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A Short History of Computers In the Movies

Posted by Unknown on from the smalltalk-in-the-movies dept.

Esther Schindler writes "The big screen has always tried to keep step with technology usually unsuccessfully. Peter Salus looks at how the film industry has treated computing. For a long time, the 'product placement' of big iron was limited to a few brands, primarily Burroughs. For instance: 'Batman: The Movie and Fantastic Voyage (both 1966) revert to the archaic Burroughs B205, though Fantastic Voyage also shows an IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central. At 250 tons for each installation (there were about two dozen) the AN/FSQ-7 was the largest computer ever built, with 60,000 vacuum tubes and a requirement of 3 megawatts of power to perform 75,000 ips for regional radar centers. The last IBM AN/FSQ-7, at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, was demolished in February 1984.' Fun reading, I think."

165 comments

  1. Reel-to-real by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    > with 60,000 vacuum tubes

    If an average vacuum tube lasted 6 months, the whole thing broke down every 5 minutes. Prior to transistors this was the terror of engineers.

    Also, I always wanted a computer like they had in certain scenes of Lost in Space. Later I learned that was just a reel-to-reel tape device peripheral.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:Reel-to-real by WillAdams · · Score: 1

      They lasted longer than that, but there's always the old story of people walking through such computers, watching for the signs of a tube about to fail, waiting until the system was in a state where said tube was switched off and hot-swapping a replacement.

      --
      Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
    2. Re:Reel-to-real by smpoole7 · · Score: 2

      > If an average vacuum tube lasted 6 months

      This is a common misunderstanding about reliability, whether talking about solid-state or tubes. In fact, any manufacturer worth his/her salt can predict, with surprisingly accuracy, the number of failures over time -- say, 1% in the first month, 10% by the end of the first year, and so on. How they do this is fascinating to those who are interested.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_assurance

      Thus, you can buy electronics, made in the same factory, by the same people, but one branded "Sharp" and the other with an off-brand name -- identical units -- but one has a 90-day warranty, while the other is 1 year. The latter will probably cost more because ('ere's the secret) the cost of the warranty is factored into the price of the unit. (Moral: a longer warranty does NOT necessarily mean a better-built device. Another secret that "They" won't tell you.) :)

      In this case:

      1. You test each tube thoroughly before it's even approved for use in the computer. (This testing is one reason why "mil-spec" components cost so much.)

      2. Since each tube is about the same age when the computer is first built, there will be a *window* when you expect to begin having cascade failures. You schedule PM (i.e., tube replacement) to occur *before* that window. For each of those 60,000 tubes, there's a replacement log.

      This is a great example of how statistics can mislead. When the first really big computers were proposed, there were indeed some who argued that they'd never work, because with 10,000's of tubes, they'd be constantly breaking down. But real-life proved them wrong, thankfully.

      --
      Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
  2. Macs, not just for product placement by antifoidulus · · Score: 1

    The article mentions how macs are often used for product placement, though it doesn't seem to cite any sources showing that Apple actually paid for such product placement. Not saying that they don't, a source would have been nice. But anyway, Apple computers often appear in TV/movies/commercials when there clearly isn't any product placement, because the iconic glowing apple logo is edited out.

    I cannot tell you how many times I have seen computers that were clearly macs have just a generic grey back because they weren't trying to focus on the PC. This is especially true in photo ads, but I have seen it on TV and movies as well. My guess is that the producers liked the design of the mac laptops, but didn't want to risk being sued by Apple or just didn't want their product associated with Apple etc.

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by jones_supa · · Score: 0

      Interestingly The Simpsons has started to suck Apple's cock quite a bit in the last couple of years. They constantly show a MacBook or iPod, and every now and then go into places like Apple Store. I guess this is just a sponsored deal though.

    2. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It could also be that Apple's computers tend to be very distinctive and thus, easily recognizable. It's something that's a part of Apple's designs - they don't tend to fade and become just another generic widget in the background.

      This is especially because Apple's made computers out of aluminum, which gives it a distinctive look all to itself. Having oddly-shaped PCs (think the iLamp and such) add to the distinctiveness.

      Heck, Thinkpads were fairly common as well - given the red nipple pointer. Of course, PCs these days generally Dells which don't usually have many distinctive elements and thus end up blending into the background.

    3. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by ahabswhale · · Score: 1

      It's sponsored. Historically, they shit on Apple.

      --
      Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
    4. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by JoeCommodore · · Score: 1

      I've read to the effect they provide Macs for free as production props/units. Given macs are in favor for Video/Design/Production work im sure many a compnay jumps at the chance to save up to a couple grand on laptops and desktops. Im sure another influence is they are much more photogenic than most PC laptops.

      --
      "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
    5. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by ebno-10db · · Score: 1

      My guess is that the producers liked the design of the mac laptops, but didn't want to risk being sued by Apple or just didn't want their product associated with Apple etc.

      More like Apple wasn't ponying up any money for advertising. Anytime you see a product in a movie or TV show, with its label intact, the producers are getting paid for the product placement.

      One place I worked we made satcom terminals, back when they were $30k monstrosities (we had the lightest on the market and it was still 30-40 pounds). There was a product placement in the movie "Under Siege", and they got two free satcom terminals for it. I think one was for Steven Seagal personally.

    6. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by moschner · · Score: 1

      Computers get greeked either because you do not have permission to feature the product, are using a differnt brand elsewhere in the project (or as a sponcer), or there was going to be product placement, but then it fell through.

      The computers chosen (as well as other props) are either carefully picked by the art director and props to fit the character and scene, or are simply just whatever they happen to have on hand and used because it was cheeper than buying something just for the project.

      Another reason is that sometimes software is ran on the prop computer that makes it look like the actor is doing something. Sometimes the software used will only run on a pc or mac, often it is mac only, so a mac is used but left generic looking.

    7. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      If you see a brand name or logo in a movie or TV you can be damn well certain they are paying for it. Product placement is not given away for free and the editors will take special care to edit out names and brands of items that haven't paid for product placement.

    8. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by anubi · · Score: 2

      I wonder if IMSAI 8080 paid for placement in WarGames?

      They were not a big name by all means. I still have the IMSAI I put together from a kit sold out of San Leandro, California. I thought it was such a cool little machine.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    9. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by gl4ss · · Score: 0

      they do it to shit on hipsters..

      rarely anything good comes out of the mac-a-likes. and jobs lives in a base at the bottom of the ocean like an evil villain. if they want to do some commentary on macs and hipsters how the fuck do you do it without showing an apple-alike product?

      but then again, petty criminals often idolize scarface without having apparently seen it to the end, so I guess it works as apple advertisement as well as scarface works as an advertisement how well it works out for you(and people around you) to be a psycho drug dealer...

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by sosume · · Score: 1

      Or maybe the CEO of Apple sits on the board of Disney. You know.

    11. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      I wonder if IMSAI 8080 paid for placement in WarGames?

      They were not a big name by all means. I still have the IMSAI I put together from a kit sold out of San Leandro, California. I thought it was such a cool little machine.

      "Cool little machine".

      I worked for a small engineering company once developing firmware for process controllers. The development machine was that exact same hardware, right down to the disks. Except it had no speech synthesizer.

