Good show but wouldn't want my hypothetical kid to look up to the main woman character thinking it's cool to be perpetually high-strung, antisocial, with a highly unregulated nervous system/unhealthy habits just because she is 'cool' and 'brilliant'
Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
351–360 of 408 posts
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#352I just finished my third run through the series. There have been a lot of movies and shows about how tech "grew up" in the 80s and 90s, but this one feels closest to home for me. It was an incredible time to live through. Everybody was trying all kinds of stuff, fundamental stuff not stuff around the edges, and nobody knew what would hit and what wouldn't. Some kid in East Minnesota had the same shot as some guy in S…
> Can you write an independent iOS app without spending a lot of time screwing around with Apple? Yes! I've spent much more time screwing around with linkers and search paths than I ever have App Store Connect. It's really not very difficult, it's always surprising to hear engineers expect it'd be something they'd sink time into. Honestly, I think it's pretty remarkable you can distribute software to billions of devi…
I really don't know why this idea still persists that going through App Store review is this awful thing that takes forever and eats up all of your time. It really doesn't nowadays. I've shipped several apps in the last few years and the longest one of my apps has been in review has been maybe 3 days, and the average is between 1-2 days. That's usually for new apps. For updates, it's usually half a day to 1.5 days to get it reviewed.
It takes barely any time to manage the review process. I have had apps and updates rejected but it was easy enough to make some changes and re-submit.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
My father was an unnamed DG marketing executive in the book, who joked that his greatest career regret was asking Kidder to be unnamed in case the book wasn’t any good (it won Kidder the Pulitzer). I’ve been meaning to go through his old notebooks, as he took detailed notes on everything, to see if there is anything left from that era.
> I’ve been meaning to go through his old notebooks, as he took detailed notes on everything, to see if there is anything left from that era. Please do! Ephemera like that can tell more sides of the story that didn't make it into the book, for whatever reason.
I got the sense that Kidders side was approximately equal to my father’s side, as my father said he provided a lot of information to the author through interviews and was happy with the account that ended up in the book. I’ll see what I can find though.
I ended up working for the lead of the competing team within DG (whose product lost to the book’s protagonist) for many years right after college at a different company he founded. I suspect he has a slightly different perspective on the whole thing, but I never asked.
Sadly my father and many of his contemporaries are no longer with us. But I’m really happy that this book exists as a durable & accurate snapshot of the period. The computer history museum also has a wonderful collection of interviews worth checking out, which includes several of the staff from DG [1]
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#354HACF is a goodie but there's a lot of great shows no one's heard of. In an effort to sing the song of underappreciated works of greatness... Patriot - a CIA hitman who writes folk songs about his exploits imdb.com/title/tt4687882/ Counterpart - not a multiverse, just a biverse imdb.com/title/tt4643084/ Scavengers Reign - Robinson Crusoe by way of a nature documentary of a very bizarre alien planet. imdb.com/title/tt2…
I like this list, thank you!
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scroll past the subscription options to find the full series listing. "Box Set" licensing terminology is as anachronistic as "Seasons", but both are used in Apple TV product listings for non-subscription streaming media purchases.
I'm not seeing anything anachronistic about either term. "Seasons" is absolutely aligned to the way television series are still produced and distributed. "Box Set" implies physical media. Using the latter term to refer to something else sounds like a case of false advertising.
Apple offers refunds for unwanted digital purchases, and this description in Apple TV app:
When you purchase access to this item, you can permanently download it to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. Once downloaded, you can access this without an internet connection, and Apple can't remove it from your device.Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#356It's a very good show and I did enjoy it (at least Seasons 1,2; never saw 3). But "best TV drama" is a stretch. BSG is a better drama IMO (sci-fi, yes, but essentially a drama about humanity).
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not seeing anything anachronistic about either term. "Seasons" is absolutely aligned to the way television series are still produced and distributed. "Box Set" implies physical media. Using the latter term to refer to something else sounds like a case of false advertising.
Apple offers refunds for unwanted digital purchases, and this description in Apple TV app: When you purchase access to this item, you can permanently download it to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. Once downloaded, you can access this without an internet connection, and Apple can't remove it from your device.
Wait, so it's actually a standalone, DRM-free download? If that's the case, then while the term is still somewhat misleading, it's considerably less so than I assumed.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple offers refunds for unwanted digital purchases, and this description in Apple TV app: When you purchase access to this item, you can permanently download it to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or PC. Once downloaded, you can access this without an internet connection, and Apple can't remove it from your device.
Wait, so it's actually a standalone, DRM-free download? If that's the case, then while the term is still somewhat misleading, it's considerably less so than I assumed.
Not DRM free, but unlike most streaming services Apple TV will download purchased media via different countries or VPNs and has no time limit to watch the download. In practice, it "just works". Buying all 4 seasons individually would be 4x$13=$52.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with it is that it is ahistorical enough in the tech that some things just don't work. The show tackles stuff about like a decade before it was actually relevant in market, and that has subtle problems that give the business stuff an uncanny-valley feel. Still a fun drama though.
Yeah, agreed. Watching it as a drama, it’s fun. Watching it with any perspective on tech history it gets a little cringy. The first season is semi-accurate if you just replace Compaq with their company. But it quickly goes off the rails.
Of course Compaq was Houston rather than DFW. The case design for the first portable was scribbled on the back of a paper placemat at the House of Pies diner on Westheimer.
They still could have had Donna working at TI, which has a presence there.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s funny, I’d say the details are right, but the overall picture is still wrong. It tries to cram too many things into this one show. Like a medley of computing history.
Yeah, the the characters kind of feel like Doonesbury characters, where they just slot in wherever they're needed at a particular moment in history. Each season's story by itself feels authentic, but when you watch their character arcs from start to finish, each person involved would have to be a generational talent. And it's not like that kind of thing never happens, like look at General Magic and its through-lines…
Take a look at the careers of Ken Thompson, Rob Pike, Brian Kernighan, Larry Wall, James Gosling, Kirk McCusick, Allen Holub, Al Aho, Marvin Minsky, Daniel Friedman, Gerald Sussman, Lance Leventhal, John Carmack, John Romero, Paul Graham, Guy Steele, Christopher Date, Bill Joy, Eric Raymond, Douglas Comer, Andrew Tanenbaum, David Patterson, Jeffrey Ullman, Fred Brooks, or Jim Keller.