the trash can

The rivalry continues! 🏒⛸️

Terry was once asked why he worked across six monitors; ‘Because I don’t have room for eight’ was his cheeky response, although I suspect that if he had really wanted more screens he would have insisted that I found the space.  These days, a multi-screen setup isn’t unusual for the professional author, but when I first joined him, Terry, like most people back then, was still using clunky CRT monitors, which couldn’t possibly have been stacked up in multiples.  The lure of being able to spread Windows across two screens prompted him to invest in flat LCD panels–cutting edge at the time.  Soon though, two screens just weren’t enough, so we looked for ways to expand further.

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You might wonder what an author–who was surely only ever working on one thing at a time–could possibly need with six screens.  It’s true that the text of Terry’s latest novel was always front and center, but it was never the only document open.  There was fan mail–lots and lots of fan mail–and letters to The Times, written under the guise of ‘Sir Terence,’ should the need for a social conscience arise.  There were letters to the bank, letters to the lawyers, letters to his publisher and agents–and there was Doom.  Most gamers had long-since moved on from this 1993 classic as computer capabilities increased, but Terry remained faithful to what is now considered to be one of the most significant and influential titles in gaming history.  It had its own screen and he loved it, calling it ‘bubblegum for the brain.’