    12. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

      I wonder if IMSAI 8080 paid for placement in WarGames?

      From:

      http://www.imsai.net/movies/wargames.htm

      We decided to go ahead and provide the requested equipment for nothing more than the promotional value and screen credits.

    13. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by nabsltd · · Score: 1

      The computers chosen (as well as other props) are either carefully picked by the art director and props to fit the character and scene, or are simply just whatever they happen to have on hand and used because it was cheeper than buying something just for the project.

      "Cheaper" or product placement are the #1 reasons for recognizable tech appearing in TV and movies. Very rarely does the writer or director really care about how it fits with the character.

      This is why characters use iPhones far more than any other cell phone, despite the fact that the iPhone has a much smaller market percentage than non-Apple phones. The reality is that around 80% of people use non-Apple phones, which means that for any 5 random phones seen on TV, only one should be an iPhone, yet we all know that it isn't the case. It's also the reason that everybody on TV is now using Microsoft Surface on their tablets.

    14. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      If you see a brand name or logo in a movie or TV you can be damn well certain they are paying for it. Product placement is not given away for free and the editors will take special care to edit out names and brands of items that haven't paid for product placement.

      Actually, another reason is liability - a product placement often carries a pile of terms and conditions on how and when the product must be displayed, and how it must be shown. Some of these are understandable (e.g., a car sponsor may request that none of the cars used in live shots may be shown as causing intentional damage, or showing faults, etc). Usually, the items must be shown in a positive light and all that.

      So not only do editors not want to give free ads away, they don't want to run afoul of any possible libel or slander by misrepresenting a product. By editing away any distinctive marks, they also can use it as a "generic" computer and not likely to damage brands or get sued.

      This is why characters use iPhones far more than any other cell phone, despite the fact that the iPhone has a much smaller market percentage than non-Apple phones. The reality is that around 80% of people use non-Apple phones, which means that for any 5 random phones seen on TV, only one should be an iPhone, yet we all know that it isn't the case. It's also the reason that everybody on TV is now using Microsoft Surface on their tablets.

      Actually, if you consider iPhone vs. Android, that's true. But iPhone vs. other specific phone models, it's not so easy - the SGS4 and SGS3, possibly the two best selling Android phones, make up around 10% (combined) of the Android market, but both individually (including all the sub models) sold less than iPhones.

      The iPhone is iconic, an Android phone is not - it's generally so bad that if there's a specific Android phone product placement, the phone itself will announce its make and model - e.g., Sony pictures phones will use Sony phones, but they often will have SONY plastered on them, and maybe even show "Xperia Z" or something when the actor uses it.

      That's one of the big Android problems - sure they use s smartphone, but that's it. If it's an iPhone, it's obvious it's an iPhone. If it's a Windows Phone, ditto. But if it's an Android phone, that's practically any POS shape and size that's so generic it's fades away.

      Hell, Microsoft Surface paid placements all have the actors snapping the keyboard to the tablet, and flipping out the stand. Otherwise it was likely to drown in the background of "windows tablets".

      If you think form doesn't matter - it means the device is ignorable and is a poor candidate for product placement. Unless your item has a distinct design element (a la Apple, or Surface, or Sony) then the on-screen use will be very generic because there's nothing that sets it apart.

    15. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by anubi · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the link, Cohiba!

      Reading those pages sure brought back a lot of fond memories of the day I got that big box from California ( I was living in Pascagoula, Mississippi at the time working at Chevron's big oil refinery there ).

      I spent many an evening assembling and programming that thing - I had built my own keyboard and was using a couple of security type monochrome CRT monitors. I had two video cards in mine, each taking up 1K of RAM area, 30K of 2716, and the rest of its 64K address space was filled with 2102 static ram.

      Me and the assembler had become great friends. So much so I had the assembler resident in a couple of the 2716, along with that famous little "Tiny Basic" 2K-byte wonder that showed up in "Dr. Dobb's computer journal".

      The rest of the EEPROM space was mostly libraries I made that were callable from that little tiny basic, and they would do all the nitpicky bit banging.

      I was especially proud of a hacked cassette tape recorder which I had modified to store data in a manchester format. I designed the hardware and file structures for it. Got my first experiences with phase-locked loops. CD4046. Basically it locked onto the carrier and looked for transitions between clock bits. I was feeding current directly into the write heads to do this, and adjusting the frequencies to use the inductance of the write head to limit the write current and leave me clean readable patterns on the tape. I learned a helluva lot about magnetics doing that. Filter design ( pulse shaping ) too.

      I felt I could do nearly anything with that box.

      I often wondered if I was the only individual in the entire State of Mississippi who had his very own computer.

      It was my belief that I could run the entire refinery from that thing if Chevron would let me.

      I feel very fortunate to have "come of age" when everything wasn't already done and I could enjoy building from scratch. Today, it seems everything is already there and off the shelf and all the enjoyment of rolling one's own is gone... now everyone "rides the bus" and goes where the bus takes them. I got to "walk the woods" off the beaten path, making my own trail. Sure, its oblivion now... but it was fun.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    16. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by hawk · · Score: 1

      It was a Votrax, wasn't it?

      I recall the 2d West Coast Computer Faire, at which I was impressed by the unit. It connected to a parallel port. They had it announcing, "My name is Vo-trax. I can say eneeeething."

      hawk

    17. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by hawk · · Score: 1

      >>The reality is that around 80% of people use
      >>non-Apple phones, which means that for any 5
      >>random phones seen on TV, only one should be
      >>an iPhone, yet we all know that it isn't the case.

      No. 80% may use non-apple, but programs try to be about *interesting* people, who are more inclined to iPhones . . . :)

      hawk, who doesn't always get stiffed on royalties when fictitious characters are based on him--but when they are, they sell crappy beer . . .

    18. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate to break it to you, but the voice of Joshua/WOPR is the voice of John Wood (who played Professor Falken) electronically altered.

    19. Re:Macs, not just for product placement by kermidge · · Score: 1

      Now that is one fine story.

      Closest I ever got (and a long, shallow distance from you, to be sure) was helping some friends with the Altair we got in '78, I think it was. That spring we got a surplus teletype from the college and bread-boarded an interface so's we could do I/O with the paper punch tape. Still, fun - except for the part about getting the teletype down the basement stairs.

  3. No, the reading was boring. by EzInKy · · Score: 0

    It wasn't until the Planet Of the Apes series that computers had any significence in movies. Up until then, they were always presented as malefescent evil beings.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    1. Re:No, the reading was boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Learn to spell, please. Our 2013 computers have spell check, you know.

    2. Re:No, the reading was boring. by EzInKy · · Score: 1

      Due to copyright concerns, my Linux based spellchecker seems to be stuck in the early twentieth century.

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    3. Re:No, the reading was boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wasn't until the Planet Of the Apes series that computers had any significence in movies. Up until then, they were always presented as malefescent evil beings.

      Yes. Fortunately after 1968 we got more variety :

      Demon seed and Colossus say hi.
      Of the two, demon seed was the creepier one though.

