With the lack of a correct horizon reference, your Vestibular Ocular Response will be totally fouled up. I.E. these things will give you the worst case of motion sickness you can imagine! This limits the use of the units as a Hi8 Walkman eyephone.
Just shipped a data logger out for 16 days of logging without a keyboard or monitor, the best solution I found was a Matrix Orbital LCD display which mounts as a panel on a 5 1/4" drive bay along with the LCDProc Daemon see: http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/ A kit form of a VT-52 compatible 5 1/4" drive bay LCD display with 4 keys using a PIC16F84 is available at: http://www.nukem.freeserve.co.uk/picstuff/vt52.h tml As for the keyboard I used a Vetra keyboard eliminator available at: http://www.vetra.com/ they also have keyboard encoders. As for shut down and hard reset I simply used the mgeups Daemon available from freshmeat, to shutdown simply yank the UPS cord from the wall, just about idiot proof.
I was a little astounded on your take on the Star Trek/Star Wars dichotomy. Like other people responding to your article I'd always found that the Star Trek fans were the more technically inclined and intelligent, but having thought about it, I think I've put my finger on the dichotomy between Star Trek (and B5) fans, and Star Wars fans:
Star Trek (particularly the series under the control of Rodenberry), Babylon 5 and for that matter the E.E. 'Doc' Smith 'Lensman' novels, are Science Fiction Procedurals (by analogy with Police Procedurals). The universe in which each series inhabits is reasonably well thought out, self consistent, and extrapolated from present day conditions. Secondly, the plot of each episode is well defined, the tension exists in achieving the resolution within the constraints provided. The closest analogy within the Police Procedurals are 'Law and Order', 'Columbo' and 'Dragnet'. Just as we know that Columbo is not going to brandish an assault weapon, mow down hordes of henchmen, and then beat a confession out of the murderer, Starfleet officers, B5 crew members, and Lensmen are constrained to certain abilities and actions. Rodenberry states in 'The Making of Star Trek' that he would recast scripts to navy operations in Vietnam to see if the actions were consistent. The universe and continuity of the series is the primary draw. As with most true science fiction character must be trumped by exposition. This often plays to Shatneresque delivery, of course it also generated the unique and venerated character of Spock as well.
As for the claim that Starfleet is one big utopian Rainbow coalition, Damn right! Science fiction procedurals presume the infinite perfectibility of mankind. The shows simply assume that the economies of plenty have outrun the economics of scarcity, and assume that we have achieved a few centuries of social advancement. Just think how utopian and multicultural our world would look to the inhabitants of Salem during the which trials. Secondly, science fiction is always more culturally advanced than the mainstream. Trek featured the first interracial kiss on network television. Contrast this with Star Wars, with its nearly lilly white cast with one token black... (for the remainder of this rant, rent a copy of 'Chasing Amy').
The nature of the Science Fiction Procedural leads to three forms of appreciation, duplication, fandom, and fanaticism.
With regard to duplication, many features of the original Star Trek which were unbelievable when the show first aired are now so commonplace that we forget how prescient they were at the time. Flip phone communicators, intensive care units with continuous vital sign displays, giant flat screen displays and seamless ship wide computer networks are just some examples of developments which were strongly influenced by present day designers influenced by Star Trek. Star Trek has also strongly influenced the language with such catch phrases as "warp drive" and "beam me up". Of course one of the most venerable computer games is TREK as well.
With regard to fandom, I really haven't encountered a Generation X technical type which hasn't seen the bulk of the original series as well as much as the more recent programs. Usually Trek serves as a 'gateway drug' making the fan conversant with the basic elements of science fiction allowing him to move on to the hard stuff (i.e. golden age science fiction). I always bristle at the contention that Generation X has a fixation on 'The Brady Bunch', I and the bulk of my compatriots abhorred that show and use Trek as a common point of reference. Such matter of fact fandom is so common in technical circles that it is an implicit assumption, as unnoticeable as the presence of air. Of course, these aren't the folks showing up at every Trek convention, they have a life.
