The Key to Time is a Perfect Cube

THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY

 

PICARD:
Mister Worf, dispatch a subspace message to Admiral Hanson.
We Have Engaged The Borg.

WORF:
Captain -- 

YOU are Being Hailed.

PICARD:
I am?

WORF:
Yes, Captain. By Name.

RIKER:
Data, is it the same ship we faced at J two five?

DATA:
Uncertain, Commander, but 

The Dimensions are PRECISELY The Same.



PICARD:
What is it, Number One?

RIKER:
We've picked up A Vessel on the long range scanners, headed this way.

PICARD:
Analysis.

DATA:
The Vessel is traveling at warp seven point six.
Mass two point five million metric tons.

Configuration : Cubical.

GUINAN:
Soran doesn't care about Weapons or Power.
He just cares about getting back to The NeXus.

PICARD:
What's 'The NeXus'?


GUINAN:
The energy ribbon that destroyed that ship was just not some random phenomenon travelling through The Universe. 

It's A Doorway to Another Place 

That We Call The NeXus.

 
And it's A Place that I've tried very, VERY hard to forget.

The Macintosh, Apple's near mythological home computer, has gotten off to a rocky start in its battle with industry titan IBM.
With sales originally projected to be a million in the first quarter, Apple has sold only 35,000 of the user-friendly machines in the months since it's been available to customers.


The insistence by Steve Jobs that it have what's called end-to-end control, which is a way of saying that it's not compatible with most outside hardware or software, is the Shakespearean flaw in a machine that had potential.


Apple Computers closed two of its factories today in the wake of disappointing sales.


Do you know how many Macs were sold last month? 500.
In a move that surprised some but not all on Wall Street, the board of directors of Apple Computers voted today to fire its cofounder Steve Jobs.

Did he jump or was he pushed?

His ex-boss, Apple CEO John Sculley, refused to comment.


However, in an exclusive interview, Steve Wozniak has slammed the integrity of his old friend Steve Jobs.


He calls Jobs an insulting and hurtful guy.
Jobs is hitting back with a new company and a new computer.

Apple has a new competitor.
Steve Jobs's Black Cube is aimed at the education market.

Few people have the ability to make the world wait, but that is just what Jobs is doing with his new company, NeXT.


STEVE JOBS :

Hang on.

You were supposed to go to school an hour ago. 

I thought you left.
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

I didn't wake up My Mom on time this morning.

It's happened before too.

I wake up with the alarm and then I get dressed and eat breakfast, but sometimes I forget to see what time it is after that.

STEVE JOBS :

Why doesn't Your Mom just set her own alarm clock?

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

It's one of My Chores.

 

STEVE JOBS : 

I don't understand what that has to do with why you're still...
Where's Your Mother?
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

She went to find a pay phone.
 

STEVE JOBS :

An hour ago, she said...
You don't have to raise your hand.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

You said it was off by a little.

STEVE JOBS :

It is.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

I just measured it.

STEVE JOBS :

Joanna...
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

Exactly a foot on all four sides.
 

STEVE JOBS :

There are six sides.
But you're not supposed to be here right now.
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

We know if four of the sides are equal to each other, the other two must be equal as well.

 

STEVE JOBS : 

The top, bottom, right and left are about a millimeter shorter than the front and back.
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

They're not. I measured them.
 

STEVE JOBS :

Lisa, I'm kind of An Expert in Design.
And that's a 20-cent ruler. 

You think there's a chance it could be off?
 

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

If I had another ruler, I would measure this ruler, but I really doubt it's off.

STEVE JOBS :

When Your Mother comes back, you have to go to school.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

Because it's a ruler! 

Why is it off?

Did you hear what I just said?

STEVE JOBS :

Yes.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

  Because sometimes it seems like you just keep saying what you want without listening.

 

STEVE JOBS :

I'm Listening.
Is there Something You Need?

[Her Father.]

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

No.
Why isn't it A Perfect Cube?

STEVE JOBS :

You've asked me before.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

I forget what it is.

 

 

STEVE JOBS : 

It's an optical anomaly.
To The Human Eye, A Perfect Cube doesn't look like A Cube, so we made it roughly a millimeter shorter than a foot on two sides.

LISA, Daughter of Steve Jobs 

(according to some) :

What's an anomaly?

STEVE JOBS : 

You've asked me that before too.
I don't know why you keep doing that.