      As for "good" computers, well

      WOPR (he's good in that he realizes the futility of nuclear annihilation)
      The computer in Electric Dreams (how hippy he was) and having a crush on Virginia Madsen ?
      V'yger (ok, the female counterpart to V'yger and ends un boning the second in command of the Enterprise) and not destroying the earth.

    4. Re:No, the reading was boring. by Jiro · · Score: 1

      Technically Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet counts as a non-malevolent computer, although in practice, media often doesn't take the same attitude towards robots and towards computers in general.

    5. Re:No, the reading was boring. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      Demon seed ... say hi.

      Is that what it was trying to do? Something of a communication gap there.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    6. Re: No, the reading was boring. by tleaf100 · · Score: 1

      darkstar.

    7. Re:No, the reading was boring. by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      It wasn't until the Planet Of the Apes series that computers had any significence in movies. .

      Probably true but on TV the Xerox Sigma 7 was in a "Monkees" episode. Curiously that Episode featured Stan Freberg who also featured a computer in his on-stage skit.. In 1966, Freberg released an LP (that's vinyl to you MP3 Ogg Vorbis dudes) called "Freberg Underground" in which he featured a Univac in a skit with Mr. Ned Numero. I remember the voice of June Foray as the Univac on it saying "the card you have given me has been mutilated." You had to use your imagination since it was only sound coming out of a record player with things like a needle and static electricity was a bitch.

      Significant? I'd also argue that HAL was the meanest mofo and more significant in character than anything that the POA had to offer.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    8. Re:No, the reading was boring. by real+gumby · · Score: 1

      Demon seed ... say hi.

      Is that what it was trying to do? Something of a communication gap there.

      Conversation is simply a different kind of "intercourse". The scriptwriters simply became confused, that's all.

  4. The Q-7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Am I the only one here who's programmed that beast? Assembly language; Fortran had just been invented. Might fit one into a current Walmart, might not. I recall during our training (LA) we heard of another computer in the city! Had to go talk to those guys across town.

    Still cranking out code, at 84.

    1. Re:The Q-7 by suso · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Am I the only one here who's programmed that beast? Assembly language; Fortran had just been invented. Might fit one into a current Walmart, might not. I recall during our training (LA) we heard of another computer in the city! Had to go talk to those guys across town.

      Still cranking out code, at 84.

      Whoever you are, Slashdot should interview you about your experiences.

    2. Re:The Q-7 by dbIII · · Score: 3, Funny

      I recall during our training (LA) we heard of another computer in the city!

      Colossus: "There is another!"

    3. Re:The Q-7 by NetAlien · · Score: 5, Interesting

      At 18 in 1964, I was just a young guy who programmed the IBM 407 Accounting machine that was also installed with the AN/FSQ-7 in the Canadian underground NORAD headquarters in North Bay, Ontario. The program complexity on those machines was measured by how much the boards weighed. Lots of wires terminated with pins containing tiny metal balls (like hitch pins) to keep the pins from being pushed out when the board was inserted into the 407 to run whatever program its wiring instructed. Diodes were sometimes needed to prevent back-flow (that machine's source of bugs). Spent over 7 years in the "hole" with the huge Q-7. Nostalgia!

    4. Re:The Q-7 by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      Still cranky and coding? :P

    5. Re:The Q-7 by oodaloop · · Score: 2

      FFS no!. We do not need an interview with Anonymous Coward!

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    6. Re:The Q-7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You might want to do an AMA on reddit. I bet people would be interested to talk to you!

    7. Re:The Q-7 by sunking2 · · Score: 1

      One of my favorite vacations was going out to see my Uncle who was stationed at North Bay circa 1980. Love the way you could look out the little windows and see the entire building sitting on giant springs. I can remember seeing the computer room that was roughly 75% empty because they had recently upgraded all their systems with newer equipment. We had a blast using the light pen on his radar screen to id all the planes flying around, or something like that. Was a long time ago.

    8. Re:The Q-7 by forkazoo · · Score: 1

      Slashdot's terrible at interviews. Hopefully somebody much more qualified would interview them, and then amonth later slashdot would post a link to it several times.

    9. Re: The Q-7 by corbettw · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure his name is Mel.

      --
      God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  5. Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Near the beginning of the film, when the sysadmin was desperately trying to stop an attack (I can't remember what).

    That was a nice shout-out by the filmmakers.

    1. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Hsien-Ko · · Score: 1

      I prefer the "Unix system" in Jurassic Park :P

    2. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Informative

      That was an Unix system. More precisely, it was Silicon Graphics' IRIX with the fsn file viewer.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    3. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      It actually was a Unix system, SGI's FSN, you can check it out.

      Compare with the movie here.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You know this??

    5. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It was provided as a demonstration of IRIX capability...

      I've used it briefly - doing an ls was faster... Even in the movie it was slow.

      It was part of a rather wide experiment in different ways to show a filesystem characteristics...

      Not shown very well in the movie, it used blocks of different sizes to illustrate the number of files in the directory. Opening a "building"/directory drew a new scene with the contents of the directory and file size characteristics to select new blocks. Links in the diretory shown as lines. As I recall, only two levels were ever shown at a time The current directory as the central square, lines connecting building on the square would connect to the next level square. Browsing was done by rotating the scene/moving in/out and selecting a block to enter.

      It worked, but was inherently slow.

    6. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I considered it more of a pretty toy, at least, I couldn't find any way to use it practically.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    7. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just noticed in Die Hard the other day that when the thieves try to for Takagi to login with his code that Chairmans workstation is BSD.

    8. Re:Unix command line in Tron Legacy by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      Technically, Linux. It even says "ENCOM LINUX CONSOLE" in the top left corner, and there's random Python and C++ on the left side.

  6. Preventative Maintenance by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    First, vacuum tubes lasted much longer than 6 months, Second, that's what PM is for. Preventative Maintenance would have you replacing the tubes before they're reaching EOL, increasing system reliability.

    You just have to accept a few hours of downtime every few months while they swap out thousands of tubes.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:Preventative Maintenance by sumdumass · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I've seen old radios and televisions with vacuum tubes at least 35 or 30 years. I remember the television repair man coming into the house to replace a couple when they broke down. It was strange when we got our first solid state TV as they just replaced boards and there was no tubes we could run down to the drug store and get. You used to just look for a glow in the tube when something wasn't working right, if there was no glow, you took it with you and there was a testing machine made by rayovac right in the drugstore that you could test them on and it would cross reference any models to the ones they had in stock.

      I don't know how that compares to the tubes in the computers, but they were surprisingly resilient considering the age of the tech behind them.

    2. Re:Preventative Maintenance by radiumsoup · · Score: 3, Funny

      Vacuum tubes! You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down to the mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt in front of a window so our brothers and sisters would have something to watch.

    3. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Tube computers seldom had tubes fail in operation. Part of daily maintenance was to run the machine on "high margins", with voltages raised about 10%. Half an hour on in that mode would blow out all the tubes near failure. Those were then replaced, and the machine would then operate for the rest of the day without problems. A tech who had worked on UNIVAC I computers once told me they'd never had a tube failure during regular operation.

