For the Hitchhikers

I was playing with the now-ubiquitous built-in webcam on my laptop computer a few days ago, and I started exploring some options and came up with a couple of favorite-book-based videos that made me laugh hysterically. It was very early in the morning.

To preface - Douglas Adams is by far one of my favorite authors. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is just after Jabberwocky on my ``must be read aloud whenever possible to anyone who will listen'' list that I just made up. So, it being 3am and my having many other better things to spend my time doing, I imagined these two pieces of silliness.

Below are two Guide entries, with myself as a ``friendly''-looking alien avatar relating them to you (the avatar was created from a still photo of myself using the Dell webcam central program that came with the laptop).

I, Dusty, was designed by the Guide's publishers to pleasantly relay the indispensible information contained therein with just the right amount of politely modulated, computer-generated emotion. A feat, by the way, covered in real life in a New Yorker article about voice recognition software. It was like reading a Heinlien story. More on that later...

Kindle, eat your motherboard out.

No, my eyes aren't really that color. NB: These videos are parodies (can you have a parody of a comedy?) and thus to the best of my knowledge are protected under copyright law. No infringement is intended. Buy Douglas Adams' books!