From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sun Aug 26 2001 - 10:50:50 MDT
1c12d97$dfa61640$e15c2a42@jrmolloy> <5.1.0.14.0.20010825230809.02409c00@pop.mindspring.com>
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Chuck Kuecker wrote:
>
> At 01:22 PM 8/26/01 +1000, you wrote:
> >At 03:45 PM 8/25/01 -0400, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> >
> > >Of course, I've often wondered why numerologists haven't figured out
> > >Adams' joke. 42 is ascii for "DB", or database.
> >
> >Damn! So close, so far, no cigar. But I might as well come clean. Yes, I
> >wrote the `Douglas Adams' novels, leaving this clue hidden in the text.
> >Anyone doubting this can compare the Hitchhiker books with my other comic
> >novel STRIPED HOLES (which didn't sell nearly as well, oddly enough).
> >
> >DB
>
> Last I heard, HEX 42 (0x42 for 'C' types) was ASCII for the letter "B".
> "DB" would be 0x44, 0x42...
>
> Decimal 42 translates to 0x2A, or the '*' (asterisk, or star)
> character...wow...
Depends on what decimal alphabet you are using, of course... but you are
looking at these characters wrong. In numerology, you treat each
character as its own entity, so therefore 42 numerologically becomes H04
and H02, which can represent different characters with different decimal
alphabets. You have EBCDIC to consider, for example... You'd expect such
a huge mainframe as that that discovered the answer is 42 to be built by
Intergalactic Business Machines, who obviously uses EBCDIC...
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