    4. Re:Preventative Maintenance by NixieBunny · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The other trick was that they always left the filaments burning. The filaments are most likely to fail during warm-up. The failures due to reduced emission were preventable by replacing tubes after x thousand hours.

      --
      The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
    5. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Some tubes could be made to last very long indeed, it was all about getting the cathode pure enough and the inner structure of the tube rugged enough. I give you the Bendix 6900.

      http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/131/6/6900.pdf

      Enjoy, took me a while to fish up that one...

      Then you add a tube cooler to keep the envelope cool....

      http://www.audiohum.es/WebRoot/acens/Shops/audiohum_es/4CDA/8C25/B57E/99A6/67E7/0A01/006A/BCCA/2060100002.jpg

      They put tubes under the ocean on trans-Atlantic cable repeaters, they had to be reliable.

      Although I can't prove it, I'm pretty sure the Voyager probes use ceramic planar triodes (GE Y-1171) as their output tubes, the things that generate the radio waves beamed back to us.

      And last but not least, in WWII they invented electronic proximity fuzes... You guessed it, vacuum tubes. They didn't last too long (boom), but they managed to survive the 100000G acceleration out of a cannon and the 20000RPM that goes with it.

    6. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      if there was no glow, you took it with you and there was a testing machine made by rayovac right in the drugstore

      I also remember that from my early childhood in the 70s. In the mid-90s, there was an old tube radio left in our house and I was sort of interested in fixing it up. We found a store in Charlottesville, VA that stocked tubes and yep, they had a tester. That brought back some memories. I never got around to fixing the radio or even acquiring it from the landlord. Right around the time I left, the store with the tubes burned down. The stupid TV news people even mentioned the tubes, so it must have been a well known thing. I mean, that place had virgin tubes in antique-looking cardboard boxes... I bet most of that stuff would have lit just fine. I bet every old gear fanatic in town shed a tear that night.

    7. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1
      Woops, got that wrong, the Y-1171 wasn't nearly powerful enough for that. You need something called a traveling wave tube to get so many watts at that frequency.

      http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19880010181_1988010181.pdf

      *There* we go, had to check that before I could go to bed...

      I probably shouldn't buy one though...

      http://www.ebay.com/itm/Watkins-Johnson-TWT-Amplifier-7-to-12-4GHz-Unused-Condition-/190858149076

    8. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Luxury.

    9. Re:Preventative Maintenance by cameloid · · Score: 1

      You lucky, lucky bastards!

      --
      -- Cisk for the Cisk God
    10. Re:Preventative Maintenance by platypussrex · · Score: 1

      the AN/FSQ-7 had two parallel systems, so that one could be working while the other was down for tube replacement. One site I read stated that it had around 99% up time. Each system would also cycle the voltage slightly as it was ready for it's shift, to force premature failure in tubes that were on the borderline.

    11. Re:Preventative Maintenance by smpoole7 · · Score: 1

      > go to work down to the mill

      In the snow and rain. Uphill BOTH ways. And we LIKED IT.

      GET OFF MY LAWN!

      --
      Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
    12. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was working my way through college as a TV repairman in the early-mid 70s. I remember well the customer that insisted the tube that I replaced couldn't possibly be bad (even though the TV was now working) because she had "looked in the back and all of those little light bulbs were lit"! Working with customers, particularly those with no technical knowledge at all, is interesting.

    13. Re:Preventative Maintenance by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      The trick was not turning them off if you could at all avoid it and using specialized valves (tubes)

    14. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... Luxury.

    15. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good times.

    16. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Early in my career I was fortunate to work with a man who had worked at the University of Chicago in the 1940s and early 50s. He had worked with early vacuum tube computers during the Manhattan project. He told me once that they used to tune the computers at the time using little magnets, called "Scottie Dog" magnets and they found that by placing them at strategic points around the tubes they could actually make the system run faster. They magnets didn't actually look like dogs, it was a brand name I guess. The problem was that one time they had to move one of these behemoths to another lab and unfortunately all of the magnets were dislodged. He said it took them months to get the system to work properly again after the move because of this.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    17. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      I used to remember taking the tubes out of our TV and going to the Zenith or U-Testm tester that used to exist in many stores. You could test your tubes and buy replacements.
      There were even kits you could buy to label the tube and the socket where you removed it from so you could put it back together.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    18. Re:Preventative Maintenance by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Shit that's nothing. I had to walk to school, 10 miles uphill both ways in 10 feet of snow! On my way I had to sell and trade magic beans to noobs which were actually old lima beans. That way I could get cow or some goats. Yeah, I had these noobs going. Magic Beans..

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    19. Re:Preventative Maintenance by mikael · · Score: 1

      There was a story in our engineering department about how once some foreign fighter pilots defected to the west by landing at some military airbases. While they were being interviewed, the intelligence engineers started inspecting and examining the planes. They were surprised to see that the radar systems still used old-fashioned radio valves, and couldn't understand this given the free availability of transistors. Then when they started doing radar-jamming and all sorts of EMI tests, the answer became obvious. Those valves could withstand an EMP from close by. The plane would keep flying while every other aircraft would just fry.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    20. Re:Preventative Maintenance by mikael · · Score: 1

      During the 1970's, families had to live in railway carriages and double-decker buses, because that was all they could afford.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    21. Re:Preventative Maintenance by JeffAtl · · Score: 1

      They were surprised to see that the radar systems still used old-fashioned radio valves, and couldn't understand this given the free availability of transistors. Then when they started doing radar-jamming and all sorts of EMI tests, the answer became obvious. Those valves could withstand an EMP from close by. The plane would keep flying while every other aircraft would just fry.

      That is an old urban legend like the russian space pencil story. While the MiG-25 did indeed have vacuum tubes, the resistance of vacuum tubes to EMPs was not at all unknown or a surprise to anyone.

    22. Re:Preventative Maintenance by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      I think the bigger surprise about the Mig25 was the cast iron chassis.

    23. Re: Preventative Maintenance by gzuckier · · Score: 1

      When I was young we didn't have tubes in computers , just people who kept repeating 1 1 1 1 or 0 0 0 0.

      --
      Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
  7. Starring the Computer by LaughingRadish · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's something nice: http://starringthecomputer.com/. Various sightings of various computers in movies along with ratings of importance, realism, and visibility.

    1. Re:Starring the Computer by Bomarc · · Score: 1

      You posted it before I did. Though the article cited above was okay, good for a commentary. The website "Starring the computer" has a much better lay-out, and more comprehensive information, including better images (screen caps) for many of the computers displayed.

    2. Re:Starring the Computer by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

      You posted it before I did. Though the article cited above was okay, good for a commentary. The website "Starring the computer" has a much better lay-out, and more comprehensive information, including better images (screen caps) for many of the computers displayed.

      Ah you both beat me :}

      Reading the summery I jumped the gun and Googled the IBM AN/FSQ-7 there's a site, that I quote:
      "Starring the Computer is a website dedicated to the use of computers in film and television"

      And the IBM AN/FSQ-7 http://starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=73 it's been around.

