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Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

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Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#41

Post by fla »

Tloewald wrote: post #26
jfaucett wrote: post #2

I've seen so many ridiculous "hacking" sequences in films that I really wasn't expecting this series to go into as much realistic detail as they do. Also most hacking stuff in films is at its worst when it comes to the dialogue which somehow always has to have something to do with shutting down a "mainframe". But this series does a great job both from a tech and dialogue perspective. There's even a scene where the ma…

I particularly hate unrealism which is hopelessly unnecessary, such as showing people using ridiculously bad faux search engines and email clients, or results displays that rub your face in the result: SUSPECT IDENTIFIED with one result on the screen, vs. a list of results the person has to interpret. Gnome vs. KDE is probably the least technical thing they've gotten right in the show. There were a couple of minor ho…

IP ADDRESS FOUND : 593.102.340

It always bugged me. Does anyone know why realisators spend so much energy into making faux computer interfaces in almost every movie/show ?

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#42

Post by varelse »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #32
jfaucett wrote: post #2

I've seen so many ridiculous "hacking" sequences in films that I really wasn't expecting this series to go into as much realistic detail as they do. Also most hacking stuff in films is at its worst when it comes to the dialogue which somehow always has to have something to do with shutting down a "mainframe". But this series does a great job both from a tech and dialogue perspective. There's even a scene where the ma…

There's even a scene where the main character and the CTO of another corp (trying not to spoil anything), have a conversation about gnome vs. kde. Haven't watched the show, but this reminded me of that awful line from The Internship , a film I was baited into watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpdngXQOkBI

The Internship and Mr. Robot have about as much in common as Twilight and Fight Club (all IMO of course)...

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#43

Post by skeuomorf »

cyanbane wrote: post #11

Always been a fan of this Tumblr for cataloging movie/tv UIs - http://fakeui.tumblr.com/ I think some of the entries could serve as inspiration. Think about the effect Minority Report's UX has had. It was an idea that wasn't new, but seeing it (I think well done) in a movie gives it a more concrete goal for a lot of people (tech) and a reference point for other people (non-tech).

Oh, you're gonna love this [0] and the work of Territory Studio[1]. Also, check out r/unixporn [2], it has some cool stuff.

[0] http://www.hudsandguis.com/

[1] https://www.behance.net/TerritoryStudio

[2] https://reddit.com/r/unixporn

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#44

Post by tottenhm »

Tloewald wrote: post #26
jfaucett wrote: post #2

I've seen so many ridiculous "hacking" sequences in films that I really wasn't expecting this series to go into as much realistic detail as they do. Also most hacking stuff in films is at its worst when it comes to the dialogue which somehow always has to have something to do with shutting down a "mainframe". But this series does a great job both from a tech and dialogue perspective. There's even a scene where the ma…

I particularly hate unrealism which is hopelessly unnecessary, such as showing people using ridiculously bad faux search engines and email clients, or results displays that rub your face in the result: SUSPECT IDENTIFIED with one result on the screen, vs. a list of results the person has to interpret. Gnome vs. KDE is probably the least technical thing they've gotten right in the show. There were a couple of minor ho…

As the Gnome-KDE bit unfolded, my first reaction was, "Guffaw! What a silly detail! That's not proving any thing. And no one would expect to bond with a stranger over that."

But that is not a flaw or limitation in the writing -- it's helping to characterize Tyrell as a bit of douche. This goes beyond the typical 'ssh' or 'wget' screengrab (which only provides some mechanistic plausibility in achieving a plot-point.). The Gnome-KDE bit defines character. It's brilliant.

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#45

Post by gauravagarwalr »

atmosx wrote: post #23
bayesianhorse wrote: post #8

The lead character feels to me like "Dexter as a Hacker".

I totally disliked the series... It's poorly written, disconnected and the lead character doesn't convince enough. Even the story-line is totally poor IMHO. So the only good thing is the realistic hacking scenes...

I guess having an unpopular opinion, gets you down voted here. I hope the down voting was more due to adding an unnecessary opinion here.

