Slashdot Mirror
James Doohan Not In A Coma and Likely To Survive
ThreeHamsWillKillHim writes "Apparently, it's rumored that actor James Doohan, from Star Trek fame, is in a coma." The article notes that he's not likely to come out of it. James Doohan is 82 and is known best for his role as Engineer Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek. CD: Update, he's home undergoing rehab for his bout of pneunomia.
He's dead, Jim.
The goatse guy for president. Win one for the gaper!
Isn't there some better way to learn about cool people like this guy before they're likely to die? I thought of this when the author of ping died, too.
Maybe Slashdot could do a montly/(bi)weekly thing on "Lifetime Geek Achievement Awards."
I'm sure that 99.99% of these people use the Web, so it would be really cool to thank these people for all they've done for technology.
Any thoughts?
qslack.com
Is it such a slow news day that the Slashdot editors see fit to post *rumors* on the front page? They even state that it is a rumor. If it's a fact, then fine, post it since many Slashdot members think its important. But there is no need to engage in baseless rumor mongering.
-> Capt Cosmic <-
I truly hope he gets better because losing him would be a loss to all geeks.
He was always one of my favorite actors from the original star trek. He added a unique sense of humor to it - especially the movies. I still remember the scene in the movie (I forget the number of it, it was the one with the whales :P), where he reprogrammed a black-and-white macintosh to support voice activation. :) The various 'cameo' episodes in other ST series where he showed up, were excellent as well - I remember the ST:TNG episode where they found him, that was excellent.
He'll be missed.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
If you're an old phart like me, it's kinofa bummer when actors that you knew and loved growing up start to die. We can remember the "young" versions of these actors and to even think of them being 82 is mind blowing.
Heck, next thing you know companies like DEC and Pan-Am won't exist anymo... Damn, I'm really feeling old now.
P.S. If this is true, and he doesn't pull through, condolences to his family.
Here is some biographical info on the beloved "Scotty" of Star Trek.
The link on the page that this story is on states that (in an update) he is just recovering from pneumonia. Here, look for yourself.
Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
See the update here: http://www.syfyportal.com/article/?id=703
He has been released and is recovering at home; he's not comatose
sudo eat my shorts
They did a pretty good job of hiding this in the series, but if you're looking for it you can catch a glimpse every now and then.
Apparently she can take more of it Cap'n!
He may only be an actor, but he knows the only technical principle you need to know on a starship: if something doesn't work right, reverse the polarity.
At least, that's what he did in the Star Trek TNG episode "Relics." It was only "50 percent brilliant," though.
Pretty fucking cold I'd say.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Yes, this has rumor status. No, it's not out of the question. James is a really fantastic individual and as anyone who has met him as he made his rounds on the con circuit, is always kind and well mannered. He can also tell a mean story or two.. and it's even better when you can get him talking about William Shatner.. Bwahahaha!
He wanted to make sure his daughter and wife are taken care of when he is gone. That's what the money is for, no big mystery there.
Run. I like water. Push My rutabaga.
If that's not a damned role model, I don't know what is. He fought in damned World War 2, and he also inspired a lot of people. If that's not worth recognizing, what is? Actors serve as much a role in society as others, they just have to remember it. They're role models to children and teenagers, and they also help to express ideas and to bring awareness to a generally ignorant public.
using namespace slashdot;
troll::post();
Is it a slow enough news day that you'd oversimplify a situation just so you could get modded up for griping? Never mind that you'd prefer we say 'goodbye' tomorrow than say 'get well' today.
"Derp de derp."
"He's dead, Jim."
"You idiot, I'm not dead. I'm not even in a bloody coma!"
"Oh...sorry..."
"Honest to Pete...and will you please tell Hemos and Commander whatever-his-name-is to change the bloody headline? Thank you!"
Finding God in a Dog
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Maybe this explains why Scotty was left out of the latest Futurama "where no fan has gone before"...
Hilarious episode BTW, especially if watched in the middle of a TOS marathon.
I don't know why people mock Seven of Nine on Voyager, or T'Pol on Enterprise, when one of the main points of TOS was that if Kirk didn't bang some alien chick (who conveniently looked like a 60s fashion model) then Spock did (at least twice, that I can think of.)
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Are we up to over 323,000 users already? Wow.
-- Imagine how much more advanced our technology would be if we had eight fingers per hand.
LaForge: "Yeah, well I told the captain I'd have this analysis done in an hour."
Scott: "How long would it really take?"
LaForge: "An hour!"
Scott: "Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would *really* take, did you?"
LaForge: "Well of course I did."
Scott: "Oh, laddie, you've got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!"
include $sig;
1;
I just got off the phone with Someone Who Knows(tm).
He phoned Jimmy's wife, and asked her how he was, and she laughed out loud. He was in the hospital because of pneumonia, but he is home now.
She put Jimmy on the phone (he told my friend to say hi to me =]) and he said that he's glad to be home from the hospital because he missed his daughter and "the food is much better."
Please let everyone know that rumors of his death are greatly exaggerated.
Here is the first column.
Here is the follow-up that he promised not ot do.
Editors, get your priorities straight. We expect more from you. Stories about someone going to the hospital don't count.
Is this REALLY off-topic? Read the links prior to modding.
Lasers Controlled Games!
This article reminds me of the headline from the Times newspaper (London, not New York) that is said to have won a most boring headline competition: "Small Earthquake in Chile. Not many dead".
I can see tomorrow's Slashdot headlines now:
CmdrTaco not dead.
