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Posted by ScottWRobinson 10 hours ago

Halt and Catch Fire(unstack.io)
100 points | 56 comments
caned 1 hour ago|
This show captures much of what I miss about computing in the 80s and 90s. You could get your hands on hardware, be able to largely understand what all the hardware and software was doing. You mostly used computers as tools, which only accepted commands and didn't try to affect your decisions or workflow (yes, there was Clippy). The leaps forward in computing power, memory and storage were more impactful to the everyday user. There was a sense of wonder, and it didn't envelop your and everyone's life. Most of all, we weren't yet slaves to our computers, and they weren't devices crafted to endlessly grab your attention by any means necessary.
Forgeties79 54 minutes ago|
“It’s the thing that gets you to the thing.”
greenbit 5 hours ago||
The Commodore PET 4032 video system was generated by a 6545 (6845 equivalent) cathode ray tube controller, which generated the video buffer addresses and the HS and VS sync pulses. This was memory mapped and if one was not careful with POKE commands, you could effectively stop the CRT raster scan, leaving the beam parked at the center of the screen. This could burn the phosphors off that spot in a matter of minutes. Not exactly HCF, but a similar vibe.

(The PET had its own monitor that, unlike common composite monitors of the era, apparently would not continue to scan when the sync went away)

userbinator 2 hours ago||
The IBM MDA also had a 6845, and since it was driving a fixed-frequency monitor of extremely simple design, any deviation from the standard timings could definitely let the magic smoke out of the flyback transformer.

https://marc.info/?l=classiccmp&m=119637265107100

WalterBright 3 hours ago||
In 1978 I built a single board computer with a 6800 uP and a 6845 to drive the display. Made a keyboard for it, and it worked.

Unfortunately, in my many moves it has disappeared, though I still have the schematics for it.

Somehow I missed the boat on being a billionaire!

burnte 6 hours ago||
It was a fun show. I really enjoyed it, a fictional run through the 80s and 90s computing industries.
0xCMP 6 hours ago||
It's a shame that it is such a niche show in practice. The acting of Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis in particular are so good across all 4 seasons.

I recommend it at every chance I get, but few people ever watch it. They're more likely to give Silicon Valley a try.

Unai 3 hours ago|||
Lee Pace is just bigger than life, and Mackenzie Davis is electric in every scene, but my favourite on the show was Scoot McNairy's character. A very specific type of nerd that's rarely written with such depth and nuance. Although I guess that could be said of all the main (and not so main) characters in the show.

If anyone else loved these actors watching HACF, I would recommend watching The Fall (Pace), Fargo S3 (McNairy) and Station Eleven (Davis).

riddley 6 hours ago||||
All four leads are flawless and I can't really think of a single bad performance.
intothemild 4 hours ago||||
Same. Having experienced the growth of computing in those eras, the show itself had a very well researched yet very nostalgic sense of "oh yes. I'd forgotten about that".
whateveracct 6 hours ago|||
Silicon Valley is also pretty good. I went in expecting not to like it (in a Big Bang Theory "about nerds but not for them" way) but came out loving it. It may read as parody to some but it barely is. It's a comedic but accurate take on west coast tech industry of the 2010s
intothemild 4 hours ago|||
The best part of Silicon Valley was that it had a very south park quality to it.. in that things that were actually happening at the time were parodied on the show.
timenotwasted 6 hours ago|||
Yeah a truly fantastic show all the way through the end. One of my favorites by far.
mandw 6 hours ago|||
I have to admit, when a specific person died I was feeling so bad about it I never watched the last episode. I still have it on the drive how many years later.
GranPC 5 hours ago|||
You should probs edit out the spoiler, or encode it somehow for others who haven't watched it yet!
mandw 5 hours ago||
Fair enough. I assumed everyone would have watched it by now from here :)
kshacker 4 hours ago||
For example ... I just finished it 2-3 months back and started only because of a thread here :)
calmworm 1 hour ago|||
Yeah, that was a rough bit. I’ve rewatched the show and I know it’s coming and it still gets me.
mchinen 6 hours ago|||
It's special for sure. For those on the fence, it has some writing and direction flaws, especially with minor characters, like the disgruntled neighbor and IP theft bit in the first season. But it grows as a show over time, and the 5 leads (including Toby Huss) smooth the problems out with their talent and chemistry.

