6 ms·

Not exactly related, but I'm shocked by the amount of people, older people even working in IT who mock the girl in Jurassic Park saying "it's a Unix system, I k

Not exactly related, but I'm shocked by the amount of people, older people even working in IT who mock the girl in Jurassic Park saying "it's a Unix system, I know this", when in fact what they showed was a Unix system and the 3D interface they showed was real software SGI shipped with IRIX.

gjvc 3y ago
most people in IT don't do any research beyond six inches in front of their face and task at hand.
aa-jv 3y ago
They wanted to say "this is an SGI system!" but had to go with "this is a Unix system" ..
eesmith 3y ago
Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box, and while it was real software, it was dog-slow on low-end SGI without a graphics card, so she had to be using some pretty expensive hardware. As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors.
- eternityforest 3y ago
  I don't remember her ever saying she actually has experience with the browser, just that she knows it. She could have just used UNIX in general and only read a lot about the file browser, or perhaps briefly tried then incredibly slow version. It's not even too much of a stretch to imagine she has never seen the file browser, but is able to figure it out on like one can with modern GUI apps.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    "I know how to use it" is a bit stronger than "I know it." fsv (the 3d file browser) was not shipped with IRIX, the 2d file browser was. It's a pretty big stretch.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  She didn't need to know IRIX if she knew some other flavor of Unix, she was probably savvy enough to use man and access documentation if needed. The point is though most mock the scene as though the software they show was entirely fictional and made up, when it was in fact real and was in fact still UNIX.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    I don't know why others mock it, but as an older person working in IT, I can explain why I mock it even when knowing it was real software SGI shipped with IRIX. (Minor correction: it was not shipped with IRIX but a free demo you could ftp. After 30 years I had forgotten that until looking at https://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.co... and similar sites just now.)
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      > I can explain why I mock it even when knowing it was real software SGI shipped with IRIX. OK, please do.
      - eesmith 3y ago
        Literally my top-level comment in this thread.
        PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        I hadn't realized that was your reason for mocking the scene, I had thought it was just being kind of pedantic and making an observation about the scene.
  - sumtechguy 3y ago
    The one that really yanked me out of the movie was the first tom cruise mission impossible and he does a web search for 'job'.
- buzziebee 3y ago
  She was the granddaughter of a billionaire so it's not unreasonable to imagine she may indeed have had access to high end hardware. "No expense spared".
  - luismedel 3y ago
    > No expense spared but he only has one single IT guy in oncall during the emergency :-)
    - esrauch 3y ago
      I think that part is actually explained: - the storm evacuates most people, essential staff only - Nedry deliberately creates the IT emergency situation to lock out the other IT people still on the island - The book has more details about how the IT system was over budget/rushed/flawed as another example of the hubris of the whole endeavor. The book has a detail I especially liked: theres an automatic dinosaur counting system but it was written such that it stops counting once it finds all of the expected dinos (because the spec said they couldn't reproduce), which delayed them realizing that the dinosaurs were actually mating and in a bunch of places they weren't supposed to be. Classic example of a bug caused by software working correctly exactly to the spec.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    The I would expect "It's an SGI, I know how to use it." Familiarity with 4dwm doesn't really transfer to NeXTStep or SunView, which were two other Unix window managers of the time. The people she interacted with would surely distinguish between different Unix vendors - Apollo, Ridge, SGI, Sun, etc. - we certainly did.
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      You're being unreasonably hard on a fictional 12 year old lol. IRIX is UNIX. She said she knows UNIX. It's fine.
