# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/41 "2004-03-24T09:06:32Z")
> [@Phase42](#): > > As to poorly designed control panels - according to the Starfleet Technical Manual (which I don’t have at hand), all control panels in TNG are user-configurable. When a crewmember comes on duty, he or she gives his or her personal code and the panel is automatically reconfigured in that person’s preferred layout. The entire panel is actually a touch-sensitive screen. So those “buttons” aren’t really buttons. They’re merely indicators of the spot a particular user had designated as a button. Seems like a neat idea in theory (like computer post-it notes 😃 ) but tactically this seems like a poor idea, given that another person may need to take over a console at a moment’s notice, with no time to enter a code or familiarize themselves with a new layout. Wasn’t there an episode where Worf couldn’t fire the phasers in time because he didn’t know where the buttons were? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/42 "2004-03-24T14:32:43Z")
> [@](#): > > I think Star Trek’s “cloaking” is designed to shunt all forms of radiation around the field, and to prevent any radiation generated by the ship from dissipating – neither radar nor IR missiles would do the trick. A missile that measured the local gravitational field vs. what was expected might be able to detect a large ship if there weren’t too many other large ships in the vicinity, but you might also discover that the cloaking field blocked gravitons. That can’t be. We’ve seen cloaked ships detected handily by certain forms of radiation, and in ST 6, a superior cloaked ship fired while cloaked and was tracked while cloaked. Sure, its an advantage, but not nearly as useful as it sounds. In any event, they can still travel while cloaked. Besides, if the cloaked ship allowed nothing to get through it would be like a black hole or would be reflecting all sorts of radiation very well. Its just technobabble. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > Should an enemy transport directly onto the bridge, in front of the Captain, the Tactical position provides the officer there with the ability to shoot an intruder, over the Captain’s head. This is a problem in and of itself. Why the hell don’t they have scrambler systems protecting the whole ship? > [@](#): > > Projectile weapons onboard a spaceship? Are you crazy? All they’d need was one accidental shot to pierce the hull. Beam weapons, having the benefit of a “stun” setting, are far more suitable aboard ship. In fact, all phasers on board ship are restricted by the security system - they can go no higher than “stun” if they are inside the ship, unless by specific authorization from the appropriate officer. First of all, they’ve got weak armor - more than enough to stop a bullet - and forcefields. Second, you can easily get ammunition that wouldn’t even scratch the hull. Frangible rounds wouldn’t even go through a table in 10-forward. ---
**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 24, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/43 "2004-03-24T23:29:56Z")
[QUOTE=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]Missile guidance systems (Heat-seeking photon torpedoes would be a great way to deal with cloaked ships.)[/ul][/li][/QUOTE] _cough_ _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_ _cough_ ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/44 "2004-03-25T00:33:19Z")
So… what ENT ep is on tonight? Is it the one _where they rob an ATM!?_ Seems that counterfeiting is a lost art, too. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/45 "2004-03-25T01:12:26Z")
I don’t know what 18th and 19th century New York money looks like so why Why would T’Pol and Archer know what 20th and 21st century American currency looks like? And how would they have had time to produce it considering the short time they were give to go to Detroit? ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/46 "2004-03-25T01:45:26Z")
have we forgotten the utopia of the paperless society? no paper, no paper cuts! ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/47 "2004-03-25T01:52:56Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > So… what ENT ep is on tonight? Is it the one _where they rob an ATM!?_ > > Seems that counterfeiting is a lost art, too. It’s a double header, so “Carpenter Street” is first and then “Chosen Realm.” ---
**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 25, 2004, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/48 "2004-03-25T02:28:58Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I don’t know what 18th and 19th century New York money looks like so why Why would T’Pol and Archer know what 20th and 21st century American currency looks like? And how would they have had time to produce it considering the short time they were give to go to Detroit? Google or its futuristic decendent. Haj ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/49 "2004-03-25T03:58:21Z")
Possibly but unless Enterprise has an uplink to Earth computers, do you really think they would carry something so trivial and mundane in their database especially considering at this point in time, no one believes time travel is possible. ---
**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 25, 2004, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/50 "2004-03-25T04:18:54Z")
Sure. There are kids on the ship who have to do history reports. People who want to surf the data base and read obscure stuff. Just like today. They’re able to replicate stuff from any time period on the Holodeck, right? Haj ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/51 "2004-03-25T04:19:08Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Possibly but unless Enterprise has an uplink to Earth computers, do you really think they would carry something so trivial and mundane in their database especially considering at this point in time, no one believes time travel is possible. How much “crap” do you have on your hard drive, if you don’t mind my asking? See, I tend to collect odd bits of stuff, saving it because I find it interesting at the moment and thinking that someday I’ll want to look at it again and not wanting to be bothered with “googling” it. Mind you, I invariably end up “googling” it since I’m too lazy/pressed for time to dig through the **gigs** of stuff I’ve collected since then. I suppose that the “packrat” could have been bred out of humans by the 22nd/23rd/24th Century, but I doubt it. And considering the way storage media grows and that Star Trek computers rarely, if ever crash, nor seem to need a “reformat and reinstall” I’d say that the odds of _someone_ having something stored on their PC (or whatever the Star Fleet equivalent would be) which could be useful in such a situation to be pretty good. If worse came to worse, they could convince the audiophile on the ship to allow them to pawn his stereo gear for quick cash… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/52 "2004-03-25T04:56:26Z")
