December 19, 2008 at 10:03 am
JoeA (12/19/2008)
Hasn't anyone mentioned the main computer on the original Starship Enterprise?I loved those little disks Spock slipped into slots on various tables / stations.
And the voice 🙂
Speaking of the voice: the voice of the computer, Majel Barrett, died yesterday. She completed a reprise of her role for the new Star Trek movie, coming out this spring/summer, a few weeks ago.
December 19, 2008 at 10:06 am
webrunner (12/19/2008)
jpowers (12/19/2008)
Jason Miller (12/19/2008)
It was Scotty talking into the mouse of Mac while trying to get transparent aluminum in our times. My first thought was, why not regular aluminum?The Holodeck? And people thought the 80s crack wave was bad...
For me it wasn't the computer, but the interface. I've discussed at length the advantages and disadvantages of an interface similar to the one in "Saturn 3". Direct connection between the computer and a human brain.
While it could really speed up a lot of things, I'm not a fan. Too easy to "pass a virus".
There was a story out this week on the web about a Japanese team who have been able to get a computer scan of brain waves to replicate black and white images that a test subject is thinking about.
Holy cow. Do you have a link for that?
Happy holidays to all,
webrunner
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081217/sc_nm/us_japan_science_brain
December 19, 2008 at 10:23 am
December 19, 2008 at 10:27 am
jpowers (12/19/2008)
Wayne West (12/19/2008)
... My favorite humorous depiction is any TV show or movie where the person sits down and just starts rapidly hitting keys: in most cases they never hit the space bar.At least in most modern TV shows and movies they no longer take long, lingering camera shots of the twirling tape reels and blinking lights.
But I liked das blinkenlights! My first computer jobs, interning at Arizona Public Service (electrical utility) was as a tape/paper jockey. They had just switched over to cartridges from the big reels. I sometimes consider buying one of those binary LED clocks.
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font]
December 19, 2008 at 10:27 am
jpowers (12/19/2008)
webrunner (12/19/2008)
jpowers (12/19/2008)
Jason Miller (12/19/2008)
It was Scotty talking into the mouse of Mac while trying to get transparent aluminum in our times. My first thought was, why not regular aluminum?The Holodeck? And people thought the 80s crack wave was bad...
For me it wasn't the computer, but the interface. I've discussed at length the advantages and disadvantages of an interface similar to the one in "Saturn 3". Direct connection between the computer and a human brain.
While it could really speed up a lot of things, I'm not a fan. Too easy to "pass a virus".
There was a story out this week on the web about a Japanese team who have been able to get a computer scan of brain waves to replicate black and white images that a test subject is thinking about.
Holy cow. Do you have a link for that?
Happy holidays to all,
webrunner
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081217/sc_nm/us_japan_science_brain
Wow. Thanks. That definitely has echoes of Minority Report, and no doubt of many other science fiction stories. And perhaps the basis of the polygraph tests of the future, since most likely the main way to use this will be to physically connect sensors to the person's brain. And only people who agree to or have to submit to polygraph tests would end up in that situation.
And naturally those images would start to be tagged as evidence and stored in a databases somewhere, which would potentially be hackable, and so on and so on.
Talk about a power that needs to be used wisely....
Happy holidays to all,
webrunner
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A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
December 19, 2008 at 10:30 am
Chris Campbell (12/19/2008)
OK...if we're on to books...here's another one...How about the "Fantasy Game" from Ender's Game?
It knows all of your weaknesses and fears and plays on them and then ultimately evolves into "Jane" the supreme, all-powerful, all-knowing super-intellgence that allows humanity to travel faster than light.
Ugh! I'm such a nerd!
I read only the first book (Ender's Game). Man, that was a powerful story. And the computer part was the scariest, given what you realize is happening. (Not to spoil it for anyone who wants to read it.)
Happy holidays to all,
webrunner
-------------------
A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
December 19, 2008 at 11:00 am
The Silicon Graphics Laptop in Twister:
"Twister featured a Silicon Graphics laptop, which is intesting since Silicon Graphics doens't make laptops. Nevertheless, a label reading "Silicon Graphics" was placed conspicuously on the computer, because you just never know when you might forget the brand name of your computer. Overall, this computer performed more than adequately. For one thing, it was robust. While seemingly everything else in the movie was sucked into the tornado, the Silicon Graphics laptop was unharmed. This is incredible when you think about it. Houses, cows and even an 18-wheeler were blown away by tornadoes, but this computer remained undamaged, even when it was used at one point as an umbrella."
(http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/winter96/0480.html)
-b
December 19, 2008 at 11:13 am
Nothing, imho beats the 'cyberspace' interface shown in Johnny Mnemonic. Coming soon? 😛
😀
December 19, 2008 at 11:46 am
+1 for Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. "Johnny 5 is ALIVE!". Oh and "Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?" is a classic quote. 🙂
December 19, 2008 at 11:57 am
The interface with the Start Trek computer - voice activated has always been where I set my sites. However, the Matrix series with the person actually being the computer with downloaded programs and sub routines - cut out the middle man...:hehe:
December 19, 2008 at 12:18 pm
rutger hauer and daryl hanna in blade runner.
December 19, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Computer-as-infrastructure makes more sense to me than computer-as-protagonist. The computer of Tron was the best. I always thought Dumont was supposed to be Steve Wozniak and Sark was Steve Jobs 😉
The Saturday morning cartoon show ReBoot continued to explore this same angle.
December 19, 2008 at 12:42 pm
The movie TRON!
December 19, 2008 at 12:44 pm
AndyK (12/19/2008)
The Saturday morning cartoon show ReBoot...
love that show! the world of mainframe, populated by Human-like sprites, simpler binomes and viruses like Megabite and Hexadecimal.
There was even an episode with a "code-master" who was half wizard half bounty hunter. I thought that was a pretty awesome way to characterize programmers...
December 19, 2008 at 12:45 pm
seeing as borgs have come up and various other androids, amazed no-one hes voted for seven of nine!
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