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Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

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Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#261

Post by iberator »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #258
anthk wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not much because a click on a menu would almost halt the entire network by design. Cheaper dumb Unix terminals were a thing where you jut used telnet and X forwarding.

“Just used Telnet” and “cheaper dumb Unix terminals” .. hmm .. not to be bold or anything, but I’ve been using Unix since the folding paper terminal days .. and as I remember it personally, it kinda went like this: paper-terminal connected to modem (telephone suction cup model) .. hazeltine serial terminal and either 2 long RS232 cables strung to the ops room if you were local, or a HAYES modem or two .. but still on…

You can forward X windows over slip/plip or ppp running on rs232.

TCP/IPover serial lines is a thing!

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#262

Post by somat »

nobleach wrote: post #259
somat wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... Realistically fsn makes for a killer visual for audiences, "this computer is SOOO advanced it has a 3d interface" and here is someone doing something technical with it. But if we take it at face value, immersed in the cinematic world they are building. Some young wanna be hacker, knows a little more than the average joe about computers. and when all the adults in the room are afraid to even look at the system,…

Matrix 2 had Trinity using a well known nmap hack at the command line! I like that attention to detail.

I saw it in the theaters and very nearly cheered when I saw someone actually using a command line and nmap in a hollywood film.

I have a hard time watching almost any "hacking" scene. I know I should just suspend my disbelief and enjoy the movie for what it is. But anything with computers just hits too close to my professional knowledge and I start to get agitated. I suspect it is probably the same for most professional fields. Me: Yep they are pouring concrete alright. The guy two seats down: What the F is that; you can't pour like that the whole batch would be ruined and look at that criminally negligent framing and rebar work. ugg. this movie is terrible.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#263

Post by justusthane »

pimlottc wrote: post #193
Waterluvian wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI immediately gives me the same answer. I can’t tell if I like this easy access to detail or lament the growing irrelevance of “social internet” for these kinds of things. It reminds me of pre-phone disagreements among pals. You’d argue and argue and maybe eventually agree to disagree. Today someone just looks up the trivia and it’s all over.

Of course, the only reason AI knows about it is because one human posted it online because they wanted to share a good story with another human

I really worry about AI leading to the information death of the internet. If everyone is getting their info from AI, rather than actually reading websites/blogs/forums, is there any incentive for posting things like this on the internet in the first place?

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#264

Post by AngryData »

ianbooker wrote: post #86

> Since John Hammond "spared no expense", it is fair to say he picked 1GiB version at $3,598 a piece. That would give them 7 GiB of storage for a 2026 equivalent of $33,223.70. In 2026, 7 GiB of HDD would cost $0.49. Did anyone ever try to estimate storage inflation across time? 7GiB could be one or two pc games in 2026, in 1992 one games likely was 1.4MB.

Depending on tha game you could easily hit 70 gigs on a game today, some over 100. Usually high graphic AAA games. Less HD texture games can still be quite small though.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#265

Post by dmurvihill »

pivo wrote: post #174

My wife worked for Thinking Machines back then. I remember that they'd asked Cray to loan them a supercomputer for the film because that's the computer used in the book. Cray brushed them off, so they turned to Thinking Machines who were happy to do it. To thank them, the producers rented a theater in Cambridge, MA to screen the film just for Thinking Machines and I was also able to attend. By far the biggest reactio…

Love that theatre

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#266

Post by ahartmetz »

MomsAVoxell wrote: post #256
ahartmetz wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, I see that an Indy went for about the same price as a SPARCstation 5 in 1993. I knew about the low-cost Indy, but not that it was that low cost (for a UNIX workstation, about $5000).

I easily spent $5000 on PC hardware in that era, just sayin’…

You could pay that much I guess, which would get you a Pentium in 1993.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#267

Post by MomsAVoxell »

iberator wrote: post #261
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Just used Telnet” and “cheaper dumb Unix terminals” .. hmm .. not to be bold or anything, but I’ve been using Unix since the folding paper terminal days .. and as I remember it personally, it kinda went like this: paper-terminal connected to modem (telephone suction cup model) .. hazeltine serial terminal and either 2 long RS232 cables strung to the ops room if you were local, or a HAYES modem or two .. but still on…

You can forward X windows over slip/plip or ppp running on rs232. TCP/IPover serial lines is a thing!

True, but you need more than a ‘dumb terminal’ to do that.. you need an actual networking stack, ppp/slip driver, etc.

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#268

Post by robgibbons »

Waterluvian wrote: post #144
ronbenton wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO this is the social internet at its best. Pretty obscure question answered relatively quickly with answer and source.

AI immediately gives me the same answer. I can’t tell if I like this easy access to detail or lament the growing irrelevance of “social internet” for these kinds of things. It reminds me of pre-phone disagreements among pals. You’d argue and argue and maybe eventually agree to disagree. Today someone just looks up the trivia and it’s all over.

It's worth pointing out that Google's AI got its answer from this HN post and Tumblr posts referencing this post

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#269

Post by rafaehlers »

OuterVale wrote: post #94

A clone of fsn, fsv (File System Visualizer) is available and works on modern Linux. Quite a fun little tool to visualise your storage. https://fsv.sourceforge.net/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_System_Visualizer

I just vibe-coded a loosely inspired version using WebGL with GPT 5.6 Sol available here https://github.com/rafaehlers/fsn

Re: Jurassic Park computers in excruciating detail

#270

Post by jpeeler »

mike_hearn wrote: post #98
solarkraft wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a respectful view of the audience. Too bad this approach was replicated what feels like approximately 0 times after it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=kl6rsi7BEtk

A lot of it came from Creighton. He always researched the technical details of his books to a deep level, and in fact he was also a successful computer programmer, winning an Academy Award for some scheduling software he worked on (and author, and medic and screenwriter!). What's great is he self-identified as a hacker. https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n2/26_Michael_Cri... > Although he does not consider hi…

To connect this comment to another, in the video mentioned here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48916460 Tim mentions he prefers to be called a "hacker".

https://youtu.be/34r8Ypxzkk4 (28:42-28:54)

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