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The dramatic "typing frantically" is what bothers technical people. Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing (and the same would

The dramatic "typing frantically" is what bothers technical people. Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing (and the same would apply to elegant hack-scripts). Seeing an online gamer crank at WASD is more in-line with "hack faster by typing more".

wlesieutre 10y ago
> The dramatic "typing frantically" is what bothers technical people. Also the "GUI interface in Visual Basic."
- RUG3Y 10y ago
  haha I remember the reference but I can't remember what show it was from...CSI?
  - wlesieutre 10y ago
    Yeah, one of the CSIs, couldn't tell you which. It was to track the killer's IP.
sirtastic 10y ago
I don't know about this. Co-workers and myself can run console commands so quick that for moments at a time (esp with console text scrolling, deploying, etc) it looks like we're hacking. I've heard more than one sales/project manager who's hovering mention it looks like Hollywood hacking. The part that looks like BS in Hollywood hacking to me is the green "matrix" text.
- cr0sh 10y ago
  I'm anything but fast at my typing, etc. I've never been that way, but I've also experienced the "soul crush" of taking down a production system because I was doing things too fast, not paying attention, and then BAM - bye-bye production DB - so since that time I take a more cautious, think-before-hitting-return attitude (it was the early 90s, I was 18, blah-blah - we eventually got things back to normal, and somehow I kept my job). That said, I once worked with a guy who could type, switch windows, desktops, etc - at what seemed like lightning speed. I mean, when he was at it and "in the groove" - his screen, fingers, etc - were a blur of frantic activity. In some ways, it even reminded me of "hollywood hacking". He was expert at what he did, though - more often than not, his solutions and designs were spot on, and even these "quick fixes" or whatever - would work right first time out the gate.
  - spdionis 10y ago
    Definitely when I get "in the groove" my typing, editing and code navigation are at least 3x faster. That's why I know it always pays off to learn all the hotkeys and optimize my workflow in the software I use. When at normal speed the increase in productivity may seem minimal, but after a while, when you get that groove moment, the benefit compounds. Another way to see it is that the less time and effort you spend on actually doing the thing the less it stays in the way of your mental process.
    - richforrester 10y ago
      Same - but with building simple sites. I'm a designer first and foremost, have been for well over a decade. Started coding (Basic) a decade before that. However, circumstances have led to me being more than that. I'm a copywriter, social media manager, web developer. Content manager, product designer and manager. This means a TON of switching tasks. But sometimes, I have to do something small, like spend a couple of days launching a WordPress site. Switching between the mockup PSD and the template files, the various browser tabs where I have the CMS open, the FTP client, etc. I've always loved keyboard shortcuts and all the tiny little hacks, hidden double clicks and ctrl+alt+right-clicks that made this go faster. And when people watch when I'm plugged in like that, "magic" is the word most people use to describe what I'm doing. (Even some medium level devs do!) Not boasting btw. Just happy about life in the industry. We're lucky fucks.
- melvinmt 10y ago
  > The part that looks like BS in Hollywood hacking to me is the green "matrix" text. Wait, you don't use green "matrix" text?
- falcolas 10y ago
  The tab key with autocomplete really makes you look like you're typing more than you really are. Not to mention the amount of output relative to the input. Sure, all you typed was 'ls -al' but look at all that useful output!
  - sirtastic 10y ago
    Precisely! I also use arrow keys to cycle previous commands and when done quickly looks like hacking magic.
    - dom0 10y ago
      ^R
skriticos2 10y ago
People are different. I like typing, so I do it a lot while coding. Admittedly I use it more to write a journal to gather my thoughts and outline the strategies to solve problems and keep to plain English most of the time, but I do like fast typing. It would look boring in a movie though, writing prose text. Now when it comes to coding, I also tent to type fast, but mostly because I'm a vim user and that's how you navigate and edit around. All the braces and brackets are something that I don't fancy typing fast and rely on auto-complete. Also, I do type fast in the command line when necessary, though it's mostly boring stuff like switching directories, running programs like make and git and starting vim.
stcredzero 10y ago
Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing I've met young coders, new to the Bay Area, who actually did try to impress me with their frantic keyboard skills. Being able to rapid-fire keyboard shortcuts is some kind of signal to some subset of technical people. To me, it just demonstrated that they were really bad at the communication thing and understanding social context.
logfromblammo 10y ago
A serious hacker goes faster by putting down the drink in the off-hand and moving from mouse/GUI to keyboard/CLI. And also tilting the office chair up to the upright position.
67726e 10y ago
> Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing Two things. First, that's going to depend on coding style and how you operate. Personally I'll give great thought to the particular problem and then hammer away at the keyboard as I crank things out. Second, the world of hacking isn't some grand operation where folks are working in some lab run by the Russian Mafia or whomever. I work for a cyber security company, albeit as a software engineer, but a lot of this shit is taking pre-built kits (which often times are not not that great either) and changing some configs, adding a little extra functionality or whatever. I don't see this so much in Mr. Robot but I saw a good point is that a lot of movies and shows uses hacking as an action sequence instead of just using it to move the story forward.
na85 10y ago
What bothers me the most is the foley artists who put keystroke sounds in when e.g. an image is rendering or the user has his or her hand on the mouse

wlesieutre 10y ago

> The dramatic "typing frantically" is what bothers technical people. Also the "GUI interface in Visual Basic."

