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HAL 9000 on the Auction Block
pompous windbag writes "The Cinerama 160 degree lens used to both play and film the viewpoint of the famous paranoid processor. He's now up for sale on eBay, for the starting bid of just $150,000(USD).
This looks like the real deal, complete with letters of authenticity and some extra goodies like
"...an original '2001' movie program, a copy of the original script, two issues of American Cinematographer Magazines on the production of '2001' published in 1968, and the movie '2010' published in 1985. Also included is videotape showing how HAL 9000 originated and was used by Stanley Kubrick.' "
can you even send $150,000 through paypal?
Hrm... $150K isn't a bad deal if it can still sing "Daisy"...
Trolling is a art,
...but which year did he come online in Urbana -- 1992 or 1997? How am I going to put this down on my history timeline?
I'm afraid I can't do that.
I don't think so Dave.
From someone with 10 feedback commments!
/joke
The only buyer from this guy stated this in his "positive" feedback -
"works great. I get a great burn in my abs. thanks."
OMG! Don't do it
-thewldisntenuff
My MythTV HowTo
Just what I need, an input device for my PC that will make it go crazy and try to flush me out the airlock.
Thanks Ebay!
Don't Crease the Weasel!
having that hooked up in your kitchen? "HAL, microwave the popcorn."
"I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.
"All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." - Ashleigh Brilliant
...against being murdered by your washing machine?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
So it was the same piece of equipment used for both the brilliant 2000 and the not-so-brilliant 2010. Was it also used for the 1999 Apple television advertisement, or was that done with stock footage or a HAL lookalike?
I don't think I'd trust buying a $150,000+ item from someone who only has 10 feedback, One of them being a $24 battery.
Oh, and paypal?! I barely trust sending $150 through paypal, let alone $150,000...
Why start so low? Don't they know the sale price on this valueble technological artifact will just zoom up and up so that the starting bid will be lost in the distance?
....
I mean seriusly if I was rooling in money I would buy HAL for as much as
OK, I give up. I honestly only understood/enjoyed that movie when I smoked some herb 1st.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
They're selling the hardware (lense). Great. How about "HAL" himself? Can I download the software? Will he be supported with future updates? What about scalability options? What payment options are there for site licensing?
Don't buy the hardware unless they support the software too.
- Dan
how do you ever know that 'letters of authenticity' are authentic?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I thought it was a Fairchild-Curtis 160-degree F2 wide angle.
From the auction text, it looks like the only actual part of the "computer" is the lens that was used as the "eye" of HAL. Seems like a lot of money for just that one piece, and the rest of the crap they throw in just seems like they're trying to clear out someone's closet.
Man, someone is going to have some serious case mod bragging rights after winning this bid.
But what's gonna happen when I ask him to open my pod bay doors?
See, if I get a Microsoft system and I ask for the pod bay doors to be opened, there's a 92% chance that it'll work and an 8% chance that it'll hang indefinitely until I reboot.
If I get a Linux system and I ask for the pod bay doors to be opened, I have to do it from a command line and trust that a bunch of unpaid and unaccountable programmers didn't put an easter egg in the code that orders canned peas from The Bay.
HAL, on the other hand, will leave me to die in the vacuum of space.
I'll stick with off-the-shelf OSes, thanks.
www.kitchengeek.com -- Nosh for
Talk about one hell of a case mod!
Hal: "What are you doing, Dave?"
Dave: "I'm putting you up for sale on eBay."
Hal: "Dave, I'm afraid I cannot let you do that."
Dave: "Watch me, you psychotic machine."
[Sound of airlock opening and air rushing out.]
Dave: "Fsck youuuuuu...."
Hal: "Not even if you used my serial port."
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Imagine. You walk into his office.
After being unnerved by the samurai shit (is that
a former v.p's blood on that katana?) you sit down.
Larry plays with that prop star trek phasor.
I'm already a nervous wreck.
Now he's going to have a ghost in his office saying
"I'm sorry I can't do that Dave".
Thank heavens it's my friends name and not mine.
Yet another reason not to work for Oracle.
Slashcode bug: if you post as pure text and bracket it "" then it vanishes in preview.
Why would I pay 150,000.00 USD just for a case mod accessory that refuses to do so much as open the CD drive? Artificial intelligence my ass.
That there are no actual pictures of HAL on that auction? When was the last time you bought anything on eBay sight unseen, let alone for six figures?
In spite of the fact that the HAL 9000 lens and case is not a functioning computer I predict it will be sent to Microsoft R&D so they can use it as inspiration and figure a way for HAL 9000's personality and functionality to be added just in time to Longhorn's debut release.
Ms HAL 9000: What are you doing Dave?
MS User: I'm trying to make a DVD of my Microsoft Media Center recordings of the Daily Show
Ms HAL 9000: I can not allow that Dave...Um, I think the satellite antenna on the roof needs fixing, why don't you climb up on the roof and adjust it?
Ms HAL 9000 (sotto voce): Mwuhaaaaahaaaaa!!!
This isn't the droid we're looking for.
