Quadibloc wrote:

I feel constrained to point out that TOS was out before hard-shell 3.5"
floppy disks were invented. If you are alert, you can catch the captain
and crew people referring to records as "tapes" now and then. :)

Tapes were a new technology then. Cassette style tapes had not yet been
invented, if I recall correctly. Many radios were still using tubes,
and the portable battery-powered transistor radio was the hot must-have
item for hip teens.

The square "disks" of the TOS sneakernet don't actually seem to be
disks. They are never called disks. I don't think they envisioned
disks at that time. In TOS, they function like modern-day solid-state
flash-drives.

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/museum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming_in_the_punch_card_era

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/when_was_the_floppy_disk_invented.html

In article <46ca2eab$0$18921$4c368faf@roadrunner.com>,
"GeneK" genek_hates_spammers.com> wrote:

on air?

Anim8rFSK cox.net> wrote in
news:ANIM8Rfsk-E7FCA2.17540620082007@news.phx.highwinds-media.com:

Scotty calls them microtapes in "Friday's Child"

ToolPackinMama wrote:

But given that they hold video, their capacity is similar to a mini
disc, apparently.

I wasn't trying to criticize TOS, because, yes, it was made a long
time ago. Before floppy discs, and before microprocessors. But I was
pointing out that TOS does look strange *nowadays* because so much of
it has already become reality.

A lot of TOS episodes were based on classic science-fiction themes.
Any Star Trek series, though, has enough special effects in it that it
has to have *much* higher ratings than, say, the new Outer Limits
series, to survive. (I remember an episode there, aimed at the bad
effects of Internet addiction, where people's mental connections to
the science-fiction network in that show radiated out from this
strange, futuristic tall building... a *water tower*!!)

Wiseguy wrote:

Now that is something I missed.

John Savard

"Quadibloc" wrote...

Also in "Doomsday Machine."

GeneK

Quadibloc wrote:

TOS ~inspired~ much of what has become reality. Did you know there is a
primitive food-printer, now? How long before it's a full-blown food
replicator?

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/10/homebrew_3d_candy_pr.html

Wiseguy wrote:

Microtapes! ::gush:: isn't that quaint!? How delightful. :)

GeneK wrote:

Quadibloc wrote:

Now hold on a second. TOS was a very sexy show! VERY sexy. And there
were many times when the sexy parts were obviously purely gratuitous.

The original advertisers for TOS sold cigarettes and automobiles. You
don't honestly think Star Trek was intended to be a kid's show? The
only reason it wasn't MORE hard-core is because of the stringent TV
standards of the day.