4 ms·

Fake UI

32 points by vmorgulis 10y ago

Pulce 10y ago
UI from Moon is not fake, it's sci-fi! :) Uhm... and it's not UI! btw, great movie. ah, if HAL was IBM... GERTY is... ??? Apple? Linux?...
CodyReichert 10y ago
So I guess my theory is: They make their own UI's to avoid showing copyrighted material -- and would it be fair to say that it's not important enough (to the plot) to hire an expert web designer, so they end up with something like what we see here?
- vmorgulis 10y ago
  An implicit rule in the cinema is also to beautify everything.
- msielski 10y ago
  Also big and clear enough to be seen on screen.
- kcorbitt 10y ago
  Typically if you do a closeup of a computer screen in a movie/TV there's a specific action the user is performing or message they've received that is important to the plot. You want that message to be big and obvious enough that in the 1.5 seconds of footage of the screen, it's obvious to an engaged watcher what is being done. Real UIs rarely make one thing so much huger than everything else on the screen that it will immediately draw attention as fast as the film needs you to, so they make up their own.
- themartorana 10y ago
  Also if Apple or Microsoft didn't pay a product placement ad fee, we're not gonna give this space away for free...
- bigiain 10y ago
  Alternative theory: They approached everyone from Apple to Microsoft, Lenovo, the EFF, and every Elbonian penis pill spammer, and nobody would pay for product placement, so they _had_ to invent their own UI...
vmorgulis 10y ago
I stole the link from this interesting post on the subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005
LeoNatan25 10y ago
I almost wish there was a HollywoodUI© Linux distro, where all the movie and TV show cliches are actually true. Need to log in? "Crack 256-bit encrypted password by randomly bashing on the keyboard for 60 seconds". Some text scrolls in the command line? "Brrrt" sounds (per character!). Window moving? "Bzzzt" sounds. Need to open some folder? 3D world opens where you need to navigate from folder to folder in a tron-like world. Need to ping an IP? Write VB GUI Interface. etc.
- walrus01 10y ago
  http://hackertyper.com/ http://hackertyper.com/
- kuschkufan 10y ago
  Justin Frankel from Winamp released a tool for fake movie sounds for Windows way back when, it's call Nullsoft Beep. Quite funny! http://www.1014.org/code/nullsoft/nbeep/ http://www.1014.org/code/nullsoft/nbeep/
pavel_lishin 10y ago
If you like this, you might also enjoy the SciFi Interfaces blog, which analyzes actual interfaces used in SciFi films and TV shows, and rates them based on usability, likelyhood, etc: http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/ http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/
throwaway2016a 10y ago
Silicon Valley on HBO often shows real UIs. What's interesting is that one episode in Season 1 was using Jenkins (a continuous integration tool) and they took the logo and name but made a new UI that was simpler with a giant progress bar. My guess on the reason is that showing the full Jenkins UI wouldn't allow casual TV viewers to grok it quick enough.

32 points by vmorgulis 10y ago

Pulce 10y ago

UI from Moon is not fake, it's sci-fi! :) Uhm... and it's not UI! btw, great movie. ah, if HAL was IBM... GERTY is... ??? Apple? Linux?...

CodyReichert 10y ago

So I guess my theory is: They make their own UI's to avoid showing copyrighted material -- and would it be fair to say that it's not important enough (to the plot) to hire an expert web designer, so they end up with something like what we see here?

vmorgulis 10y ago
An implicit rule in the cinema is also to beautify everything.
msielski 10y ago
Also big and clear enough to be seen on screen.
kcorbitt 10y ago
Typically if you do a closeup of a computer screen in a movie/TV there's a specific action the user is performing or message they've received that is important to the plot. You want that message to be big and obvious enough that in the 1.5 seconds of footage of the screen, it's obvious to an engaged watcher what is being done. Real UIs rarely make one thing so much huger than everything else on the screen that it will immediately draw attention as fast as the film needs you to, so they make up their own.
themartorana 10y ago
Also if Apple or Microsoft didn't pay a product placement ad fee, we're not gonna give this space away for free...
bigiain 10y ago
Alternative theory: They approached everyone from Apple to Microsoft, Lenovo, the EFF, and every Elbonian penis pill spammer, and nobody would pay for product placement, so they _had_ to invent their own UI...

vmorgulis 10y ago

I stole the link from this interesting post on the subject: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11827005

LeoNatan25 10y ago

I almost wish there was a HollywoodUI© Linux distro, where all the movie and TV show cliches are actually true. Need to log in? "Crack 256-bit encrypted password by randomly bashing on the keyboard for 60 seconds". Some text scrolls in the command line? "Brrrt" sounds (per character!). Window moving? "Bzzzt" sounds. Need to open some folder? 3D world opens where you need to navigate from folder to folder in a tron-like world. Need to ping an IP? Write VB GUI Interface. etc.

walrus01 10y ago
http://hackertyper.com/ http://hackertyper.com/
kuschkufan 10y ago
Justin Frankel from Winamp released a tool for fake movie sounds for Windows way back when, it's call Nullsoft Beep. Quite funny! http://www.1014.org/code/nullsoft/nbeep/ http://www.1014.org/code/nullsoft/nbeep/

pavel_lishin 10y ago

If you like this, you might also enjoy the SciFi Interfaces blog, which analyzes actual interfaces used in SciFi films and TV shows, and rates them based on usability, likelyhood, etc: http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/ http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/

throwaway2016a 10y ago

Silicon Valley on HBO often shows real UIs. What's interesting is that one episode in Season 1 was using Jenkins (a continuous integration tool) and they took the logo and name but made a new UI that was simpler with a giant progress bar. My guess on the reason is that showing the full Jenkins UI wouldn't allow casual TV viewers to grok it quick enough.