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

so, let's try this for a change. As promised in the introduction, here comes an, in my opinion, interesting thought. To you, being old hands in this it might be quite common. But I was just thinking about what to write on my new homepage. Now, I do not really hold the belief that I have anything of real importance to tell the world and the web is so huge that any piece of information or communication put there is unlikely to be found by a lot of people. It's more like a message in the bottle thrown into the ocean. Still, even as a child, I found this concept of posting very exciting. And I must confess that quite unexpectedly, I found myself in a similar excitement when addressing the world on this my humble homepage . So, I was wondering whether it is quite normal for any human being to experience this thrill of potentially infinite communications. Then I was wondering if, by trying to establish communication on the web, the individual experiences a flash of joining, or being joined to this great network of computers and minds. A kind of (in terms of Sci-Fi novels still very primitive) neural shunt with the largest network of our times? Has anybody else similar experiences, similar thoughts? or am I just becoming overexcited, perhaps with the onset of a weekend depression? I would like to hear any comments you might have. I also want to add that English is not my native language, and though I think it's good enough for you to get an idea what I am talking about, the words may still sound a little bit clumsy .

Hi CyyStCyr... I too wonder along the same lines... and it's nice to know others do too.
I try not to think too much about that huge worldwide web which I am joined to at the moment, and I guess you must be too, unless you are psychic... I don't know exactly how big it is, but I'm sure it's larger than I could ever imagine... And I don't like feeling that small and insignificant, so here, in my head, it is not a common topic.
The thing I wonder most in relation to it is what all these people whose pages I stumble across are like... sometimes it can be really hard to guess, others, I'm not sure I'd want to know...
BTW, your English is better than so many (English) people I know.

thank the Godess, i am not a psychic ... you could afford such notions years ago, but with the www, you'd just go crazy. Commenting on the insignificance thing, that reminds me of that scene in H2G2 and the guy who is the only one to survive the *don't-know-the-name-in-English*-machine because he has no grasp of *whatever* (magnitude?)(please fill in the right words, I only have the German edition) and it says something like in an universe this size you can't afford to have a grasp of *hmm, whatever* (I'd be most interested in the words, though).
As for getting to know the people, I guess you are right. I used to be a very active member of a German chatroom, and I found it not at all a positive experience to meet some of them, though I did make friends with a lot of others. Actually, most of the people I grew to like online over a period of a year or so, did not disappoint me. You could even say that those I found nice but somewhat strange, didn't "disappoint" me either. Still, it was a somewhat faster communication than I think possible on H2G2, so the information input was higher.

Now is the time that I must admit... I have not actually read any of the books <\small voice> (I will... my project for the summer) So I can't help you with those words at the moment, but I'm sure that someone will come along soon who can... there are stalkers about. So that scene from it is completely lost on me.
H2G2 is very different to a chatroom, but I would say it can be more in-depth... it just takes a *lot* longer to do so... (I am also relatively new, so there maybe some trick to it that I have not yet worked out...)

ooops ... caught you! But, I'm sure, you'll like it. One should always leave gaps in his education. There are a lot of "cult" movies I have been succesfully avoiding, some for more than 15 years, and I'm quite happy with that. Also, I have been thinking about getting an English edition of H2G2 for about the same time. And I usually don't read no English books nowadays in the German translation.

Hi guys!!!.....I'm "stalking"!

I can't place the passage you refer to CyyStCyr....which one of the books is it in, and I'll see if I can find it!

As far as my input being noticed on the web, I don't worry too much about it. I put in my "two cents", and if anyone sees it, fine......if not, that's ok, too. As long as I know it's out there for someone to run across someday, I'm happy.(By the wat, your english is probably better than mine! I'm southern US!LOL)

Getting to know folks on the web? Gotten to know several around here. I've met a couple in RL. So far, no dissappointments. People in here tend to let the "mystery" down and just be themselves. It's a nice change from some other places I've been on the net!

Oh, and Researcher Looking-for-a-Name , don't feel bad! You're definitely not the only Researcher in here whos' never read the books! But I can promise you, they are well worth the time spent!

NM

She'll read it...I lent them too her *ages* ago...if she remembers them...

And I think you mean the bit with Zaphod on Frogstar B or something...when it doesn't destroy is mind because it's all an illusion & in the illusion he really is the most important person in the universe? OK...so I don't know exactly...but it's something like that...

Stalking...? Me...? Never...

