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pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

TheAngryDrunk posted:

I thought it was just there to further Gordon's suspicions that she's dangerous/unreliable/a mistake.

As for the show so far, I liked the pilot a lot more than the second episode, but I still liked the second episode. So far, so good.

Cameron really seems like the biggest risk for the entire operation. She's barely above being a drifter and seems to live in a fantasy world. I half expect her to write the BIOS code onto a floppy then destroy the computer and the floppy in some anarchist b.s statement.

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BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
"It's gonna have a handle"

So the show's about them developing an Osbourne.

I can just imagine the impassioned sales pitches.
"With more power and compatibility than an IBM, and it weighs, just 15kg!"

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Thranduil trying to impress with his scars from Smaug again.

Gonz
Dec 22, 2009

"Jesus, did I say that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me?"
Lee Pace looked like he was tortured in 'Nam, for gently caress's sake.

Also, Mackenzie Davis is far too fit to come off as someone who eats whole pizzas and shotguns 2-liters of orange soda.

duck monster
Dec 15, 2004

Shitenshi posted:

And I'm probably full of poo poo on this one because my source is Wikipedia, but I'm pretty sure reverse engineering machines back in the day, even just for fun, wasn't illegal.

Its not illegal, but it won't stop angry lawyers from making menacing noises at you. Back in the 90s I was part of a project reverse engineering the wire protocol of an industrial automation system that used basically an RS485 type bus with a custom crapily encrypted wire protocol. We literally started off with the oscilliscope (to work out the timing since it wasnt latched, and the voltages etc) then sat about trying to brute force our way through the utterly amaturish encryption.

Then we started rolling out cards that let you replace a $10K controller with insane priced software with a $1K computer and whatever the gently caress you want software.

Ho boy did legal threats start flying around.

And then they brought us out v:shobon:v

(Which is exactly what we where after)

phongn
Oct 21, 2006

WebDog posted:

"It's gonna have a handle"

So the show's about them developing an Osbourne.

I can just imagine the impassioned sales pitches.
"With more power and compatibility than an IBM, and it weighs, just 15kg!"
No, the Compaq Portable.

strangemusic
Aug 7, 2008

I shield you because I need charge
Is not because I like you or anything!


I thought this episode had a lot going for it, right up until the hi fi store sequence and the ending reveal which just seemed incredibly overwrought. It was like Don Draper telling everybody his Hershey story only 2 episodes in. Lee Pace continues to be the problem for me, I don't buy him for a second.

I was pretty amused/impressed that he was still bullshitting, though

jmu
Feb 12, 2004

weoo.org
I'm not sure I quite understand the point of reverse engineering the BIOS and then having Howe write her own. Is the idea that Gordon will pass her tips or help her do stuff the way IBM did even though they're legally not allowed to speak to each other?

jmu fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jun 9, 2014

gret
Dec 12, 2005

goggle-eyed freak


jmu posted:

I'm not sure I quite understand the point of reverse engineering the BIOS and then having Howe write her own. Is the idea that Gordon will pass her tips or help her do stuff the way IBM did even though they're legally not allowed to speak to each other?

Yeah I think the point is she is supposed to cheat and look at the code but change things up just enough so that legally IBM can't go after them.

TheAngryDrunk
Jan 31, 2003

"I don't know why I know that; I took four years of Spanish."

jmu posted:

I'm not sure I quite understand the point of reverse engineering the BIOS and then having Howe write her own. Is the idea that Gordon will pass her tips or help her do stuff the way IBM did even though they're legally not allowed to speak to each other?

I'm not 100% certain on this, but I thought the idea behind this process was to reverse engineer it to note the functionality. But then you write your own code with the same functionality so you can't get in trouble legally.

Joe expects her to steal the code, but that's how it would be done legally. I think.

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

jmu posted:

I'm not sure I quite understand the point of reverse engineering the BIOS and then having Howe write her own. Is the idea that Gordon will pass her tips or help her do stuff the way IBM did even though they're legally not allowed to speak to each other?

Yes. Basically Gordon reverse engineered the BIOS and derived specifications to give to Howe. The specifications are basically "high-level" instructions on the general program. "The system shall do this / that / etc."

But Howe, having not seen the binder, can write the code based on those specifications. What Joe, Gordon (and us) see her doing is math that she'll translate to code and write a better instruction set to get that 2x speed that Joe wants.

unlimited shrimp
Aug 30, 2008
Stopped watching after the first episode's Don Draper speech because ugh.
Finished watching the first episode last night and accidentally enjoyed it.

I only knew the show from previews/trailers so I was pretty relieved to find out the cute blonde supertwink is actually a woman.