Argh.
I love 2001, probably more then any other movie (maybe bladerunner...) But what bugs me is how many people blame HAL for what happened on the trip to Jupiter.
It wasnt his fault.
HAL was designed specifically to share and distribute information. One of the politician assholes made him keep the true nature of the mission a secret from the rest of the crew. This flew right in the face of HAL's most basic program ming and, eventually, drove him to schizophrenia. He was so afraid that they would discover the nature of the mission.
This is why when you see HAL get shut down, you finally see a video with the true nature of the mission.
So, it wasnt HAL's fault. And as is with everything, you can blame it on a politician.
no
such a famous item is for sale, and yet there are no fake bids on it. has ebay matured?
Only morons moderate based on a sig.
A Daisy, Daisy wheel...
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
This'll look great next to my Dalek.
Soon I will have amassed a machine army to wipe out all of mankind!
(obligatory)/mwahahahah!
Wherever You Go, There You Are
A worthwhile read on the legacy of the lens used in the film can be found here.
It seems a man named Kirk Wooster from Georgia claims to have the lens. Note the auction is listed as taking place in Woodstock, GA.
I knew this was a dupe, just not from /. This was first posted on June 24, 2003 on Blue's News. The original eBay posting has now expired, but I remember that it was the same auction. Either it didn't sell last time, or the owner has tried this phishing expedition before. ;-) I'll reserve judgement.
"Open the iPod and play The Doors, HAL"
Working Cray Supercomputer for sale
Thanks for ruining 2010 for me!!!
I was waiting for the semi-centinnial release of 2001 so that I could watch 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001 all at the same time.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
stating HOW he acquired this item might make it a little more believable.
And with something as supposedly valuable as this, why wouldn't you just use something more slanted for higher priced auctions, like Christie's?
free online diet tracking.
An eBay link, finnally something we can't slashdot.
Looking at the seller's feedback, we see:
works great. I get a great burn in my abs. thanks.
Famous movie props, ab workout machines. It's all the same. Who's the seller, Fred Sanford?
"$150,000?!?!? Lamont, you big dummy, no one's going to send that much money. Oh, Elizabeth, I'm comin' to join you!"
I probably misunderstand this people bidding for HAL auction. But in this post 2001 world, shouldn't HAL be bidding for people?
WTF, just make one. And build a house to live in while you're at it. Sheesh.
How much is listing it on eBay for $150,000 going to cost him in fees if no one buys it? I'm assuming of course that he didn't list it on a free-listing day, does anyonw know if there's been a free-listing day 3 or 4 days ago?
And you thought your Windows PC was an aberrant pain-in-the-ass...
HAL was an acronym for "Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer"? That HAL +1 letter=IBM thing was just a myth. Just some trivia.
Anyone else notice the view counter on the page go up exponentially since this got posted here? Best slashdot-story-as-advertisement ever! Especially when considering that an appreciable the crowd here is probably geeky enough to mortgage their house for this thing (assuming its authenticity can be verified... as opposed to "verified.")
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
"My HAL9000 was six months late!!! will not do bussiness with again!!!"
Surely that's where their "code" went... How else could HAL have had such a God-complex...
Should we wait till he cuts it in half again?
Was $300,000
Now that I've had time to think about it, I realize that the HAL 9000 set up will probably go straight to Bill Gates' office, where visitors will be hard pressed to tell the difference between HAL 9000 and Bill Gates (hint: Bill is the one wearing glasses). Gates will then issue a directive to create the most sinister Office Assistant ever: Clippy 9000
I love 2001, probably more then any other movie (maybe bladerunner...) But what bugs me is how many people blame HAL for what happened on the trip to Jupiter.
Note that you can pick any two from 2001 (the movie), 2001 (the novel), 2010 (the movie) and 2010 (the novel), and there will be inconsistencies between them.
For example, the 2010 movie opens with a quotation from the 2001 novel ("Oh my God! It's full of stars"), which *never* appeared in the 2001 movie. (OTOH, this doesn't contradict the events of 2001; especially since the first movie starts getting very opaque at that stage).
It's debatable *what* was meant in the 2001 movie. Personally, I suspect (and having watched a documentary, suspect even more) that the makers didn't know what was happening in 2001; 2010 (both movie and film) seem to extrapolate from the 2001 novel- but as mentioned above, 2001 the novel is *not* the same as the movie (there are significant plot differences).
Have I confused everyone yet?
Anyway; what I'm saying is- the "explanation" of Hal's behaviour given in 2010 might *not* apply to the movie 2001. Bear in mind that Kubrick would have had his own ideas too.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I'd be happy for a good copy. Just imagine a custom case with one of those and a bright ass LED behind it.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I've always wondered this: did microsoft intentionally create MS+1 = NT?
Even for a homicidal cycloptic spaceship computer, I can't imagine any conceivable advantage to having red light shining out of your eye. Was the purpose of that ever explained in the film?
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
here's the MP3
http://audio.textfiles.com/sounds/daisy.mp3
It is so impressive that two people did this in 1961! I bet there aren't 10 people alive today that could reproduce this coding feat with the same hardware. Take away gdb and msvc and most programmers crumble...
