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I think the only part that really pulled me out of the movie was when they were testing the device and it was decrypting a dial-up feed random character by rand

by bink 1y ago

I think the only part that really pulled me out of the movie was when they were testing the device and it was decrypting a dial-up feed random character by random character on the screen. It wasn't "Hackers" bad but it was still pretty unbelievable.

ynniv 1y ago
Once you accept that a movie isn't a documentary, Hackers is a lot of fun. The editor of 2600 consulted on it (and lent his nym)
- rbanffy 1y ago
  The soundtrack is much, much, better.
  - ineptech 1y ago
    Agreed, just saw the remaster in a theater and it holds up surprisingly well. What seemed like glaring inaccuracies in 1995 now seem like whimsical visualizations and over the top silliness. Except of course "It's got a 28.8 bps modem". The other thing I noticed was that it is chock-full of gender non-conformity. Not in the plot, but visually - almost every hacker character wears androgynous clothing or makeup or something along those lines. The over-representation of trans people in computer security is a common trope now and I wonder if Hackers was the first time that was depicted in media.
    - ynniv 1y ago
      point eight bee pee ess, said no one ever. Also too much ADR to censor words that didn't need to be censored
- invalidlogin 1y ago
  What is an nym?
  - dredmorbius 1y ago
    <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nym https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nym>
- 542354234235 1y ago
  Hackers does a great job at answers the question “How do you make hacking, which is literally just typing, visually interesting?” It is kind of like Pixar anthropomorphizing things like emotions. The software becomes a semi-physical landscape with viruses moving across and through that space (like the rabbit virus literally multiplying rabbits). It isn’t trying to be “accurate”, its playing with the idea and concept of hacking. I think it is a really fun movie.
myself248 1y ago
Oh yeah. It snapped me out of immersion the first time too. But upon reflection, I find it forgivable, because if you think about what it would've taken to make it accurate, and then enough narrative to explain it to the fraction of the audience not up on the technical details, you've got a recipe for 15 minutes of yawns. The story is no more or less valid for that directorial shorthand, and it could easily be replaced with an authentic scene if you really wanted to. It would break the pacing but not the plot.
bravoetch 1y ago
There are a couple of command line play-things to recreate that effect, here's one: https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets
agar 1y ago
Little known fact: in the late '00s, PGP Corp had developed a free standalone "Viewer" to decrypt email if you didn't have the full PGP email product installed (the onboarding process walked you through initial key generation and publication on a keyserver). The decryption process showed the encrypted PGP Message block and used a similar Sneakers-inspired animation to transform it into your plaintext email. It was incredibly cool and I remain sad that the product never saw the light of day.
ryanmcbride 1y ago
Hackers is actually good.

by bink 1y ago

ynniv 1y ago

Once you accept that a movie isn't a documentary, Hackers is a lot of fun. The editor of 2600 consulted on it (and lent his nym)

rbanffy 1y ago
The soundtrack is much, much, better.
- ineptech 1y ago
  Agreed, just saw the remaster in a theater and it holds up surprisingly well. What seemed like glaring inaccuracies in 1995 now seem like whimsical visualizations and over the top silliness. Except of course "It's got a 28.8 bps modem". The other thing I noticed was that it is chock-full of gender non-conformity. Not in the plot, but visually - almost every hacker character wears androgynous clothing or makeup or something along those lines. The over-representation of trans people in computer security is a common trope now and I wonder if Hackers was the first time that was depicted in media.
  - ynniv 1y ago
    point eight bee pee ess, said no one ever. Also too much ADR to censor words that didn't need to be censored
invalidlogin 1y ago
What is an nym?
- dredmorbius 1y ago
  <https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nym https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nym>
542354234235 1y ago
Hackers does a great job at answers the question “How do you make hacking, which is literally just typing, visually interesting?” It is kind of like Pixar anthropomorphizing things like emotions. The software becomes a semi-physical landscape with viruses moving across and through that space (like the rabbit virus literally multiplying rabbits). It isn’t trying to be “accurate”, its playing with the idea and concept of hacking. I think it is a really fun movie.

myself248 1y ago

Oh yeah. It snapped me out of immersion the first time too. But upon reflection, I find it forgivable, because if you think about what it would've taken to make it accurate, and then enough narrative to explain it to the fraction of the audience not up on the technical details, you've got a recipe for 15 minutes of yawns. The story is no more or less valid for that directorial shorthand, and it could easily be replaced with an authentic scene if you really wanted to. It would break the pacing but not the plot.

bravoetch 1y ago

There are a couple of command line play-things to recreate that effect, here's one: https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets https://github.com/bartobri/no-more-secrets

agar 1y ago

Little known fact: in the late '00s, PGP Corp had developed a free standalone "Viewer" to decrypt email if you didn't have the full PGP email product installed (the onboarding process walked you through initial key generation and publication on a keyserver). The decryption process showed the encrypted PGP Message block and used a similar Sneakers-inspired animation to transform it into your plaintext email. It was incredibly cool and I remain sad that the product never saw the light of day.

ryanmcbride 1y ago

Hackers is actually good.