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Halt and Catch Fire

unstack.io

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Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#31

Post by analog31 »

scar wrote: post #10

There's such an annoying scene in the first episode of that show that kinda broke the immersion for me. They introduced Cameron Howe as some sort of world class hacker that could do anything so one of her first scenes was her typing something.. and typing she did, one finger at a time. I mean, wtf. World class hacker that literally types one finger at a time, like she had never used a keyboard before. That scene near…

Keypunch operators learned to type with just their index fingers. I saw this with some older operators of the airline ticketing system at the airport years ago.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#34

Post by mandw »

GranPC wrote: post #24
mandw wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to admit, when a specific person died I was feeling so bad about it I never watched the last episode. I still have it on the drive how many years later.

You should probs edit out the spoiler, or encode it somehow for others who haven't watched it yet!

Fair enough. I assumed everyone would have watched it by now from here :)

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#35

Post by mlyle »

scar wrote: post #10

There's such an annoying scene in the first episode of that show that kinda broke the immersion for me. They introduced Cameron Howe as some sort of world class hacker that could do anything so one of her first scenes was her typing something.. and typing she did, one finger at a time. I mean, wtf. World class hacker that literally types one finger at a time, like she had never used a keyboard before. That scene near…

My dad was a great programmer... who typed with a terrible two finger peck technique. It was infuriating to watch as a kid.

Typing was not a core skill. He had secretaries for that. A lot of the early typing he did was on a keypunch when an operator wasn't available; "proper" early mechanical keypunch technique was index fingers only because of the high forces involved.

My memories of the early 80's have a lot of "computer people" -- both older mainframe types like my dad, and younger people -- typing like that.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#36

Post by pico303 »

mchinen wrote: post #17
timenotwasted wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah a truly fantastic show all the way through the end. One of my favorites by far.

It's special for sure. For those on the fence, it has some writing and direction flaws, especially with minor characters, like the disgruntled neighbor and IP theft bit in the first season. But it grows as a show over time, and the 5 leads (including Toby Huss) smooth the problems out with their talent and chemistry. They really captured the urge to build things in tech, and the problems that come with it. HACF, Sili…

Don’t forget Fire in the Valley.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#37

Post by gmurphy »

scar wrote: post #10

There's such an annoying scene in the first episode of that show that kinda broke the immersion for me. They introduced Cameron Howe as some sort of world class hacker that could do anything so one of her first scenes was her typing something.. and typing she did, one finger at a time. I mean, wtf. World class hacker that literally types one finger at a time, like she had never used a keyboard before. That scene near…

At 2000s-era Google, I was fortunate to work with some famous 70s-80s era software engineers whose contributions to computing are on a similar scale to what is shown in HCF. Some of them typed with two fingers, some of them did not know or use any keyboard shortcuts.

You are looking for the wrong badge.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#38

Post by IncreasePosts »

scar wrote: post #10

There's such an annoying scene in the first episode of that show that kinda broke the immersion for me. They introduced Cameron Howe as some sort of world class hacker that could do anything so one of her first scenes was her typing something.. and typing she did, one finger at a time. I mean, wtf. World class hacker that literally types one finger at a time, like she had never used a keyboard before. That scene near…

My dad was a programmer in the 70s and 80s and, to this day, he types with both middle fingers and that's it.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#39

Post by intothemild »

whateveracct wrote: post #12
0xCMP wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame that it is such a niche show in practice. The acting of Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis in particular are so good across all 4 seasons. I recommend it at every chance I get, but few people ever watch it. They're more likely to give Silicon Valley a try.

Silicon Valley is also pretty good. I went in expecting not to like it (in a Big Bang Theory "about nerds but not for them" way) but came out loving it. It may read as parody to some but it barely is. It's a comedic but accurate take on west coast tech industry of the 2010s

The best part of Silicon Valley was that it had a very south park quality to it.. in that things that were actually happening at the time were parodied on the show.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

#40

Post by intothemild »

0xCMP wrote: post #7
burnte wrote: post #3

It was a fun show. I really enjoyed it, a fictional run through the 80s and 90s computing industries.

It's a shame that it is such a niche show in practice. The acting of Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis in particular are so good across all 4 seasons. I recommend it at every chance I get, but few people ever watch it. They're more likely to give Silicon Valley a try.

Same. Having experienced the growth of computing in those eras, the show itself had a very well researched yet very nostalgic sense of "oh yes. I'd forgotten about that".
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