  8. Colossus: The Forbin Project by FairAndUnbalanced · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I think there's a ton of CDC equipment in Collosus: The Forbin Project. It has a fairly standard "computer takes over the world" plot line but is a bit of fun as well.

    Note the movie trivia entry at this IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064177/trivia

    "When the executives at Control Data Corporation found out that Universal was planning a major movie featuring a computer, they saw their chance for some public exposure, and they agreed to supply, free of charge, $4.8 million worth of computer equipment and the technicians to oversee its use. Each piece of equipment carried the CDC name in a prominent location. Since they were using real computers - not just big boxes with a lot of flashing lights - the sound stage underwent extensive modifications: seven gas heaters and five specially-constructed dehumidifiers kept any dampness away from the computers, a climate control system maintained the air around the computers at an even temperature, and the equipment was covered up at all times except when actually on camera. Brink's guards were always present on the set, even at night. The studio technicians were not allowed to smoke or drink coffee anywhere near the computers."

    1. Re:Colossus: The Forbin Project by cusco · · Score: 1

      The studio technicians were not allowed to smoke or drink coffee anywhere near the computers.

      I'm surprised the Union didn't go on strike over that, especially during that time. Cigarettes and coffee were pretty much the only things they were allowed to consume while working.

      When I started working at AAA's corporate office here in Washington they were still FedEx-ing boxes of 9-track tapes around the country to do data transfers in 1998. I made it a goal to get rid of the failing 9-track tape machine, and proceeded to contact vendors to arrange for alternative methods of data transfers. An awful lot of people at the other end of the phone had no idea what I was talking about. "Remember in the old science fiction movies, the big round tape reels that were on the computers? That's what we're sending you. Can we do this some other way?" That generally got me transferred to the right person.

      By the time I left two years later we had managed to change everything over to direct modem transfers, encrypted email attachments, or a CD for the really large membership file that went to national headquarters. The last holdout was American Express, and if the tape machine hadn't finally given up the ghost we might not have changed them over at all. They just wanted us to send the text file to their FTP site. Unencrypted. Logging in as Anonymous with no password. Just dumped in a browsable folder labeled with our account number. Along with all the other unencrypted text files of other customers, all the same file layout.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
  9. Over the years by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    The 1985 UK TV series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_Darkness showed an interesting use of networked computers in the "Breakthrough" episode.
    The usual modem expert at home plot to connect, break codes and download sequence often used in movies/tv was replaced by a more interesting terminal sequence.
    A building with newly installed rows of networked computers was used to search files in a short time during a break in.
    Another good use was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefon_(film) made in 1977 showing database work.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldiers_(film) from ~2001 was fun too with its base personal computer files.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground:_The_Julian_Assange_Story showed some innovative moments in police level computer forensics with the saving of entire modem connection session for later examination. The German movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23_(film) had some a sequence with buying the wrong new fast computer vs the domestic power supply :)
    The US 1975 movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Days_of_the_Condor showed what could be done with limited space in an older building.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Over the years by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      Can't go past the goodies for UK breakthrough uses of computers. Graham even married his supercomputer in one episode.

    2. Re:Over the years by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Yes bh :) Made me recall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Loving from 1970 with the computer "dating agency".

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Over the years by shirro · · Score: 1

      Doctor Who: The Invasion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_(Doctor_Who) has companion Zoe Heriot http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Zoe_Heriot from the 21st century disable a computer by giving it a program she claims is in ALGOL. I am guessing in the Doctor Who universe ALGOL makes a resurgence later this century when someone builds a web framework for it and it becomes the next fad.

  10. Totally missed memorable computers of the 80s by Mr+Z · · Score: 2

    Where was WarGames, Weird Science, TRON, Electric Dreams, etc.? Who gives a crap about a Vaio showing up in The Pink Panther 2. (Oh, and that's Steve Martin. Who's Steve Allen?)

    --
    Program Intellivision!
    1. Re:Totally missed memorable computers of the 80s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know, right? Not to mention the Cray Y-MP in Sneakers from the early '90's.

    2. Re:Totally missed memorable computers of the 80s by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 1

      I think you missed the point of the article. The point of the article is that software quality matters on the SmartBear blog, where you can find resources for Mobile, Agile, and Cloud. While you're there, check out their line of development and web monitoring products. They also have webinars!

    3. Re:Totally missed memorable computers of the 80s by dwillden · · Score: 2

      In fact the article simply jumps from 1980 to mention OS/2 in 1995 and then again to 1999 with no explanation, skipping generations of computers in the movies.

      --
      I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
    4. Re:Totally missed memorable computers of the 80s by Mr+Z · · Score: 2

      I did see a mention of a Commodore 64 and an Amiga in there... but still, yeah, the 80s "didn't happen" for computers. It was mostly Burroughs and other big iron, a quick nod to the 80s, and suddenly it's all Vaios and Macs. WTF?

      --
      Program Intellivision!
  11. AN/FSQ-7 forever! by Animats · · Score: 2

    Some of the the AN/FSQ-7 consoles keep showing up in movies because they're available for rental at Woody's Props in LA.

    Those aren't even the control panels for the computer. Those are just the modems and serial ports. Here are the much larger AN/FSQ-7 maintenance control panels.

    Those are just the control panels. Here's the CPU, with all the racks of tubes. Full-sized 12AX7 tubes (still used in some guitar amps), not even minature tubes.

    1. Re:AN/FSQ-7 forever! by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      Seeing those pictures reminds me of the Moonbase Alpha Command Center in Space 1999. I don't know if all those blinky lights were an actual computer, or just light boxes, but I do remember that they looked very modular and serviceable.

    2. Re:AN/FSQ-7 forever! by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 1

      Computer says, no!

      My favourite part is how they type a question into a terminal and get the answer on a printed piece of paper the size of a shopping docket :D

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    3. Re:AN/FSQ-7 forever! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Computer says, no!

      My favourite part is how they type a question into a terminal and get the answer on a printed piece of paper the size of a shopping docket :D

      Ah but the computer operator in the first season could interface a la matrix with the computer.
      If I'm not mistaken it was used only in one episode.

    4. Re:AN/FSQ-7 forever! by lord_mike · · Score: 1

      They hardly ever were able to get an answer anyways. The computer was almost always busy--not a very robust multitasking operating system.

  12. Blatant Product Placement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For ridiculous product placement, I recall in Twister every computer was an SGI - including a laptop with the words "Silicon Graphics" hand written on a piece of paper and sticky-taped onto the chassis. Also every soft drink can was a Pepsi product.

    (said under correction - it was half a lifetime ago)

    1. Re:Blatant Product Placement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, Twister. I had intentionally erased that movie from my memory. I think it's the only time I've ever walked out of a cinema mid-showing. Terrible, terrible, irredeemably bad film.

      I now remember thinking the "evil meteorologists" in their black van reminded me of Gary Larson's evil butterfly collectors...

  13. TV Repair by Firethorn · · Score: 1

    There's a bit of difference between the dozen or so tubes in the old TVs, and I remember using the Rayovac machine to test tubes myself as a kid with my dad. I'm sure he could have done it faster himself, but I loved doing it.

