide ML for my old PS - other things I haven't done appear to be: use a drive-through, wear my shirt collar outside my jacket (a la Starsky and Hutch) or roll up the sleeves of a jacket (a la B.A. Robertson), wear a baseball cap backwards, and set foot in a Starbucks.

You seem to have led a very sheltered life.

Myself...I've been to paradise/ But I've never been to me

Good grief, that has to be one of the cheesiest songs of all time (even cheesier than that one about the bloke whose girlfriend was killed in a car crash and he kept calling her number just to hear her voice again on the answering machine - "Hello, this is Joni")...

"I've been undressed by kings and I've seen some things that a woman's not s'posed to see"

I seem to recall that there was a ghastly video that went with it.