[Because she likes to hear YOU explain it.]
It's an exception. Something that doesn't fit a pattern.
You have to go to school. Come in!

I think you two have met.

STEVE JOBS :

We're off the record, and Joel's always been good at understanding nuance.

What's left to finish?

I guess, in layman's terms, you'd have to say we don't have an OS.

An Operating System?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

Well, the OS is what runs The Computer.

In fact, it sort of is The Computer.

How has it been running? How's it gonna run this morning?

What do you mean, you don't have an OS?

It's like this. 

Avie Tevanian is our chief software designer, and he wrote a demo program.

It's like we built a great car, but we haven't built The Engine.

So we put a golf cart battery in there to make it go for a bit.

All this computer knows how to do right now is demonstrate itself.

You're telling me the only thing you've built is 

A Black Cube?

Yes. Yeah.

But isn't it The Coolest Black Cube you've ever seen?

Is this... We're off The Record.

Is this a Strategy or a Problem? If it's a Problem...

Do not share proprietary knowledge with that man.

It's not a Problem.

I wouldn't understand it anyway.

I don't understand it either, and my name's on the patents.

It's got e-mail.

Well, e-mail's not just for tech specialists anymore.

Well, it is, but it won't be.

And I assume an e-mail sent on a NeXT computer can only be received by a NeXT computer?

Closed, end-to-end.

The new trash can is wrong.

I wanna tell you I appreciate all the hours you put into it, 

but I can't because of how terrible it is.

Go back to the other one.

Why are we still giving three options on The Clock?

How many options do you want to give?

Two. 

Buy it or Don't.

Can I talk to you for a second?

Abso-fruitly.

Uh, look, man. Avie's been recompiling, but he says there may be some glitches this morning.

If all there are are some glitches, it'll be a triumph of miraculous magnitude.

Why are you translating for Avie?

I-I didn't want him to find out the hard way your position on glitches in a demo, but it sounds like you've mellowed.

I've been growing, Andy. 

I've been learning to love myself.

Hmm. I wouldn't have ever dreamed that was a problem.

Fantastic burn.

Steve Wozniak: 

I was angry. You were saying things about the Apple II, 

and the way you were treating the team... 

Steve Jobs: 

Woz, you get a free pass for life. 

I gotta get back on stage; we got like, two minutes of rehearsal time left. 

Steve Wozniak: 

Do you understand how condescending that just was? 

Maybe you don't... 

Steve Jobs: 

I don't wanna see you get dragged off... 

Steve Wozniak: 

I get a free pass for life from you? You give out the passes? You give them to me? 

Steve Jobs: 

You're gonna have a stroke, little buddy. 

Steve Wozniak: 

What did you do? What did you do? 

Why has Lisa not heard of me? 

Steve Jobs: 

How many fourth graders HAVE heard of you? 

Steve Wozniak: 

You can't write code... you're not an engineer... you're not a designer... you can't put a hammer to a nail. 

 

I built the circuit board. 

The graphical interface was stolen from Xerox Parc. 

Jef Raskin was the leader of the Mac team before you threw him off his own project! 

Someone else designed The Box! 

 

So how come ten times in a day, 

I read Steve Jobs is a genius? 

What do you do? 

Steve Jobs: 

I play The Orchestra, and you're A Good Musician. 

You sit right there and you're The Best in Your Row. 

Steve Wozniak: 

I came here to clear the air. 

Do you know why I came here? 

Steve Jobs: 

Didn't you just answer that? 

Steve Wozniak: 

I came here 'cause you're gonna get killed. 

Your computer's gonna fail. 

 

You got a college and university advisory board telling you they need a powerful work station for two to three thousand. 

You priced NeXT at sixty-five hundred, and that doesn't include the optional three thousand dollar hardrive which people will discover isn't optional, because the optical disk is too weak to do anything, and the twenty-five hundred dollar laser printer brings the total to twelve thousand dollars, 

and in The Entire World you are 

The Only Person That Cares 

That it's housed in A Perfect Cube. 

 

You're gonna get Killed. 

 And I came here to Stand Next to You while that happens 'cause That's What Friends Do... 

That's What Men Do. 

 

I don't need your pass. 

We go back, so don't talk to me like I'm Other People. 

 

I'm The Only One That Knows that 

This Guy Here is someone you INVENTED. 

 

I'm standing by you because that Perfect Cube - that does nothing - is about to be the single biggest failure in the history of personal computing. 

Steve Jobs: 

Tell me something else I Don't Know.