James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original Star Trek and subsequent films, died early July 20 at his Redmond, Wash., home, the Associated Press reported. He was 85.

– Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel

Although he really didn’t do much other than Star Trek … I, for one, shall miss him.

Ginny and I were recently watching “Trekies”, which is a documentary on the Star Trek fan phenomenon, and there was a wonderful story that Mr. Doohan related … it was about a letter he received from a very despondent woman who was considering suicide … he told her that he was going to be in their city in a few weeks … and that she should come to the convention.

This continued for many years … each time, Mr. Doohan told her that she should come to the next convention.

For a while Mr. Doohan didn’t hear from her … but then, out of the blue, he got a letter from her indicating that she had just graduated from college with a degree in engineering.

Pretty cool.

Warp speed James … warp speed.

[tags]Scotty[/tags]

Eh … considering how much promise this season had shown, the series finale was pretty boring.

Tonight had two episodes … the 2nd to last and the last.

The 2nd to last episode was pretty good … good conflict, very good emotion, good action. I liked it. Not as good as some, but better than most.

The final episode, however … (spoilers ahead, don’t read more if you don’t want plot points revealed).
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Dammit … why did they cancel Star Trek: Enterprise?

This last season is the best one they’ve had yet.

I just watched In a Mirror, Darkly – Part 1 and loved it.

Even the opening sequence was reworked … and it a really good way (I was swearing at the Tivo, however, because it was glitching at that point … need to open it up and check the hard drive).

Scott Bakula did a fine job as a hard-ass Archer.

This last season has done a good job of establishing some of the canon from the original series and the movies.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they have some veteran Trek authors writing the stories … I’ve always enjoyed Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens books.

I was watching a rerun of CSI last night and saw a great dialog at the end of the show where the lead character (Gill Grissom, played by William Petersen) and a a guest star (Father Powell, played by Dylan Baker) had a rather interesting exchange …

Father Powell:You don’t believe?
Grissom: In religion. I believe in God, in science, in Sunday supper. I don’t believe in rules that tell me how I should live.
Father Powell: Even if they’re handed down by God?
Grissom: How many crusades were fought in the name of God? How many people died because of someone’s religion?
Father Powell: Fanaticism, not religion.
Grissom: Semantics. They’re still dead.

CSI: Alter Boys

This kind of sums up my feelings on religion and why I call myself an Agnostic.

With a few exceptions, I really can’t understand why most people would want to associated themselves with any organized religion… with all the clergy abuse and murder-in-the-name-of-god problems in the world.

That said, I also believe it is absolutely fine for anyone to worship (or not) in the way they choose (just so long as nobody gets hurt).

But, hey, that’s just me. Your mileage may vary.

The other day our Tivo started making some odd thunking noises … and the picture started going weird periodically.

I did some research and determined that this is the sign of a failing hard drive.

I discussed the options with Steve and determined that the best thing to do would be to replace the hard drive. Due to the heat dissipation requirements I needed to get a 5400 rpm drive. Unfortunately, such slow drives are pretty hard to find. Luckily CDW had a 160gb Maxtor 5400rpm drive in stock.

Of course Tivo can’t deal with 160gb … so I’ll only get 137gb out of the drive.

Steve offered to help with the upgrade, so I met him for lunch and then we went over to CDW to pick up the drive.

While upgrading the Tivo isn’t trivial … the technique has been perfected quite well. Detailed instructions can be found at http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com.

The hardest part (for me at least) was cracking the case. Once the case was opened, the rest was pretty easy. As I type this, the old drive is being duplicated to the new drive. It’s pretty slow going … it started duplicating at around 5:30 and at 8:45pm it was only 50% done. I think it will be done around 11pm tonight.

TiVo viewers will see “billboards,” or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads.

TiVo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers

Well this just sucks. One of the primary reasons for having a TiVo is to be able to skip past commercials.

I think I’m going to get the BeyondTV setup I have on the test machine working with a real TV.

Yes, the screaming begins anon. There are a lot of people here, a lot of snark to get through.

Blogula Rasa: Amazing Race 6

’nuff said.

Well, if HR2391 gets passed using a TiVo might become a thing of the past (at least for me).

According to Wired …

The bill would also permit people to use technology to skip objectionable content — like a gory or sexually explicit scene — in films, a right that consumers already have. However, under the proposed law, skipping any commercials or promotional announcements would be prohibited.

Of course a sane mind things: Um, you can’t have it both ways … unless the lawmakers require a “C” chip (my own idea) that would note the “Commercial” flag that will be included in the broadcast signal and prohibit use of the fast forward button in DVR’s.

While they’re at it … why not add a “M” chip to automatically block “Morally” objectional content. Not for those who would object, of course, for everyone. Far easier to prevent everyone from seeing the questionable content than just those who might find it objectionable.

Naturally these chips would store any attempts to bypass their usage (like pressing the FF button to get past a commercial) and report the incidents to the proper authorities (since it would be considered a copyright violation).

Ah, it’s a wonderful world we live in.