I am not sure about which book it is in, but I try to remember the rest, I think it should be retranslated as something like "Whirl of Total Enlightenment" and was invented by this guy with the funny name (ha, ha, who doesn't have a funny name in HHGG), who had no idea about the sheer size of the universe and his "smallness" in comparision. His wife had been constantly complaining about that. This whirl shows you the grandness of the universe in relation to your own small being, which just drives everybody crazy, so it killed the wife and everybody else who stepped into it. Hmmm, and if I remeber correctly, Arthur then steps in and comes out of it quite unchanged and not impressed at all ... so it is located possibly on that horrible prison planet. I am afraid you have to exchange each word with something similar, but I hope that helps anyway. And it is a bit different from what I said first.
Thanks for the help .... I'd really like to know the English terms

I think I know the bit you're talking about...I'll have to have a look though...

I remember those 'books' now... but I only have 2 of them now, due to some... difficulties...
I will read them... the sooner the better... The little bits I've read in various places always sound brilliant. Or confusing. Or both.

RL, you'll have to remind me on ICQ about the books...then I can...erm...sort out the rest of them...

I do not use ICQ yet, but I probably should. Are there different systems in use or only one?

you should definitely dl icq! it's one of the programms that changes your life
once all your friends have it and are always online when they are at home your phone bill will be much lower, too
(in connection with some phone-progs really)

btw, I too read only the german version of HHGG first but I'm just at the moment reading the English one (it's my special topic for the E-Reifeprüfung ;o) - I can only recommend this!!
Most of DNA's humor is lost with the transaltion!
I compared quite a lot of scenes as I now have all books at home and ended up really wondering why I had laughed about the German one... It's really hard translating them, but I realized something was wrong when I got to know "Einmal Rupert und zurück" is called "mostly harmless" in the original version!
I just started with the restaurant @ D end of D universe so I can't tell you the expressions yet, but I'm looking forward to reading them really

btw: I suspected that you read the german books when I found a posting by you 10 min ago: it read about Sirus Kybernetik.. instead of Cybernetic etc

Definitely read the English books, the expressions are worth it and you'll discover DNA had thought of more puns than the translator realized (some kind of ill babelfish like altavista ;o),

cya!
mfg
mf

well, with ICQ, you know that AOL has that Buddy list and IM feature for quite some time and there a quite a crowd online in AOL who know me well enough as I realize each time I unblock my name, which I don't do very often now as it's impossible to do anything online when you have to talk to more than 3 people via IM. And I hate to have English and German IMs at the same time.

When comparing the English and German version of H2G2 just try to better the German translation with a pun here and there. You'll probably see what I mean. Also, I wonder if there is only one German translation around? Mine is from Benjamin Schwarz.

I personally don't have anything from AOL (and can't say I'd miss it) but most people I know prefer icq by far.
in case you don't want to mix up certain chatters you could have several "identities" with icq.. and in fact you could delete it if you disapprove, so give it a try

I've been comparing the E and the German version all day before I read your msg and I found only ONE pun in the German version that wasn't there in the English one, but I found disturbingly many that were simply left out - even if it could have been translated rather easily. My translation of the first 4 books is also by B. Schwarz and "Mostly Harmless" was translated by Sven Böttcher.
I know it's hard to translate such a book, and sometimes he changes the sentence a little bit to make the pun work in German too, or to produce a similar one, that's absolutely fine (first thing that comes to my mind: "we'll meet the meat" -> "Der Braten kommt uns beraten")
However, I can't understand why he doesn't even give it a try on other occasions ("..where little expense has been spared to give the impression that no expense has been spared" -> "..in denen wenig gespart wird") and sometimes I'm a bit disappointed..
okay, not perfect examples but I hope U know what I mean..

ach ja, und was Du wissen wolltest: der totale Durchbilcksstrudel ist der Total Perspective Vortex, ähm, was war noch gefragt?

Anyway, the best translation is "Mostly Harmless" -> "Einmal Rupert und zurück"

Viel Spaß noch, ich kehr zu Zaphod &Co zurück,

mf

well, I guess one day I'll just get those books in the original version .

Das mit dem Totalem Durchblickstrudel hab ich auch schon herausgefunden, obwohl ich in diesem Fall wieder vom Englischen Ausdruck etwas enttäuscht war .... könnte eigentlich grandioser klingen, oder?

That's all Greek to me!

NM

oops .... sorry, we were discussing the pros and cons of the German translation, which is not easy as I do not know the original
I just said I was a bit disappointed of the original name "Total Perspective Vortex"

you remember how much I confused you with my suggestion "whirl of total whatever"? By the way ... how do call that thing in the bathtub?

EERRRMMM...UUUHHH....What thing in the bathtub? Could we be more specific?


I get in the tub on occasion, and they call me "Fairly Strange"!

NM

I have not encountered you in my bathtub yet ... at least, I don't think so

I meant the phenomenon of the water turning and turning in a circle when you let it run out of the bathtub, or out of a sink ... is that called a vortex also?