"In 1983, when I was living in Los Angeles, I had a subscription on The Source (1200 baud!) and became addicted to playing Colossal Cave online I kept on trying to persuade other people to join up so that I could make proper use of email."

That might not seem much, but in internet time 1983 was, well, there were tyrannosauri hanging around the place. And 1200 baud is only just faster than semaphore.

Douglas eventually founded h2g2, an internet based guide to life the universe and everything.

Douglas was partisan about his choice of computer system. In this clip from a news item about the launch of Windows 95 he appeared as the naysayer to Microsoft. Douglas was an Apple user.

You can find out about his vision for the internet in his programme for Radio 4, The Internet: The Last 20th Century Battleground.