From FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES, PART TWENTY:
Most entertainment programs that depicted battles in space, even in the early twelfth century of the Third Imperium, showed combat as a rapid-fire slugfest at ultra close range. In reality any ship’s captain who brought his ship close enough to be visible to the naked eye would be summarily removed from command and cashiered for incompetence. Assuming of course that he survived the battle.
Actual combat in space was about as interesting as watching paint dry. Except of course for the fact that the freshly applied coat of paint wasn’t desperately trying to locate and kill you.
And:
The problem with reconfigurable holographic control panels was that they had no knobs to twiddle. Ditzie liked to twiddle knobs on control panels. It was fun. Especially when there was an adult around to complain about her twiddling the knobs.
"Those are platinum coated knobs, miss!" One of them once said with a something resembling a Cockney accent. Ditzie had only a vague idea what planet that fellow was from.
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