Party Plane Jones
Jul 1, 2007

by Reene
Fun Shoe

Gonz posted:

Lee Pace looked like he was tortured in 'Nam, for gently caress's sake.

My thinking is it was his dad, who the IBM mentions ominously saying he's very disappointed in him.

bryn987
May 31, 2014
2nd episode was not as good as the first I felt. Like another poster states, Pace's character bothers me. I think it would be better if they slowed the story down some. In this episode, we went from the lawyers to Cameron's "genius" moment

Bachelor Numpad
Sep 16, 2001

All wreckin' and smashin' my junk on the crossbar

JohnSherman posted:

Compaq exists in this universe? Why are we watching people play secondthird fiddle?

This is what I don't get. I get that they're fictional, and this show is obviously fiction, but where are they supposed to fit in with the history?

Sheng-Ji Yang
Mar 5, 2014


My uncle was one of the first Compaq employees. From what I've heard about it all from him it seems the show is heavily based on them. Dunno why they chose Dallas over Houston though. Joe the bald dude is pretty much Rod Canion.

e I also have an aunt who was all in the texas punk scene in the 80s so I guess this is A Show About My Parent's Siblings

Sheng-Ji Yang fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Jun 10, 2014

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

unlimited shrimp posted:

Stopped watching after the first episode's Don Draper speech because ugh.
Finished watching the first episode last night and accidentally enjoyed it.

I only knew the show from previews/trailers so I was pretty relieved to find out the cute blonde supertwink is actually a woman.

It seems like they're trying to make Lee a Don Draper type but he's way more b.s then actual talent. With only 2 episodes in it's starting to seem he's more like a deranged moron with some good ideas. His habit of smashing the poo poo out of something when things go wrong should definitely be getting more notice.

He said he did $2 mill in damage to the data center, that's around $5 mill by 2014 standards. Lee's got some serious anger issues.

Vintersorg
Mar 3, 2004

President of
the Brendan Fraser
Fan Club



I like Lee Pace a lot - but he doesn't fit this time period / show at all. It takes me out of the entire thing. Along with Mackenzie Davis - its too jarring. The guy who plays Gordon is fine tho and looks the part. When I think 80s my mind goes straight to Degrassi (Junior) High which every Canadian grew up with.

Lee Pace should be Mr.Radditch.



Davis should be more like Liz on the right (Spike would be too much).

Party Plane Jones
Jul 1, 2007

by Reene
Fun Shoe
Cameron's design is basically note for note out of Some Kind of Wonderful.

unlimited shrimp
Aug 30, 2008
Aesthetically, Lee Pace's character seems much less rooted in the time period than the other mains, which I assume is intentional. He's the only character with a vision of what computing will actually become versus Cameron's sci-fi visions.

But I'm just not interested in a sociopath Don Draper clone, and I'm not interested in the inevitable "Don Draper is Dick Whitman" story beats we'll get with this character. Second episode in, I'm already watching more for the other characters than for Joe MacMillan. Even his bald boss is more interesting. Contrast that with Mad Men where I didn't start watching for Everyone-But-Don until maybe season 4.

TheRationalRedditor
Jul 17, 2000

WHO ABUSED HIM. WHO ABUSED THE BOY.
Lee Pace is perfectly channeling the Patrick Bateman chic, there's no problem. The casting is sound all the way around. Gordon is addicted to Dr.Pepper

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

unlimited shrimp posted:

Aesthetically, Lee Pace's character seems much less rooted in the time period than the other mains, which I assume is intentional. He's the only character with a vision of what computing will actually become versus Cameron's sci-fi visions.

But I'm just not interested in a sociopath Don Draper clone, and I'm not interested in the inevitable "Don Draper is Dick Whitman" story beats we'll get with this character. Second episode in, I'm already watching more for the other characters than for Joe MacMillan. Even his bald boss is more interesting. Contrast that with Mad Men where I didn't start watching for Everyone-But-Don until maybe season 4.

Joe is the guy who sees a market desperate for competition and half empty and IBM resting on their laurels and not filling the void.

Gordon is the guy who who can make a good product, lacks the backing to do so, and has realistic plans for the future of computing.

Cameron honestly thinks computers will be some magical wonder device that transforms society and eliminates social ills.

The only reason Cameron is in the show is because Gordon already saw the BIOS code. They've started to develop the characters into more but the idea of ditching Cameron as soon as she writes the BIOS due to her instability means she'll have to pull some miracle poo poo to stay around.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli
Well all three have degrees of instability.
Joe has burnt several bridges and is about to set fire to the one he's currently crossing, setting them up to die in about two months, short of them pulling a miracle out from thin air.
They're definitely painting him as someone who at least knows just enough about computers to understand how they work, can read minimum code but doesn't have the patience to sit down and write code and who sees programmers as human computers who make him money.

