Roddenberry's Apple Macintosh Plus Up For Auction

The first Apple Macintosh Plus to roll off the assembly table, serial number F4200NUM0001, was apparently given as a gift to Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. While no one knows whether or not he used the little mac to create any of his works, the machine is being offered for auction on October 8th and 9th. The auctioneer, Profiles in History, is expecting to fetch between $800 and $1200 but if the buzz is any indication I'd expect to see it go much higher.

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Looking At Star Trek - Then And Now

No surprise, I'm a Star Trek fan from way back! No, I don't have a model of the Enterprise or a uniform, and I don't travel the globe attending conventions... but I have been to all of the movies and followed most of the various series, the original was my favourite. Star Trek aka "Star Trek XI" is a real tribute to the original series with a fantastic upgrade that takes advantage of modern FX.

For those interested in the franchise, Wired has put together a gallery of images, "Then and Now" that is definitely worth a look, as is the movie...

YouTube Goes Long Format, - Offers CBS Shows

On Friday YouTube announced that it would start offering full-length episodes of TV series like “Dexter,” “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Star Trek” through a deal with CBS. The catch for users of the site is that these longer videos will include preroll, midroll and postroll ads in each episode. Senior product manager for YouTube, Shiva Rajaraman, said the company is trying to match “the right ad format for the right content experience.” NYTimes article.

Star Trek Fans Rejoice - Original Series Free Online (With US IP Address)

CBS has put the entire original Star Trek series online, 3 seasons (1966 - 1969), for free viewing. It would appear however that you require a US ip address as I am unable to see any of the content. Interestingly, when I click to play the shows I get a Star Trek like computer voice telling me that "This content is currently unavailable." Come on CBS, all I wanted was a Sunday morning matinee of "The Trouble With Tribbles"!

Droids in space!

I was surfing the NASA site just now trying to find out a little info about the shuttle payload, namely Luke Skywalker's lightsabre that was carried aboard in celebration of Star Wars 30th anniversary. While that is a pretty cool event, I found an interesting story that I don't recall ever reading about before and it's totally inspired by Star Wars with a little Star Trek for good measure! It's describes as "a self-propelled, floating, talking, computerized personal assistant with artificial intelligence" that was inspired by the floating globe that Luke Skywalker used for lightsabre training in the original flick. The "robot will fly autonomously around the shuttle or space station, floating effortlessly in orbital free fall and propelling itself with 6 small ducted fans.", with Star Trek tricorder like capabilities, "the PSA will have sensors that can detect the pressure and temperature of the ambient air, as well as concentrations of gases such as CO₂." This is awesome!