Anyone interested in seeing Halt And Catch Fire?

[AnthonyCordova]

It's a new AMC show. AMC has been great for television recently. It's a drama about 80's computer enthusiasts and hackers. I really love the topic/genre, and I hope it works out. There isn't too much information about it yet. In the states it airs on Sunday night. The premiere was last night, but I missed it. Anyone see it?

 

[sk]

I haven't seen it, or even heard of it before.
But I will check it out now.

80's computer enthusiasts is a subject that is close to home. 🙂

/SK

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Yeah, I was just a wee little boy then, but I've always had an interest in computer history and culture, especially during the 90's with the public Internet and such.

 

[sk]

It's a fun and interesting period, it has always fascinated me.
I got my first taste of computers myself back in the 80's. Think it was '83 and it has been my hobby ever since...

My hope is that the show will do this properly. That they keeps it realistic and gets their facts right.
I want to see something that could've really happened. Not some fantasy, super hacker thing.

/SK

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I agree totally. I'm cautiously optimistic, based on what I've learned so far about it.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

I must dust off my Ohio Scientific superboard now...

6502 processor, 4K of RAM, we were living large. And it had Microsoft BASIC version 1.0.

I also have a Samsung 386 machine running DOS 6.0.

 

[AnthonyCordova]

I must dust off my Ohio Scientific superboard now...

6502 processor, 4K of RAM, we were living large. And it had Microsoft BASIC version 1.0.

I also have a Samsung 386 machine running DOS 6.0.

Ha! You guys sound Old school...My first proper computer came in the 90's. My dad was a computer programmer back in the day though. Actually, My brother and i had an old commodore of some kind in the 80's but I was too young to know what to do with it. I do miss windows 98 though. Every successive windows os has been dumbed down since then. I miss the Internet of the late 90's also. It's been thorougly commoditized now, but that's a long conversation

 

[Buffy Summers]

One word: Logo .

 

[sk]

One word: Logo .

If you're talking about what I think you are I have personally never used it.
Not even sure what you're supposed to do with it.

Have seen the turtle thing that draw lines though. 🙂
Guess it can be a good way to introduce people to programming...

Perhaps I should try it on my nephew and nieces.
They could need someone who nudges them to the "right" path. 😉

Regarding the show - I have just "required" the first episode.
Will try and watch it later tonight.

/SK

 

[Buffy Summers]

Yup. FD 100 RIGHT 45 😀 😀

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Alright, I finally saw the premiere last night.

I really, really liked it. I think it will be my new favorite show. I liked the combination of main characters in the show, and the drama was set-up nicely for the rest of the season. I don't want to give anything away, but the makers of the show definitely did their homework and everything seemed completely plausible (at least to the best of my knowledge). If the subject matter interests you Watch It!

If anyone is having a hard time finding a place to watch it online, private message me.

 

[sk]

Yeah, I liked it. Gonna keep watching it anyway.
Always fun to see some old computers and stuff...

Was a bit worried at the beginning though. Cameron Howe seemed to be the kind of character that I didn't want to see.
I kinda liked her more towards the end though so I still have hope. 🙂

Not that I am an expert or anything but I don't think the reverse engineering thing felt particular realistic either.
But it was good enough. I don't have a problem with actually.

Will see how they will handle the technical stuff in future episode.
I hope that they dig into that and does not just concentrate on the family drama and the business stuff.

But it's hard to have an opinion after the first episode.
I think the second episode is much more important when deciding if a show looks good or not.

/SK

 

[AnthonyCordova]

Yeah, I liked it. Gonna keep watching it anyway.
Always fun to see some old computers and stuff...

Was a bit worried at the beginning though. Cameron Howe seemed to be the kind of character that I didn't want to see.
I kinda liked her more towards the end though so I still have hope. 🙂

Not that I am an expert or anything but I don't think the reverse engineering thing felt particular realistic either.
But it was good enough. I don't have a problem with actually.

