Blinking coloured squares

[F. King Daniel]

I'm up to season four on my ENT rewatch and for the first time I'm noticing, in the third and moreso the fourth season, the gradual shift to TOS-style display screens covered in blinking coloured squares.

I always found the TOS computer interfaces silly (how much useful info can one possibly glean from blinking coloured squares?), but I thought it was a very nice nod to The Original Series.

(of course, it means Starfleet's been using the same OS for 100+ years. But, I think the Klingons have had the same ships and console graphics for 200+ years, so, whatever)

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Wow, I have not noticed this. Could you post some screenshots?

 

[BillJ]

I always found the TOS computer interfaces silly (how much useful info can one possibly glean from blinking coloured squares?), but I thought it was a very nice nod to The Original Series.

I ran an IBM 3890 Document Separator for a number of years that had a very similar display and you could glean a whole slew of information from those little colored squares. Gave me a new respect for TOS interface.

 

[The_Baroness]

I always found the TOS computer interfaces silly (how much useful info can one possibly glean from blinking coloured squares?), but I thought it was a very nice nod to The Original Series.

I ran an IBM 3890 Document Separator for a number of years that had a very similar display and you could glean a whole slew of information from those little colored squares. Gave me a new respect for TOS interface.

I'm not convinced.

When my washing machine starts beeping at me I find myself running off to find the instructions to work out what it's trying to tell me....

imagine if it were an entire starships worth of data. I don't wanna be running off to find the manual to help me remember three blinking red lights means "lunch is ready" or "incoming torpedo"...

 

[F. King Daniel]

Wow, I have not noticed this. Could you post some screenshots?

Actually finding some was much harder than I expected!
But, here are a few examples....

The interface as seen in early seasons, with a single row of coloured squares down the side of the monitors:

By season four, blinking coloured squares take up about half the screen real-estate on most background monitors:

Get a load of this! In the finale, set 6 years after "Terra Prime", this whole monitor is TOS blinking squares:

Here's a TOS shot, for comparison:

 

[Sandoval]

True, it's at its most noticeable on the screen to the side of 53 year-old Jonathan Frakes playing 42 year-old Jonathan Frakes.

It's a nice tip-of-the-hat to the Original Series.

 

[BillJ]

I always found the TOS computer interfaces silly (how much useful info can one possibly glean from blinking coloured squares?), but I thought it was a very nice nod to The Original Series.

I ran an IBM 3890 Document Separator for a number of years that had a very similar display and you could glean a whole slew of information from those little colored squares. Gave me a new respect for TOS interface.

I'm not convinced.

When my washing machine starts beeping at me I find myself running off to find the instructions to work out what it's trying to tell me....

imagine if it were an entire starships worth of data. I don't wanna be running off to find the manual to help me remember three blinking red lights means "lunch is ready" or "incoming torpedo"...

If you spend four years learning the technology then another umpteen years working with the tech, there's very little in the way of running to the manual. It becomes a language all its own and you understand what those colored squares are telling you.

 

[The_Baroness]

I ran an IBM 3890 Document Separator for a number of years that had a very similar display and you could glean a whole slew of information from those little colored squares. Gave me a new respect for TOS interface.

I'm not convinced.

When my washing machine starts beeping at me I find myself running off to find the instructions to work out what it's trying to tell me....

imagine if it were an entire starships worth of data. I don't wanna be running off to find the manual to help me remember three blinking red lights means "lunch is ready" or "incoming torpedo"...

If you spend four years learning the technology then another umpteen years working with the tech, there's very little in the way of running to the manual. It becomes a language all its own and you understand what those colored squares are telling you.

Which is still, surely, much less efficient than a line of text or an icon.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I would imagine that someone from the 18th-Century would look at the icons on a computer screen or even the dashboard readouts of a new car and not have a clue what any of them could possibly mean.

But I also noticed the change to more TOS-style displays from the start and thought it was great.

 

[The_Baroness]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

We do, we have stuff with blinking lights, we can imagine blinking lights, and we can see how much more efficient text is for relaying information.

 

[BillJ]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

We do, we have stuff with blinking lights, we can imagine blinking lights, and we can see how much more efficient text is for relaying information.

Don't be so sure. With a simple blinking light I could tell you what was wrong with a million dollar machine and begin troubleshooting.

Once you learn it, it's more efficient than a line of text.

 

[Sandoval]

I'd venture that an intelligent 18th century individual would grasp the concept of gauges on a car dashboard almost immediately once they had been explained - when the arrow is here the fuel tank is full, when it's here the fuel tank is empty and so on.

People in the 18th century were no less intelligent as such, just less-educated and knowledgeable.

 

[The_Baroness]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

We do, we have stuff with blinking lights, we can imagine blinking lights, and we can see how much more efficient text is for relaying information.

Don't be so sure. With a simple blinking light I could tell you what was wrong with a million dollar machine and begin troubleshooting.

Once you learn it, it's more efficient than a line of text.

But not likely for the sheer volume of data that Enterprise's computers and sensors are kicking up. too many blinking lights on one display would surely get confusing.

 

[C.E. Evans]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

It's no different from anyone trying to make sense of technology that's several hundred years more advanced than what they know.

 

[The_Baroness]

I'd venture that an intelligent 18th century individual would grasp the concept of gauges on a car dashboard almost immediately once they had been explained - when the arrow is here the fuel tank is full, when it's here the fuel tank is empty and so on.

People in the 18th century were no less intelligent as such, just less-educated and knowledgeable.

Yes, and likewise, to show someone a particular symbol and tell them “this will appear when a torpedo is coming in” will be simple enough to learn too, or better still a line of text that says “incoming torpedo” it’s unambiguous and is much less likely to make something think it could mean something else. But “this will flash this colour three times to tell you this, or four times in a different colour will mean this, but when it flashes this colour four times and THIS bulb flashes too…” with different combinations for every possible thing that a starships sensors and computers might be trying to tell you would just be overwhelming for anyone. Sure, you can learn it, but surely it’s much simpler to display a simple symbol, (like “E” in a fuel gauge) or a line of text?[/FONT][/SIZE]

 

[The_Baroness]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

It's no different from anyone trying to make sense of technology that's several hundred years more advanced than what they know.

They're flashing lights...not exactly futuristic.

 

[C.E. Evans]

But 18th century folk would have no basis for comparison.

It's no different from anyone trying to make sense of technology that's several hundred years more advanced than what they know.

They're flashing lights...not exactly futuristic.

Neither will any illuminated interface by that reasoning.

 

[T'Girl]

I always found the TOS computer interfaces silly (how much useful info can one possibly glean from blinking coloured squares?)

I'm looking at the Comcast modem next to my computer. It has four steady green lights, and a blinking yellow light.

If some thing is wrong with my computer (slow, etc.) the first thing I do is glance at those lights. None are marked, but the instruction page the modem came with explained each of the lights meaning.

Someone like Uhura likely knows the meaning of each of the lighted squares on her various displays, just as I do the simply display on my modem.

Not everyone has to have things spelt out for them. We saw in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, that the displays can display text. Admittedly they rare do.

 

[ChristopherPike]

It's one of those little details I miss while looking at the last movie bridge. It's the lack of TOS-esque blinky coloured rectangles on the consoles. No Herman Zimmerman or Mike Okuda around to throw those kind of easter eggs into the Kelvin or Enterprise set designs.

 

[Brikar99]

I liked that they were adding more color to the show in the last season, but I found all the blinking lights on every single display distracting.