I’m talking about NX-01, not NCC-1701 D. Archer’s ship. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/53 "2004-03-25T04:59:14Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I’m talking about NX-01, not NCC-1701 D. Archer’s ship. Yeah, I know. I haven’t kept up with _Enterpoop_, but I know that there’s been mention of Star Fleet. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/54 "2004-03-25T05:11:33Z")
Sorry, I didn’t realize this was a two pager due to the email notification and my last post was to **hajario** , not you. Onto your post - I don’t see how that would help T’Pol or Archer. Yes, some crewman might have an image of a US dollar bill from the 20th century on his personal PC (assuming they have them and don’t just have a network run through the ship’s central processor) somewhere in the ship but I doubt very seriously that it would help them. For instance, they don’t have real replicators yet, so far as I can recall ,and wouldn’t be able to produce one even with the picture to guide them unless they had the specific dyes, denim, etc on board. And then, of course, there’s the whole question of them even knowing what sort of dyes, denim, etc would even go into the thing. It’d be much easier to just use advanced technology and rob an ATM. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/55 "2004-03-25T05:24:16Z")
Even Kirk didn’t steal, though. He sold his glasses. Well, okay, in TOS before the movies, he stole clothes and cars. OUCH! Foot cramp! Bottom line is, though, with all the prepping and other capabilities Daniels has, he should’ve seen to their needs. The resulting scene with them robbing the ATM is a worthless throw away imo. And let’ not forget the ease with which Quantum drove the totally unfamiliar vehicle. Over all, not one of their better detailed episodes. It had exploding lizards, though. Anything with exploding lizards is worth watching, in my book. Any one els looking forward to being disappointed by _Hell Boy?_ ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/56 "2004-03-25T05:26:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Sorry, I didn’t realize this was a two pager due to the email notification and my last post was to **hajario** , not you. > > Onto your post - I don’t see how that would help T’Pol or Archer. Yes, some crewman might have an image of a US dollar bill from the 20th century on his personal PC (assuming they have them and don’t just have a network run through the ship’s central processor) somewhere in the ship but I doubt very seriously that it would help them. For instance, they don’t have real replicators yet, so far as I can recall ,and wouldn’t be able to produce one even with the picture to guide them unless they had the specific dyes, denim, etc on board. And then, of course, there’s the whole question of them even knowing what sort of dyes, denim, etc would even go into the thing. > > It’d be much easier to just use advanced technology and rob an ATM. Not necessarily. It all depends upon if they’ve got anything like a printer on their ship. Most people don’t pay attention to the “feel” of any bill below $50, so it’s fairly easy for a counterfeiter to pass $5s, $10s, and $20s (hell, there’s been accounts of people passing a $200 bill and getting away with it [and **nobody** checks $1 bills, so you could pass bunches of them **real** easy]). Seeing as how the lowest denomination of any currency has _always_ been in greater circulation than the highest, if I was going to counterfeit money from 100 years ago, I’d go with that, and not a a high dollar one. Not to mention I could hack a modern PC fairly easily (and if I couldn’t crack it, I know people who could), but stick me, or any of my friends in front of a Univac computer and **none** of us could tell you what the hell to do with it. You think that _Enterpoop NX-01_ is gonna have anything resembling an OS like we’ve got now on it? (And I’ve **no** fargin’ idea what kind of OS an ATM uses.) Be easier to pawn an antique (like Kirk did in _ST IV: That Damned Whale Movie_), or wager your communicator in a poker game (like Data) than to counterfeit something or hack an ATM. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/57 "2004-03-25T05:39:48Z")
Assuming they have a printer, what sort of paper are they supposed to use? We’re back to the original point of the OP about Trek being a paperless society. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/58 "2004-03-25T05:50:59Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Assuming they have a printer, what sort of paper are they supposed to use? We’re back to the original point of the OP about Trek being a paperless society. Having a printer presupposes having paper, doesn’t it? As someone with, more years than I care to think about, experience in retail, I can tell you that if I’ve got an assload (Can you say “assload” on Star Trek yet?) of customers in line, you pretty much don’t give a load of dingoes kidneys _what_ kind of paper the bill (assuming it’s less than $50) is printed on. Just get the bastards through the line and out the door is your only thought. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/59 "2004-03-25T05:58:51Z")
Okay, in that case, as a paperless society, they wouldn’t have the printer and no way to counterfeit the bill at all. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907/60 "2004-03-25T06:01:48Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Okay, in that case, as a paperless society, they wouldn’t have the printer and no way to counterfeit the bill at all. So we’re back to hacking a computer system you’re totally unfamilar with, or pawning something of value. (Of course, they could always do what Scotty did in _ST IV: TDWM_ and give the folks in “ancient” times some advanced technology.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-has-lost-the-art-of-sticky-notes/235907.md?page=4)