    As for the tubes in the computers, I think they were about the same reliability - smaller and more complex, but also built to a higher standard. It's just that going from ~12 tubes to 60k ones means that you're going to have them fail more often. In addition, many of them could still operate even if tubes were blown, and you could hot-swap many of them.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
    1. Re:TV Repair by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Informative

      going from ~12 tubes to 60k

      They used tricks, like reducing the filament voltage, to improve tube life. Nevertheless it was a problem, and I think these new solid state models show promise.

    2. Re:TV Repair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interestingly, early transistors could not be manufactured with consistent characteristics and their performance and reliability were not outstanding. Prior to the development of batch manufacturing technologies based on photolithography and the use of silicon dioxide passivation,it was possible to argue that vacuum tubes were preferable for mission critical applications. In the late 1950s, the vacuum tube division of General Electric ran a series of full page ads in scientific American with themes such as "Must You Pay the High Cost of Miniaturization?".One of the ads even extolled the virtues of vacuum tubes in computers.

    3. Re:TV Repair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think these new solid state models show promise.

      I'm not convinced yet. I'll give it a few more years before I buy one of these transistor based computers.

    4. Re:TV Repair by Virtucon · · Score: 1

      Too new-fangled for me. Now if you excuse me I have a water clock to finish.

      --
      Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    5. Re:TV Repair by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least if my sand in a glass breaks, it's easy to get the materials back together.

    6. Re:TV Repair by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      My Mum was upgraded from a tube based IBM709 to a transistorised 7090 (same archtecture and instruction set) and not only was more reliable, it was also faster (when not IO bound). (1969) She now used a Macbook Pro.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    7. Re:TV Repair by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      Things like Colossus mostly used type 802 triodes, which were commonly used in radio transmitters too (and found themselves pressed into service in guitar amps)

      During the late 1980s-early 1990s I spent a large amount of time keeping the last vestiges of a shortwave transmiting station running - and it _ate_ those valves at a prodigious rate - the average life of a 1950s-era 802 in service was about 2 weeks before emission got so low they were unusable (Yes, the 802s were 1950s-era devices. 100,000 of them acquired in 1982 at about 10c a pop)

      What that meant was that 1950s era computers spent more time down for maintenance than actually running (this held true into the mid 1960s)

      1960s era tubes were a lot more reliable, but germanium transistors even more reliable and so were reed relays.

  14. Atari ST by Ozeroc · · Score: 1

    Reservoir Dogs had an Atari ST and Terminator2 had a Atari Lynx... LOL Big fan of the old Atari hardware here...

    --
    ...
    1. Re:Atari ST by lord_mike · · Score: 1

      The late 70's movie Airplane had a cameo of the Atari 2600 Basketball game: http://user.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/~cieslik/homeblog/pics/atari-in-film_airplane_t.jpg

    2. Re:Atari ST by Daniel+Klugh · · Score: 1

      The Atari Lynx doesn't have a keyboard. I always heard that it was a Atari Portfolio but in recent years people have disputed that.

      --
      Daniel Klugh
  15. Misses The Italian Job! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Everyone remembers the Minis, but the true geeks remember Benny Hill playing one of the cinema's first computer hackers.

    1. Re:Misses The Italian Job! by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Professor Simon Peach: Are they big? I like 'em big!

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  16. Movie of the AN/USQ-7 in action by ebob · · Score: 2

    The SAGE computer (AN/USQ-7) was truly mind blowing in scope. IBM produced a very cool movie of the system in operation in 1956 (along with some great cold war propaganda) that is a wonderful time capsule to boot. It shows a scale model of the building that housed the system to allow pointing out where all the pieces were located. My father spent some time as an operator of the huge display scopes at the McChord AFB installation.

    Movie here: https://archive.org/details/0772_On_Guard_The_Story_of_SAGE_18_48_05_00

    --
    To avoid seeing this message again, always shut down your computer properly by selecting Shut Down from the Start Menu.
    1. Re:Movie of the AN/USQ-7 in action by systemeng · · Score: 1

      The computer history museum in Mountain View, California has panels from the AN/USQ7 as well as the large lucite scale model of the building.

    2. Re:Movie of the AN/USQ-7 in action by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been told that we only have computers because of space. Computers are a spinoff of putting test pilots in rubber suits into orbit in a tin can.

    3. Re:Movie of the AN/USQ-7 in action by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      Computers were developed during WW2 in the UK (Character based) for cracking German codes, and in the US for designing the Atomic bomb (numerical). The UK machines were all destroyed at the end of the war, and the development teams scattered. The individuals went on to develop machines that were oriented to business activities until the 60's when the goverment trashed the credibility of the UK efforts, while in the US, private inustry (IBM, CDC, etc) went on to sell the US government its own technology.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  17. Re:Transfer Resistors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "What replaced thermionic devices (tubes) in computers?"

    Diodes, magnetic core logic, parametrons, fluidic gates, etc? All kinds of whacky stuff.

    "Transfer Resisters (But most people refer to them as transistors)"

    It's "resistor" and they were never resistors, that was just the name of the effect.

    "it could transfer all the current from the low impedance side of the circuit to the high impedance side of the circuit"

    What does that even mean?? It does no such thing.

    "Instead of using physics to accelerate particles provided by high current"

    instead? What? The particles in tubes came from high temperatures and low work fuction materials, not high currents. If anything, most tubes worked at low current and high voltages.

    "and made to jump by a small source input"

    Most certainly not. Where do you get this crap from?

    "are connected to one another with aluminum, "

    Or copper.

    "have extremely narrow frequency response"

    What?

    " All they do is act like light switches (1 means on, 0 means off)."

    Well, maybe. But not really. You seem to have accumulated an impressive amount of dubious knowledge there.

  18. center of our universe spotted again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there she is in the kitchen, now the laundry. the kids are laughing so that's where she is now changing their 'climate'.... sadie hawkins has nothing on grandmother moon? it can be felt. free the innocent stem cells

  19. Prime Computers - The Choice of The Doctor! by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Check out these old buggers, and the ads featuring Tom Baker, the legendary 4th Doctor Who.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSRC0S7pls8

    --
    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    1. Re:Prime Computers - The Choice of The Doctor! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Awesome! But where is the exterior filmed? That's some pretty brutal architecture!

    2. Re:Prime Computers - The Choice of The Doctor! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, it's the Hayward Gallery, on London's Southbank. Been there many times but didn't recognise it from that angle.

    3. Re:Prime Computers - The Choice of The Doctor! by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      Primes are descend from the ITS system and have serious hacker credentials

      I recall working on Pr1mes back in the 80's at one point at BT we had 17 750's (the largest non black installation in the country) and i had level 6 (root) on all of them plus level 7 (bendy root ) on the billing systems (13 and 02) which used map reduce back then!

    4. Re:Prime Computers - The Choice of The Doctor! by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      oops level 7 was of course beyond root not bendy :-)

  20. That wasn't a Cray Y... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cray said they would NEVER EVER sell a computer to the mob...

    So the set designers made their own version. There are no logos on that computer, though it was supposed to suggest a Cray Y.

    (funny part... the scientist in the movie actually had a real life counterpart. My wife and I both used to work with him on occasion).

