
Douglas Adams' 61st birthday doodle by Google - merraksh
https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww
======
Adaptive
For those that remember the original tv series (based on the books, of course,
which were in fact originally a radio play), you will remember the shockingly
bad special effects (themselves outdone only by Tom Baker era Dr. Who effects
in terms of sheer awful). The one exception to the BBC standard guy-in-a-bad-
rubber-suit effects in terms of quality was the animation of the HHGG screens.
I was shocked to find out that they were, in fact, _all animated by hand_.

I've seen a doc about this, can't find it online now. Here's a brief clip of
an example:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uynMCvdkp0M#t=2m20s>

 _By hand..._ Reverse-Skueomorphism before it was cool.

~~~
snogglethorpe
Hmm, really?

I remember the original TV series mainly as being completely, utterly,
awesome.

The effects weren't particularly sophisticated, but they fit well enough, and
never detracted. You didn't really notice them.

This is more than just a good story distracting one from the visuals, I think;
the effects guys did a pretty good job with their limited means, and often
those primitive effects really managed to communicate the atmosphere and
feeling intended. They did this much better than Dr Who's effects ever did, in
my experience: With Dr Who, one almost always had the feeling "ok, this is
some guys on a soundstage", but with HHGttG, often it somehow really did seem
like they were stowed away on a Vogon spaceship. I'm not really sure how they
managed to pull it off as well as they did, though I suppose even in the
category of "low budget BBC SF efx" there's a range of budgets...

.. and the hand-drawn "computer" animations _were_ great. Together with the
incredible music, they were a real highlight.

There were some lowlights, of course; I remember the scenes on the Heart of
Gold as being pretty bad.

[Watching your clip really brings back the memories of the complete bliss of
watching that on TV way back when... just hearing the music sends chills down
my spine... :]

~~~
Adaptive
(Biggest orig HHGG / Tom Baker era Dr. Who fan ever, here.)

Looking back, those effects were bad (like this
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uynMCvdkp0M#t=2m10s> ), but I'll agree with
you on this: back then, I never cared or noticed; the whole thing was just
pure joy as far as I was concerned.

And in a way these effects just offset the glorious, labor of love animations.

 _Totally_ agree about the music. In fact I was just telling someone last
night that Justice's "Civilization" always makes me think of the HHGG tv theme
music (this comparison fell on deaf ears). One of the best ever intro tracks.

And the opening title sequence with the GOLD ASTRONAUT? Genius. A low budget
effect but nicely executed. (for the uninitiated:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywKilWkX4jA> )

You have swayed my opinion. I hereby revised my previous comment to confirm
that these BBC folks really deserve a geek hero's medal for their work. I
suspect you are right that it was often scrounging sets/etc. and it shaped my
taste to this day. Much love to those unnamed fx teams.

~~~
mpclark
If you loved the music, have a listen to The Eagles' "Journey of the
Sorcerer"...

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rOMGIbY-9s>

~~~
snogglethorpe
Thanks for the link...

[This song completely changed the way I thought of the banjo! :]

------
adaml_623
"The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and
strangeness that is absolutely awesome. I mean the idea that such complexity
can arise not only out of such simplicity, but probably absolutely out of
nothing, is the most fabulous extraordinary idea. And once you get some kind
of inkling of how that might have happened ' it's just wonderful. And . . .
the opportunity to spend 70 or 80 years of your life in such a universe is
time well spent as far as I am concerned"

\- Douglas Adams on 'Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins', Channel
4, Equinox Series, 1996

------
ComputerGuru
OCD/loyalist nitpick: His name is Douglas, not Doug. AFAIK, he did not use
that nickname. Can someone please change the title from "Doug Adams' 61st
birthday.." to "Douglas Adams' 61st birthday..."?

EDIT: Fixed. Thank you, OP.

~~~
merraksh
Good point, thanks. Updated.

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daveasdf
I am not seeing it from here. (Australia, GMT+10 time-zone). However it is
available from the Google doodle archives at:
<http://www.google.com/doodles/douglas-adams-61st-birthday>

~~~
ComputerGuru
That one is static... The actual doodle is interactive. Try
<http://google.com/ncr>

(requires JS)

~~~
UntitledNo4
<http://google.co.uk> works for me.

------
charlieok
Pick up a tablet (Android!), connect it to Wikipedia and google's Translate
service, and you're a few steps closer to Douglas Adams' universe than he had
the opportunity to see. Wikipedia launched just a few months before his death.

He actually started a project along similar lines:

[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2005/05/gal...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/webhead/2005/05/galaxy_quest.html)

~~~
anonymous
Even Douglas Adams couldn't foresee The Deletionists - people erasing parts of
an encyclopaedia with nearly infinite space, because they're not worth knowing
about. Or the "I undid your edit, because I don't believe you're right and I
have a username, while you don't"-ists. In a way, we surpassed his vision by a
large margin, though I don't doubt he always knew we would.

~~~
a1k0n
One could argue the editor's paring down of Earth's entry in the Guide to
"mostly harmless" is an instance of exactly the same thing.

