January 19, 2002
I was geeking out, watching some Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the episode, the Romulans kidnap Geordi, and "program" him to do their bidding. In a simulation, Geordi enters a mockup of the Enterprise's bar, walks up to Chief O'Brien, levels a phaser at him, and cooks him. Then he sits down and has a drink.
Fast forward. Geordi returns to Enterprise and after saying hello to his shipmates, heads for the bar. He enters, and there's Chief O'Brien having a drink. He calmly walks over and ... dumps his drink on the Chief.
Isn't that always the way, though? You program something to do one thing, it does another. You ask for all the records in the database, it gives you one. You brainwash somebody to kill a man, and he just dumps a drink on him.
The Romulans need some better beta-testing.