  21. What!? No mention of War Games! by blahbooboo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For kids of the 1980s this movie was first exposure towards the medium. Additionally it heralded the dawn of the hacker and government misunderstanding of the hacker capabilities -- specifically some of the problems Kevin Mitnick faced. Really surprised it wasn't mentioned.

    1. Re:What!? No mention of War Games! by uptownjimmy1 · · Score: 2

      Exactly. It looked so exotic at the time, but these days watching Matthew Broderick cradle that phone receiver in the IMSAI "acoustic coupler" while Ally Sheedy looks cute over his shoulder seems so...sweet...

    2. Re:What!? No mention of War Games! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget the WOPR

    3. Re:What!? No mention of War Games! by lord_mike · · Score: 1

      It was the ultimate fantasy of nerds who lived in the 80's: Girls who were interested in computers... and even more interested in guys who were interested in computers? Heaven! That idea alone should have broken any suspension of disbelief right there, since back in the 80's, such a dream situation was just that... a nice dream and nothing more. :-(

    4. Re:What!? No mention of War Games! by blahbooboo · · Score: 1

      I love my acoustic coupler!!!

  22. Peter Salus needs fact checking... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Groklaw used to publish all his stuff unchecked and my what a mess. Make sure before relying on it, you check the facts. He likes to recall lots of stuff he didn't know.
          He has a degree in liguistics but not computers from before computers had brains (1960s). Anything he says about computers is pure fantasy mixed with fiction mixed with fact mixed with stuff you can't google mixed with stuff he was never exposed to...

    P

  23. Seconded by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A lot of people in programming think its purely a young mans game. That may have been true in the 60s and 70s but its not any longer. That old guy (or gal) you see shuffling down the street may have once coded up some pretty neat algorithm that helped fly your plane or did your banking or controlled the fuel injection on your car in the 80s. It would be nice to have an article about retired coders, what they did and their opinions of the dev world now. And whether vi is better than emacs ;o) No, scrap that last idea...

    1. Re:Seconded by satuon · · Score: 1

      It has to do with the fact that only young people have had computers since childhood. In 40-50 years we'll live in a society where everyone regardless of age has had a computer all their life. Then an old man is going to be statistically as likely to be a programmer as a young man.

    2. Re:Seconded by Minwee · · Score: 2

      Older people also know that the correct response to "It's crunch time so I'm gonna need you to go ahead and stay until eleven PM, and then go ahead and come in on Saturday and Sunday too, kay" is "Go stick your head in a pig"

      That's why you don't see as many of them working for the more, um, "notable" employers.

    3. Re:Seconded by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      A lot of people in programming think its purely a young mans game. That may have been true in the 60s and 70s but its not any longer. That old guy (or gal) you see shuffling down the street may have once coded up some pretty neat algorithm that helped fly your plane or did your banking or controlled the fuel injection on your car in the 80s.

      The latter may be true, but it's neither insightful nor in any way related to your thesis statement.
       

      It would be nice to have an article about retired coders, what they did and their opinions of the dev world now.

      Why should I care what their opinions are any more than I care about the Kardashians? They aren't coding in today's environment.

    4. Re:Seconded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be nice to have an article about retired coders, what they did and their opinions of the dev world now.

      Why should I care what their opinions are any more than I care about the Kardashians? They aren't coding in today's environment.

      For one thing, they are the ones that created today's environment. By "they" I mean "retired coders". I take the trouble to define the antecedent to the pronoun "they" in case you're still conflating in your mind the people who created the foundation of the modern world with the Kardashians.

    5. Re:Seconded by Viol8 · · Score: 1

      "They aren't coding in today's environment."

      Arn't they? I'm in my 40s and I'm still coding and this year I've worked with 2 other coders in their late 50s. And no, we weren't doing COBOL, we're were doing C++.

    6. Re:Seconded by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      And I quote from your orignal post.

      "It would be nice to have an article about retired coders, what they did and their opinions of the dev world now."

    7. Re:Seconded by Esther+Schindler · · Score: 1

      >>It would be nice to have an article about retired coders, what they did and their opinions of the dev world now.

      Really? Cuz I could arrange that.

  24. Code siting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I was always amused that the code that scrolls by Terminator's internal display in the first movie was 6502 assembly language.

    Arnold Swarznegger is an Apple II or Commodore 64 or Atari 800!

    1. Re:Code siting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And Robocop runs DOS.

      http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/4437682_700b.jpg

  25. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), while perhaps not perfect, is disturbingly above-average for a Hollywood movie in this respect.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
    1. Re:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      The books are a bit of a disaster (through I believe the English translations not much cop) and I never brought the portrayal of Lisbeth Salander as a hacker some of the tech that Stieg Larsson claimed was so cutting edge or may be Sweden is that far behind - El reg has done a good takedown.

    2. Re:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Are you referring to the books in general, or to the computer aspect? I got the impression that Larsson's career is nicely reflected in what he got right and what he got wrong. Filmmakers have staff for that, but alas, as is the case with books in general, he was the single author, and emphatically not a techie.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by mjwalshe · · Score: 1

      Id have to look up verity stobbs analysis but at one point Lisbeth says this mac (naming a particular MB) was the hottest thing in graphics when in fact that particular MB was a dog and well know as such.

    4. Re:The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But as a machead she would say anything by Apple was the hottest thing so Larsson got that bit right. The 10 pages on the IKEA table that was not relevant to the plot is another story.

  26. Hackers? by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    No Gibson, with a 3D GUI that can even be displayed remotely over laptops? I am disappointed.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  27. It’s a Unix system, I know this. by bobbomo · · Score: 1

    http://www.jplegacy.org/jpencyclopedia/?p=722

  28. More Typing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm always amused when a movie or TV show has someone who "knows computers" or is supposed to be a gifted "hacker" rapidly typing to display web pages. From the amount of key tapping, one would be lead to believe that the individual was going far beyond entering a mere URL and was actually entering the raw HTML to create the page in the first place. Oh how those scary Praetorians could type and make anything happen.
    I imagine the director shouting "more typing! There has to be more typing! You're a hacker, TYPE!", and "Move that mouse thingie around too, you can't hack with an immobile mouse!".

    1. Re:More Typing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The best one ever was NCIS where Abby and McGee are bashing away at keys on the same keyboard to prevent an attack and Gibbs just casually pulls the plug on the computer.

  29. ANSYS finite element anal software in a movie!! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Scene 1: A mechanic working in an auto plant listens to the chief engineer describing the new model car that is going to be manufactured. Stands up and says the engine design is not suitable for the market it was intended. Chief engineer sneers at him, "You lowly mechanic, you have the temerity to challenge me? Grease monkey! Go find a CV boot to clean or something!". All the assembled people laugh and the mechanic walks out head hanging in shame.

    Scene 2: Walks to his work spot, his side kick (always the comedian, by the rules of that film industry) walks up to him and tries to console him. Our hero mechanic snaps, "Load Ansys in this computer!" and movie cuts to a image of a wire frame finite element mesh of a piston and a connecting rod rotating in 3D. [Screen resolution was too poor for me to find the actual product, despite freezing and stepping through it frame by frame].

