[ale] Computer centric Movies/TV Shows

Ken Cochran kwc at TheWorld.com
Tue Sep 25 08:52:28 EDT 2018


Well, drifting OT (to book instead of movie/TV), that sounds
like the storyline of The Cuckoo's Egg, by Clifford Stoll,
highly recommended btw.  AFAIK there hasn't been a film by
that title (licensing?) but your documentary reference sounds
almost identical.  (Stoll's adversary was Bulgarian AFAIR.)
Long-ago former IT beancounter here too.  -kc

> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2018 12:27:41 +0000
> Subject: Re: [ale] Computer centric Movies/TV Shows
> From: "Lightner, Jeffrey via Ale" <ale at ale.org>
> Reply-To: "Lightner, Jeffrey" <JLightner at dsservices.com>,
>         Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts <ale at ale.org>
>
> Documentaries comment reminds me of an old one called "The
> CIA, the KGB and Me" about a guy who discovered East German
> hackers accessing CIA computer via his mainframe.  He found
> them due to the fact there was "time" used on the computer
> he couldn't figure out to which department in his company it
> should be billed.   That appeals to me as an ex-bean counter
> as well as an IT person.
>
> Hollywood movies being clueless:  The original Jurassic Park
> where the little girl is going to undo what the professional
> admin did to sabotage the computers.   A funny moment though
> was when she sits down and says something like "Ugh, it's UNIX".
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ale [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Simba via Ale
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2018 12:01 AM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] Computer centric Movies/TV Shows
>
> Oh man you should see it! Cereal Killer is my fave ;)
>
> Sandra Bullock is cool. The only thing I liked about that film
> if I remember...
>
> Mr. Robot may be an exception but it's lightyears ahead of
> what the 1990s were like. And it also a phenomenal production
> in general, those two things seem to go hand in hand.
>
> I don't expect folks who make their careers in filmography or
> sound or casting actors and so forth to be computer experts,
> but I have a lot more respect for productions which consult
> with experts for accuracy.
>
> Simba Lion - https://tailpuff.net
> https://keybase.io/simbalion
>
> "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
>
> On 9/24/18 11:54 PM, A. P. Garcia wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 24, 2018, 11:43 PM Simba via Ale <ale at ale.org
> > <mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
> >
> >     Yeah but The Net was stupid. Hackers was at least funny :) All the
> >     characters are lovable and it doesn't even try to take the technology
> >     seriously.
> >
> >     Of course it's worth remembering that back then literally none of those
> >     "hollywood" people knew anything about computers. They weren't trying to
> >     be ironic or anything, it just turned out that way.
> >
> >
> > I never saw Hackers. I'm not going to argue the merits of The Net. I
> > didn't particularly like it, but I didn't particularly hate it either.
> > I do kind of like Sandra Bullock though.
> >
> > Alas, those Hollywood people haven't improved much. There are some
> > fairly respectable representations of technology in the media now, but
> > there's also still a lot of crap.


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