On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Anthony Clifton wrote:
> Secondly, in the scene when WOPR CALLS HIM BACK and he looks all freaked
> and pulls the plug out of the phone, how does the game timer keep
> running AFTER he has disconnected from WOPR?
WOPR downloaded a Java aplet into his computer that the web browser
continued to execute! C'mon, that one's easy!
> Thirdly, the cheapy paperback book made when the movie came out, based on
> the movie, descibes a much more hackeresque computer in his room...it
> describes how he put it together with "chewing gum and baling wire" and
> how Malvin and Jim Sting helped him with parts and advice and how he
> learned more spending one summer with them at the computer center than he
> had in a year in Mr. Liggett's biology class.
Melvin is it? That nerd is the BEST! "That thing's probably got top
secret data encryption algorithms!"
"Mr. Potato-Head! MR. POTATO-HEAD!! Back doors are not secret!"
> Fourthly, not directly related but it seems that every few years a
> counter-culture type movie comes out that inspires tech-heads to go "Free
> the World"
>
> 1983 - Wargames - Hackers
<spawned a generation of wannabe "hackers">
> 1991 - Pump Up the Volume - Pirate Radio DJs (read alt.radio.pirate)
<bleah> <well, not bad actually>
> 1996 - The Craft - Counter-Culture Religion
<oh please>
How about _Hackers_? That surely set off the latest wave of techno
dweebies who think just because they can connect to a URL they've hacked
into a system.
> All the screens in the War Room were REAL BTW...they were driven by an HP
> Vector Graphics generator coupled with a video projector of some sort and
> then color was added in post-production. Although my memory of the
> article could be a bit off.
Ok, we have a conflict of nerd movie trivia here. Was it CompuPro S-100
boxes or HP Vector Graphics generators?
> Wargames STILL has the most REALISTIC (strangely, enough) computer
> special effects (screens, etc) of any movie ever...even with movies like
> Sneakers and The Net.
Yep! Oh, yeah, _Sneakers_. Where data encryption involves spitting out
simple ciphered characters and then this amazing box which cracks all the
encryption in the world and descrypts the characters on the screen.
Yeah, I believe that.
The Net. One word: EXTREMELY-RETARDED. (its hyphenated...one word)
> It's important to remember that Wargames wasn't about hacking and
> computers. It was about the foolishness of the Cold War. Basically it
> says, "Hey if a dumb computer can figure out how stupid it is, why can't
> we?" BTW General Berringer's line (something like) "I don't know about
> you but I'm not about to trust the security of the nation to a SILICON
> diode!" has a real-life origin. There was, in fact, in the late 70s or
> very early 80s a false missile launch detection resulting from a fried
> passive component like a diode. Somewhere I have an article about it.
Sure, but how many people decided that the message was "It's cool to hack
into military computers because you can get chicks and turn into the hero
in the end"?
> In the book, when David walks in while Jim Sting is underneath his desk,
> he says "Hey Captain Crunch, I'm from Ma Bell and Boy is she pissed!"
Nobody would've understood that reference. Nobody would today either.
> I occasionally have Hacker Movie nights where all my computer friends
> (some of whom were REAL hackers but I plead the fifth) come over and we
> watch Wargames and Johnny Mnemonic or The Net and Sneakers, etc etc.
> (Sandra Bullock in a black two-piece can come over and interface with me
> anytime!) =-)
I did this one time with my friends..._War Games_, _THX1138_, and damn,
what was that other movie from the 80s that involves computers and
hacking and stuff?
_Operation Condor_ (is that the name of it? The one with Robert Redford)
has THE most realistic scenes in terms of phone hacking. Like when
Redford's character is in the basement phone room and is tapping that one
dude.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Tue Sep 23 1997 - 17:55:08 BST