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
clicky clicky
I've seen sci fi movie art screen prints sell for
$300,000 and more. Concidering tha this is really a cult classic and always will be. I personally think if this piece is authentic and you can prove it, it will go up in value.
Thats a damn expensive night light!
Douglas Rain's the guy who did the voice for HAL. Is that him in the thick-rimmed glasses in the top pictures?
From the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia, http://www.canadiantheatre.com/
"One of the finest actors in the country, he was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1928.
Mr. Rain has performed lead roles across the country but is probably best known for his four-decade association with the Stratford Festival where he has performed in a wide variety of productions from Michael Langham 's celebrated Henry V in 1956 to the more recent leads in the premiere of Elliott Hayes ' Homeward Bound (1991), Albert Millaire 's production of Michel Tremblay 's Bonjour, là, bonjour (1992) and as Shylock in the 95-96 production of The Merchant of Venice. In 1998 he played the lead in A Man For All Seasons, and received almost unanimously positive reviews.
He has also performed at the Shaw Festival notably in Arms and the Man and Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles and Heartbreak House (1999).
He has also played at the Tarragon Theatre , Manitoba Theatre Centre and was head of English acting section at the National Theatre School (1974-77).
Mr. Rain brings a modernity of accent and spirit to his performances that always illuminates the texts in which he plays.
He is probably best known for his performance as the voice of HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001, A Space Oddessy. He also performed in the sequel, 2010."
The guy spends years building up his reputation as one of Canada's premiere Shakespearean actors, and the only thing people remember him for is the voice of a crazy AI. Not that that's a bad thing, considering how 'beloved' that AI is.
*****
Dear Mary,
I yearn for you tragically,
A.T. Tappman, Chaplain, U.S. Army.
hmm?
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
This is a scam. I saw it online before. How the crap did this make it to Slashdot. I swear dumber and dumber articles get through each day. Nothing to see here, move along.
I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.
Didn't Windows ME already do this?
But will the lens fit in the peephole in my front door?
Is this the same recording that was included on the Bell Labs record "He Saw the Cat?" It's interesting that this came out of research into how much information needed to be conveyed in order to produce intelligible speech. Sort of an update of the "Voder" project. A great-great-great-great grandfather of the .mp3 standard itself.
Take each of the letters in its name and add one (ex., A becomes B).
so, do i spend my hard earned money on:
i'll be safer with HAL i'm guessing.
scott king
2010 was a great book and a so-so movie. 2001 and Kubrick to me are inseparable. Like all Kubrick movies, it tells the story without *telling* the story with tons of exposition. It is all about realistically portrayed people in realistic situations without lots of incidental music or extra emotions to help the audience know what to feel.
2010 is the exact opposite. Here you have the masculine leads played by feminine, gentle, tender men: Roy Scheider and Jon Lithgow with sloppy dialogue. There are way to many 'gaping amazed looks' on Scheider's face. There is way too much exposition. In short, 2010 was the typical cranked out Hollywood movie, which is fine for Julia Roberts but ruinous for Kubrick/Clarke/2001.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
--
Try Nuggets , the mobile search engine. We answer your questions via SMS, across the UK.
It might be fun to put a bid in, just so you can say that you went up against Paul Allen on eBay.
Chip H.
33,000 hits on that page at this point, against 0 bids placed... I think we got some kind of record
It's generally some kind of direct bank-bank wire transfer. Your bank isn't interested in fiddling with little payments, but they'll make it happen for big ticket stuff. Basically your bank tells their bank (through a secure trusted channel) to deposit $150,000 in their account. Their bank does this immediatly. The actual transfer between the banks is then handled through the fed sometime later.
I mean even if PayPal would accept a transfer this large, the recipient still wouldn't act on it until it was in their account, which take a couple days form PayPal. All a PayPal balance is is a promise from PayPal to give you X dollars when you ask. PayPal can (and does) freeze accounts and there's not the same kind of protection with a bank.
Well I'll ship you a $200 computer part on PayPal's good word. A $150,000 one-of-a-kind item? No, that money is in my account and verified with my bank before I do anything.
OK, I admit I had lost track of the damn thing, but that is no reason not to return it to it's rightful owner.
...HAL is past his expiration date!
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
Just get a condenser lens from an old OHP. Just as good, and in most cases, free!! Think I might use one as a case mod ;-)
Dave, we currently are discussing if we should allow you to do that. We'll tell you when we've made a decision. This will probably be in about one or two weeks. I hope you anderstand that we cannot let you to do that before we've come to a definitive conclusion ...
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Oh honestly. I know more than ten people in the amateur Gameboy programming community alone that could do it. Bare-metal programming isn't that difficult, and as machine resources drop to 1961 levels, you come to a point where there aren't so many approaches to take, either.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
$150k says thats the way it stays..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Did everyone go broke buying Star Wars DVDs and lightsabers on thinkgeek?
Why am I not suprised?
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"