The Original Star Trek. + trivia on the new IPad.

 "To boldly go where no man has been before..."

As early as 1960, Gene Roddenberry had drafted a proposal for the science fiction series which would become Star Trek. The original series was televised from 1966 -1969

In Star Trek, members of the crew carry a tablet-like device called the PADD, or Personal Access Display Device. It comes in many shapes and flavors — there’s even a horizontal one. And circa 2151, the device that was in common use looked pretty much like the thing we’ll be frantically testing this weekend: the Apple iPad.

Gizmodo has dug up an iPad app called Captain’s Log that makes the real device look very much like the PADD. The app lets you check your mail or social networking profiles, adding — in addition to the visuals — little details like the inevitable star date. It looks quite simple, but if you’re a Trekkie, this is the first app you’ll get.

Is is not a little Ironic that the week the 60day challenge is launched I choose a series based on Star Trek and 'whoopee~do' the Star Trek team had tablets called the PADD and now we have launched the apple IPad to enter a Brave New World.

I have bought Apple products before going back to 1987 With my first Mac-Plus cube computer I was very happy with it and I used to lug it around from place to place in a large cubed Apple bag.From memory it had 2 Megs of RAM and 30 Megs of Memory. I had mac write,mac paint and Microsoft excel the 1987 version on it that took about 10 separate 2 &1/2 inch discs to load it onto the computer.The Computer at the time cost me around $2,000 which is around $8,000 in today's money As I say I was happy with it at the time IT was just like the Mac in the Video clip below . I now have an IPhone which has 32 Gigabytes of memory. Again I am happy with the IPhone except the monthly bill. Not sure I would be happy staring at a shiny screen trying to read the books on it. I will want to thoroughly test drive one before I purchase one. If I know for sure that University textbooks were easily available on it that would Be a very distinct advantage for aple to sell them to students who hate trudging around with heavy textbooks with them.

Of course many more things were happening at the time. England beat Germany in the World Cup 4 -1 at Wembley Stadium in London. The World Cup mascot was World Cup Willie.

In 1968 on the 4th of April was of course the tragic shooting and death of Martin Luther King in Memphis It was on my 10th Birthday. In 1968 Mary Hopkin won the Eurovision Song Contest with her hit song "Those were the Days my freind."

February - The US airbase at Khe Sanh in South Vietnam came under heavy attack March - Yuri Gagarin died in a plane crash April - Enoch Powell was censured by British MPs for his "rivers foaming with blood" speech relating to the influx of coloured people into the UK. Kenya was forcing Asians out . Even the Queen asked for racial tolerance in her Christmas message , Tennessee June 5th - Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestinian Arab who was claiming to act for his country, in Los Angeles June - Student riots in France took war into the streets of Paris and occupied the Sorbonne, starting from the closure of the faculty of letters at Nanterre (The Red University) August 20th - Soviet and Warsaw pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia. The liberal regime of Alexander Dubcek November 5th - Richard Nixon was elected 37th US President December 27th - Three US astronauts orbited the moon in Apollo 8 The National Front adopted the Union Jack flag as part of their insignia Britain restricts immigration from India, Pakistan and West Indies Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae against contraception