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Linux and Gnome Go to the Movies
brandonj writes "Looks like the new movie, Antitrust, will be using GNOME as their desktop in the movie. Here are screenshots and the Antitrust movie homepage is here. The movie will in theaters January 12." The website has a little bio for Maddog and Miguel.
I personally found it humorous that the movie's producers seem to be aiming for the geek market, but apparently ommitted a Linux version of the screen saver. Think someone will throw a fit about this? :)
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Finding God in a Dog
How realistic the screen they show is, is usually up to the director. However, as the previous post said, the FX people who are in charge of providing the computer that does what the script says it does will invariablly use a Mac running something like Director (a sort of Power Point for more dynamic displays and cut-n-paste movies). The actors will have to interact with this machine the same way over and over through many reshoots of the same sceene, so you want something very... well, scripted... on the screen.
Let's take a solid example. Let's say that the person working on the screen is supposed to click on a link and then go to a shell window and run a command.
Take 1: Click on the link. Browser is sluggish for no obvious reason, ruins shot.
Take 2: Click on the link. Page comes up, click on text window to bring it to foregroud, but actor misses and brings wrong text window up. Ruins shot.
Take 3: Launch PC running GNOME out window and install Mac (with PC-like keyboard and monitor) running Director. Actor screws up line.
Takes 4-10: Actors get it right, but director want's additional coverage.
I hope this clears it up....
Its screenshots of Gnome, doctored up by a graphic designer and written into director-style animations, so all the actor needs to do to interact with it is hit a key to go to the next frame or animation sequence.
Actually, the computer industry is moving away from that practice and moving towards hacker doubles: CS majors who take the actor's place when he/she is at the keyboard. We already saw this in The Net... It *looks* like Sandra Bullock sitting in front of the computer, but in fact, it's Alan Cox.
He was wearing make-up. And a hat. Not the usual one. One Sandra Bullock might wear. Were you fooled too?
Just because it's running GNOME doesn't necessarily mean its underlying OS must be Linux. It could just as easily be Solaris, NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, FreeBSD, HP-UX, or any other platform which GNOME runs on. Claiming it is Linux just by GNOME is highly erroneous.
Is it just me, or did anyone else notice the Windows code in the screenshots? I.e., "GetDlgItemText(hDlg...)"
does anyone else find it interesting that video interviews of leaders of the open source and linux/unix movements are being show in quicktime?
"yeah bill, i've got my interview on the web!" - "where, mig?" - "right here, but damn hold on, gotta install windows first."
riiiight...
http://kered.org
Yeah! Lets just pirate the movie and watch it at home!
>>> Sarcasm mdoe off
Mission Impossible #1 used Netscape for most of the
computer screen shots.
You've Got Mail had the typist reading their mail
out loud to themselves.
Jurassic Park #1 used VR flythoughs on a Silicon
Graphics with Connection Machines in the background.
War Games had speaking computer terminals.
Original Star Trek has a feminine speaking computer. However, Spock always seems to be looking
into a oscilloscope hood for readouts.
2001: Space Oddessy was most prescient. They had
video monitor graphics before computer graphics images was invented. The best at the time was stoking lines on an oscilloscope display.
Hungarian notation is ugly on an aesthetic level. This alone however is not enough to condemn it's usage.
There are however, better ways for a programer to find out the type of a variable or the definition of a function, namely just run ctags on all your code, and then use an editor that supports tag-based navigation (vim and emacs do, off the top of my head). This allows you to effortlessly jump to the thing's original spot o' definition, and back to where you were. I dare say this is easier to use (no decoding xyLDsTRdyQvariable_name anymore)... ;-)
--
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Warning: rant starting
Tim Robbins was great in The Shawshank Redemption and all, but I have a hard time believing that idiot could run a neighborhood reading group, let alone be an Evil Corporate Execitive. In the scenes shown during the previews, he does everything short of mustache twirling to make sure you know he is a bad guy.
Just once, it would be nice to see a high-tech thriller that is not completely built around the Baby Boom Generation's irrational fear of computers, corporations, and/or suburban life.
What these Hollywood dicks fail to see is that normal Americans, especially young people who go to a lot of movies, don't fear technology. At all. Even if some nefarious Evil CEO(TM) wanted to sneak a camera into my PC, how would an actual hacker kid react? "Yay! Free camera! I bet I can hack this!"
Out here in the real world, corporations don't give a shit about who you are our what you are doing. They only care about what they can sell you and how much you will pay for it.
Every year, Hollywood makes another crop of movies to tell us that the Star Chambers of Wall Street are out to destroy us... but most of us know that Corporation is the river by which wealth and prosperity flow to us. Without corporations, there would be no Hollywood productions to complain about them, and no customers with enough money to go to the movies. So shut the hell up, Tim Robbins. Nobody cares about what frightens you.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Does this mean that RMS will go ape crazy on their asses for not GPL'ing the movie because it includes GNOME (and GPL'ed code)?
End the insanity!
47.5% Slashdot Pure(52.5% Corrupt)
This has been said before about earlier movies, but NO movie director would put a real computer system in front of actors. Its screenshots of Gnome, doctored up by a graphic designer and written into director-style animations, so all the actor needs to do to interact with it is hit a key to go to the next frame or animation sequence.
Usually in films it is the big commercial offerings that get this sort of product placement, and the Directors don't mind, because expensive things are sexy status symbols (I fell for my last boyfriend because fo his car, so it is probably a bad mistake to make ;).
But for Linux, it is important that it try and be sexy to appeal to the vacant audience that Windows and Macintosh so succesfully manages. When it gets sexy enough, lots more people should start using it. People are stupid that way ;)
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
Miguel and John Hall are in it.
--
Ian Peters
Let's see. The movie is being put out, in part, by RSA Security Systems; the script involves a dashing young computer geek with an artist girlfriend; and the GNOME shots, with a possible Miguel cameo, get the Slashdot crowd.
Do you think they may be aiming for a certain demographic? Hm?
ObJectBridge (GPL'd Java ODMG) needs volunteers.
Finding God in a Dog
I guess they only figured out that Linux was cool after they tried to forbid Free DVD software...? They _are_ part of the MPAA. Too bad the target audience won't be able to view this movie once it's kicked out of the bioses. Dehh.
It's... It's...
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
Remember that the dollars you give the studio when you go to the theatre are being used to lobby for laws like the DMCA, wage lawsuits like MPAA vs. Eric Corley, and lobby the FCC on copy-controls for digital broadcasts (just to name a few of the more well-known examples of the ways the MPAA members are attempting to limit your freedom).
Let's not give these pricks the chance to use our own money against us.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
A number of us have been looking forward to this movie for almost a year!
You see, it was filmed on the campus of the University of Britich Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. It was quite entertaining watching them film it. We all got a good laugh over the giant monitor and keyboard sticking out of the ground by one of the arts buildings.
As well, the large white building with the glowing "Computer Science Department" sign is actually our CS department! Unfortunately they didn't leave that nice glowing sign. =)
Anyhow, it sounds like a typical lame movie plot line, but who knows, it could actually turn out to be cool!
We're definately going to see it when it comes out, and will be playing "spot the UBC building" through the entire movie.
Cool to see Gnome was used in it too! I only wish we actually HAD linux machines available for student use.... well, we will in about 2 months, but that's another story. =)
antarctican at trams dot ca
Yeah i remember that line, its funny though, the girl in jurrassic park identified unix by looking at a 3rd party GUI tool running on linux and immediately identified it as unix. She was then able to immediately use that application to achieve tasks that the systems designers couldnt do 5 minutes earlier, seems all unix apps are intuitive after all.
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