# Star Trek has lost the art of sticky notes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907 "2004-03-23T15:15:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/1 "2004-03-23T15:15:48Z")
I was watching TNG the other day, the episode with Scotty. To keep himself alive for 75 years he puts himself into a transporter in a self-diagnostic loop. What bugged me is when the away team beamed over they had to figure what was going on with the transporter then beam the person out to find out who it was. Would it have killed Scotty or Franklin (the fella who didn’t make it) to leave a note on the transporter pad saying "Hey there, this is Captain Scott. I’ve put myself in a diagnostic loop … "? ---
**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/2 "2004-03-23T15:27:21Z")
A wizard did it. Seriously, I can’t remember the exact reason they reason they put themselves into the buffer, but weren’t they under a lot of stress at the time, running under a deadline? It’s conceivable they forgot. On the other hand, you never see any paper at all, apart from Picard’s books. Whatever happened to hard copies? ---
**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/3 "2004-03-23T15:32:56Z")
The episode was [Relics](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/episode/68566.html) Episode 230. The sumary at [Startrek.com](http://Startrek.com) doen’t give many details except to say that > [@](#): > > The U.S.S. Enterprise crew is surprised to encounter the U.S.S. Jenolen, which crashed 75 years ago, on the surface of a tremendous gravitational force known as a Dyson Sphere. It’s my thoery that life support was failing and they didn’t have time to write a note. However I expect somebody who wither has a better memory, or has the Episode to hand will come along and correct me soon. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/4 "2004-03-23T15:41:50Z")
There was actually nothing wrong with life support, as the away team turned it back up when they arrived because the air was pretty stale. Scotty put them in a diagnostic loop because he didn’t know how long it would take to be rescued and didn’t want to run out of supplies. I would say they had plenty of time to write a note. ---
**Author:** ![Brendan\_Donovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@Brendan\_Donovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brendan_Donovan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/5 "2004-03-23T16:02:18Z")
But nothing in the future has a note of any kind. Surely a “bring uniform to cleaners” or even a “while you were out star fleet called” left for Picard. Hell, if it were me in Data’s chair the damn thing would be covered around the edge in yellow. Mostly with operation instructions or (shame) my user ID/ Password. but then where would they get a pencil? ---
**Author:** ![Gartog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/22d042/32.png) [@Gartog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gartog)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/6 "2004-03-23T16:18:53Z")
Ok **Baldurna** , in that case (and now you have reminded me I remember that scene) you have made a good point. It doesn’t have to be a post it note of course, any kind of note would have done, hell set the screen saver on the main view screen to “We’re in the buffer!” 😉 But we all forget to do stuff now and again. That’s a por defence I admit, if you’re putting yourself in a transporter loop you’d surley plan every little step, especially if you’re a Starship Captain. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/7 "2004-03-23T16:19:19Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > Would it have killed Scotty or Franklin (the fella who didn’t make it) to leave a note on the transporter pad saying "Hey there, this is Captain Scott. I’ve put myself in a diagnostic loop … "? He could have, but it would have made for a very short episode. You have to take these things into account if you’re a ST character. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/8 "2004-03-23T17:01:08Z")
> [@Brendan Donovan](#): > > But nothing in the future has a note of any kind. Surely a “bring uniform to cleaners” or even a “while you were out star fleet called” left for Picard. I work on-site at AOL Mountain View (formerly Netscape). In late 2002, AOL put up banners around the building proclaiming a new AOL/Netscape utility that would pop up reminder notes on your computer screen. They claimed that this would **eliminate the need** for sticky-notes, and that employees should therefore take their “now-obsolete” sticky-note pads down to the cafeteria building, where they could turn them in in exchange for free ice cream. Needless to say, this new pop-up reminder utility couldn’t do a **tenth** of the things that a real sticky-note could. Everybody who turned in their sticky-note pads soon deeply regretted it, because as part of the budgetary cuts that AOL/Netscape had made, they had **no budget** for office supplies! We **didn’t have, and couldn’t get** any more sticky-note pads! Sticky-note pads soon became a valuable commodity at AOL/Netscape, jealously hoarded. So the next time a Trekkie/Trekker tells you that paper notepads will be completely replaced with PADDs or integrated systems reminders or some such, rub his nose in the above lesson and then give him a few dozen paper-cuts for good measure. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/9 "2004-03-23T17:05:30Z")
**Captain Scott** **Charter Member** [RIGHT]Location: A Diagnostic Loop[/RIGHT] Dear Dopers: I’m not sure which forum this belongs in, but I don’t have much time to think about it. Due to some, er, technical issues, I’m going to have to stick myself in the transporter in a diagnostic loop. I tried IMing someone but my damned MSN Messenger v1K2.6 is on the fritz _again_. Please get me out whenever you get around to reading this. That is, of course, as long as the hamster doesn’t eat it first. (Really, I pay $5 a year, you’d think the Hamster would be well-fed by now.) Thanks, Captain Scott * * * Did someone say Romulan Ale? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/10 "2004-03-23T17:08:29Z")
They’ve lost the ability to do lots of pretty basic things. I quit watching TNG after the second season but one episode irritated the crap out of me. They were trying to find an obscure piece of information in their vast file system. It was something about how to cure a strange disease that was affecting the crew. They had Data search the entire data base _sequentially_. He could do so really, really quicky of course. Apparently, relational data bases are a lost art. Haj ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/11 "2004-03-23T17:13:23Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > Sticky-note pads soon became a valuable commodity at AOL/Netscape, jealously hoarded. Great anecdote but couldn’t you just go to Office Depot and get your own personal stickies for a couple bucks? For a mere $10 you could get enough for your whole department and be the sticky-note fairy. You’d be the most popular person in all of Mtn View. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/12 "2004-03-23T17:34:03Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They’ve lost the ability to do lots of pretty basic things. I quit watching TNG after the second season but one episode irritated the crap out of me. They were trying to find an obscure piece of information in their vast file system. It was something about how to cure a strange disease that was affecting the crew. They had Data search the entire data base _sequentially_. He could do so really, really quicky of course. Apparently, relational data bases are a lost art. I think that was basically the problem all latter-day _Trek_ had to deal with: the technology had become so advanced that it was extremely difficult to contrive problems that couldn’t be solved right away. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/13 "2004-03-23T17:47:45Z")
In the back of my mind, I have a list of technologies that seem to have been lost by the 24th Century: [ul][li]Fuses and circuit breakers (Starfleet must be run by sadists who enjoy watching workstations blow up in people’s faces)[/li][li]Guns (Given how many aliens are unaffected by phaser fire, you’d think they’d keep a shotgun or two around, just in case.)[/li][li]Missile guidance systems (Heat-seeking photon torpedoes would be a great way to deal with cloaked ships.)[/li][li]Ergonomic design (Notice how half of the crew doesn’t get chairs, and apparently spends hours standing in front of a panel.)[/ul][/li] Now we can add sticky notes (and pens, pencils, or any other form of writing implement) and relational databases to the list. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/14 "2004-03-23T18:30:39Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > In the back of my mind, I have a list of technologies that seem to have been lost by the 24th Century: > [ul][li]Fuses and circuit breakers (Starfleet must be run by sadists who enjoy watching workstations blow up in people’s faces)[/li][li]Guns (Given how many aliens are unaffected by phaser fire, you’d think they’d keep a shotgun or two around, just in case.)[/li][li]Missile guidance systems (Heat-seeking photon torpedoes would be a great way to deal with cloaked ships.)[/li][li]Ergonomic design (Notice how half of the crew doesn’t get chairs, and apparently spends hours standing in front of a panel.)[/ul][/li] > Now we can add sticky notes (and pens, pencils, or any other form of writing implement) and relational databases to the list. Don’t forget camouflage, grenades (hand and rocket propelled), rifle scopes, knives, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/15 "2004-03-23T18:31:40Z")
What purpose exactly would the note have had? Even if it were Garth of Izaar, they would have taken the person out of the transporter… the note would have only told given them the identity a scant minute or two before they found out for themselves anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/16 "2004-03-23T18:40:03Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > What purpose exactly would the note have had? Even if it were Garth of Izaar, they would have taken the person out of the transporter… the note would have only told given them the identity a scant minute or two before they found out for themselves anyway. Well, what if the ship that found them wasn’t familiar with transporter technology? Or they had an engineer who couldn’t figure out what was done? A note telling them not to press crtl-alt-del would seem wise. As well, telling them your name just seems good manners. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/17 "2004-03-23T18:45:17Z")
If the ship finding them didn’t have transporter technology, they wouldn’t know how to operate the terminal or know how to speak or read English either. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/18 "2004-03-23T18:47:14Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > In the back of my mind, I have a list of technologies that seem to have been lost by the 24th Century: > [ul][li]Fuses and circuit breakers (Starfleet must be run by sadists who enjoy watching workstations blow up in people’s faces)[/li][li]Guns (Given how many aliens are unaffected by phaser fire, you’d think they’d keep a shotgun or two around, just in case.)[/li][li]Missile guidance systems (Heat-seeking photon torpedoes would be a great way to deal with cloaked ships.)[/li][li]Ergonomic design (Notice how half of the crew doesn’t get chairs, and apparently spends hours standing in front of a panel.)[/ul][/li] > Now we can add sticky notes (and pens, pencils, or any other form of writing implement) and relational databases to the list. One of the many reasons _Firefly_ rocked. Firearms were still around. As were hammocks. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/19 "2004-03-23T18:47:52Z")
> [@Balduran](#): > > Well, what if the ship that found them wasn’t familiar with transporter technology? Or they had an engineer who couldn’t figure out what was done? A note telling them not to press crtl-alt-del would seem wise. As well, telling them your name just seems good manners. It’s enough of a stretch that everyone speaks English. Do you really think that everyone reads English too? Haj ---
**Author:** ![Balduran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cc9497/32.png) [@Balduran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balduran)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/20 "2004-03-23T19:12:18Z")
Okay, you Herberts. Have some sort of recording device that announces in all known languages (they can do stuff like that) just what the hell you’ve done. They had the power, life support was kept on at 5% for the whole time. But even if you figure it’s going to be StarFleet that finds you, you have done something with the transporter that nobody else has ever seen. It’s well worth your time to spend 30 seconds scribbling a letter explaining the situation. Would you really trust others that much you wouldn’t take any steps to help them figure out what was done? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907.md?page=2)