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Message no. 1
From: runnerpaul@*****.com runnerpaul@*****.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 11:18:42 -0400 (EDT)
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At 10:48 AM 4/27/1999 +0200, Gurth wrote:
>> > Simple answer: because, like whoever wrote the movie I watched
last
>night,
>> > FASA knows *&%%#*#-all about computers. This can be seen first
of all
>from
>> > the entire set of Matrix rules :)
>>
>> Oh, and what movie was this one???
>
>
>Hackers. I got the distinct impression that the writers had heard (or

>looked up) a bunch of computer terminology, and invented what it
meant as
>they went along writing the script.
>

*boggle* You're kidding, right?!?
I've always been of the opinion that the script for Hackers was about
as technically accurate as we're ever going to get out of Hollywood.
If you look past all the 72 point fonts on everyone's screen and all
the extraneous CGI special-effects sequences, I think the movie is
quite plausible.

The large fonts are understandable, since movie audiences have to be
able to read these things. As for all the CGI, I suspect that the
filmmakers just couldn't figure out a way to convey the concept of
"he's reverse-engineering a program that performs some complex and
covert accounting voodoo on the corporation's mainframes" so they just
swirled a bunch of computer generated math symbols around the guy.

Can you cite a specific example from the movie where you felt that
computer terminology was being misused? It's been a while since I've
seen the film, but I've seen it like 8 times and I really can't even
think of one example of jargon misuse. (And I know jargon misuse when
I see it, I happen to be a _big_ fan of the CGI cartoon Reboot, which
is probably the worst offender ever in that category.)

Oh, and were you watching the film in English, or had it been dubbed
over?


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--
-- Paul Gettle, #970 of 1000 (RunnerPaul@*****.com)
PGP Fingerprint, Key ID:0x48F3AACD (RSA 1024, created 98/06/26)
C260 94B3 6722 6A25 63F8 0690 9EA2 3344

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Message no. 2
From: Schizi@***.com Schizi@***.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 13:14:41 EDT
In a message dated 4/28/99 8:19:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
runnerpaul@*****.com writes:

> If you look past all the 72 point fonts on everyone's screen and all
> the extraneous CGI special-effects sequences, I think the movie is
> quite plausible.

CGI :-)
you have a little one eye piece headset display
it projects SR style ASSIST graphics :-)
VR must work differently in their world ...
Message no. 3
From: Allen Versfeld moe@*******.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 08:35:10 +0200
runnerpaul@*****.com wrote:
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>

> *boggle* You're kidding, right?!?
> I've always been of the opinion that the script for Hackers was about
> as technically accurate as we're ever going to get out of Hollywood.
> If you look past all the 72 point fonts on everyone's screen and all
> the extraneous CGI special-effects sequences, I think the movie is
> quite plausible.
>
> The large fonts are understandable, since movie audiences have to be
> able to read these things. As for all the CGI, I suspect that the
> filmmakers just couldn't figure out a way to convey the concept of
> "he's reverse-engineering a program that performs some complex and
> covert accounting voodoo on the corporation's mainframes" so they just
> swirled a bunch of computer generated math symbols around the guy.
>
> Can you cite a specific example from the movie where you felt that
> computer terminology was being misused? It's been a while since I've
> seen the film, but I've seen it like 8 times and I really can't even
> think of one example of jargon misuse. (And I know jargon misuse when
> I see it, I happen to be a _big_ fan of the CGI cartoon Reboot, which
> is probably the worst offender ever in that category.)

Well, It's been a while since I saw it (and I've seen it twice) but...
When they are all perving over the girls Apple Powerbook (or something,
it definetely had the apple logo), they anounce that it is a pentium
100. Then they say it has a PCI bus. Then they go on to imply that her
pentium Apple has a RISC processor.

The 'Gibson' computer, the one that has lots of spurious glass pillars
with text scrolling up and down them, the one that is 'unhackable'
because of its Brand Name...

The sysadmin who had to be told about the cookie monster virus, and who
was told to run an anti-virus package, like it was some sort of secret
revelation...

Erm, like I said, it's been a while, so I can't remember anything else,
but there was a lot of it - most of it stuff that looked suspect, but
that I didn't feel like checking. What irked me most was the way all
the actors' eyes glazed over every time they started spewing
technobabble.

Still, I enjoyed the movie...
--
Allen Versfeld
moe@*******.com
Wandata
Message no. 4
From: Robert Watkins robert.watkins@******.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 16:42:34 +1000
Allen Versfeld writes:
> Well, It's been a while since I saw it (and I've seen it twice) but...
> When they are all perving over the girls Apple Powerbook (or something,
> it definetely had the apple logo), they anounce that it is a pentium
> 100. Then they say it has a PCI bus. Then they go on to imply that her
> pentium Apple has a RISC processor.

Well, Powerbooks do have PCI buses, and a PPC chip is a RISC processor. Two
out of three ain't bad, I guess...

[snip]

> The sysadmin who had to be told about the cookie monster virus, and who
> was told to run an anti-virus package, like it was some sort of secret
> revelation...

Meddle not in the affairs of sys-admins, 'cause NT admins often are as
ignorant as crap... (not always, though, so if you resemble that remark,
don't be offended)

> Erm, like I said, it's been a while, so I can't remember anything else,
> but there was a lot of it - most of it stuff that looked suspect, but
> that I didn't feel like checking. What irked me most was the way all
> the actors' eyes glazed over every time they started spewing
> technobabble.

Hey, memorising polysyllabic words isn't easy, you know...

> Still, I enjoyed the movie...

Wish I could say the same. I hated the damn thing.

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons. robert.watkins@******.com
Message no. 5
From: Allen Versfeld moe@*******.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 12:18:08 +0200
Robert Watkins wrote:
>
> Allen Versfeld writes:
> > Well, It's been a while since I saw it (and I've seen it twice) but...
> > When they are all perving over the girls Apple Powerbook (or something,
> > it definetely had the apple logo), they anounce that it is a pentium
> > 100. Then they say it has a PCI bus. Then they go on to imply that her
> > pentium Apple has a RISC processor.
>
> Well, Powerbooks do have PCI buses, and a PPC chip is a RISC processor. Two
> out of three ain't bad, I guess...

Heh heh, you can tell I have a hardware techie background to computers -
I still think of a PCI bus as being 4 white slots into which PCI cards
connect (which could clearly never fit into a notebook case)...

> [snip]
>
> > The sysadmin who had to be told about the cookie monster virus, and who
> > was told to run an anti-virus package, like it was some sort of secret
> > revelation...
>
> Meddle not in the affairs of sys-admins, 'cause NT admins often are as
> ignorant as crap... (not always, though, so if you resemble that remark,
> don't be offended)

Don't you just wish you could reassemble that remark to cause less
offense...


--
Allen Versfeld
moe@*******.com
Wandata
Message no. 6
From: Robert Watkins robert.watkins@******.com
Subject: [OT] Hackers [was: Cyberdecks and PC's]
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 09:32:49 +1000
Allen Versfeld writes:
> > Meddle not in the affairs of sys-admins, 'cause NT admins often are as
> > ignorant as crap... (not always, though, so if you resemble that remark,
> > don't be offended)
>
> Don't you just wish you could reassemble that remark to cause less
> offense...

Nope. ;)

--
.sig deleted to conserve electrons. robert.watkins@******.com

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