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Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

scifiinterfaces.com

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Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#31

Post by luismedel »

buzziebee wrote: post #26
eesmith wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box, and while it was real software, it was dog-slow on low-end SGI without a graphics card, so she had to be using some pretty expensive hardware. As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors.

She was the granddaughter of a billionaire so it's not unreasonable to imagine she may indeed have had access to high end hardware. "No expense spared".

> No expense spared

but he only has one single IT guy in oncall during the emergency :-)

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#32

Post by 111111101101 »

eesmith wrote: post #22
PrimeMcFly wrote: post #12

Not exactly related, but I'm shocked by the amount of people, older people even working in IT who mock the girl in Jurassic Park saying "it's a Unix system, I know this", when in fact what they showed was a Unix system and the 3D interface they showed was real software SGI shipped with IRIX.

Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box, and while it was real software, it was dog-slow on low-end SGI without a graphics card, so she had to be using some pretty expensive hardware. As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors.

When I was a kid I had access to all sorts of exotic operating systems. SunOS, VMS, all sorts of Unixes. I was a very naughty boy.

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#35

Post by Daub »

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #6

This is a nice website, with an interesting purpose. Though i suppose reviewing sci-Fi movies notions of interfaces will soon clash with the dryness of reality. The 90's were wild in that sense, you could imagine that the internet superhighway would be a superhighway you could literally drive on with your Avatar, and countless movies and tv-series presented things thus. The noughties were way more grounded in reality…

I complelove this website. A great resource.

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#36

Post by adamomada »

scroot wrote: post #34

Has anyone written about the computers/interfaces in HBO's "Silo"? I've been trying to find information about that because they seem quite interesting.

It’s an Apple TV show and those props definitely gave me an old-school Apple computer vibe. Now I’m wondering how intentional it is

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#37

Post by Mainan_Tagonist »

dragonwriter wrote: post #19
Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #6

This is a nice website, with an interesting purpose. Though i suppose reviewing sci-Fi movies notions of interfaces will soon clash with the dryness of reality. The 90's were wild in that sense, you could imagine that the internet superhighway would be a superhighway you could literally drive on with your Avatar, and countless movies and tv-series presented things thus. The noughties were way more grounded in reality…

> The 90's were wild in that sense, you could imagine that the internet superhighway would be a superhighway you could literally drive on with your Avatar, and countless movies and tv-series presented things thus. > The noughties were way more grounded in reality, even the Matrix had Trinity hacking into a server using a OpenSSH exploit on a black and white terminal. That's a wild contrast to try to draw, since the a…

True enough, though if Trinity could jump between skyscrapers and run against a wall before disarming 5 machine gun totting henchmen, i imagine she could have enabled transparency in her Xterm in Enlightenment.

But in more general terms, the representation of computer interfaces, with avatars walking rigidly in 3d pastel coloured surroundings (as presented in a variety of examples, my favorite being the corporate network in the TV Series Profit) sort of fizzled out post 2000, when everybody got to owning a desktop and laptop and realised that the internet was just text in fact, and 3D environments were not so easy to navigate (remember Second-Life).

That is, of course, if your online life did not involve being an elf in World of Warcraft, or something.

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#38

Post by ethbr1 »

dusted wrote: post #5

I wrote about hackers too, http://www.dusted.dk/pages/phlog/2023-12-02.txt the gist of that rant is that what you see in hackers is not what's not their screens, but what's in their minds, through a poetic lens.

Well said. It's amazing how often people dismiss computer visualization in media (That's not the goal!

It's intended to be representative of the process of interacting with a computer, not the interface itself. At a time when most viewers had little or no first-hand experience with a computer.

If you showed a CLI then, maybe 1/20 people would understand it, and they'd be bored because they used it everyday at work.

Re: Sci-Fi Interfaces: Hackers

#40

Post by ethbr1 »

Mainan_Tagonist wrote: post #37
dragonwriter wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 90's were wild in that sense, you could imagine that the internet superhighway would be a superhighway you could literally drive on with your Avatar, and countless movies and tv-series presented things thus. > The noughties were way more grounded in reality, even the Matrix had Trinity hacking into a server using a OpenSSH exploit on a black and white terminal. That's a wild contrast to try to draw, since the a…

True enough, though if Trinity could jump between skyscrapers and run against a wall before disarming 5 machine gun totting henchmen, i imagine she could have enabled transparency in her Xterm in Enlightenment. But in more general terms, the representation of computer interfaces, with avatars walking rigidly in 3d pastel coloured surroundings (as presented in a variety of examples, my favorite being the corporate net…

~1999, you would have had Pentium III @ ~500 MHz max in a laptop, likely less. Pentium M wouldn't release for several more years.

So transparency was arguably still something a true hacker wouldn't waste cycles on.

To your general point, it felt like there was a shift around 2000, when computers needed to be "serious business" and the whimsy of the 80s and 90s was scrubbed out of software.

Honestly, I think we all would have been better off if we'd turned the web to something more approachable for common people (especially if it inspired them to be creators).

Instead, we built a brutalist efficient system where most expression is limited to setting your background.

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