Gordon is a recovering alcoholic (Dr. Pepper is his anti-drug) who's only being propped up by an unexpected promotion and the warm fuzzy glow that was Joe recognizing his talents, which is somewhat dampened by Joe sending the company hurtling towards a cliff-face.
It's pretty clear that it's him vs the wife and they seem to be throwing up the idea that he and Cameron might end up having a fling out of "kindred spirits".

Cameron pretty much is the wild card. She's virtually a drifter who's sleeping in the office and has little care for life and I think they're toying with the idea that she could jump ship to IBM if she sees the company start to sink. Joe does see her as a one trick pony who can at least setup enough framework for Gordon to build on.
Her lofty ambitions isn't completely ahead of her time as she seems savvy enough to know about ARPANET and Usenet, she just envisions a situation where it's not just limited to a few people.

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

TheRationalRedditor posted:

Lee Pace is perfectly channeling the Patrick Bateman chic, there's no problem. The casting is sound all the way around. Gordon is addicted to Dr.Pepper

Patrick Bateman only regurgitates what he knows and wants to fit it to the elite class.

Duck and Cover
Apr 6, 2007

It has the pie maker, all this jabber about none important stuff is sad. It has the pie maker. I like pies, it has a maker of pies, thus I and everyone should like this show it's that simple.

wormil
Sep 12, 2002

Hulk will smoke you!
Joe was pretty clear in the first episode he wanted the company to take the heat instead of them as individuals. I suspect burning the bridge he's crossing was the plan all along. He doesn't seem like a character that does random, he chose that company for a reason. It will become essentially worthless and available for a song.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

wormil posted:

Joe was pretty clear in the first episode he wanted the company to take the heat instead of them as individuals. I suspect burning the bridge he's crossing was the plan all along. He doesn't seem like a character that does random, he chose that company for a reason. It will become essentially worthless and available for a song.

That scene with the stereos suggested otherwise to me. He harassed a complete stranger out of panic and had a meltdown. Doesn't feel like he's in control.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

Open Source Idiom posted:

That scene with the stereos suggested otherwise to me. He harassed a complete stranger out of panic and had a meltdown. Doesn't feel like he's in control.

Joe does not have any control once something goes to poo poo in his life. He apparently destroyed stuff at an IBM data center, he smashes the gently caress out of his apt/stuff when his plan hits a hurdle, and walks into a private business and does a shitload of property damage when IBM throws a wrench into his plans.

If this were a Showtime show, he'd probably be murdering someone each time he loses it like Patrick Bateman.

3 Action Economist
May 22, 2002

Educate. Agitate. Liberate.

Party Plane Jones posted:

Cameron's design is basically note for note out of Some Kind of Wonderful.



I got a lot of Sean Young out of her character, too.

feedmegin
Jul 30, 2008

Interesting that they're writing for the (80)186 apparently - maybe they're making a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulmont_Magnum ?

(They can't be making 'the first IBM compatible' any more because they've namechecked not one, but two companies that were in that business with Compaq and Columbia, with the clear implication they succeeded and weren't sued into oblivion...)

Edit: I don't see them as trying for Don Draper at all, by the way; dude's way more of a straight-up con man/psychopath. And I actually kind of like it. When Don does his carousel or hershey pitches he means it, that's what gives the pitch its power. This guy is a straight up liar and good at it.

feedmegin fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Jun 12, 2014

Rassle
Dec 4, 2011

The title of this show almost sounds inspirational if you knew nothing about the show or where the title came from.

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Rassle posted:

The title of this show almost sounds inspirational if you knew nothing about the show or where the title came from.

Or about Tibetan monks.

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007

Witchfinder General

I'll go ahead and call it now he was in a mental institution for the last year, which is where he read the magazine article. He's a straight up lunatic.

wormil
Sep 12, 2002

Hulk will smoke you!

Open Source Idiom posted:

That scene with the stereos suggested otherwise to me. He harassed a complete stranger out of panic and had a meltdown. Doesn't feel like he's in control.

Things may not be going as planned but that doesn't mean there isn't a plan. My take was IBM reacted more aggressively than he anticipated, putting the company in danger of shutting down before meaningful progress is made on his project. I don't believe he has any intention of settling for Project Manager, he wants to own the company. But then we don't really know this character yet and I could be completely off base.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012
Well, they certainly went a new direction with Joe.

