In the realm of flammable computer parts and adjacent devices, there's the somewhat related lp0 on fire
Halt and Catch Fire
41–50 of 117 posts
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#42So many AI comments. Spamming every post. Backed by AI accounts all with blogs that are less than a year old with 3-6 banal programming projects. WTF man.
Have they been removed? I’m mostly seeing comments from established accounts.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#43> I have never watched the AMC show Halt and Catch Fire…
Go watch it. Great show.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 :)
For example ... I just finished it 2-3 months back and started only because of a thread here :)
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#45I learned the 6800 in college in Texas in the 80s, and it definely had what we called an HCF instruction. I didn't remember the opcode until I read this article.
When the show came out I thought it must have been created by one of my classmates because the title is so arcane. Turns out it wasn't but the show definitely captures the vibe of computing in Austin and Dallas in the 80s.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#46There'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…
Lots of people were typing like that. As far as typing today, different layouts, hobbies with ergonomic keyboards etc we see far more people touch typing today than were in the 80's.
I wouldn't call it abnormal, I was pecking - very quickly for a long time before I ever knew what vi was. I found vi on my first unix login in '85 and still pecked at it.
I also know that today, with far more people typing, less of them probably gain the same knowledge as we did hacking back then. Good typing can't replace your computer knowledge.
Today I never look at my keyboard, it's 36 keys and its no use looking as no symbol represents what happens when you press the key. I am a better typist, not better at software though.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really starts strong too. The first couple of episodes are fantastic.
Huh. I haven’t rewatched the show, but when I saw it originally - admittedly shortly after watching Mad Men - I thought “this is trying to be Mad Men, but it’s the '80s and in the computer industry” and interpreted Lee Pace as a laundered Don Draper. The show is much more, and much better, than that though. I’m glad I kept watching.
That’s how I pitch it to people because it gets them to watch it, but it is definitely distinct from it. Same energy though
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#48There'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…
I'm from back then, love programming, and I can't type. Just can't be bothered learning how; it's not the bottleneck.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#49Love how many people here are thinking this is about (or just taking it as an opportunity to talk about) the under-appreciated TV show!
I mean, it is the thing that made me go down this rabbit hole. Need to watch it now!
Re: Halt and Catch Fire
#50Stories like these are what endear me to my chosen career.
I suspect they hooked me with "byte" and "nybble"… And it just got better the more immersed I got in the history, Jargon Files…