Will see how they will handle the technical stuff in future episode.
I hope that they dig into that and does not just concentrate on the family drama and the business stuff.

But it's hard to have an opinion after the first episode.
I think the second episode is much more important when deciding if a show looks good or not.

/SK

Thinking about it again this morning and after reading your post, yeah, I should take a step back or two. I'm prone to getting overexcited and losing my objectivity when I like the subject matter so much that I don't want it to fail. Plus, it was really late last night when I watched it and posted.

I don't know enough about computers of that era to really say if the 'reverse engineering' trick is actually plausible. I can't have an opinion about that.

Yes, Cameron Howe was a cliche character, just what you'd expect for a show like this. We'll see how that goes. I liked her anyway though.

I'm hoping for a nice balance between the technical side of things and the human drama. A show like this is going to have to put some time into exploring the human drama, because otherwise it wouldn't be successful (most people aren't interested in the technical subject matter I think). But hopefully it can strike a nice balance between the two and keep the 'technical' computer fans and the casual fans both happy, which is what it will need to do if it is going to persist.

 

[sk]

Thinking about it again this morning and after reading your post, yeah, I should take a step back or two. I'm prone to getting overexcited and losing my objectivity when I like the subject matter so much that I don't want it to fail. Plus, it was really late last night when I watched it and posted.

🙂 I actually watched it a second time before I made my post.
But I don't think you were wrong to be excited about it. I think it can be a really good show.

I don't know enough about computers of that era to really say if the 'reverse engineering' trick is actually plausible. I can't have an opinion about that.

It's not that reverse engineering isn't plausible. That has been done for real. Didn't compaq started that way for example?
I'm not sure if I missed something but as I understood it did they talk about figuring out the BIOS code. But for that they surely just could have used an eprom reader?
Anyway... it doesn't really matter. I don't want to be the know-it-all guy that points out details about a subject that I'm actually not that familiar with to be honest. 😱

I'm hoping for a nice balance between the technical side of things and the human drama. A show like this is going to have to put some time into exploring the human drama, because otherwise it wouldn't be successful (most people aren't interested in the technical subject matter I think). But hopefully it can strike a nice balance between the two and keep the 'technical' computer fans and the casual fans both happy, which is what it will need to do if it is going to persist.

I agree. The show will probably not succeed if they do the kind show that would love to see. 😀

/SK

 

[AnthonyCordova]

It's not that reverse engineering isn't plausible. That has been done for real. Didn't compaq started that way for example?
I'm not sure if I missed something but as I understood it did they talk about figuring out the BIOS code. But for that they surely just could have used an eprom reader?
Anyway... it doesn't really matter. I don't want to be the know-it-all guy that points out details about a subject that I'm actually not that familiar with to be SK

You got me there. The episode is called input/output, so yeah, I do believe they were copying the Basic input/output system code (and I think they said as much). You're right, I would think an EEPROM reader should be able to read the BIOS code. But I don't know much more about those devices.There had to have been a reason though, surely(?) stupid question coming, but how long have commercial EEPROM readers been available?

---------- Post added at 04:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ----------

I want to ask my father about it. I'll try and get him to see it, I'm sure he'll have an opinion, and much more qualified than mine (obviously). I didn't follow him into a career in computers. I always wanted to be a Philosophy or Mythology professor.

 

[sk]

You got me there. The episode is called input/output, so yeah, I do believe they were copying the Basic input/output system code (and I think they said as much). You're right, I would think an EEPROM reader should be able to read the BIOS code. But I don't know much more about those devices.There had to have been a reason though, surely(?) stupid question coming, but how long have commercial EEPROM readers been available?.

Actually, I think it's a bit silly to complain about it as I kinda did.
It was a short montage of 4 long days of work. It's not like they went into the details of it so who knows what they were doing exactly.

As I said in the beginning, I don't have a problem with it, it's a TV show, not a documentary.
Sure, I would like them to be as realistic as possible but I understand the need to make it understandable and accessible for as many as possible and that's okay.

/SK