From the preview it looks like they're doing the "data get erased" angle and the whole team will have to come together to produce some coding miracle at the last minute. It might be a misleading trailer but I'd think something like a new BIOS code or whatever it was would have an offsite back-up. I don't know what data redundancy was like in the early 80s so it could be plausible.

Party Plane Jones
Jul 1, 2007

by Reene
Fun Shoe
The show is set in 1983 from what I recall which means its about 1 and a half years after 3.5 floppies started coming out but still 3/4 years before RAID started being the industry standard. Data redundancy was not really practiced as widely as it is today until the late 90s; hell, Toy Story 2 almost got entirely deleted from Pixar's storage site but was saved by a backup from somebody on Maternity leave. Even government agencies aren't immune to it. NASA (in their infinite wisdom) degaussed/erased over 200,000 magnetic tapes for reuse in the 1980s. Some of those tapes they erased included the original moonlanding tapes.

wormil
Sep 12, 2002

Hulk will smoke you!
Third episode was terrible. I had to fast forward to finish it at all. The scene with Donna and her mother was unnecessary. The Cameron character doesn't work for me. She is not as sexy or edgy as they pretend, has no depth and is not interesting in the least. Mackenzie Davis is falling on her rear end and was a terrible casting choice. At least we got an idea of how far Joe will go to get his way.

Jake Armitage
Dec 11, 2004

+69 Pimp

Shitenshi posted:

And I'm probably full of poo poo on this one because my source is Wikipedia, but I'm pretty sure reverse engineering machines back in the day, even just for fun, wasn't illegal.

It was in the "we can get sued for this" sense but not in the "we're going to jail for this" sense they keep repeating over and over again in this show.

DominoDancing posted:

Lee Pace's character just doesn't looks like he's out of the 80s at all, esepcially the costuming.

This drove me crazy in ep 1 & 2, until I gave them the benefit of the doubt: he's the visionary of the group. He should look like the one guy who's fashion sense works in 2014 rather than the 1980s.

I know they are setting up Cameron as the visionary, but she said "computers will be linked together over phone lines!" in the 80s as if that wasn't already a thing, which it was.

WebDog posted:

"It's gonna have a handle"

"With more power and compatibility than an IBM, and it weighs, just 15kg!"

Ok, I have to say I'm probably older than most around here, but my dad had one of the exact computers they are about to build in this show and yeah, it was exciting. It was basically a PC suitcase with a built in monitor and it weighed a ton, but it was a sensation at the time. My little stupid mind was blown when I saw it, at least.

So far I am enjoying this show, although my one gripe is the technobabble. It's an odd choice. Either go pop tech and strip that stuff out so my mom can understand it, or go full-on realism and hire consultants who know what they are talking about and appeal to engineers. Instead it feels like they took this strange middle ground where the result makes no sense to the mass audience while causing a few major :rolleyes: moments for people who understand the tech.

Also, Cameron's character barely exists now. In the 80s... yeah, no.

Acinonyx
Oct 21, 2005

Jake Armitage posted:

Ok, I have to say I'm probably older than most around here, but my dad had one of the exact computers they are about to build in this show and yeah, it was exciting. It was basically a PC suitcase with a built in monitor and it weighed a ton, but it was a sensation at the time. My little stupid mind was blown when I saw it, at least.

The 'semi-portable' already exists in this world; they showed one and referred to it as 'lug-able'. The specs they are shooting for seem to have been reached by the Grid Compass in 1982 (11# clam-shell design) which had a modem as well.

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Jake Armitage
Dec 11, 2004

+69 Pimp
Huh I guess I missed that. I assumed this story was about the development of the Compaq Portable. When he talked about making the PC portable he said "we'll put a handle on it!" which led me there, plus the whole reverse engineering the BIOS thing.

From Compaq's Wikipedia page:

quote:

Compaq Portable
In November 1982 Compaq announced their first product, the Compaq Portable, a portable IBM PC compatible personal computer. It was released in March 1983 at $2995, considerably more affordable than the Canadian Hyperion. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today's laptop; some called it a "suitcase computer" for its size and the look of its case. It was the second IBM PC compatible, being capable of running all software that would run on an IBM PC. It was a commercial success, selling 53,000 units in its first year and generating $111 million in sales revenue. The Compaq Portable was the first in the range of the Compaq Portable series. Compaq was able to market a legal IBM clone because IBM mostly used "off the shelf" parts for their PC. Furthermore, Microsoft had kept the right to license the operating system to other computer manufacturers. The only part which had to be duplicated was the BIOS, which Compaq did legally by using clean room reverse engineering at a cost of $1 million.[16][17][18]

But honestly this show could be a big mishmash of a lot of different 80s tech stories.

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