    Which Hollywood movie? brrrrrrrrrrrrrp. wrong country!

    Japanese? Korean? Or may be Taiwanese?. No, No and No.

    May be a Bollywood movie? right country. Wrong language.

    Where then?

    A Tamil movie, made in South India! About six years old. Eat our dust America, Tamils are making heroes out of finite element analyzing auto mechanics!

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  30. vacuum tubes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    never heard of them. I've heard of vacuum cleaners. Thanks for sharing the interesting link.

  31. PDP-10 Console in THX-1138 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The original production of THX-1138 featured long shots of USC’s PDP-10 console.

  32. Some notable omissions in the article... by lord_mike · · Score: 1

    War Games featured an IMSAI 8080 with 8" floppies. Why they chose that computer is unknown, since no one really was using those machines by the time of filming.

    They mentioned the Commodore PET in the article, but neglected its greatest cameo appearance in Captain Kirk's quarters in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

    Most movies do an awful job of portraying computers realistically. Take, for example, the attempt to force a C:> prompt on an Apple Macintosh in the movie Office Space. The one movie that really tried hard to get it right, ironically enough, was the Jobs movie last summer. They even went so far as to order a bunch of Mimeo 1 Apple 1 clone kits for realism. It's a shame that they got everything else in the movie wrong, when they did such an excellent job of getting the technical stuff right.

    1. Re:Some notable omissions in the article... by John+Marter · · Score: 1

      Is there any movie from 1981 to 1994 mentioned? It was going pretty much year-by-year up to then and then picks up again in 2006. I get the feeling that the article was edited for length by chopping out much of the middle.

    2. Re:Some notable omissions in the article... by hawk · · Score: 1

      Many years ago, long before 9/11 and the TSA, I was flying with my mac powerbook 180. I had difficulty with a security official whose instructions were to make every computer show a c: prompt . . .

      hawk

    3. Re:Some notable omissions in the article... by real+gumby · · Score: 1

      War Games featured an IMSAI 8080 with 8" floppies. Why they chose that computer is unknown, since no one really was using those machines by the time of filming.

      Because it had a front panel, so it would "look like a computer". Hardly anyone had any home computer so they could have simply used a mockup (like the WOPR) and nobody would have commented, even us nerds.

  33. "Go stick your head in a pig" by MondoGordo · · Score: 1

    I have never heard that one before ... but it nicely encapsulates the correct sentiment. Well Done !!

    1. Re:"Go stick your head in a pig" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      " Share and Enjoy!

      ...is, of course, the company motto of the hugely successful Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints division, which now covers the major land masses of three medium sized planets and is the only part of the Corporation to show a consistent profit in recent years.

      The motto stands—or stood—in three mile high illuminated letters near the Complaints Department spaceport on Eadrax: Share and Enjoy. Unfortunately its weight was such that shortly after it was erected, the ground beneath the letters caved in and they dropped for nearly half their length through the underground offices of many talented young complaints executives—now deceased. The protruding upper halves of the letters now appear, in the local language, to read “Go stick your head in a pig”, and are no longer illuminated, except at times of special celebration."

  34. Re:Transfer Resistors by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    "it could transfer all the current from the low impedance side of the circuit to the high impedance side of the circuit"What does that even mean?? It does no such thing.

    Because the first devices were junction transistors, early explanations were often around the common base configuration, in which this explanation is marginally appropriate.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  35. Mass tube swapping ignores the "bathtub curve"... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 1

    This was a major lesson that was learned during the early tube computer era. The best approach was NOT simply swapping out tubes after so many hours "to prevent in-service failures", but periodically running diagnostics checking pulse levels, etc.to identify tubes that were actually starting to slump off.

    The failure rate vs life curve for most components (tubes included) has a high initial failure rate (so-called "infant mortality"), followed by a long period of low failure rates, which eventually trends upward at an increasing rate at end-of life. This produces a curve with a flat bottom and 2 peaks at the ends, like a cross-section of a bathtub.

    By swapping out tubes before they hit the end of life, you push the entire tube complement in the equipment over toward the "infant mortality" end of the curve, actually INCREASING the failure rate over careful monitoring and replacing only those tubes that are actually starting to fail. All that tube swapping also results in increased failures through the increased handling of the glass tubes (breakage and seal leaks), wear on the sockets from pulling and inserting tubes, etc. The highest equipment uptime was achieved by not actually replacing tubes on a fixed schedule, but by overall system checks to identify and replace individual failing tubes BEFORE they progressed to the point of total failure.

    Experience with electronic installations containing tens of thousands of tubes produced a huge amount of statistical data on component reliability, laying the foundations for modern reliability models and MTBF calculations.

    A good read from 1960, when all this was being figured out is "Getting the Most out of Vacuum Tubes" by Bud Tomer, available on Archive.org:

    https://archive.org/details/GettingTheMostOutOfVacuumTubes_105

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  36. I'll see your 6900, and raise you a 7AK7... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 1

    , which was arguably the very first electronic component specifically designed for use in computers. Most of the magic was in the ultra high purity nickel used in the cathode sleeve, to prevent interface formation and "sleeping sickness", which would result from even the slightest trace of silicon impurity in the nickel.

    http://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_7ak7.html

    Every electronics geek needs one of these on their desk. Fortunately, there were millions made, and they come up on eBay cheap, as they have no value to the audiophools....

    --
    Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
  37. I guess the author never heard of prop rental by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The reason all those movies use the same computers is probably because they rented them all from the same prop rental house, who in turn, probably bought them after the computer was junked. They are typically rewired so that the lights can blink artistically, and with controllable brightness (so the director gets the look he/she wants).

    There is probably ONE B205 and parts from ONE Q7 over in some warehouse. (Apex Electronics on San Fernando Rd out in Sun Valley used to have a lot of this stuff)

    1. Re: I guess the author never heard of prop rental by anubi · · Score: 1

      I wonder what all those displays in the old TV series "Time Tunnel" were. I recognized the lissajous displays on their consoles... I was making the same kind of display when I was in high school trying to make a decent oscilloscope out of a TV.

      I ended up making a Science Fair EKG project with it.

      Incidentally, those lissajous patterns is damn near all I ever was able to get from that TV - it made a lousy - and I mean lousy - 'scope. It barely had the bandwidth to display an EKG, and even then you had to use your imagination as the screen phosphor persistence for that application was way too short.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  38. You left out a Grass Valley vidoe switcher by chromaexcursion · · Score: 1

    The main weapon control in the Death Star, in the original Star Wars, is an un-altered Grass Valley video console. The firing control is the fader.

  39. Missed some important ones by real+gumby · · Score: 1

    In the 1970s, the PDP-8 (plus Decwriter) in Three Days of the Condor was important to the plot, and seemed to be used in a realistic way.

    In the 1980s Real Genius featured Symbolics 3600 (Lisp machines) which cult favorites at the time.

  40. rainbowtrolley by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.rainbowtrolley.com/home-and-lifestyle/cushioncovers-zodiaccushioncovers-designercushions

  41. rainbow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.rainbowtrolley.com/latest-woman-clothes/Jewellery/jewellery-precious-fashion-rings