HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rlbell@babbage.uwaterloo.ca (Richard Bell)
Subject: Re: Did anyone record Riker's computer description?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 16:18:54 GMT

Riker's dissertation BEGAN as a verbatim quote from the open source literature
on computer resources on the Galaxy class starships (TNG tech manual), but
once he got down to what would have been operational information on its use, he
proceeded in a technobabble to confuse the ferengi.
From: wwo@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Thomas Schoene)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: Re: Why is Data so limited?
Date: 12 Nov 92 18:57:46 EST
Distribution: rec
Organization: Cornell University

In article <If0Vcoq00WBM80ukgH@andrew.cmu.edu>,
Michael Seth Rostker <mr5m+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes: 
> Recall in "Brothers" that Data's brother had a switch implanted in his
> thumb which he used to activate his transporter. You would have thought
> that all he would have to do is think about it (that is, that the switch
> would be connected to his brain). The concern that this would make him
> to unhuman (?) is irrelevent; Lore doesn't care about being human. But I
> suppose that doesn't make for very good drama.

Installing such a device would be a bit difficult; rather like do
it yourself brain surgery.  

-- 
Tom Schoene
wwo@cornella.cit.cornell.edu  -or- wwo@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Back off man.  I'm a political scientist!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech,rec.arts.startrek.misc
From: noe@cs.uiuc.edu (Roger Noe)
Subject: Re: Here is the cat poem that people were gracious enough to send to me.
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept of Comp Sci, Urbana, IL
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 16:13:50 GMT

Follow-ups redirected to rec.arts.startrek.misc.

In article <1992Nov10.045040.14057@cs.sandia.gov> jhgreen@cs.sandia.gov (Jethro H. Greene) writes:
>                       Ode to Spot
>
>Felus Catus is your taxonomic nomenclature
>an exothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature.

ENDOthermic.  I don't think you'd really want an exothermic cat.
--
Roger Noe                            noe@cs.uiuc.edu
Department of Computer Science       40:06:39 N.  88:13:41 W.
University of Illinois               (217) 244-6173
Urbana, IL  61801  USA
From: meierdalepau@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: RE:  Orientation
Date: 9 Nov 92 22:32:13 CDT
Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA

	I read somewhere that it is usually customary that the approaching 
ship right itself to the target ship's plane of orientation.

Dale Meier
From: meierdalepau@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Subject: test
Date: 11 Nov 92 17:48:56 CDT
Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA


Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: CXMP <CXMP@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: Re: Why is Data So Limited
Organization: McGill University
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:39:17 GMT

In article <ewright.721503645@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
>
>Then there's the business of Data doing a double take or
>pausing to think.  This happens frequently, and certainly
>makes him appear more human.  Often it is used for comic
>effect.  But it shouldn't happen.  Data's thought processes
>are perhaps a million times faster than a human's.  Data's
>pausing for a second to think would be like a human pausing
>for a year.
>
>This, of course, brings up another interesting point --
>Data's perception of time.  If Data can think much faster
>than a human being, it seems likely that he perceives time
>much differently also.  Each one of Data's days may be longer,
>to him, than an entire human lifetime.
>
I think you've just answered your own quiry.  Whereas Data is capable
of doing calculations rapidly (as was Spock) his interactions with
people tend to proceed at "normal" speed.

Consider the following scenario: you're playing a video game on your
computer, say it's a NeXT.  Now run Mathematica in the background.
(Let's say your doing a multidimensional numerical integration.)
Inevitably, the video game proceeds much more slowly because more
computer time is going towards the calcution.

I suppose the answer is that Data always has some calculations going
on in the back of his head and that it's only in special emergencies
that he devotes all his time to what he's doing and is able to proceed
at superhuman speed.