Star Trek has a considerable number of fanatics as well, folks who run about in Starfleet uniforms, speak Klingon, and read the Star Trek novels (ecch!). These seem to be the sort of people who you regard as Star Trek fans. The primary draw is once again a consistent and well documented universe. Unfortunately these fans have gotten the upper hand in recent years. This seems to correlate with the passing of Roddenbery and the increasing corporatization of the franchise. The most egregious manifestation of this is the often total ignorance of science and technology by the present writers, with the use of the notation 'tech tech tech' to call for the insertion of a certain volume of incomprehensible technobabble. The insertion of comic relief and small odious children are another bad sign (Neelix is the Jar Jar Binks of Trek). This has often degraded the franchise to its present precarious standing.
Star Wars is mythic science fantasy, a lot of visually arresting scenes, with virtually no relation to scientific or technological fact. Lasers come out to here and clank when you hit them together, starfighters make maneuvers which only make sense in the presence of an atmosphere etc... The storytelling is good, but since anything can happen the need for exposition is greatly reduced. The movies are 'tech tech tech' from the get go. A thousand BEMs crowd the screen but precious little is known about any given species, unlike the anthropological detail provided in Trek and B5. Finally, the total primary product consists of 12 hours or so movie footage. On the other hand Trek's primary product is roughly 800 or so hours of television and movies, allowing for a very comprehensive exploration of a reasonably consistent universe.
Fandom with regard to Star Wars is similar to being a fan of a good comic book with a short run, or gone with the wind (not that there's anything wrong with that). A book titled 'The Physics of Star Wars' is rather unlikely, and few of the technological components of the movies have any desirability in the real world. Few people really need a light saber in the real world, on the other hand everybody body wants a comm badge and a tricorder (and I suspect we'll have both within 5 years, worst case).
So in closing I would propose that Star Trek and Star Wars are separate genres, and that fandom in Trek is much broader but more subtle.
The first computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX81. With regard to Uncle Clive's designs: It is said that Woz used precisely the minimum number of chips necessary for a design and that Uncle Clive used less than that. Although I suspect that the actual execution will be ticky-tacky, the design will have major impact particularly as a bridge to ubiquitous computing. Remember all those Timex Sinclairs were bought up by DOE labs and were used as microcontrollers in experiments!
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of another 2001 we'll get another ET.
Sic transit gloria mundi!
With the lack of a correct horizon reference, your Vestibular Ocular Response will be totally fouled up. I.E. these things will give you the worst case of motion sickness you can imagine! This limits the use of the units as a Hi8 Walkman eyephone.
They do, see www.mimi.com
Just shipped a data logger out for 16 days of logging without a keyboard or monitor, the best solution I found was a Matrix Orbital LCD display which mounts as a panel on a 5 1/4" drive bay along with the LCDProc Daemon see:h tml
http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/
A kit form of a VT-52 compatible 5 1/4" drive bay LCD display with 4 keys using a PIC16F84 is available at:
http://www.nukem.freeserve.co.uk/picstuff/vt52.
As for the keyboard I used a Vetra keyboard eliminator available at:
http://www.vetra.com/
they also have keyboard encoders.
As for shut down and hard reset I simply used the mgeups Daemon available from freshmeat, to shutdown simply yank the UPS cord from the wall, just about idiot proof.
As I noted in my previous missive, what's wrong with the United Federation
of Planets being a Rainbow Coalition?
As Slate notes today in Is Star Wars Racist? Star Wars has a lot to answer to in this department.
I was a little astounded on your take on the Star Trek/Star Wars dichotomy. Like other people responding to your article I'd always found that the Star Trek fans were the more technically inclined and intelligent, but having thought about it, I think I've put my finger on the dichotomy between Star Trek (and B5) fans, and Star Wars fans:
Star Trek (particularly the series under the control of Rodenberry), Babylon 5 and for that matter the E.E. 'Doc' Smith 'Lensman' novels, are Science Fiction Procedurals (by analogy with Police Procedurals). The universe in which each series inhabits is reasonably well thought out, self consistent, and extrapolated from present day conditions. Secondly, the plot of each episode is well defined, the tension exists in achieving the resolution within the constraints provided. The closest analogy within the Police Procedurals are 'Law and Order', 'Columbo' and 'Dragnet'. Just as we know that Columbo is not going to brandish an assault weapon, mow down hordes of henchmen, and then beat a confession out of the murderer, Starfleet officers, B5 crew members, and Lensmen are constrained to certain abilities and actions. Rodenberry states in 'The Making of Star Trek' that he would recast scripts to navy operations in Vietnam to see if the actions were consistent. The universe and continuity of the series is the primary draw. As with most true science fiction character must be trumped by exposition. This often plays to Shatneresque delivery, of course it also generated the unique and venerated character of Spock as well.
