Digitally Mastered

My family and I recently took our annual vacation. More on that to come. On our trip, we used some model of Garmin GPS to help us not get lost (most of the time). I noticed that the unit occasionally mis-pronounced things. For example, it told me to turn onto "Old Keene Road." I suspect that the last "e" in "Keene" is silent, but the unit pronounced it like it had a "y" at the end: "Keeny" or maybe "Keeney." There were other instances that I can no longer recall.

I found this sad. Why? Suppose one day humans are wiped out by intelligent robots and computers. We will have left behind robots and computers that do not even know how to pronounce things!

Not that I believe robots and computers will wipe out humans.

I saw the new Star Trek movie a few days after it opened. Though I found it entertaining, I came away from watching it certain that something was wrong. I was unable to put my finger on it. For this reason, I was reluctant to even call it good.

So, last night I watched it again, determined to figure out what the problem was. The friends that accompanied me picked up on it in one viewing. The writers have dumbed down Star Trek. It was nothing more than almost purely an action flick. Guns blazing, almost start to finish. Gone was the science phrases and "techno babble." Out of the TV shows, Voyager was the most well known for this. Other issues with that show aside, the tech-talk always appealed to me. But, it was completely absent from the new movie.

I guess this was the effort of the writers to draw in people who have never watched Trek before. I would say it is a pretty decent movie. I am curious to see what direction the new keepers of the franchise will take.

Having never been a waiter, I do not have the insider knowledge needed to answer the following question:

Frequently, when my family and I go out to eat, after the host/hostess has seated us, and the waiter/waitress has taken our beverage orders and returned with our beverages, why does said waiter/waitress ask if we need a few more minutes to decide what to order, and then give us a full 10 or 15 minutes?

I am just curious.