Talking with some colleagues, it seems to us that wikipedia has gone crazy with deletions. Lots on legitimate info is getting turfed. When I first saw wikipedia I marveled in the site and thought “finally…this is the start of the Real Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy”. But the last few years I have come to the conclusion that this site can never be that. I romantisized in my mind that this site would be the source of that computer far off in our star trek like future that you can ask questions like “Computer… What was the individual, known as Raphael Segal, doing on the 15th of October2009″ and the computer responding with “He was writing an article entitled Wikipedia sux”. etc

I think something has to give – Wikipedia is now becoming a block to the contributors that it once was wooing and trying to get involved in the project. Seems to me that another system of archiving information has to be created. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.

Wikipedia need to improve if they are to live up to the ideals it was toted to be created with or they will die -relagated to be  simply a footnote in the history of man when the truly open contributed archive takes over.

This may seem like sour grapes as it was pages mentioning me and my friends that have been deleted but I assure you that is not what disappoints me. The info that was deleted can be posted somewhere on the web and found again with relative ease. My disappointment comes from the fact that wikipedia are impeding what i thought was the goal of the site. To record and archive as much information and detail of our existence. Obviously it seems that I am wrong about the motives and the goals -  this is where I am most disappointed.

It marked a turning point in my awareness of British humour being different from American and Australian humour. Sporting and encompassing intelligent thought and clever cutting wit through to slapstick. I love HHGTTG and always have.

Nothing prepared me for spotyting this though. Douglas Adam’s Typewriter that wrote Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is up for sale at US$ 25675.38. Geez I will I was a rich bastard so I caould own such a beautiful piece of history.

I know most of my friends would want it as well. How did this come to be for sale??? Who would possibly want to get rid of it? I dont understand. To top it all off it is sold with a First Edition of HHGTTG. Actually it is the book being sold with the bonus typewriter but I think they are both equally as cool as each other.

Here is a quote from the site:

2467Description: First Edition Hardback. A mouthwatering copy of this modern classic, the dustwrapper retains all of the notoriously fugitive blue and is wholly unfaded. The front image and lettering are bright and sharp and the book overall is in exceptional condition. Sold together with A UNIQUE ARTEFACT owned by Douglas Adams in the late 1970s, his Hermes Standard 8 typewriter. This is a thrilling object to possess with a fascinating history. It is as certain as can be that Adams wrote his most famous work ‘The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy’ on this Hermes Standard 8. Aside from the supporting provenance, it still contains much evidence of his ownership and regular use. It bears an anti-apartheid sticker on one side of the object and is boldly signed across the front casing by Adams in his unmistakeable hand. It comes housed in its cardboard box which Adams used to transport it, namely packaging from Simon and Schuster, originally containing copies of Adams and Terry Jones’ collaboration ‘Starship Titanic’. An address label to Adams’ office at the Digital Village, London, remains stuck on the box too. The typewriter itself is in attractive condition to display, but is entirely unrestored and as precisely as it was when it was owned by Adams. It is frequently mentioned by all who knew him that writing was often a torment for him and as such his lateness was legendary. He once said ‘I love deadlines. I love the whoosing sound they make as they fly by’, and such was his difficulty in producing work on time that in a well-documented act of desperation his publishers once locked him in a hotel room until he typed enough pages to be let out! The keys of his typewriter all still bear the marks of Adams’ tortured labour. Significantly, the ‘x’ key is particularly discoloured. A unique piece of literary history then and a fabulous talking point, and simply the ultimate possession for a Douglas Adams fan. It is almost superfluous to mention that it is also a very secure investment for the future. A little bit about its subsequent history: Adams signed and donated the typewriter to a wildlife charity auction in 1998, and it was then kept in private hands for several years before being sold on. Adams was passionate about wildlife and in keeping with his memory (and his original intention for this item), a donation will be made to Rhino Recovery with this sale. ABOUT US: It is our philosophy at N V to provide the astute collector with high quality books for pleasure and investment, whilst offering a service that is always friendly and helpful. EVERY listing has a sharp digital image of the EXACT item(s) that you are perusing – with more photographs available on request. The accompanying description is meticulous and we guarantee that all items are authentic. Nevertheless, you are welcome to call us FREE on (0800) 083 0281 with any queries, or on +44 (1608) 674181 from overseas. In the meantime we wish you every success with your collecting. Bookseller Inventory # 000002

