I met Douglas just once, in the summer of 1996. I was in London and I was visiting a friend and former co-worker who, after the startup we'd been in together in Edinburgh collapsed, had moved on to become one of the syadmins at The Digital Village, Douglas's game production house. (At the time they were working on Starship Titanic.) So I dropped round at TDV to say "hi" to my friend C. and a couple of other former acquaintances, and was taken aback when I was ushered into the boardroom, given a cup of tea, introduced to the MD, and then this tall, gawky fellow was wheeled in to shake my hand.

(I was so overawed I couldn't string enough words together to embarrass myself. (So that's okay then.) I only figured out afterwards that they were expanding and looking for new hires, and C. or another acquaintance (the UK internet scene was rather small in the mid-90s) had suggested seeing if I'd bite. As it would have involved moving to London and I'd just bought a flat in Edinburgh and high speed internet meant 56K modem dialup at £3 per hour, the answer was "no, but thanks" ...)

Anyway. Anecdote time:

Back around 1996-8, Apple went through a spot of bother with the Powerbook range -- during the Amelio years, the number of models proliferated and the build quality fell through the floor. In particular, Douglas had been toting around a Powerbook 1600cs or similar, and the blessed thing was exhibiting a tendency to halt and catch fire.

C. got a bit annoyed about this, because Douglas was about to depart on a speaking tour of the US, and C. was responsible for ensuring his laptop worked. And this machine had been sent back for repair about three times, and replaced twice. So he phoned TDV's Apple technical support contact.

"Hello? It's about this Powerbook 1600CS, serial number blah, that we keep sending back. Our CEO needs it fixed, urgently, but every replacement you send us is dead."

"Uh, well, there's a bit of a problem with that model. Send it in and we'll get a working one to you next week, I promise."

"I don't think you understand. Our CEO is about to go on a speaking tour tomorrow."

"Yes, we'll get you a replacement next week --"

"Our CEO is Douglas Adams, one of your company's leading evangelists. Do you want him to spend the next month going up on stage and explaining to everyone why he's carrying a Compaq?"

...

Three hours later a motorcycle courier turned up with six Powerbooks.

Now that's what I call AppleCare!