Arthur C. Clarke (or HAL vs. IBM)

Sorry, this is completely off-topic. But it’s important to me, so deal with it…

It’s already been published everywhere else on the net. But there might be a few among my readers lacking the ability to keep up-to-date with world news.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke died, at the age of 90.

Clarke was most famous for his novel "2001: A Space Odyssey", and the movie with the same name, which he made with Stanley Kubrick. He was also known for having irritated IBM, as the name of the computer HAL in the "2001" story was thought to be a wordplay on the name IBM. (Alphabetically H-A-L precedes I-B-M by just one letter.) Clarke has always denied having made fun of IBM. But nobody believed it. And neither do I. And neither does George, my imaginary hamster.

I’m just glad he finished his latest work in time. The book Firstborn (third and last in the Time Odyssey series) was published only half a year ago. Having already read the first two books, I would have been quite upset when his death had happened a year ago.

Arthur, rest in peace!