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Halt And Catch Fire

Judge

Judge

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
Just watched the first episode. Any of you computer geeks watching this one?

Oh yeah.....:cool:
 
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I saw it and liked it, I look forward to seeing more. It's not overt about it at all, but there's a character who seems a bit aspie-like (Cameron Howe, played by Mackenzie Davis), it will be interesting to see how that develops.
 
I tried, but I only got about 10 minutes into it. There are plenty of other fast-talking sleight-of-handsters on shows I'm already following, my only interest here is the computer technology. Unfortunately, it's tough to make that look interesting on TV because the fun stuff is going on inside the person's brain. Oh, well ... at least Sherlock tries to give a visual image of what happens when his brain is in motion.

Let me know if it gets any more interesting, ok?
 
KassieMac said:
I tried, but I only got about 10 minutes into it. There are plenty of other fast-talking sleight-of-handsters on shows I'm already following, my only interest here is the computer technology. Unfortunately, it's tough to make that look interesting on TV because the fun stuff is going on inside the person's brain. Oh, well ... at least Sherlock tries to give a visual image of what happens when his brain is in motion.

Let me know if it gets any more interesting, ok?
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Well, the technology is 1983. Reminds me of that three hour special they did decades ago about the history of the PC. The personalities, the power-plays, that sort of thing.

It kind of nebulously mimics Microsoft. Not about honestly building the best mousetrap, but ultimately marketing it better. It seems much more about the industry than the technology. But I have no idea where this one will go. AMC hits a lot of home runs....but occasionally has foul balls too. Stay tuned.
 
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1983 is my era, I was fascinated by computers long before I ever had a chance to use one, and I started college in 85. I'm just not interested in the personalities, power-plays, industry, or marketing ... good analogy comparing it to Microsoft, but that's why I use Apple products. I love the technology, and to me it IS all about building the best mousetrap. All the rest can be left up to the business majors, I'm not interested.

Having said that, please don't be shy about posting your comments on the show. If my perception is wrong and it does get into what I find interesting, I'd like to know! :)
 
KassieMac said:
1983 is my era, I was fascinated by computers long before I ever had a chance to use one, and I started college in 85. I'm just not interested in the personalities, power-plays, industry, or marketing ... good analogy comparing it to Microsoft, but that's why I use Apple products. I love the technology, and to me it IS all about building the best mousetrap. All the rest can be left up to the business majors, I'm not interested.

Having said that, please don't be shy about posting your comments on the show. If my perception is wrong and it does get into what I find interesting, I'd like to know! :)
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I was working on an IBM proprietary system in 1981 in insurance. Didn't even have hands-on experience with a MAC until the late 90s in tech school when I changed careers. But I still remember the day I first worked on one. Discovered what a truly intuitive OS was all about. Loved it.

No, I suspect your initial perception is probably correct. My gut tells me that it's not likely to go deeply into the technology any more than it already did. However, now I wished you had watched the whole last episode to give you more perspective along such lines. I initially had the impression the girl was supposed to create the bios from scratch, and yet he literally through the IBM book at her (presumably to copy it). They haven't shown much about the other guy whose supposed to develop the hardware.

In the long haul I don't think you'll find what you are looking for. It's television....they're not likely to pander to us technical folks. Just like "Dallas" doesn't spend much time explaining the intricacies of the oil industry...which I find fascinating as well.
 
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I may still watch the first episode, I was partially frustrated because it was late and I couldn't keep up with the fast-talker. I'll try again earlier in the day with a fresh cup of coffee.

Funny that you mentioned Dallas ... did you notice that H&CF is set in Dallas? One thing I did catch was when they mentioned Carrollton & Lewisville ... I lived in Carrollton when I worked for TI in Lewisville in the 90s.

And yes, AAPL did split! I now have seven times more shares than I did last week! Of course they're only worth 1/7th as much, but it's rising. I have a good friend here in town that bought her's in the 80s for $30/share ... funny, she's a complete luddite, has never had a computer or a smartphone, but she knew a good investment. I've been telling her for years that it'll never split ... some days I LOVE being wrong!
 
