Halt and Catch Fire(tv series)

[S1500]

Just saw the pilot of this last night. This show has promise for a fun summer series. It takes place in '83(had me right at that point) about a small team trying to reverse-engineer the IBM PC. It's on AMC, and you can watch it fuss-free off their website.

[MarkO]

 

Available to watch Episode 01, I/O at AMC until 01-JUN-2014.

[S1500]

Last night's episode was OK. The team seems to be in for a rough ride.

[SSG]

I saw it and I was intrested but its going to take alot to be called a favorite.

[John_L]

I've been watching it, and it's a pretty decent show. As usual, there's a lot of inaccuracies, for example, the character Cameron alludes to the Internet without mentioning it by name, but in reality, people in the PC community back then had no clue or care about networking. The closest thing back in those days was dial up to a local BBS, no one was thinking about a global network for PCs to connect to. Sure the Internet did exists back then (as Arpanet I believe until 1984 when the military network was separated and the rest continued on as NSFnet, ultimately becoming the Internet. Other things are over the top too, Like a hot blonde who writes BIOS software while listening to death metal is a bit overboard. For starters, people who wrote BIOS software were A) Male, and B) not pretty, and C) didn't listen to death metal while coding assembly language BIOS routines. Beyond all that though, it's well written and well acted. I have to say I was thrown for a loop when the Joe MacMillan character reveals his bisexuality in the 3rd episode. I laughed when he pulled his signature move (spinning around his partner quickly for rear access) on the guy in episode 3 after he kissed him. I laughed and said "Oh... I see, that signature move goes both ways!. Despite some minor techy inaccuracies, it holds up really well as a drama, and I'm not calling it a favorite show, but it's got me tuning in each week to see where it heads next. They seem to have everyone on the hook about when they'll get their PC out, but it's looking like it's going to be soon as they're in trouble and need to get the ball rolling soon as the company is in big trouble.

 

Also, I guess it's a bit nostalgic, because that goes back to a time when I was 19 years old... so I think that has a bit to do with it. (And perhaps why I'm in a vintage forum!!)

Edited July 2, 2014 by John_L

[MarkO]

I don't recall them mentioning why the clean room BIOS was important.. That being that careful was a New Thing..

 

After Apple sued Franklin and then IBM sued Eagle, direct copying was known to get you in trouble.. Compaq and Phoenix Technologies were two companies that used two sets of Engineers to make a clean BIOS..

 

I noticed a few little mistakes here and there, but the total amount of "jargon" is fantastic.. I really wonder if people that haven't lived through these events are following most of the conversations.. Sometimes the conversation moves pretty fast.. for me its a refresher..

 

MarkO

[JamesD]

I started to watch the series but lost interest when they started throwing jargon around and in a couple instances it was inappropriate.

I thought it was a bit over the top as well.

[John_L]

Yeah, the whole jargon inaccuracy thing is something inherent in tv and movies. It's something you just have to look past. One TV show that always got the jargon right was Star Trek:TNG. The writers, who came up with the stories weren't technical, so they would just insert the world "tech" where tech terms would be used, then technical advisers would come in and fill in the jargon so it made sense. The cast would often receive the script after it was written, but before the tech jargon was inserted, making line memorization difficult.

 

Space movies are especially bad at this. In Gravity for example, Clooney's character said the debris was going to come around again in 90 seconds, but that would only be true if the ISS was stationary in orbit, and if the ISS was stationary it would drop like a rock. There were lots of issues like that in Gravity, not to mention the plot was really weak. Also, just about any space movie has characters jumping into a space suit and running outside to rescue someone. That would only be possible if suits pressurized to 14.7 lbs / sq in, but then the suit would be like a rock and you wouldn't be able to bend your arms, legs, fingers, etc because the suit pressure is so high. In reality, it's a couple of hours process to don a suit and go outside.