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#46

Post by r3bl »

RexRollman wrote: post #33
cyanbane wrote: post #11

Always been a fan of this Tumblr for cataloging movie/tv UIs - http://fakeui.tumblr.com/ I think some of the entries could serve as inspiration. Think about the effect Minority Report's UX has had. It was an idea that wasn't new, but seeing it (I think well done) in a movie gives it a more concrete goal for a lot of people (tech) and a reference point for other people (non-tech).

My favorite movie UIs are in Alien (mother's terminal) and the interface in Tron Legacy to Encom OS[1]. http://jtnimoy.com/blogs/projects/14881671-tron-legacy

I think you'll like DEX UI then. It's actually a real thing and it looks like this: https://vimeo.com/117199764

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#48

Post by jefurii »

fla wrote: post #41
Tloewald wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I particularly hate unrealism which is hopelessly unnecessary, such as showing people using ridiculously bad faux search engines and email clients, or results displays that rub your face in the result: SUSPECT IDENTIFIED with one result on the screen, vs. a list of results the person has to interpret. Gnome vs. KDE is probably the least technical thing they've gotten right in the show. There were a couple of minor ho…

IP ADDRESS FOUND : 593.102.340 It always bugged me. Does anyone know why realisators spend so much energy into making faux computer interfaces in almost every movie/show ?

The showrunners don't want to get in trouble when armies of fans type in stuff from screencaps. It's like how cars in movies have fake license plate numbers and telephone numbers all start with 555.

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#49

Post by krapp »

Tloewald wrote: post #39
krapp wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>or results displays that rub your face in the result: SUSPECT IDENTIFIED with one result on the screen, vs. a list of results the person has to interpret. That's the entire point, though - telling the viewer who the villain is quickly (and, most importantly, cost effectively ) to get to the part where the hero busts down their door. Designing the UIs realistically and eating up valuable screen time with analysts por…

Realistic design doesn't cost more; using actual sites may get you fired, but altering them sufficiently is cheaper than building whole b.s. displays from scratch. I think the "tell the viewer who the villain is quickly" is correct in terms of the director/writer's intention, but in fact the word is "badly".

Realistic web design means hiring someone who knows how to design websites, or redesign them, and budgeting that. It might also mean translating the results into whatever digital effects workflow they use, because I doubt there are any actual applications being run or sites being shown.

Also bear in mind the relationship between camera distance and screen resolution, and that the design requirements for UIs intended to be used by someone physically sitting inches away from the screen, and the composition of elements in a scene for television or film, which may place the viewer halfway across the room in terms of perceived distance, are necessarily different. Text that would be normal sized on the web might not even be legible when the viewer sees it, much less be capable of leading the viewer's attention.

FWIW I mostly agree with you, it's absurd for anyone who's technically competent, but still not as simple a matter as getting it realistic versus getting it wrong, rather of not boring the viewer with tedium and visual clutter.

Re: Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot

#50

Post by tsunamifury »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #35
tsunamifury wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minority Report had almost no effect on UI as it was both internally incoherent, ergonomically untennible, and depended on non existent technology. In fact in many ways it set back the dreams of UI by teaching a generation to value nonsensical interactions and poor ergonomics over usability

> and depended on non existent technology That itself ain't bad. Star Trek: The Next Generation pretty much introduced the world to the concept of touchscreens, back in the time when they pretty much didn't exist. Also, somehow the "internally incoherent" movie UIs still feel order of magnitude better than what we use in the real world, especially on mobile, which is mostly a mess of crappy and incoherent design.

Actually the TNG interfaces were very coherent and based on technology that could be replicated at that time. The designer of LCARS, Michael Okuda, needed to make a set of interfaces that could display readable information, be used for over a decade worth of shows, and be believably interacted with in a variety of modalities. He likely can be credited with making the most inspirationally accurate SciFi UI ever.

Star Trek interfaces set the gold standard for realistic UI, while Minority Report was not a UI anyone would ever want nor even should aspire to create.

Footnote: Oddly enough the consultant on the interface for Minority report was Jaron Lanier, who I respect immensely for his technology theory -- just not his designs.

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