      - 3y ago
- dale_glass 3y ago
  > Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box She's related to Hammond, who owns an island. I'm sure he could get her an old box and some manuals to play with, if not outright a state of the art system. > As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. But isn't that exactly the sort of thing a clever kid with access to fancy stuff would mess around with? > We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors. Which would perfectly explain why it popped up on the production systems. To make it look fancier for Hammond/any investors/the people visiting in the movie.
  - anthk 3y ago
    Using the 3D browser would be akin to saying "That's Linux" upong seeing a Compiz cube a few years ago. I mean, yes, it would be technically correct, but not a defining term for deeply knowing Linux and its intrinsics.
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      It's not weird or wrong in any way though. Plenty of people were running compiz for a while, and a kid into Linux would recognize it.
    - dale_glass 3y ago
      Yeah, so? She's a bright 12 year old, not a burnt out and jaded Unix sysadmin with 20 years of experience.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    "would mess around with", certainly. And quickly find it wasn't useful for actual file system navigation. The 2D file browser for IRIX was pretty nice, with vector icons. https://sgi.neocities.org/1.png https://sgi.neocities.org/1.png shows an example from https://sgi.neocities.org/ https://sgi.neocities.org/ . I made a mistake when I said we used it for demos. We did not use fsv for that. I was thinking of buttonfly - see example to the left of http://www.sgistuff.net/software/irixintro/images/irix-4.0.1-img2.gif http://www.sgistuff.net/software/irixintro/images/irix-4.0.1... . I did try out fsv, but again, it was slow on the desktop machine I had, and not useful.
- 111111101101 3y ago
  When I was a kid I had access to all sorts of exotic operating systems. SunOS, VMS, all sorts of Unixes. I was a very naughty boy.
  - eesmith 3y ago
    SunOS and VMS were two of the most common workstation/minicomputer-class OSes out there, and rather less exotic than IRIX. I'm old enough that my college-freshman "intro to computers" and Fortran classes were taught on a CDC Cyber running NOS.
- bitwize 3y ago
  What if she were originally baffled by the 3D display, and then saw recognizable paths like /bin and /usr and realized the system was actually familiar?
- butlike 3y ago
  They spared no expense at Jurassic Park, you know.
- test098 3y ago
  i grew up in university computer labs (parents were grad students then professors). all the machines in the labs were SGI Indys/Indigos running IRIX 4.x/5.x. as a 12yo, i used the 3D graphical file browser because it was fun and cool. it was installed on all the machines by default because it came bundled in a demo CD with every machine.
  - UncleSlacky 3y ago
    There's a modern clone of it now: https://fsv.sourceforge.net/ https://fsv.sourceforge.net/
pelagicAustral 3y ago
Well, the fix was probably around the lines of: sudo systemctl restart gates But, whatever, I mean, there are literal dinosaurs going around, I guess that's the more plausible plotline.
- PrimeMcFly 3y ago
  What is the 'that' you are referring to as far as being the more plausible plotline? I don't think it's weird for a kid with some computing knowledge to use a filebrowser to look for where a program might be.
  - pelagicAustral 3y ago
    Well, we are talking about managing critical infrastructure on a theme park riddled with dinosaurs. Potentially the definition of working under pressure. I wouldn't think even teenage Kevin Mitnick on Mountain Dew can himself bypass the terminal security (if any), prompt his way to the safety mechanisms, and override their behavior. All while being assailed by a velociraptor.
    - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
      You didn't answer my question; I just don't get what you are saying is more plausible. Is it that the girl knew Unix at all or something else?
    - test098 3y ago
      pretty simple explanation: the girl in the movie is more talented than teenage kevin mitnick. if that's a bridge too far for you, i'd recommend not watching the rest of the movie because it's about people cloning dinosaurs using frog DNA.
- Enginerrrd 3y ago
  Ah but this was pre-systemd so you would have been screwing around trying to find whatever script was being used to lock the doors after close of business.

