The girl with the ANSI tattoo • Hacker News Board

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#71

Post by KC8ZKF » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:15 PM UTC

bitwize wrote: post #59

KC8ZKF wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The audio version of Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE" has our hero saving data in a "ee em ay see ess file." But really, nobody ever says things like "I need a dedicated Linux box running Apache with a MySQL back end" outside of an Aaron Sorkin script.

No, they say things like "I need a SinoLogic 16, Sogo-7 Datagloves, a GPL stealth module, one Burdine Intelligent Translator, and Thompson eyephones." When all else fails, make shit up.

Sorkin has a tendency write over-specific dialog, with lots of jargon. For this he is lauded for being accurate, but it sounds stilted. Throw in three or four overwrought soliloquies, and the man wins an Academy Award. I just don't understand his appeal.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#72

Post by wonnage » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:16 PM UTC

Heh, tried to share this on Facebook and got a "blogspot.co.uk is spam" warning.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#73

Post by waterlesscloud » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:16 PM UTC

I tried to share this on my Facebook timeline (I have a lot of movie geek friends and computer geek friends), but I was not allowed to since it comes from an "overly spammy site".

First time I've seen that...

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#74

Post by bitwize » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:17 PM UTC

idleloops wrote: post #51

Great article. My pet peeves in shows/movies, are normally around the fact that it takes more than a few seconds to do anything useful on a computer. And yet on film even idiots seem to command their gadgetry with aplomb. They should show failed password attempts. Computer lock ups. Anti-virus software blocking any meaningful use of the computer. Frustration of users as they are prevented from booting due to system u…

I wish computers were omitted entirely sometimes - they are pointless props, and just age the movie. Couldn't they just say - 'I searched for blah'?

I hated this movie, but one thing I'm glad of is they actually showed computer use more sparingly than in the book. The book was rife with "Hollywood hacking", and was otherwise a pain in the ass to read.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#75

Post by adorton » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:19 PM UTC

pyre wrote: post #26

wpietri wrote: post #17

Please nobody let Hollywood see this blog. Somebody's going to say, "Man, we went to all that trouble to make it look realistic. But it doesn't work. Fuck it. Bring back the guy who did the interfaces for Jurassic Park. And the guy who writes Wesley Crusher's dialog." --- Update: I love that my comment mocking excess nitpicking now has triggered triple-redundant nitpicking.

> interfaces for Jurassic Park Replace Jurassic Park with "Operation Swordfish" or "Hackers," and you might be on to something. Especially since the Jurassic Park interface was a real program that actually existed.

Hackers is funny, but I watched it recently and was surprised at the realistic touches. In one scene, a character is showing off his "hacking" books - which included the dragon book, and a Unix book I believe is real.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#76

Post by callmeed » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:27 PM UTC

On a related note, I asked about fake UIs/OSs on quora a while back: http://www.quora.com/Why-do-movies-and-TV-shows-often-show-f...

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#77

Post by jgfoot » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

ralfd wrote: post #14

jeffool wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Social Network was good about it. Someone online actually reedited the scene where he was grabbing images from frat sites and edited in scenes from other films, like Hacker's "virtual skyscrapers", and suddenly it was like a real Hollywood film again!

We recognize when movies dumb computer stuff down, but the truth is they do it always! Imagine sitting beside a big horse nerd and every time a horse is on the screen and makes this typical horse noise they would comment "the horse didn't make the sound" or white walkers are killing the night watch behind the wall and "this horse is not really frightened but relaxed and listens curiously" or every time there is a mig…

You don't have to imagine a horse expert getting upset about unrealistic portrayals of horses. Check out this take on the Spielberg film _War Horse_ for a lack of "agricultural realism:" "Ploughing that stony virgin (never ploughed) field with a team of sturdy cobs would have been improbable; with a puny thoroughbred it was ludicrous."

http://www.riverford.co.uk/feed/in:news/ploughing-spielberg-...

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#78

Post by mbyrne » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:30 PM UTC

You're all wrong. It's pretty clear they had to obfuscate what she really wrote so no one could use it to "hack into the mainframe," on advice from their lawyers to avoid liability.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#79

Post by Simucal » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:34 PM UTC

adorton wrote: post #75

pyre wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interfaces for Jurassic Park Replace Jurassic Park with "Operation Swordfish" or "Hackers," and you might be on to something. Especially since the Jurassic Park interface was a real program that actually existed.

Hackers is funny, but I watched it recently and was surprised at the realistic touches. In one scene, a character is showing off his "hacking" books - which included the dragon book, and a Unix book I believe is real.

A lot of the phone phreaking scenes in the movie were pretty real as well.

Re: The girl with the ANSI tattoo

#80

Post by myko » Thu, May 31, 2012, 4:34 PM UTC

nhebb wrote: post #69

mibbitier wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing is, if you're "good" at something, and a movie gets it wrong, it can ruin the movie for you. My pet hate is people playing the piano, but playing the wrong notes (While the soundtrack is playing something different).

Exactly. My pet peeve is military depictions in movies. I can't recall a movie that's gotten even the basics right. I may be nitpicking, but it does detract from the viewing experience.

Black Hawk Down, Jarhead come to mind as modern examples of basically correct (though the behavior of some of the Delta force in BHD is overly exaggerated).