posted
I really enjoyed this episode. Director Roxann Dawson as the computer voice was a nice twist. I really liked how the station was repairing itself at the end. (theres somewhat of a Borg feeling about the whole thing, but i'm sure its all my imagination).
Overall, I think this was a great episode. Roxann Dawson is obviously a great director.
Next weeks looks like it may be utter crap, but thats happened before and I was wrong.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Wait a minute: The computer on the Enterprise is three decks high? Eh? When computers are consistantly getting smaller and smaller here in reality...why would it be the size of a house in the future?
Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Waaaaaay more computing power is needed when you do things like replicate food, transport people, run dozens of computers and maintain all shipboard systems and life support AT THE SAME TIME! NX-01 may seen too advanced for it's point in Trek history, but it IS really low tech compared with TNG...or even TMP. ....I won't even get into the capacity needed to run the holodecks....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
hopefully NX-01 doesnt have holodecks.. um.. yet.
yeah, Trek computing power, isnt that the thing that Okuda and Sternbach assured us we just didnt want to know, and came up with fake measurements for? how much RAM do you need to turn six people into a data stream? how much disk space to store the pattern fo tea, Earl Grey, hot or iced?.. how fast a compensator to compute a course at several hundred times the speed of light withot hitting anything?
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Registered: Sep 2001
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Infinite, infinite, and very. As it stands now, anyway.
Unless you can find a way to store and transfer 6*10^28 kilobytes of data that doesn't require 12,000 times the present age of the universe.
Oh, and a way to produce the fairly hefty amount of energy needed.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Did anyone notice, not once, but twice, that the term "saucer section" was used? Silly TNG writers. What other "section" does the ship have, other than a saucer? It certainly doesn't have a secondary hull, unless you count the little pod. And I don't think we'll be hearing anything about the "nacelle section" anytime soon.
Note: I'm intentionally being facetious here, because the term "saucer section" was used to imply that the station's berth wasn't wide enough for the ship to enter. However, since Enterprise's saucer is the wider than the nacelles sticking out, it's a bit silly on the writer's part to refer to the saucer section. They should have just said "the ship."
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I think the whole point about the people being used for processing was mentioned earlier in the episode when Tucker said that there was no space big enough (in his understanding of computer cores, anyway) for a computer core required to run the station as it is. Also, the point is made that 200 L of warp plasma doesn't seem like enough payment. Well, as we find out, the station takes a crewmember from each ship that comes for repairs in payment for services rendered. One would assume that the oldest people in the processing core are dying and need to be replaced.
This raises the question as to how the station managed to repair itself at the end of the episode. Perhaps the processing core was protected enough to be able to withstand the blast?
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Or maybe certain functions were decentralized and/or redundant. It's what I'd do. After all, what better reason for not being able to find one giant computer than that there are really a lot of little ones?
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote: theres somewhat of a Borg feeling about the whole thing, but i'm sure its all my imagination
No, it's not your imagination. When I saw the ending sequence, I was thinking, "Oh my gosh! It's an early version of the Borg!" It made the blood freeze in my veins. It made my heart turn to ice. It made my eyeballs.....never mind.
But, good grief! First the Romulans, now the Borg...next thing you know they'll be making First Contact with Q!
-------------------- Petty Officer 1st Class Sorak Chief Tactical Officer USS Gemini NCC-74680 Task Force 44 Task Group 3 Bravo Fleet
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Topher: [QB]One would assume that the oldest people in the processing core are dying and need to be replaced. QB]
Or it just goes for whatever character has the least lines and very little chance of being missed.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Decentralization of some functions is probably part of the station's solution -- but it's probably also possible that the basic mechanics of assembly aren't the most resource-intensive features. To explain the station starting to repair itself at the end, I figure that there are conventional computers in the manipulator arms, and those are programmed with the station's specs, so that if anything happens to it (say, disgruntled customers -- wink, wink) then it can put itself back together.
As for the NX-01's computer being three decks tall -- well, ENT's computer might already be of the subspace-augmented type that's described in the TNG Tech Manual -- i.e., FTL computing. Yeah, it's a bit advanced for the 22nd century, but still a possible explanation.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
I don't know about FTL computing, but I can tell you that the tower here on my desk could handle all the calculations at NASA's misson control circa 1969 easily, and it's not even close to a top of the line 'puter these days. Vastly superior calculating power with at least a reduction in size on the order of a magnitude, in less than thirty-five years.
Once the point one micron barrier is reached, the only way to increase processor speed would again led to an increase in size, but seeing as how quantum computing is already getting off the ground, it doesn't seem likely that they'd ever grow to the size of a room again.
Just thinking out loud, is all.
Registered: Jan 2001
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EdipisReks
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by Free ThoughtCrime America: Once the point one micron barrier is reached, the only way to increase processor speed would again led to an increase in size,
this is already happening on the current .13 micron transistor size, to some extent.
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