 

In the end, you just have to look past the inconsistencies and try to be entertained by the story rather than nit pick the inconsistencies that are so obvious to us. Honestly, most people who watch don't have our level of knowledge, and nothing seems amiss to them.

[bojay1997]

I've been watching it, and it's a pretty decent show. As usual, there's a lot of inaccuracies, for example, the character Cameron alludes to the Internet without mentioning it by name, but in reality, people in the PC community back then had no clue or care about networking. The closest thing back in those days was dial up to a local BBS, no one was thinking about a global network for PCs to connect to. Sure the Internet did exists back then (as Arpanet I believe until 1984 when the military network was separated and the rest continued on as NSFnet, ultimately becoming the Internet. Other things are over the top too, Like a hot blonde who writes BIOS software while listening to death metal is a bit overboard. For starters, people who wrote BIOS software were A) Male, and B) not pretty, and C) didn't listen to death metal while coding assembly language BIOS routines. Beyond all that though, it's well written and well acted. I have to say I was thrown for a loop when the Joe MacMillan character reveals his bisexuality in the 3rd episode. I laughed when he pulled his signature move (spinning around his partner quickly for rear access) on the guy in episode 3 after he kissed him. I laughed and said "Oh... I see, that signature move goes both ways!. Despite some minor techy inaccuracies, it holds up really well as a drama, and I'm not calling it a favorite show, but it's got me tuning in each week to see where it heads next. They seem to have everyone on the hook about when they'll get their PC out, but it's looking like it's going to be soon as they're in trouble and need to get the ball rolling soon as the company is in big trouble.

 

Also, I guess it's a bit nostalgic, because that goes back to a time when I was 19 years old... so I think that has a bit to do with it. (And perhaps why I'm in a vintage forum!!)

You're incorrect about people not having a conception of the Internet in 1983. Services like Compuserve (under the name Micronet through Radio Shack) were definitely around and people very involved in the academic and scientific and corporate business communities were using networked computers well before 1983. I don't think anyone had a firm idea of what the Internet could become, but to say that nobody talked about networked computers is just incorrect.

 

As for female programmers and hackers, while they were rarer than their male counterparts, they certainly existed. Indeed, a large number of women programmers were involved in both the ENIAC and UNIVAC projects.

 

http://www.trs-80.org/compuserve/

[TPA5]

I personally thought it was a little bland for my tastes, didn't really interest my inner vintage nerd, and I found the characters to be relatively unlikable. It felt like the characters were arrogant business guy who leads the team, punk female chick who doesn't give a damn about what the man says cause she's way to cool for that, and that rascally bearded engineer who does the grunt engineering work. Blah.

[John_L]

You're incorrect about people not having a conception of the Internet in 1983. Services like Compuserve (under the name Micronet through Radio Shack) were definitely around and people very involved in the academic and scientific and corporate business communities were using networked computers well before 1983. I don't think anyone had a firm idea of what the Internet could become, but to say that nobody talked about networked computers is just incorrect.

 

As for female programmers and hackers, while they were rarer than their male counterparts, they certainly existed. Indeed, a large number of women programmers were involved in both the ENIAC and UNIVAC projects.

 

http://www.trs-80.org/compuserve/

I was speaking in generalities, yes, what is not referred to as the Internet today existed as did other Networks not connected to the Internet, but I'm speaking about the general PC public. In those days, most people in most home and business applications didn't require networking, and people didn't have a clue what it could do for them. Overall, back in those days, most people had no clue about networking, and even those who didn't envision the applications we use it for today. I just used Cameron's statement as a vague attempt at making her look visionary by referencing something that exists today that did not then, that's all.

 

I also didn't mean to degrade women as programmers either.. From Ada Lovelace to Admiral Grace Hopper, who btw, carried nanoseconds in her pocket.... short pieces of wire cut to the length electricity travels in 1 nanosecond), woman can and do contribute to the art. Again, I was speaking more in terms of odds... which were 20 to 1 you'd run into a Steve Wozniak over a woman, particularly a young, hot blonde one. And the whole "BLARING Death Metal with BIOS asm coding" thing... that just doesn't happen, it takes a bit more concentration than one could muster listening to that regardless if one liked it or not.