RUG3Y 10y ago
haha I remember the reference but I can't remember what show it was from...CSI?
- wlesieutre 10y ago
  Yeah, one of the CSIs, couldn't tell you which. It was to track the killer's IP.

sirtastic 10y ago

I don't know about this. Co-workers and myself can run console commands so quick that for moments at a time (esp with console text scrolling, deploying, etc) it looks like we're hacking. I've heard more than one sales/project manager who's hovering mention it looks like Hollywood hacking. The part that looks like BS in Hollywood hacking to me is the green "matrix" text.

cr0sh 10y ago
I'm anything but fast at my typing, etc. I've never been that way, but I've also experienced the "soul crush" of taking down a production system because I was doing things too fast, not paying attention, and then BAM - bye-bye production DB - so since that time I take a more cautious, think-before-hitting-return attitude (it was the early 90s, I was 18, blah-blah - we eventually got things back to normal, and somehow I kept my job). That said, I once worked with a guy who could type, switch windows, desktops, etc - at what seemed like lightning speed. I mean, when he was at it and "in the groove" - his screen, fingers, etc - were a blur of frantic activity. In some ways, it even reminded me of "hollywood hacking". He was expert at what he did, though - more often than not, his solutions and designs were spot on, and even these "quick fixes" or whatever - would work right first time out the gate.
- spdionis 10y ago
  Definitely when I get "in the groove" my typing, editing and code navigation are at least 3x faster. That's why I know it always pays off to learn all the hotkeys and optimize my workflow in the software I use. When at normal speed the increase in productivity may seem minimal, but after a while, when you get that groove moment, the benefit compounds. Another way to see it is that the less time and effort you spend on actually doing the thing the less it stays in the way of your mental process.
  - richforrester 10y ago
    Same - but with building simple sites. I'm a designer first and foremost, have been for well over a decade. Started coding (Basic) a decade before that. However, circumstances have led to me being more than that. I'm a copywriter, social media manager, web developer. Content manager, product designer and manager. This means a TON of switching tasks. But sometimes, I have to do something small, like spend a couple of days launching a WordPress site. Switching between the mockup PSD and the template files, the various browser tabs where I have the CMS open, the FTP client, etc. I've always loved keyboard shortcuts and all the tiny little hacks, hidden double clicks and ctrl+alt+right-clicks that made this go faster. And when people watch when I'm plugged in like that, "magic" is the word most people use to describe what I'm doing. (Even some medium level devs do!) Not boasting btw. Just happy about life in the industry. We're lucky fucks.
melvinmt 10y ago
> The part that looks like BS in Hollywood hacking to me is the green "matrix" text. Wait, you don't use green "matrix" text?
falcolas 10y ago
The tab key with autocomplete really makes you look like you're typing more than you really are. Not to mention the amount of output relative to the input. Sure, all you typed was 'ls -al' but look at all that useful output!
- sirtastic 10y ago
  Precisely! I also use arrow keys to cycle previous commands and when done quickly looks like hacking magic.
  - dom0 10y ago
    ^R

skriticos2 10y ago

People are different. I like typing, so I do it a lot while coding. Admittedly I use it more to write a journal to gather my thoughts and outline the strategies to solve problems and keep to plain English most of the time, but I do like fast typing. It would look boring in a movie though, writing prose text. Now when it comes to coding, I also tent to type fast, but mostly because I'm a vim user and that's how you navigate and edit around. All the braces and brackets are something that I don't fancy typing fast and rely on auto-complete. Also, I do type fast in the command line when necessary, though it's mostly boring stuff like switching directories, running programs like make and git and starting vim.

stcredzero 10y ago

Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing I've met young coders, new to the Bay Area, who actually did try to impress me with their frantic keyboard skills. Being able to rapid-fire keyboard shortcuts is some kind of signal to some subset of technical people. To me, it just demonstrated that they were really bad at the communication thing and understanding social context.

logfromblammo 10y ago

A serious hacker goes faster by putting down the drink in the off-hand and moving from mouse/GUI to keyboard/CLI. And also tilting the office chair up to the upright position.

67726e 10y ago

> Smart coders design elegant solutions that don't require frantic typing Two things. First, that's going to depend on coding style and how you operate. Personally I'll give great thought to the particular problem and then hammer away at the keyboard as I crank things out. Second, the world of hacking isn't some grand operation where folks are working in some lab run by the Russian Mafia or whomever. I work for a cyber security company, albeit as a software engineer, but a lot of this shit is taking pre-built kits (which often times are not not that great either) and changing some configs, adding a little extra functionality or whatever. I don't see this so much in Mr. Robot but I saw a good point is that a lot of movies and shows uses hacking as an action sequence instead of just using it to move the story forward.

na85 10y ago

What bothers me the most is the foley artists who put keystroke sounds in when e.g. an image is rendering or the user has his or her hand on the mouse