That Thing On Battlestar Galactica

If you’re a journalist, you’ll really wish we had this thing.

For anyone that remembers the original Battlestar Galactica series in the 70′s, there were occasions when Commander Adama would make log entries. He would speak into a microphone and his words would be instantly transcribed on the screen in front of him.

Man, I really wish I had something like that now.

It’s kind of a catch 22, really. You want a good interview, so you let the guy you’re interviewing ramble to his heart’s content. However you pay for it later when it comes time to transcribe the interview.

I had two interviews yesterday with two fairly articulate nerds. Robert Krakoff and Jay Wilson, both in the gaming industry. As a result, their questions are long, detailed and take up a lot of tape space on the ol’ microcassette recorder. Until Adama’s gizmo gets invented, the only safe way to get this stuff out is to go through the laborious process of play back, listen, type out, rewind, repeat.

It is incredibly annoying.

Still the answers are good, so it’s worth it.