[John_L]

One thing I will say about it... it does seem to be a thinly veiled attempt of the Steve Jobs/Wozniak/Apple story... Joe MacMillian is the visionary businessman who has some, but not alot of technical know how, who spouts memorable quotes.. sound familiar? Gordon Clark is the engineering genius who built his own computer, and cares more about making cool stuff than making money... again, sound familiar. Even Cardiff Electric, the company that they work for, and are hated, by because of the predicament they've been placed in, can be viewed as the board at Apple who forced out Jobs... and the women are thrown in for eye candy and to obfuscate the obvious Apple comparison.

[Goochman]

Ill chime in on the 'personal pc bbs connection' - back in the early 80's there were a # of BBS's that would handle msg transfer across the US. I could hold a conversation with another user on the other side of the country due to the BBS software handling the 'networking'. Of course it took a day to send and then receive a msg back but it was a start

[JamesD]

I logged into a mainframe at a University from the College I started at in 1983. We programmed that machine remotely from our terminals.
I remember a professor using The Source online service at that time as well.
It's not the internet as we know it today and it certainly wasn't called the internet, but anyone that had been to college around that time should have been aware of networking.

Most business systems at that time didn't use networking as we know it, they used serial ports with terminals for multi-user applications.
From multi-user MP/M systems to mainframes, that's how it was done.
I worked for a company that still did that in the '90s.

My problem with that show isn't the occasional misplaced jargon, it was the constant misplaced jargon and over dramatization of events.
This series is all fluff and little substance IMHO.

The problems with Gravity abound, I could go on and on about that, but the factual errors could be overlooked because suspense made the movie and you actually like the characters.

[JamesD]

Ill chime in on the 'personal pc bbs connection' - back in the early 80's there were a # of BBS's that would handle msg transfer across the US. I could hold a conversation with another user on the other side of the country due to the BBS software handling the 'networking'. Of course it took a day to send and then receive a msg back but it was a start

I know that was up and running by the mid to late '80s but at the time this show is set at, I don't think they had a bbs relay up and running.

People were still using 300 baud. I purchased my first 1200 baud modem in '86 and I think 2400 baud had just been released.

 

[John_L]

I remember BBS message relay services too, it was that sort of ability to communicate for free with people around the country, and showed off what networking could do for the average Joe. My point was that in those early days, no one realized fully what networking could do for them, not that they didn't know networking didn't existed, but that in a general sense, most users didn't use, or think they had much use for, networking. Sure, there was alot of networking going on back in those days, but not by your average home computer user. BBSs were popular, and eventually some BBSs became part of a large message exchange service where one BBS would call another and exchange messages once a day. Also back in those days was Rusty & Edie's BBS. Probably the biggest one ever, and definitely the hardest to fall. Back in those days, there were about 8 or 9 locally reachable BBSs in my local calling area, and I remember wishing I lived in Cleveland where there were over 100. Rusty & Edies was a huge and blatant pirate board, and ultimately was shut down by the FBI (Who confiscated over 100 computers and related equipment!!!).

[Goochman]

I know that was up and running by the mid to late '80s but at the time this show is set at, I don't think they had a bbs relay up and running.

People were still using 300 baud. I purchased my first 1200 baud modem in '86 and I think 2400 baud had just been released.

 

 

I can vouch their were relays in the early 80's with 300 baud modems. I stopped my BBS'ing around '82 so most of this was 80-81.

[+DZ-Jay]

Is the show available on Netflix or anywhere else?

[Osgeld]

amc.com

[S1500]

This show is a nutty roller coaster ride.

[S1500]

Last episode of the season tonight!