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| Droids, Computers, etc. | |
| Droids | |
| 24.0 | "Not only had his preparation for that work equipped
him with special circuitry that allowed for surveillance and analysis,
escape and evasion, and an array of code-slicing programs, but it had even
shifted internal components around such that when a restraining bolt was
fastened to him it did little more than comunicate the result of commands
sent by a remote." [ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.231 ] A droid restraining bolt has to be attached in a specific place as far as internal circuitry goes. Otherwise it will not work. Also, apparently it simply sends commands to the droid. Therefore it is entirely possible that the droid's hardware must be designed with restraining bolts in mind, and the bolts will not have any effect on alien droids. |
| 24.1 | "The maintenance and construction droids used to
create and repair the environmental system in the base were slightly
taller and decidedly broader than the astromech droids." [ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.231 ] SW maintenance and construction droids are even larger than R2 units, unlike their ST counterparts - the Exocomps. |
| 24.2 | "The metal ductwork distorted comm frequencies enough
that the repair droids regularly hooked into the base's communications and
computer system for position updates, repair requests, and other data."
[ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.232 ] SW repair droids are not only large and clumsy, but their communicators don't even work through some metal ducts! |
| 24.3 | "The R5 droid whistled back mournfully, then slowly
rolled down the ramp. His previously pristine red and white
exterior was strippled with a series of black and brown burn
marks. More galling than that, however, Gate had been fitted
with a conical scrap-metal cap that trailed a long ribbon of bright blue
fabric. A few spot welds held it in place and, despite their
best efforts, neither droid had been able to free Gate from the cap."
[ "X-Wing:
Isard's Revenge" p.243 ] This proves that astromech droids are very clumsy. Two of them could not remove such a simple object - "despite their best efforts". Their ST counterparts would not have had any such difficulty. |
| 24.4 | "'You said this was the dominant Jarellian
dialect. Are there any others?'
'Several, sir,' Threepio said. 'Unfortunately, I am versed in only two.'" [ "Vision of the Future" p.52 ] Protocol droids do not know all of the languages in the galaxy - and can't even fake it. Unlike ST universal translators, which can deal with just about anything. |
| 24.5 | " 'Couldn't a protocol
droid handle the translation?'
'Not without a special module,' Flim told him. 'Off-the-floor models don't usually come equipped to translate Verpine. Not enough call for it.'" [ "Vision of the Future" p.323-324 ] A protocol droid apparently needs a special module - probably physical - to translate the Verpine language. |
| 24.6 | "'We checked the records before we came over here,
Artoo and I. He'd be in here showing them to you, but he's
having trouble getting up the steps.'" [ "Ambush
at Corellia", p. 145 ] Even more proof that R2 droids are clumsy and can't move very well under their own power. |
| 24.7 | "'Learning an entirely new language would be
difficult indeed...'" [ "Dark
Force Rising", p. 148 ] C3P0 states that it would be very difficult for him to learn an entirely new language. |
| 24.8 | "Artoo, he saw, had ejected from his socket and was
drifiting freely just above the X-wing, making distinctly unhappy noises
about his situation." [ "Heir
to the Empire", p. 209 ] R2 unites apparently can't maneuver in space - no thrusters... |
| Communication Systems | |
| 25.0 | " As a hedge against the
vagaries of hyperspace transmission, the archive kept a copy of every
registered-recipient message sent out over the New Republic system."
[ "Tyrant's
Test" p. 125 ] Hyperspace transmissions are apparently highly unreliable. |
| 25.1 | " Twenty-seven hours
after she had taken custody of the Qella remains, Joi Eicroth
hand-delivered a stack of three datacards containing the cadaver's genetic
sequences to Admiral Drayson at his home on the north shore of Victory
Lake." [ "Tyrant's
Test" p.173 ] "Your DNA and mine together wouldn't fill one of those. I barely got the creature's genome to fit on three of them." [ "Tyrant's Test" p.174 ] "The 'Fleet Intelligence' dispatch was still spooling into Lady Luck's comm buffers, pouring in at 94 percent efficiency of the highest available error-checking transfer rate. But even at that rate, the counters predicted it would take another twenty-three minutes to complete the transfer." [ "Tyrant's Test" p. 182 ] Since the human genome is equivalent to about 3 GB, and we are now working on CD-type media with space for 100 GB and much more, this is pretty pathetic. First of all, a top of the line science facility apparently cannot get a media that will hold more than 9 GB (if we assume a maximum of 3 human genomes per datacard). Yet today we already have prototype disks that will hold a lot more. Second, the Lady Luck had the best equipment available, and it could not receive more than 27 MB/s. This gives us an upper limit on the SW data transmission rate over hyperspace/holonet. And it is pretty low. |
| 25.2 | "'Electrite crystal leads. Leftovers from
the old 'elegance' days. The mechanism's trying to push them
together. Let 'em touch . . . poof. The whole fusion
engine.'" [ "The
Truth at Bakura", p. 4 ] An old, pre Clone Wars drone is powered by a fusion reactor. "'No.' Han shook his head, looking around. 'No, they've got something new. Some kind of booster that lets them punch subspace transmissions through deflector shields and battle debris.'" [ "Heir to the Empire", p. 110 ] That was said after a simultaneous attacks on 2 other systems less than 4 light years away. Meaning that SW subspace comms are not even powerful enough to punch through a few pieces of metal, shields, and 4 light years. |
| 25.3 | " The device, once he'd
finally pried it out of the mud and moss, was a distinct disappointment: a
small, somewhat flattened cylinder a little longer than his hand, with
five triangular, rust-encrusted keys on one side and some flowing alien
script engraved on the other." [ "Heir
to the Empire", p. 130-131 ] "'And the range is small - well under a planetary radius.'" [ "Heir to the Empire", p. 157 ] " 'Do you know what it is?' Luke asked. 'Sure,' Lando said, handing it back. 'It's an old beckon call. Pre-Clone Wars vintage, from the looks of it.' 'A beckon call?' Luke frowned, cupping it in his hand. 'You mean like a ship's remote?' 'Right,' Lando nodded." [ "Heir to the Empire", p. 157 ] A large, hand-sized device used for controlling ships has less range than 6,370 thousand km (the radius of Earth). While the thumb-sized ST communicators have the range of at least 40,000 km (geosynchronous orbit of an Earth-sized planet). |
| Computer Systems | |
| 26.0 | " Twenty-seven hours
after she had taken custody of the Qella remains, Joi Eicroth
hand-delivered a stack of three datacards containing the cadaver's genetic
sequences to Admiral Drayson at his home on the north shore of Victory
Lake." [ "Tyrant's
Test" p.173 ] "Your DNA and mine together wouldn't fill one of those. I barely got the creature's genome to fit on three of them." [ "Tyrant's Test" p.174 ] "The 'Fleet Intelligence' dispatch was still spooling into Lady Luck's comm buffers, pouring in at 94 percent efficiency of the highest available error-checking transfer rate. But even at that rate, the counters predicted it would take another twenty-three minutes to complete the transfer." [ "Tyrant's Test" p. 182 ] Since the human genome is equivalent to about 3 GB, and we are now working on CD-type media with space for 100 GB and much more, this is pretty pathetic. First of all, a top of the line science facility apparently cannot get a media that will hold more than 9 GB (if we assume a maximum of 3 human genomes per datacard). Yet today we already have prototype disks that will hold a lot more. Second, the Lady Luck had the best equipment available, and it could not receive more than 27 MB/s. This gives us an upper limit on the SW data transmission rate over hyperspace/holonet. And it is pretty low. |
By 'Elim Garak'