Another thing to keep in mind was that when Data was originally
introduced in "Encounter at Farpoint", it wasn't actually said that he
was an android but an artificial being, a "synthesoid".  Later, in
"Datalore", Data was given a history, including a creator and a brother
and he was established as an android.  This is how come Data was able
get drunk in "The Naked Now".  It doesn't make sense in retrospect, does
it?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                ! Address as above or use
Martin Phipps                   ! LOULA@hep.physics.mcgill.ca or simply
                                ! MUHEP::LOULA if you're on a VAX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Terminal freeze, duplicate posts, lost posts and email-come-posts,
these are a few of my least favorite things.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: rlbell@babbage.uwaterloo.ca (Richard Bell)
Subject: Re: kiloquad????
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 17:04:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.004529.11796@nuchat.sccsi.com> rkolker@nuchat.sccsi.com (Rich Kolker) writes:
>In article <gf06ciW00WB0020ERJ@andrew.cmu.edu> "Stephan A. Zdancewic" <sz24+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
>>A kiloquad is a unit of energy.
>
>As I remember...
>.
>A quad is a quadrillion BTUs (British Thermal Units, who's definition I
>forget, but you can find in any physics book).  A kiloquad is a thousand
>quads.  That's a whole lot of energy.

To add a sense of proportion, the entire United states uses 4 to 6 quads
of energy (in all forms) annually.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans)
Subject: Re: Why is Data so limited?
Organization: Aston University
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 11:38:56 GMT

joseph@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Joseph Dawson) writes:
: In article <1992Nov11.110840.7331@aston.ac.uk> evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:
: >joseph@odie.cs.mun.ca (Joseph Dawson) writes:
: 
: Joe>: Why is data so limited.  He shouldn't need a communicator.  He should
: Joe>: have one built.  Data should be able to talk with the ship without
: Joe>: talking out loud.  He could also have a phaser built in, and that is
: Joe>: only a start.
: Joe>:  
: Joe>: What do you think?
: 
: Mark>Because data was intended to be a humanoid sentient being. How many humans
: Mark>klingons, vulcans, deltans, ... do you see with build in phasers or
: Mark>communicators.
: Mark> ...
: 
: Good point mark, but if you use that logic, Data would only be as strong as
: a human and would move as fast as a human.  How many humans can think as fast
: as data, or move as fast or be as strong as Data?  As well I don't think
: that having a build in phaser of communicators would make him any less sentient.

I said humanoid and listed the other species for a for a reason.
It is mentioned in the episode "measure of man" that the demonstration of
data's strength was not relevent since many species have strength greater
than humans

Why not have communicators wired up to all starfleet presonnel, after all
it's just a case of hooking then up to the appropriate neuones (the
same level to technology as the VISOR)
Or build in a phaser into everones hands. 
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Evans                                   |evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk
+(44) 21 565 1979 (Home)                     |evansmp@cs.aston.ac.uk
+(44) 21 359 6531 x4039 (Office)             |
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: tlb2665@usl.edu (Burleigh Thomas L)
Subject: Re: Warp Shield Dropping
Organization: Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 04:31:03 GMT

In article <19115@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> putzolu@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (David Putzolu) writes:
>In article <5-n13ml@rpi.edu> petitc@rpi.edu writes:
>>
>>  If Warp fields are senesitive to gravity wells, then why doesn't the E need
>>to drop its shields before going into warp? 
>
>What? How are these related? I have never heard of regular shields
>affecting gravity. Also, I don't recall having seen the enterprise
>entering warp with the shields on - but I am not sure. Still, what
>is your point?

 I believe that *some* type of shielding is up when travelling at high
(a.k.a warp) speeds - navigational deflectors. Can't claim it is canon, but
it makes sense considering the presence of interstellar dust and debris in
the Galaxy.

--
 _____           _                         | InterNet: tlb2665@usl.edu
   |   _  __    |_|     __  |  _  .  _  |_ | Voice: (318) 232-8298
   |  | | |||   | | | | | ' | |-' | |_| | ||"Reality is a collective
   '  '-' '''   '-' '-' '   ' '-' ' ,_| ' '|hunch." -- Lily Tomlin
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech,rec.arts.startrek.misc
From: cec35848@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Chuck Carroll)
Subject: Re: "The Royale" Question
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 05:34:35 GMT

fin@unet.umn.edu (Craig A. Finseth) writes:

>In article <1992Nov5.165915.2452@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, nyamane@nyx.cs.du.edu (Norm Yamane) writes:
>|> In article <1992Nov5.155516.3935@usl.edu> tlb2665@usl.edu (Burleigh Thomas L) writes:
>|> >
>|> > In "The Royale" episode, at the beginning and ending of the show, Picard
>|> >refers to an unsolvable equation/theorom.  What was the name of this
>|> >equation? What was the equation itself?
>	...
>|> It was Fermat's Last Theorem.
>	...
>|> There are no whole number solutions to this equation for x > 2
>	...
>|>            x     x     x
>|>           A  +  B  =  C
>|> Easy to state, no proof though.

>No longer true.  There is a proof, it is in many parts and very
>complex (dozens of pages per part).

No, there isn't.  For those of you who are interested in more
information, check out the sci.math FAQ.

I've heard (this may also be in the s.m. FAQ; I'm not sure) that there
was a famous math prof (I forget who) who would commonly get "proofs"
from amateur mathemeticians.  He had a form which went something
like this:

Your proof of Fermat's last theorem is incorrect.  The first error is
in line_____, on page_____.

He would then give the proof to one of his grad students and let them
fill in the blanks.


-- 
 Chuck Carroll					     cec35848@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
*******************************************************************************
*			       Jack Kemp in '96!			      *
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca (Joshua Bell)
Subject: Re: kiloquad????
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 08:11:09 GMT
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta

In article <1992Nov11.222433.2889@mtroyal.ab.ca> dehaney4905@mtroyal.ab.ca writes:
>In article <1992Nov9.230625.19928@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>, f017@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu writes:
>> On the TNG tech manual keeps mentioning kiloquads when referring to computer
>> memory, etc.  What I would like to straighten out iswhat a kiloquad is!
>> my guess is that it is a trillion megabytes.
>
>	I'm not too familiar with electronics/physics, but it sounds like
>	a voltage unit? (very big?) I think if it WAS a trillian megabytes
>	there'd be a technical name for it Ie..

No, no, a Trillian is a Dr Who companion. :)

I think the original poster was thinking along the same lines I
was:

trillion megabytes = 1^12 * 1^6 bytes
                   = 1^18 bytes
                   = 1^3 * 1^15 bytes = kilo-quadrillion bytes

If 'quad' was slang for 'quadrillion bytes' (Petabyte sounds too
goofy), I can see 'kiloquad' coming into use to describe an
Exabyte. As always, no canonical answer yet.

One problem with this is that, as given in 'Measure of a Man',
Data would have 'only' one quad of memory. (800 quadrillion bits).


Joshua

ps: Given that the 24 byte difference between 1000 bytes and 1
kilobyte is usually ignored, and the same with megabytes, etc,
is the amount of this 'trivial' storage on one 2.15 kiloquad
isolinear chip greater than the entire storage capacity of all
Earth computers in 1992? :) 

|         A shimmering net undulating like an infinite borealis.             |
|                                                  - Chapterhouse: Dune      |
|                                                                            |
| jsbell@acs.ucalgary.ca  Academic Computing Services, University of Calgary |

Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: petitc@jec324.its.rpi.edu (Christopher Jon Petit)
Subject: Re: Warp Shield Dropping
Reply-To: petitc@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 05:21:44 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.043103.12751@usl.edu>, tlb2665@usl.edu (Burleigh Thomas L) writes:
|> In article <19115@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> putzolu@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (David Putzolu) writes:
|> >In article <5-n13ml@rpi.edu> petitc@rpi.edu writes:
|> >>
|> >>  If Warp fields are senesitive to gravity wells, then why doesn't the E need
|> >>to drop its shields before going into warp? 
|> >
|> >What? How are these related? I have never heard of regular shields
|> >affecting gravity. Also, I don't recall having seen the enterprise
|> >entering warp with the shields on - but I am not sure. Still, what
|> >is your point?
|> 
|>  I believe that *some* type of shielding is up when travelling at high
|> (a.k.a warp) speeds - navigational deflectors. Can't claim it is canon, but
|> it makes sense considering the presence of interstellar dust and debris in
|> the Galaxy.

