LOL! Code easter egg! I love it!!

[galewind]

This has probably been mentioned before, but I haven't really read the forums recently, so hopefully someone else will get a kick out of it, too. I'm going through the default code, in the user_routines.h file, and I'm looking at the macro definitions, and I find this:

#define THE_ANSWER 42

I did a double-take.... Man, I love this stuff.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by galewind

This has probably been mentioned before, but I haven't really read the forums recently, so hopefully someone else will get a kick out of it, too. I'm going through the default code, in the user_routines.h file, and I'm looking at the macro definitions, and I find this:

#define THE_ANSWER 42

I did a double-take.... Man, I love this stuff.

Yea. We noticed that too.
Maybe the game is to figure out the question?

[seanwitte]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Yea. We noticed that too.
Maybe the game is to figure out the question?

#define THE_QUESTION  "What is the meaning of life?"

(its from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

[swando]

Originally Posted by seanwitte

#define THE_QUESTION  "What is the meaning of life?"

(its from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

exactly. the meaning of life is 42. earth was a program to interpret that answer but unfortunately it was destroed several minutes before it was able to.

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by swando

exactly. the meaning of life is 42. earth was a program to interpret that answer but unfortunately it was destroed several minutes before it was able to.

Actually, 42 is the answer of life, the universe, and everything. Forgot a bit, Swando.

If anyone wants proof, go to Google and search for this phrase:
what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything
See what turns up...

For more information: Wikipedia link to "The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything."

[edit]Changed "meaning" to "answer" for sake of accuracy...and I should add that my link contains spoilers for the "Hitchhiker" books.[/edit]

[swando]

Originally Posted by IMDWalrus

Forgot a bit, Swando.

well excuuuuse me mr. webbydoodle. some of us have better things to do than recursively read those books. im... not one of them, but thats not something i do anyway.

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by seanwitte

#define THE_QUESTION  "What is the meaning of life?"

(its from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Not quite correct. Deep Thought was asked "what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything", and Deep Thought's answer was "42",then Deep Thought defined the specs for a more powerful computer (Earth) needed to get the real question.

Hence, maybe the 2004 FIRST game is really the culmination to Earth's calculation of the final question.

[Winged Globe]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

Hence, maybe the 2004 FIRST game is really the culmination to Earth's calculation of the final question.

That's too easy. End of Chapter 33, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, clearly states the question as "What do you get if you multiply six by nine?"

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by swando

well excuuuuse me mr. webbydoodle. some of us have better things to do than recursively read those books. im... not one of them, but thats not something i do anyway.

That's good; neither am I. I actually read the series for the first time about a month ago - that's why it's still fresh in my mind. I'm still not sure why it took me seventeen years to get to those books, but that's besides the point.

Advice to anyone reading this: if you haven't read the "Hitchhiker" books, you should. It's easily one of the best science fiction series of all time, and almost definitely the best British sci-fi I've ever read.

[KenWittlief]

I thought the question was "how many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?"

ANS: 42!

or "which apartment is Fox Mulders?"

ANS: 42!

[kevin.li.rit]

Hmm, I see, now who put that in there?

[Jake177]

if my memory serves me, nobody can ever know both the question and the answer. as soon as someone figures out both the universe will dissapear and be replaced with something more complicated. "what what do you get when you multiply six by nine?" is the question that the aliens who desiged deep though made up after earth was destroyed. they also considered "how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?"

[Caleb Fulton]

Here are some more, from Uncle John's Great Big Bathroom Reader...

Elvis died at the age of 42.

The angle at which light reflects off water to create a rainbow is 42 degrees.

Jerusalem covers a 42 square mile area.

The Torah is broken into columns, each of which always has 42 lines.

There are 42 decks on the Enterprise.

A Wonderbra has 42 individual parts.

There are 42 Oreo cookies in a 1 pound package.

The "time, times, and half a time" in Revelation corresponds to 42 months!!

In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet sleeps for 42 hours.

The right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42 feet long.

Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia were born in 1942.

The number of dots on a pair of dice: 42.

Dogs have a total of 42 teeth in their lifetime (assuming they don't do something stupid like run around in the street).

Kangaroos can jump 42 feet.

The natural vibration frequency of white mouse DNA and human DNA is 42.

There were 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ.

[Aignam]

Don't go giving away any spoilers to anyone about the books. People should read them for themselves, especially books this good, in my opinion.

[Argoth]

Originally Posted by Jake177

if my memory serves me, nobody can ever know both the question and the answer. as soon as someone figures out both the universe will dissapear and be replaced with something more complicated. "what what do you get when you multiply six by nine?" is the question that the aliens who desiged deep though made up after earth was destroyed. they also considered "how many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?"

Yes, but don't you rember that is what happened to Fenchurch...

"And suddenly, there it was in my mind, this message from somewhere. And it was so simple. It made such sense of everything ..."

If you rember the mice wanted Authur's brain because they said that the Answer was in every human's brain... Soooooo.... What if a second before the World got zapped, Fenchurch discovered the question and made the Universe become that so much stranger place. Because it was at that point that the books took a turn and everything became much more chaotic, what with the Guide selling products to millions of dimensions. Also, rules just started appearing out of the blue, such as passangers from the plural Z sectors should not go into hyperspace, even though Trillian and Authur had been doing it for years without any bad side effects.


On a side note there was supposed to be another book in the series, but sadly Douglas Adams passed away before he finished it. Although, what he completed it available in a book called The Salmon of Doubt . If you would also like more information on Douglas Adams visit his website at www.h2g2.com (The people at h2g2 are acually compiling a Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy complete with recipe to make the perfect martini).