Jerry Eugene Pournelle was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked in the aerospace industry, but eventually focused on his writing career. In an obituary in Gizmodo, he is described as "a tireless ambassador for the future."
Star Trek: Enterprise, originally titled simply Enterprise for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It originally aired from September 26, 2001, to May 13, 2005 on United Paramount Network (UPN). The sixth series in the Star Trek franchise, it is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 22nd century, a hundred years before the events of The Original Series, it follows the adventures of the Enterprise, Earth's first starship capable of traveling at warp five, as it explores the galaxy and encounters various alien species.
Richard William Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers, and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 franchise's original continuity. He appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage, and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop. He has narrated numerous audio books, including Ready Player One and The Martian.
Simon John Pegg is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. He and Wright co-wrote the films Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), known collectively as the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, all of which saw Wright directing and Pegg starring alongside Nick Frost. Pegg and Frost also wrote and starred in the sci-fi comedy film Paul (2011).
John C. Dvorak is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.
In Star Trek a replicator is a machine that can create things. Replicators were originally seen to simply synthesize meals on demand, but in later series much larger non-food items appear. The technical aspects of replicated versus "real" things is sometimes a plot element.
Jeffrey Jacob Abrams is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as Regarding Henry (1991), Forever Young (1992), Armageddon (1998), Cloverfield (2008), Star Trek (2009), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
A tricorder is a fictional handheld sensor that exists in the Star Trek universe. The tricorder is a multifunctional hand-held device that can perform environmental scans, data recording, and data analysis; hence the word "tricorder" to refer to the three functions of sensing, recording, and computing. In Star Trek stories the devices are issued by the fictional Starfleet organization.
HowStuffWorks is an American commercial infotainment website founded by professor and author Marshall Brain, to provide its target audience an insight into the way many things work. The site uses various media to explain complex concepts, terminology, and mechanisms—including photographs, diagrams, videos, animations, and articles.
David Hillel Gelernter is an American computer scientist, artist, and writer. He is a professor of computer science at Yale University.
The Star Trek canon is the set of all material taking place within the Star Trek universe that is considered official. The definition and scope of the Star Trek canon has changed over time. Until late 2006, it was mainly composed of the live-action television series and films before becoming a more vague and abstract concept. From 2010 until 2023, the official Star Trek website's site map described their database, which listed both animated and live-action series and films as its sources, as "The Official Star Trek Canon."
"Demons" is the twentieth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise, and originally aired on May 6, 2005, on UPN. The episode was written by showrunner Manny Coto and directed by LeVar Burton. "Demons" is the first part of a two part story, concluding with "Terra Prime".
Marina Sirtis is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Counselor Deanna Troi on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four Star Trek feature films, as well as other appearances in the Star Trek franchise.
ExtremeTech is a technology weblog, launched in June 2001, which focuses on hardware, computer software, science and other technologies. Between 2003 and 2005, ExtremeTech was also a print magazine and the publisher of a popular series of how-to and do-it-yourself books.
Michael S. Tomczyk is best known for his role in guiding the development and launch of the first microcomputer to sell one million units, as Product Manager of the VIC-20 from Commodore. His contributions are described in detail in his 1984 book, THE HOME COMPUTER WARS: An Insider's True Account of Commodore and Jack Tramiel. His role is also documented extensively in numerous interviews and articles. The VIC-20 was the first affordable, full-featured color computer and the first home computer to be sold in KMart and other mass market outlets. Michael joined Commodore in April 1980 as Assistant to the President. He has been called the "marketing father" of the home computer. Michael was also a pioneer in telecomputing, as co-designer of the Commodore VICModem, which he conceived and contracted while at Commodore. The VICModem was the first modem priced under $100 and the first modem to sell one million units.
Rafe Needleman is a magazine and website editor and published author. He wrote a Star Trek trivia book in 1980 and has covered technology and business since 1988. Previously a co-host of CNET's Buzz Out Loud Daily Podcast with Molly Wood, and CNET's To The Rescue and the Reporters Roundtable podcast and maintains the blog Rafe's Radar. Rafe left CNET in August 2012 to become the Platform Advocate at Evernote. On January 7, 2014, he posted on his Google+ account, "I can finally announce my new job. I’m going to Yahoo. I’ll be editorial director of the new Yahoo Tech site..."
GreenButton was a New Zealand–based software firm. The company specialized in moving independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprises to cloud computing. Founded in 2006, GreenButton was based in Wellington, New Zealand, with additional offices in Palo Alto, California, and Seattle. GreenButton was acquired by Microsoft on 2 May 2014; its technologies were integrated into its Azure service.
Jack Schofield was a British technology journalist. He wrote the Ask Jack column for The Guardian and preceding that covered technology for the newspaper from 1983 to 2010. He edited photography and computing periodicals and produced a number of books on photography and on computing, including The Darkroom Book (1981).
"Rogue Planet" is the eighteenth episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Enterprise airing on the UPN network.
Peter Leigh, more commonly known by the alias Nostalgia Nerd, is a British presenter, YouTuber, author and Twitch streamer, who documents and specialises in ageing technology and software. First appearing on YouTube in 2014, he routinely and enthusiastically explores forgotten computers and the technology surrounding them. He often specialises in historical documentaries on vintage computing, but also delves into technical explanations. Leigh also ventures into modern, mystery, explanation and more frivolous tech videos, with a humorous style and British wit.
