GNU Terry Pratchett?

[doubleshuffle]

Any chance of embedding the GNU Terry Pratchett code into MR?

More here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/sho...idden-web-code

I think it's a great idea and would a fitting memorial for Sir Terry here on MR as well..

[Glorfindel]

Who is he?

[doubleshuffle]

You're kidding, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett

[Glorfindel]

Very interesting. First I'd heard of him.

[tubemonkey]

I didn't know who he was either, until I looked him up on Wikipedia after seeing the thread about his death. If you don't read the genre, you generally won't know who the authors are.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

If you don't read the genre, you generally won't know who the authors are.

Yes, that's very true.

But Terry Pratchett's fame goes beyond his writing. He was celebrated for his charity work, especially in promoting funding for research into Alzheimers. That's what made his name a houseworld word, as well as his books.

Mike

[Glorfindel]

...after he was diagnosed with it... (per wikipedia)

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Mike L

But Terry Pratchett's fame goes beyond his writing. He was celebrated for his charity work, especially in promoting funding for research into Alzheimers. That's what made his name a houseworld word, as well as his books.

He was also British and I don't follow the news over there. Additionally, anytime something medical pops up in the news, I either turn it off or turn the page. Little wonder I didn't know who he was.

[murg]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Any chance of embedding the GNU Terry Pratchett code into MR?

More here:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/sho...idden-web-code

I think it's a great idea and would a fitting memorial for Sir Terry here on MR as well..

Why??

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by murg

Why??

Well, this is is a readers' forum, and Terry Pratchett was one of the truly great authors of recent times. He has quite a few fans on MR as well, though they haven't showed up in this thread yet.

Why the concept is beautiful and perfectly fitting to honour Sir Terry is explained very well in the Guardian article:

Pratchett’s 33rd Discworld novel, Going Postal, tells of the creation of an internet-like system of communication towers called “the clacks”. When John Dearheart, the son of its inventor, is murdered, a piece of code is written called “GNU John Dearheart” to echo his name up and down the lines. “G” means that the message must be passed on, “N” means “not logged”, and “U” means the message should be turned around at the end of a line. (This was also a realworld tech joke: GNU is a free operating system, and its name stands, with recursive geek humour, for “GNU’s not Unix”.) The code causes Dearheart’s name to be repeated indefinitely throughout the system, because: “A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.”

What better way to remember the beloved inventor of this fictional system, then, than “GNU Terry Pratchett”? Reddit users have designed a code that anyone with basic webcoding knowledge can embed into their own websites (anyone without basic webcoding knowledge can use the plugins for Wordpress and other platforms). The code is called the XClacksOverhead, and it sets a header reading “GNU Terry Pratchett”. “If you had to be dead,” thinks a character in Going Postal, “it seemed a lot better to spend your time flying between the towers than lying underground.” And so Pratchett is, in a way.

[eschwartz]

I too think this is an excellent idea.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by murg

Why??

From Going Postal

‘There it goes again,’ she said. ‘It must be wrong. It’s got no origin code and no address. It’s Overhead, but it’s in Plain.’
On the other side of the tower, sitting in a seat facing the opposite direction because he was operating the up-line, was Roger, who was seventeen and already working for his tower-master certificate.
His hand didn’t stop moving as he said: ‘What did it say?’
‘There was GNU, and I know that’s a code, and then just a name. It was John Dearheart. Was it a—’
‘You sent it on?’ said Grandad. Grandad had been hunched in the corner, repairing a shutter box in this cramped shed halfway up the tower. Grandad was the tower-master and had been everywhere and knew everything. Everyone called him Grandad. He was twenty-six. He was always doing something in the tower when she was working the line, even though there was always a boy in the other chair. She didn’t work out why until later.
‘Yes, because it was a G code,’ said Princess.
‘Then you did right. Don’t worry about it.’
‘Yes, but I’ve sent that name before. Several times. Upline and downline. Just a name, no message or anything!’
She had a sense that something was wrong, but she went on: ‘I know a U at the end means it has to be turned round at the end of the line, and an N means Not Logged.’ This was showing off, but she’d spent hours reading the cypher book. ‘So it’s just a name, going up and down all the time! Where’s the sense in that?’
Something was really wrong. Roger was still working his line, but he was staring ahead with a thunderous expression.
Then Grandad said: ‘Very clever, Princess. You’re dead right.’
‘Hah!’ said Roger.
‘I’m sorry if I did something wrong,’ said the girl meekly. ‘I just thought it was strange. Who’s John Dearheart?’
‘He… fell off a tower,’ said Grandad.
‘Hah!’ said Roger, working his shutters as if he suddenly hated them.
‘He’s dead?’ said Princess.
‘Well, some people say—’ Roger began.
‘Roger!’ snapped Grandad. It sounded like a warning.
‘I know about Sending Home,’ said Princess. ‘And I know the souls of dead linesmen stay on the Trunk.’
‘Who told you that?’ said Grandad.
Princess was bright enough to know that someone would get into trouble if she was too specific.
‘Oh, I just heard it,’ she said airily. ‘Somewhere.’
‘Someone was trying to scare you,’ said Grandad, looking at Roger’s reddening ears.
It hadn’t sounded scary to Princess. If you had to be dead, it seemed a lot better to spend your time flying between the towers than lying underground. But she was bright enough, too, to know when to drop a subject.
It was Grandad who spoke next, after a long pause broken only by the squeaking of the new shutter bars. When he did speak, it was as if
something was on his mind. ‘We keep that name moving in the Overhead,’ he said, and it seemed to Princess that the wind in the shutter arrays above her blew more forlornly, and the everlasting clicking of the shutters grew more urgent. ‘He’d never have wanted to go home. He was a real linesman. His name is in the code, in the wind in the rigging and the shutters. Haven’t you ever heard the saying “A man’s not dead while his name is still spoken”?’

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I too think this is an excellent idea.

And so do I.

I also suggest that those who have not read his books do so. They have a treat ahead of them.

[thewitt]

I did it on my website... I think it would be a great tribute here as well.

Sir Terry Pratchett was an icon and his loss will be felt by millions.

[Mike L]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

He was also British and I don't follow the news over there.

Nationality has nothing to do with it. His fame went far beyond his own country - as is the case with many celebrities these days.

Mike