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[quote="DipLCM"]Gordon, a police officer, a geek and the porter's parts are all still uncast (Gordon is not a small part, however, far from it.)
Audition pieces for anybody:
GORDON and CHECKOUT GEEK
Gordon gets out of car.
Gordon (walking towards the kiosk): Bloody self-service petrol stations. I’m Gordon Way, dammit, not the obedient slave of the government.
Geek (Guy een Kiosk…): Sir, You’re next.
Gordon: I’m with that large, silver-grey Mercedes. Full tank. How much is it, stout yeoman, you Lord Byron of the till?
Geek says a price that is quite reasonable in the UK nowadays.
Gordon: There you go, keep the change.
Geek: What, from a fiver, sir?
Gordon: I said keep the change, sonny. Oh and I need a couple of local maps as well.
Geek: That will be 2 pounds, sir.
Gordon: Now you know what to spend the change on.
Geek: I mean *plus* 2 pounds, sir.
(Pause.)
Gordon: There you go, you insolent acne-collection. Keep the change.
Geek: Erm, thank you sir.
Gordon: You seem to be a rather polite young man… Are you interested in computers?
Geek: Yes.
Gordon: So I’ve guessed. I have got to tell you something: parallel processing is going to
be the key to really intuitive productivity software, but also strongly
doubting whether artificial intelligence research per se,
particularly artificial intelligence research based on the ProLog
language, is really going to produce any serious commercially viable
products in the foreseeable future, at least as far as the office desk
top environment is concerned. I suspect this fascinates you then…
GORDON
Gordon: Where was I? Oh yes. Richard and /Anthem/ 2.00. Susan, that thing has got to be
in beta testing in two weeks. He tells me it’s fine. But every time I
see him he’s got a picture of a sofa spinning on his computer screen.
He says it’s an important concept, but all I see is furniture. People
who want their company accounts to sing to them do not want to buy a
revolving sofa. Nor do I think he should be turning the erosion
patterns of the Himalayas into a flute quintet at this time.
And as for what Kate’s up to, Susan, well, I can’t hide the fact
that I get anxious at the salaries and computer time it’s eating up.
Important long-term research and development it might be, but there is
also the possibility, only a possibility, I’m saying, but nevertheless
a possibility which I think we owe it to ourselves fully to evaluate
and explore, which is that it’s a lemon. That’s odd, there’s a noise
coming from the boot, I thought I’d just closed it properly.
Anyway, the main thing’s Richard. And the point is that there’s
only one person who’s really in a position to know if he’s getting the
important work done, or if he’s just dreaming, and that one person is,
I’m afraid, Susan. And that’s you, not the secretary at the office.
So can you, I don’t like to ask you this, I really don’t, can you
really get on his case? Make him see how important it is? Just make
sure he realises that WayForward Technologies is meant to be an
expanding commercial business, not an adventure playground for crunch-
heads. That’s the problem with crunch-heads -- they have one great idea
that actually works and then they expect you to carry on funding them
for years while they sit and calculate the topographies of their
navels. I’m sorry, I’m going to have to stop and close the boot
properly. Won’t be a moment.
PORTERS
P2: Here’s some coffee for you, Bill. Getting a bit colder tonight.
P1: I think it is. You can say what you like about people, they don’t get any less peculiar. Fellow in here just now asking if there was a horse in the college.
P2: Oh, yes. I had a chap in here earlier. Sort of strange foreign priest. Couldn’t understand a word he said at first. But he seemed happy just to stand by the fire and listen to the news on the radio.
P1: Foreigners, eh?
P2: In the end I told him to shoot off. Standing in front of my fire like that. Suddenly he says is that really what he must do? Shoot off? I said, in my best Bogart voice, “You better believe it, buddy.â€
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