~~~
youngerdryas
Actually he changed to "mostly harmless" from "harmless" if I remember
correctly.

------
yskchu
Clicking on the keypad displays different images; anyone worked out the
others?

Here's an excerpt from the Guardian:

The doodle features many of the touchstones of Adams's popular writing.

It displays a cup of tea - a reference to one of his Dirk Gently detective
novels, called The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. It also shows a towel, an
item Adams wrote was essential when travelling in space).

With a click of a lift door on the doodle, one of Adams's most enduring
characters from the Hitchhiker novels, Marvin the paranoid android, is
revealed.

There are many references to the Hitchhiker's Guide. With many clicks, some of
Adams's best fictional inventions, including the Babel Fish, which can be
inserted in your ear to translate any language, are on show.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-
ce...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/11/douglas-adams-celebrated-
google-doodle)

~~~
simonh
I think it's more likely the cup of tea is the one used as a Brownean random
motion generator for the infinite improbability drive.

~~~
Uncompetative
Brownian Motion.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownian_motion>

------
mixmax
Douglas Adams is the only author I've come across who has used recursion in
fiction.

" _in short, all the paraphernalia common to all restaurants where little
expense has been spared to give the impression that no expense has been
spared._ "

The man was a litterary genius.

~~~
gsk
Heinlein has used it. "By His Bootstraps" is quite enjoyable for it's
recursive time paradoxes.

~~~
phreeza
Philip K Dick also did a kind of recursion in The Man in the High Castle,
where in the story there is another story being written, which is basically
the different version of the original story.

------
larholm
I really liked this, except the fact that - for me - it was translated into
Danish.

I have only read Douglas' works in English, and the phrase is "Don't Panic" -
it's not "Undgå Panik", which is a lousy translation that literally means
Avoid Panic.

Sometimes this geolocalization goes too far.

~~~
Sharlin
Um... As far as the Internet can tell me, the Danish translation of HHGG
indeed seems to use "Undgå panik", so Google does it right.

------
aquarin
Interesting is that the "Don't panic" is localized for the viewer. In my case
in Bulgarian.

~~~
fsniper
On google.com.tr "Paniğe Kapılmayın" (in Turkish)

------
sp332
Does anyone know a place to play the Infocom game online? The original is here
<http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html> but it requires java,
and the BBC's illustrated version
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml> doesn't work anymore. Oh
well you can always download an emulator and the original Apple II disk
images!
[http://www.virtualapple.org/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxydisk....](http://www.virtualapple.org/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxydisk.html)

------
ck2
Ohh the depressed robot is in there!

The little screen can also show several things with very clever references -
in fact I have not seen it repeat yet!

BBC series was so much better than the movie.

    
    
        Hey Google - your earth is spinning in the wrong direction!
    
        It's always left-to-right when it's facing north->south.
    
        Several of those little screens are incorrect.
    
        Unless maybe this is Earth2 and they screwed up the rotation or something.

~~~
jgeorge
I had to doublecheck. The only differences in Earth2 were the rarity of three-
leaf clovers, peculiarly low sales of pecan-flavored ice cream, and an extra
Tricia MacMillan.

------
danso
I remember picking up "Salmon in Doubt" at the bookstore and reading the cover
notes which referenced Adams's passing. I thought it was all meant to be a
satire because I hadn't heard that Adams had actually died and he seemed too
young. Even 61 is too young

------
expralitemonk
I met him at a book signing at the Boulder Book Store in the mid 90's. He
walked to the front of the audience, and said "I'm feeling a bit wobbly today.
I was recently in Texas and asked my friend: What do you do for fun in Texas?"

At this point I thought he was going to say, "And we got really drunk." But he
said "So we went shopping for cowboy boots." And he proudly showed us his
boots.

------
Derbasti
Wow, this is probably the best doodle I have ever seen. Or maybe I just love
Douglas Adams so much.

------
codeulike
I highly recommend The Salmon Of Doubt - half of the book is his collected
essays and newspaper columns, and he had lots of fascinating ideas about
technology, science, atheism and art.

------
malloreon
Shouldn't the letters in "Don't Panic" be green?

~~~
etfb
Only large and friendly, according to The Book.

------
alffranco
Hey.. On the towel sequence, the boot is moving the wrong way relative to the
wind in the sail(towel).

------
JackpotDen
Today's not towel day. They done goofed.

------
WayneDB
I can't stand the way that Google just gloms their brand onto every item of
geek/popular culture.