  No, I never said that there was NO shielding when IN warp, but during that
period when the Warp Field is being generated, and we aren't yet in subspace,
you can't have shields on during that time.

-- 
Trust:  A very precious social commodity, due both to high value and terrible
scarcity.
MATWDTM:  Mothers Against Teenagers Who Drink Too Much (failed name for MADD)




Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: annie@fatboy.manassas.ibm.com ()
Subject: Re: Klingon Home World???
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 16:24:31 GMT
Reply-To: kaylar@vnet.ibm.com
Organization: IBM, Federal Systems Company

In article <1992Nov11.110208.7162@aston.ac.uk>, evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:
|> 
|> Might it be just one planet, but called different things by different people.
|> after all are earth, tera and sol 3 different planets.

Uh, isn't "sol" the sun? 

-- 
Brenda J. Molina                                     kehleyr@vnet.ibm.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What must I do to convince you people?"		 "Die."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech,rec.arts.startrek.current
From: joseph@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Joseph Dawson)
Subject: Re: Why is Data so limited?
Organization: CS Dept., Memorial University of Newfoundland
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 23:32:28 GMT

In article <1992Nov11.110840.7331@aston.ac.uk> evansmp@uhura.aston.ac.uk (Mark Evans) writes:
>joseph@odie.cs.mun.ca (Joseph Dawson) writes:

Joe>: Why is data so limited.  He shouldn't need a communicator.  He should
Joe>: have one built.  Data should be able to talk with the ship without
Joe>: talking out loud.  He could also have a phaser built in, and that is
Joe>: only a start.
Joe>:  
Joe>: What do you think?

Mark>Because data was intended to be a humanoid sentient being. How many humans
Mark>klingons, vulcans, deltans, ... do you see with build in phasers or
Mark>communicators.
Mark> ...

Good point mark, but if you use that logic, Data would only be as strong as
a human and would move as fast as a human.  How many humans can think as fast
as data, or move as fast or be as strong as Data?  As well I don't think
that having a build in phaser of communicators would make him any less sentient.

Joe Dawson
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: dalton@nevada.edu (William Turlough Cat)
Subject: Re: The Next Class of Starship...?
Keywords: beyond galaxy....
Organization: NCC 1701-F USS Enterprise
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 05:02:56 GMT

In article <1992Nov12.231705.17535@ncsu.edu> happy@garfield.catt.ncsu.edu (Rusty Soots) writes:
>  Hi all.  Based on the creative juices of the people who read this group,
>yeah right :), what in your opinion should the next class of starship
>(after galaxy) be like?  What kinds of modifications, advances, etc.
>would you like tosee in the next class of starship?  I'm just curious
>to hear everyone's two cents...thanks!  :)
>
>								Rusty
I'm not really thinking about the next starship class.  I'm on the one after
right now, which is a Timeship class based on the Lynx plans a friend 
ordered from Starlog (which I think I might have, BTW.).  It's supposed to
be a *little* bit more successful than Transwarp (IE.  First two fail, then
the third one gets stolden(sp??) by some cat from the 27th century.).  Sound
good anyway??

>
>*******************************************************************************
>Russell J. Soots - North Carolina State University - happy@catt.ncsu.edu
>Science Education/Microbiology/Genetics - Graduation Date:  May 8, 1993..yeah!!
>*******************************************************************************

William Turlough Cat aka beiad
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: cs_e373@ceres (Matthew Simpkin)
Subject: Containment fields
Organization: Kingston University
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 14:15:37 GMT

Last night I saw `We'll Always Have Paris' in which a hole was torn in the
fabric of space into another dimension. Data then had to patch the whole by
pouring Anti Matter into it. 

What confused me was didn't the anti-matter pods need a containment field 
around then like the ones on the Enterprise ? - Data just walked around
with one in a clamp-type-thingy.