gjvc 3y ago

most people in IT don't do any research beyond six inches in front of their face and task at hand.

aa-jv 3y ago

They wanted to say "this is an SGI system!" but had to go with "this is a Unix system" ..

eesmith 3y ago

Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box, and while it was real software, it was dog-slow on low-end SGI without a graphics card, so she had to be using some pretty expensive hardware. As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors.

eternityforest 3y ago
I don't remember her ever saying she actually has experience with the browser, just that she knows it. She could have just used UNIX in general and only read a lot about the file browser, or perhaps briefly tried then incredibly slow version. It's not even too much of a stretch to imagine she has never seen the file browser, but is able to figure it out on like one can with modern GUI apps.
- eesmith 3y ago
  "I know how to use it" is a bit stronger than "I know it." fsv (the 3d file browser) was not shipped with IRIX, the 2d file browser was. It's a pretty big stretch.
PrimeMcFly 3y ago
She didn't need to know IRIX if she knew some other flavor of Unix, she was probably savvy enough to use man and access documentation if needed. The point is though most mock the scene as though the software they show was entirely fictional and made up, when it was in fact real and was in fact still UNIX.
- eesmith 3y ago
  I don't know why others mock it, but as an older person working in IT, I can explain why I mock it even when knowing it was real software SGI shipped with IRIX. (Minor correction: it was not shipped with IRIX but a free demo you could ftp. After 30 years I had forgotten that until looking at https://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.co... and similar sites just now.)
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    > I can explain why I mock it even when knowing it was real software SGI shipped with IRIX. OK, please do.
    - eesmith 3y ago
      Literally my top-level comment in this thread.
      - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
        I hadn't realized that was your reason for mocking the scene, I had thought it was just being kind of pedantic and making an observation about the scene.
- sumtechguy 3y ago
  The one that really yanked me out of the movie was the first tom cruise mission impossible and he does a web search for 'job'.
buzziebee 3y ago
She was the granddaughter of a billionaire so it's not unreasonable to imagine she may indeed have had access to high end hardware. "No expense spared".
- luismedel 3y ago
  > No expense spared but he only has one single IT guy in oncall during the emergency :-)
  - esrauch 3y ago
    I think that part is actually explained: - the storm evacuates most people, essential staff only - Nedry deliberately creates the IT emergency situation to lock out the other IT people still on the island - The book has more details about how the IT system was over budget/rushed/flawed as another example of the hubris of the whole endeavor. The book has a detail I especially liked: theres an automatic dinosaur counting system but it was written such that it stops counting once it finds all of the expected dinos (because the spec said they couldn't reproduce), which delayed them realizing that the dinosaurs were actually mating and in a bunch of places they weren't supposed to be. Classic example of a bug caused by software working correctly exactly to the spec.
- eesmith 3y ago
  The I would expect "It's an SGI, I know how to use it." Familiarity with 4dwm doesn't really transfer to NeXTStep or SunView, which were two other Unix window managers of the time. The people she interacted with would surely distinguish between different Unix vendors - Apollo, Ridge, SGI, Sun, etc. - we certainly did.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    You're being unreasonably hard on a fictional 12 year old lol. IRIX is UNIX. She said she knows UNIX. It's fine.
    - 3y ago
dale_glass 3y ago
> Because its unlikely that the girl would have had access to an IRIX box She's related to Hammond, who owns an island. I'm sure he could get her an old box and some manuals to play with, if not outright a state of the art system. > As a filesystem browser it was not useful. Someone with Unix system experience would prefer a 2D browser, which IRIX also had. But isn't that exactly the sort of thing a clever kid with access to fancy stuff would mess around with? > We only used the 3D browser for our demo setup for visitors. Which would perfectly explain why it popped up on the production systems. To make it look fancier for Hammond/any investors/the people visiting in the movie.
- anthk 3y ago
  Using the 3D browser would be akin to saying "That's Linux" upong seeing a Compiz cube a few years ago. I mean, yes, it would be technically correct, but not a defining term for deeply knowing Linux and its intrinsics.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    It's not weird or wrong in any way though. Plenty of people were running compiz for a while, and a kid into Linux would recognize it.
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    Yeah, so? She's a bright 12 year old, not a burnt out and jaded Unix sysadmin with 20 years of experience.
- eesmith 3y ago
  "would mess around with", certainly. And quickly find it wasn't useful for actual file system navigation. The 2D file browser for IRIX was pretty nice, with vector icons. https://sgi.neocities.org/1.png https://sgi.neocities.org/1.png shows an example from https://sgi.neocities.org/ https://sgi.neocities.org/ . I made a mistake when I said we used it for demos. We did not use fsv for that. I was thinking of buttonfly - see example to the left of http://www.sgistuff.net/software/irixintro/images/irix-4.0.1-img2.gif http://www.sgistuff.net/software/irixintro/images/irix-4.0.1... . I did try out fsv, but again, it was slow on the desktop machine I had, and not useful.
111111101101 3y ago
When I was a kid I had access to all sorts of exotic operating systems. SunOS, VMS, all sorts of Unixes. I was a very naughty boy.
- eesmith 3y ago
  SunOS and VMS were two of the most common workstation/minicomputer-class OSes out there, and rather less exotic than IRIX. I'm old enough that my college-freshman "intro to computers" and Fortran classes were taught on a CDC Cyber running NOS.
bitwize 3y ago
What if she were originally baffled by the 3D display, and then saw recognizable paths like /bin and /usr and realized the system was actually familiar?
butlike 3y ago
They spared no expense at Jurassic Park, you know.
test098 3y ago
i grew up in university computer labs (parents were grad students then professors). all the machines in the labs were SGI Indys/Indigos running IRIX 4.x/5.x. as a 12yo, i used the 3D graphical file browser because it was fun and cool. it was installed on all the machines by default because it came bundled in a demo CD with every machine.
- UncleSlacky 3y ago
  There's a modern clone of it now: https://fsv.sourceforge.net/ https://fsv.sourceforge.net/

pelagicAustral 3y ago

Well, the fix was probably around the lines of: sudo systemctl restart gates But, whatever, I mean, there are literal dinosaurs going around, I guess that's the more plausible plotline.

PrimeMcFly 3y ago
What is the 'that' you are referring to as far as being the more plausible plotline? I don't think it's weird for a kid with some computing knowledge to use a filebrowser to look for where a program might be.
- pelagicAustral 3y ago
  Well, we are talking about managing critical infrastructure on a theme park riddled with dinosaurs. Potentially the definition of working under pressure. I wouldn't think even teenage Kevin Mitnick on Mountain Dew can himself bypass the terminal security (if any), prompt his way to the safety mechanisms, and override their behavior. All while being assailed by a velociraptor.
  - PrimeMcFly 3y ago
    You didn't answer my question; I just don't get what you are saying is more plausible. Is it that the girl knew Unix at all or something else?
  - test098 3y ago
    pretty simple explanation: the girl in the movie is more talented than teenage kevin mitnick. if that's a bridge too far for you, i'd recommend not watching the rest of the movie because it's about people cloning dinosaurs using frog DNA.
Enginerrrd 3y ago
Ah but this was pre-systemd so you would have been screwing around trying to find whatever script was being used to lock the doors after close of business.