KassieMac said:
I may still watch the first episode, I was partially frustrated because it was late and I couldn't keep up with the fast-talker. I'll try again earlier in the day with a fresh cup of coffee.

Funny that you mentioned Dallas ... did you notice that H&CF is set in Dallas? One thing I did catch was when they mentioned Carrollton & Lewisville ... I lived in Carrollton when I worked for TI in Lewisville in the 90s.

And yes, AAPL did split! I now have seven times more shares than I did last week! Of course they're only worth 1/7th as much, but it's rising. I have a good friend here in town that bought her's in the 80s for $30/share ... funny, she's a complete luddite, has never had a computer or a smartphone, but she knew a good investment. I've been telling her for years that it'll never split ... some days I LOVE being wrong!
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Yeah they gave a little more background info about the fast-talker and his mysterious departure from IBM. I think they want to spend more time villifying IBM. (LOL....I used to be an IBM shareholder.)

Carrollton...hmmm that's where Squadron.com is. Years ago they were a retail hobby operation with stores all over the country.

Oops... I removed mentioning the stock split because it's semi-off-topic. But hmmmm.....I may buy some at that price. Have to watch it for a while....:)
 
I saw the second episode a while ago, not as good as the first one, but I'm still enjoying it (one big laugh I got was from Cameron calling the other, more conservative women in the office "The 700 Club"). It may not be one of AMC's classic shows, but unless it really drops the ball somehow in an upcoming episode, I don't think it's one of the duds either. My perspective may be different since I'm a pretty technically-illiterate person and I was about 3 or 4 years old when the show is set (the first computer I remember using was a Compaq "portable" with a tiny monochrome screen about 1987 or so). I do find the early 80s kind of an interesting era even though I wasn't really "around" for it (I enjoyed the little touch of Clark taking his family out to see the historically-accurate Return of the Jedi in the first episode since it bugs me a lot when tv shows and movies have anachronistic pop culture artifacts in period movies, I think I may have quit watching the show if the movie had been, say Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or Gremlins).

As a little aside, the first episode made me wish I still had a Speak-and-Spell I could let my little nephew play with, I don't think it would be much competition for his grandma's iPhone though.
 
I'm just curious as to where the show might go...whether or not it may be a metaphor of Microsoft in some way. Unless it's simply going to be about a totally rogue operation fighting the big corporations....which could also be interesting.
 
Judge said:
I'm just curious as to where the show might go...whether or not it may be a metaphor of Microsoft in some way. Unless it's simply going to be about a totally rogue operation fighting the big corporations....which could also be interesting.
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I watched the first episode with my mom and uncle, he seems to think that it's based on how Texas-based Dell Computers got started (in the first episode, MacMillan runs over an armadillo close to the capitol building in Austin):

Michael Dell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
IContainMultitudes said:
I watched the first episode with my mom and uncle, he seems to think that it's based on how Texas-based Dell Computers got started (in the first episode, MacMillan runs over an armadillo close to the capitol building in Austin):

Michael Dell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Good catch....Texas. Didn't even think of them. Well, Dell got his company back. Sort of....at least away from shareholders. :eek: Just wondering how much mileage the writers could get out of Michael Dell's story? Hmmm...

Funny, my second 386 PC was a Dell! Used a Cyrix chip back then to upgrade it to a 486. Wow...that system had 16 megs of RAM! LOL...DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1...but it was fun. Seems so long ago. After that I started building my own.
 
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I finally placed where I've seen the main character before, Joe MacMillan.

He's a modern day Oskar Schindler. :eek:

"Not the work, not the work! The presentation...." :rolleyes:
 
Interesting scene in the last episode. Where in the board room meeting Donna Clark says what really needed to be done (remove a money-losing product from the line) where no one else wanted to admit it. And then later her boss commends her for it. And she laments that she thought it was a dumb thing to do.

Working corporate is so complex. Even when knowing the correct answer it can cost you your head. I suppose timing is everything. In most instances I just kept my head down most of the time. Enough to get promoted but never become a manager. Glad I didn't!
 
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