The com units are broken, the transporter can't penetrate the ion clouds, and the Klingon have you surrounded. You turn to Scotty and say, "Scotty, if you were any kind of engineer, you'd whip us up a Klingon Repellent device using this tricorder and these useless communicators."
"I cannae mind what I was thinkin', Captain! I can give it a try. Geese a dod of that Tricorder, Mr. Spock and I'll sort you up a real sloater of a Klingon Killer .. oh wait, no, sorry. It says here: 'No user serviceable parts'."
Then the Klingons kill them all.
But that wouldn't happen in real science fiction. Most hand held devices in real science fiction can be opened, fiddled with, wired together, to make pretty much anything you need, as long as there is a spare phaser to provide power.
Well, once again real life catches up with the Starship Enterprise.
And it begins with the Neuro OSD (Open Source Device) by Neuros Technology International. The Neuro OSD is a video recorder designed to eat and spit out a wide range of data formats and can be physically modified by individuals with sufficient expertise to add or change function. Normal day to day use does not require special expertise.
But what sort of operating system would be ideal for such a machine? I'm glad you asked. It runs Linux, of course.
The New York Times has a write up of this cool gadget. It actually looks like a very useful piece of equipment and I want one. Read all about it here.
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