               _
|  |\/|atthew |_	| Kingston University    | "A Primitive Race, You too  |
|  |  |        _|impkin | cs_e373@kingston.ac.uk |  shall be asimilated ..."   |
Organization: Freshman, Drama, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 03:21:21 -0500 
From: Michael Seth Rostker <mr5m+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Questions about cloaking
	<BxGq2H.Myz@cup.hp.com>

I wanted to return to the topic of cloaked vessels. One of the issues
brought up was the inability for a vessel to be truely undetectable.
Many instances were sited, including the one in STVI. One thing needs to
be remebered however; we can assume that, like other technilogies,
cloaking devices are contiunaly improving. So that trick used to detect
a cloaked vessel last week, might not work this week. Why wasn't Kirk
able to use the same technices for finding a cloaked vessel as his did
in STIII? The answer is simple: the technology had improved. To quote
STVI, the novel (pg. 270):

"Too bad the solution wasn't as easy as it had been before the Romulans
improved the design of the cloaking device by eradicating the minute
spatial displacement that had once markeed the unseen vessel's
location-and had led to the loss of more than one warbird."

The final solution found in STVI seemed offely simple. If the Federation
had it's best minds working on a solution for detecting cloaked vessels,
you would have thought that they would have come up with that one a long
time ago. The answer appears in text not spoken in the movie
(unfortunatly) but which did appear in the novel (pg. 280-281).

"Captain," Spock said. "Sensors reveal faint traces of plasma... Under
impluse power... she expands fuel like any other ship. We call it
plasma. I do not know its Klingon name, but by any designation, it is
merely ionized gas. The tremendous power drain caused by simultaneous
use of the cloaking device and the weapons systems cannot be without
cost. Perhaps they must reduce cloaking power shortly before firing-"

"Which would explain the traces of plasma," Kirk finished

"Precisely. They may be unable to completely cloak the exhaust products
of their impulse engines..."

We can assume that other cloaked vessels do not have this problem.

As for the assumtion that the Federation does not have cloaking devices,
I would stipulate that not only do they have the technology, but
Enterprise A was equiped with such a device. Remember in STVI when
Enterprise ran Klingon space? According to the novel (again) she WAS
cloaked. To quote:

"Even if Enterpise ran cloaked in Klingon space, she still risked
detection by specially equipped listening posts inside the Klingon
boarder..."(pg. 223-224)

When Enterprise is finally detected in Klingon space it is by such a
listening post, but the alarm that sounds is for that of a *cloaked*
vessel.

"A feeble light on the aging screen blinked at him [the watchman],
indicating a cloaked vessel." (pg. 225-226)

This aside, the cloaking device aboard the Enterprise could not have
been very good, for the scanners that detected her were described as
being quite outdated.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
From: jwindley%cheap.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley)
Subject: Re: Software/hardware
Date: 12 Nov 92 14:29:28 MST
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept

In article <BxL2zC.7t6@cs.dal.ca> roy@ug.cs.dal.ca (David Roy) writes:
>Software is very slow, compared to a hardware system designed to do the same
>thing

This may be true today, but will it be true in 400 years?

>you could just use the replictor to design a chip (presumably much
>smaller than we know them to be) to do what you want..

I don't think the replicator is good at "designing" things, especially
things as complex as isolinear chips.  I get the idea that the
replicator produces items according to a stored pattern derived from
sampling an actual object.

The computer stores patterns for commonly asked for items.  These
patterns have been scanned at some central Starfleet facility and are
preloaded into starship computers as a sort of replication library.
In addition, there must be some onboard facility for scanning patterns
of objects which are later to be replicated.  This facility may be
limited.  The point here is that you can't easily derive a pattern out
of thin air -- you have to have some instance of the object for the
replicator to scan.

In short, I don't think you can just say to the replicator "Make me a
chip to control a shuttle bay tractor beam."  The replicator
replicates -- it doesn't create.

Finally, the resolution of the replicator is supposed to be fairly
low.  It doesn't matter so much on ice cream sundaes, but it may
matter on something like an isolinear chip which needs to be accurate
at the microscopic level, and perhaps even the molecular level.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Jay Windley  *  University of Utah  *  Salt Lake City
                    jwindley@asylum.cs.utah.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------