JohnKatz (sadly) not dead.
Dick Cheney: is he dead yet?
etc.
Sailing over the event horizon
...if I could...is for getting him to the nearest Klingon bird of prey and send him on a heliocircumnavigation voyage. His role on Star Trek has captivated a lot of us.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
The "Flight Engineer" series can't be any worse -- and thanks to SM Stirling, I'd say it's a lot better -- than Shatner's "Tek" series. Come on! :-)
-_Quinn
Reality Maintenance Group, Silver City Construction Co., Ltd.
That Mac was supposed to be an Amiga.
I was not directly involved with the debacle, but was closely connected with Commodore personnel who were in a position to know. Paramount originally wanted to use an Amiga in that scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. To that end, they contacted Commodore to obtain an Amiga 1000 for use.
The dweezil at the other end informed them that Commodore had no procedures in place for distribution of promotional machines (marketing? What's that?). However, they would be willing to sell them a machine at cut-rate developer pricing. Surprisingly, Paramount agreed, cut a check, and sent it off.
Fast forward a couple weeks: No machine. Another call to Commodore. It turns out that the amount of the check failed to include some trivial fee (shipping, tax, whatever), and the machine wasn't going to be shipped. Paramount was invited to send another check for the corrected amount.
Paramount understandably got fed up and made it's next call to Cupertino, CA. Apple not only gave Paramount a machine, they assigned them a programmer to do whatever they needed to make the machine dance for the camera.
Just another page in the ponderous tome of Commodore's incompetent management.
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
He kept doing this for a while, meeting her at conventions and asking her to be at the next one...that's a pretty common suicide-prevention tactic, to get a promise from someone that you'll see them sometime in the future. That way they can't kill themselves.
He lost touch with her for a few years, and thought the worst, until he got a letter from her stating that she'd gone to grad school (Engineering, I think), and that his intervention saved her life. When he was telling the story, he was fighting back tears.
So yeah, he had a chance to do the Right Thing, and he did it. Celebrity may be a fickle thing, but he used his influence well.
That's why I admire him.
"Hardly used" will not fetch you a better price for your brain.
First, they tell us TLGAD before the show airs on the west coast, and then they tell us Scotty is comatose and not likely to recover, while the man is still conscious!
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
That would explain why he was talking into a mouse in "Star Trek IV".
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
Ahh, but he did invent the Klingon language (while being drunk). At least that's what he claimed in an interview once - while being drunk too, I guess ;-)
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I really actually haven't had sex since 1989. In fact George Micheal has had sex with a woman more recently than me.
But guess what? My goal is not to have sex. My goal is to live in Shinjuku.
graspee
When they reversed the polarity, did they reverse the diodes too?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Hereis their website. They're flying around a bunch of old Boeing 727s. Not nearly what they were many years ago, but they're still clinging on for dear life. ;)
"Just" Wil? Say rather, are any of the others as cool as Wil. Sounds more diplomatic...
I'd be inclined to guess that most actors, even sci-fi-happy actors, aren't too much more interested in news-for-nerds than the average American (not even all self-proclaimed geeks read slashdot, after all). On the other hand, you never know who might be lurking. But on the gripping hand, people who lurk are people who don't want to attract attention (sort of by definition).
"The Crystal Wind is the Storm, and the Storm is Data, and the Data is Life"
I just heard the sad news on IRC. Poster Anonymous Coward from Slashdot fame was found dead in his home this morning under a pile of BSD CDs and Stephen King books. I am sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his role as the vector for half-witted trolls and idiotic Beowulf and First Post posts, there's no denying his contribution to the communal bowl of hot grits. Truly a (naked and petrified) /. icon.
/Brian
Better setup that transporter so we can beam in into it, and preserve his life until LaForge finds him later.
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
He's (not) dead, Jim.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Maybe you mean that other site, K5. I have looked for it on /. and I can't find it either. Search shows nothing recent. This is strange since he could put up a column on how he was going to make his own ultra-wide band who knows what with his very own supercomputer and it would show up here as news. I never did mind, since I would rather discuss what he says than Katz, but you would think of anything that he ever wrote, this is the most worthy of a /.ing.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Wouldn't it be cool if scads of folks slashdotted him with get well notes (in the US mail)? The dude is not feeling too well, and is practically the patron saint of geeks. I don't know his address, but I assume that some /.er knows how to find it, and could follow up here.
I know how you feel, #33356. I was slow to sign up when they started logins, yet got a pretty low number. I was impressed when the numbers raced through 5 digits.
-Paul Komarek, #794.
"The energizer's bypassed like a Christmas tree. She cannot take too many bumps."
"Aye, lad. You're going to need something to wash that down with."
"That ties it. That poppinjay Fox just beamed down with the landing party."
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
It also said he fathered a child at 80, with his current 40-something wife.
I can just hear the moment of conception now... : "I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain!"
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
Nope. Ewhac (Hi, Leo!) is a well-known Amiga pioneer, and he knows what he's talking about. I'm the former editor of .info magazine, which covered the Amiga, and we reported this story at the time. It was, unfortunately, representative of Commodore's "Let's Shoot Ourselves in the Foot Again" marketing philosophy of the time.
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
There is actually a real person behind the pseudonym Robert X. Cringely -- he left InfoWorld around 1993, and after a bunch of lawsuits, won the right to continue writing using the name. Oddly enough, InfoWorld, also won the right to keep using it -- their Cringely column is a staff-written collaboration.
My thoughts go out to the "real" Bob Cringely on the death of his son.