Bibliographic Details
ISBN: 0213167387
Publisher: Arthur Barker Books
Publication Date: 1979
Book Condition: Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
Edition: First Edition

 Computer says No! Bugger! The computer didn’t want to boot. In fact it didn’t see its boot partition or even the drives at all.

I tried a few things after covering myself in dust by pushing my overweight body under the desk to remove the sidecover of the box. Alas all looked fine apart from the Northbridge fan being stuck (although this happened a while ago and I decided to ignore it putting my faith in God and the fans that surround the area.

I replaced the leads to the to SATA drives and tried to boot again. The BIOS didnt even see the drives at all. This was concerning as they were there and were spinning up. I thought maybe the entire bus was dead so I shoved the sata cable leading to the boot drive in another socket and it detected the drive.

hmmmm. This is alarming so my detective work proceeded to check the rest of the BIOS settings. That is when I discovered that the bios had been wiped back to defaults. Ahhhh!

So I reset up BIOS as I am no stranger to the almost mystical secrets of amibios and I rebooted the system. It booted. Cool I thought.

My celebrations however were short lived as I decided to run a virus scan (just as i do when things have issues without an action to blame events on. It discovered some and then it wanted to runa  scan after a boot. I said yes ok then and then the machine booted but then proptly died again losing its settings. Bah! I reset the bios settings yet again and then ran the low level virus scan and booted up again.

It seems to be holding together now but I reckon it is on its way out. So I decided to find out what the current market is so I can ready myself to be the proud new owner of current technology and not the unhappy victim of the great old tech swindle.

hmmmmm (again). I consulted my friends Felix and Nick and we have come up with teh following spec:-

ASUS P5KR–Raid,1394            $145
Intel 775pin Q9300                $332
2G Kit-667(2×1G) Kingston x2  $ 98
Asus 512M 9800GTX              $405
Seagate SATA 750g x2          $358
Antec Nine-Hundred              $164
Antec “NeoPower” 550W        $148
                                         —-
                                       $1650
                                      =====

This ofcourse is the beez knees. However after the initial jubilation and many pats on the back from and to all, I realised I dont have the cash for this. So I drew up another spec (lower) to see what can be achieved  on a budget.

I came up with the following: -

ASUS P5KR–Raid,1394            $145
Intel 775pin Q6600                $245
2G Kit-667(2×1G) Kingston x2  $ 98
Asus 512M 8800GT                $242
Seagate SATA 750g x1          $179
Antec Nine-Hundred              $164

                                         —-
                                       $1073
                                      =====

Still not got that so I guess I am going to have to wait and save a bit.

Suffice to say I will endeavour to get the new pc after some saving.

The Reverend

The Reverend hasn’t blogged from up on high for a while. Well well well where to get started? I have looked upon the face of evil and have seen it unclean. I then realised it was a mirror so i cleaned it. I digress…

Many people have asked me when The Seen will come back. I am unsure my brothers and sisters. I will however say that it will rise again one day in the future. The Seen is sorely missed by a lot of fans out there as is The Gaskats. All I know is that when The Seen does reform I will probably incorporate some of the tunes that we wrote in The Gaskats. This is ok because The Gaskats was actually a Seen Project.

My brothers and sister’s many of you have expressed a keen enthusiasm for my building of The Dalek. I thank you all and will let you all know when it will be completed. It will have a birthday party when it is complete and you will all be invited.

Those of you interested in The Reverend’s roots (as in geneology), I have restored many photographs of my family. They are at http://www.segal.com.au go to the historical section.

That’s all for now

The Reverend

Raph