The USS Constellation Effect...

I've tweeted about this, several times recently, so, I felt it was time to explain. Why haven't I posted this to a different blog? You may ask, and I may answer. Leave a comment. I will respond. Oh, and consider this a nerd alert; Star Trek will be discussed, however, not at length. Really, just the one episode....

The Doomsday Machine, is considered a classic Trek episode by many, myself included. It deals with a giant weapon from another galaxy, wreaking havoc on ours. Of course, our heroes are the only ones that can stop it. Of course, they do, and we get to tune in next week for further adventures of Kirk, Spock and crew. Of course, as a child, recalling this as the first episode of Trek I ever saw, I didn't know that :)

Some classic Kirk lines:

• Scotty, you've just earned your pay for the week!
• Not with my ship you don't!!!
• Spock, you don't know.
• I found one, quite sufficient.

Spock gets his as well:

• No sir. 97.835 Megatons.
• Vulcans never bluff!!!

Commodore Decker, the captain of the aforementioned USS Constellation, replies to that last one, "No, I don't suppose they do..." He's currently in command of the Enterprise at this point, simply because Kirk and Scotty, and the rest of his damage control crew, are aboard the Constellation, attempting to breathe life into Decker's dead ship. They actually manage to do this.

Without giving away the ending, which I'm sure you can find elsewhere, if you don't recall the episode itself, I'll explain The USS Constellation Effect: After Scotty expertly rewires the impulse drive to the warp drive controls so that Kirk can pilot the ship solo from auxiliary engineering, we see the Constellation flying through space. At a reduced speed. It inches across the screen. Slowly. Chugs would be an apt description. How many of you can hear the impulse engines screaming to get up to speed?

Why is this relevant? For those that don't already know, I've been borrowing a PC from a friend, while I decide what to do with my Mac, and it's dead hard drive. Well, I know what to do, it's just going to take time to send the drive back to "failed hard drive company name here" and get back a new drive. My former Mac, and my current borrowed PC, came out at the same time. I could bore you with specs, however, suffice it to say, all computers aren't created equal, and if you thought I was going to espouse the virtues of switching the other way, as Bill Gates would have you believe, you're sadly mistaken. While the CPU speeds are relatively the same, other specs leave the PC sadly lacking. To get it to where the Mac already is, I'd have to spend about another $750, which one, I don't have, and B, it's not mine to alter.

So, when someone tells you PC's are cheaper than Macs, you may either believe them, meaning you've gone to Best Buy and done a price comparison, OR, you can ask those that know. Like me. I mean, I thought 2007 was three years ago....

72 and sunny in Redondo Beach.