As for the claim that Starfleet is one big utopian Rainbow coalition, Damn right! Science fiction procedurals presume the infinite perfectibility of mankind. The shows simply assume that the economies of plenty have outrun the economics of scarcity, and assume that we have achieved a few centuries of social advancement. Just think how utopian and multicultural our world would look to the inhabitants of Salem during the which trials. Secondly, science fiction is always more culturally advanced than the mainstream. Trek featured the first interracial kiss on network television. Contrast this with Star Wars, with its nearly lilly white cast with one token black... (for the remainder of this rant, rent a copy of 'Chasing Amy').
The nature of the Science Fiction Procedural leads to three forms of appreciation, duplication, fandom, and fanaticism.
With regard to duplication, many features of the original Star Trek which were unbelievable when the show first aired are now so commonplace that we forget how prescient they were at the time. Flip phone communicators, intensive care units with continuous vital sign displays, giant flat screen displays and seamless ship wide computer networks are just some examples of developments which were strongly influenced by present day designers influenced by Star Trek. Star Trek has also strongly influenced the language with such catch phrases as "warp drive" and "beam me up". Of course one of the most venerable computer games is TREK as well.
With regard to fandom, I really haven't encountered a Generation X technical type which hasn't seen the bulk of the original series as well as much as the more recent programs. Usually Trek serves as a 'gateway drug' making the fan conversant with the basic elements of science fiction allowing him to move on to the hard stuff (i.e. golden age science fiction). I always bristle at the contention that Generation X has a fixation on 'The Brady Bunch', I and the bulk of my compatriots abhorred that show and use Trek as a common point of reference. Such matter of fact fandom is so common in technical circles that it is an implicit assumption, as unnoticeable as the presence of air. Of course, these aren't the folks showing up at every Trek convention, they have a life.
Star Trek has a considerable number of fanatics as well, folks who run about in Starfleet uniforms, speak Klingon, and read the Star Trek novels (ecch!). These seem to be the sort of people who you regard as Star Trek fans. The primary draw is once again a consistent and well documented universe. Unfortunately these fans have gotten the upper hand in recent years. This seems to correlate with the passing of Roddenbery and the increasing corporatization of the franchise. The most egregious manifestation of this is the often total ignorance of science and technology by the present writers, with the use of the notation 'tech tech tech' to call for the insertion of a certain volume of incomprehensible technobabble. The insertion of comic relief and small odious children are another bad sign (Neelix is the Jar Jar Binks of Trek). This has often degraded the franchise to its present precarious standing.
Star Wars is mythic science fantasy, a lot of visually arresting scenes, with virtually no relation to scientific or technological fact. Lasers come out to here and clank when you hit them together, starfighters make maneuvers which only make sense in the presence of an atmosphere etc... The storytelling is good, but since anything can happen the need for exposition is greatly reduced. The movies are 'tech tech tech' from the get go. A thousand BEMs crowd the screen but precious little is known about any given species, unlike the anthropological detail provided in Trek and B5. Finally, the total primary product consists of 12 hours or so movie footage. On the other hand Trek's primary product is roughly 800 or so hours of television and movies, allowing for a very comprehensive exploration of a reasonably consistent universe.
Fandom with regard to Star Wars is similar to being a fan of a good comic book with a short run, or gone with the wind (not that there's anything wrong with that). A book titled 'The Physics of Star Wars' is rather unlikely, and few of the technological components of the movies have any desirability in the real world. Few people really need a light saber in the real world, on the other hand everybody body wants a comm badge and a tricorder (and I suspect we'll have both within 5 years, worst case).
So in closing I would propose that Star Trek and Star Wars are separate genres, and that fandom in Trek is much broader but more subtle.
The first computer I owned was a Sinclair ZX81.
With regard to Uncle Clive's designs: It is said that Woz used precisely the minimum number of chips necessary for a design and that Uncle Clive used less than that.
Although I suspect that the actual execution will be ticky-tacky, the design will have major impact particularly as a bridge to ubiquitous computing.
Remember all those Timex Sinclairs were bought up by DOE labs and were used as microcontrollers in experiments!