A list of invaluably useless knowledge relating not directly to Douglas Adams, but to the 'whole new world' that they call the alt.fan.douglas-adams newsgroup. Hopefully this will explain away some, but not all, of the in-jokes and mysterious little quirks.
Information about Douglas Adams' personal involvement (or lack of) with the newsgroup can be found at B.3.4. Does Douglas Adams read the alt.fan.douglas-adams newsgroup?
'DNA' stands for Douglas Noel Adams. 'Bop Ad' is another name for Douglas Adams, and is based around the way he signs his name (see B.1.2. Why is he sometimes called Bop Ad?).
'TDV' stands for The Digital Village, the company that Douglas Adams is currently an integral part of. Their web site is at http://www.tdv.com.
AFAIK- As Far As I Know IIRC- If I Remember Correctly IMHO- In My Humble Opinion OTOH- On The Other Hand
And while you're here why not suffer a needless plug for the Great Abbreviations Hunt at http://www.atomiser.demon.co.uk/abbrev/?
This isn't actually quite true, but it's definitively inaccurate.
Actually it's an attempt by some people to infuse the word 'froup' (a shortening of 'froody group') into 'everyday' use. Tim Allen lays claim to having started it, stating that's common "on the older newsgroups, populated with people of the Hacker Nature and other assorted Old Geeks, to call a newsgroup a newsfroup. It began as a simple typo, and has become standard usage." Froup even has an entry in the Jargon File.
'Belgium' may be universally accepted as a bad word, but here's a selection of other words and phrases which, should you attempt to use them within the forum of alt.fan.douglas-adams or to any of its members, will result in you being immediately slaughtered, murdered, killed and made dead.
This list was only recently given birth to and there are plenty of other words and phrases not listed here that will result in serious injury when applied.
1. Don't panic (English) 2. Ne paniquez [or] Ne paniquez pas [or] Pas de panique [or yet another way is] Paniques pas (French) 3. Niente panico [or] Non lasciarsi prendere dal panico (Italian) 4. Nao se apavore (Portugese) 5. No asustase [or] No se atierre (Spanish) 6. Tippanikjax (Maltese) 7. Psyhraimia (Greek) 8. Ná bíodh scaoll ort (Irish Gaelic) 9. Ny gow aggle (Manx Gaelic) 10. Ta det rolig (Norwegian) 11. Ta det lugnt [or] Ingen panik (Swedish) 12. Undgå panik [or] Slap af [or] Tag det roligt (Danish) 13. Geen paniek [or] Raak niet in paniek (Dutch - Netherlands) 14. Niet panikeren (Dutch - Flemish) 15. Moenie paniek nie (Afrikaans) 16. Keine panik (German) 17. Slappadu af (Icelandic) 18. Älä hätäile (Finnish) 19. Ne panikui [or panikuy] (Russian) 20. Tea paanikasse sattuv (Estonian) 21. Nincs gáz (Hungarian) 22. Nedelat panika [or] Nedelat zdeseni (Czech) 23. Nie panikuj [or] Nie panika (Polish) 24. Al tilahetz [when addressing a male, or] Al tilahtzi [when addressing a female, or] Bli panika [if you're an American and don't mind sounding like one] (Hebrew) 25. Natarse (Farsi) 26. Ghabarao mat (Hindi/Urdu) 27. Ghabari beda (Kannada) 28. Awate nasanna [or] Awatenaideh [or] Shinpai suruna [or] Panikku wo okosuna (Japanese) 29. Uoki maka'u kuhewa (Hawaiian) 30. Tenang saja [or] Menenangkan [or] Tidak kelabakan (Indonesian) 31. Noli pavere [or] Nolite pavere (Latin) 32. Ne paniku (Esperanto) 33. Non affolla vos (Interlingua) 34. Ontday anicpay (Pig Latin) 35. Dubon't Pubanubic (Pig Greek) 36. yIlImQo' (Klingon)
There is even a small Windows applet (written by Oliver White) to display these phrases, to be found at http://www.iinet.net.au/~ojw/DontPanic.html.
Please note the slightly changed URL to before.
There is also an ICQ list, recently started, for all Douglas Adams fans. It can be found at:
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