They really captured the urge to build things in tech, and the problems that come with it. HACF, Silicon Valley, and The Soul of a New Machine are a trifecta.

pico303 5 hours ago||
Don’t forget Fire in the Valley.
tptacek 6 hours ago|||
Same showrunner is doing the current season of The Terror (a/k/a "North Pole Bear Show" in my review notes; that first season was excellent).
_heimdall 2 hours ago|||
Agreed. This was one of the few shows that advanced the storyline quite a bit threw the seasons without jumping the shark.
TacticalCoder 6 hours ago|||
Same. It shows the link between big oil and companies in Texas and then computing moving to California. It both shows mainframe, personal computers (the C64) and then beige PC taking over.

Great intro too:

https://youtu.be/yD_kCKiSkoI

throw0101a 6 hours ago|||
> Same. It shows the link between big oil and companies in Texas […]

E.g.,

> Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November 1945, Patrick Haggerty was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment.[14] By 1951, the L&M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because a firm named General Instrument already existed, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments

And how it got in contact with military contracts:

> TI entered the defense electronics market in 1942 with submarine detection equipment,[41] based on the seismic exploration technology previously developed for the oil industry. The division responsible for these products was known at different times as the Laboratory & Manufacturing Division, the Apparatus Division, the Equipment Group, and the Defense Systems & Electronics Group (DSEG).

* Ibid

0xCMP 6 hours ago|||
Oh I'd never connected this. It makes so much sense. I'd always wondered what Texas had to do with computing that made so many things start there.
mistic92 6 hours ago|||
I still have it downloaded somewhere as wanted to watch it again. It was great
Forgeties79 6 hours ago||
It really starts strong too. The first couple of episodes are fantastic.
jrmg 5 hours ago||
Huh. I haven’t rewatched the show, but when I saw it originally - admittedly shortly after watching Mad Men - I thought “this is trying to be Mad Men, but it’s the '80s and in the computer industry” and interpreted Lee Pace as a laundered Don Draper.

The show is much more, and much better, than that though. I’m glad I kept watching.

Forgeties79 4 hours ago||
That’s how I pitch it to people because it gets them to watch it, but it is definitely distinct from it. Same energy though
indigodaddy 5 hours ago||
Complete series is at all time low on iTunes/Apple TV, 14.99:

https://www.cheapcharts.com/us/itunes/seasons/1745389594

LastTrain 5 hours ago||
So many AI comments. Spamming every post. Backed by AI accounts all with blogs that are less than a year old with 3-6 banal programming projects. WTF man.
ksenzee 4 hours ago|
Have they been removed? I’m mostly seeing comments from established accounts.
BikiniPrince 3 hours ago||
No they are absolutely everywhere. Most people here don’t even know what HCF. This article is nonsense and paints it like some euphemism applied to modern coding. HCF was a joke and no actual implementation was proven. Fucking bots.
ScottWRobinson 3 hours ago||
Author here. I wasn't trying to imply that this is a commonly used phrase nowadays. You can see from the sources I linked, there is definitely history to HCF and even some truth to its phrase. But yes, it was mostly a joke
kens 5 hours ago||
I'm calling urban legend on the story of an IBM 360 catching fire from an illegal opcode.
dreamcompiler 4 hours ago||
I learned the 6800 in college in Texas in the 80s, and it definely had what we called an HCF instruction. I didn't remember the opcode until I read this article.

When the show came out I thought it must have been created by one of my classmates because the title is so arcane. Turns out it wasn't but the show definitely captures the vibe of computing in Austin and Dallas in the 80s.

jrmg 5 hours ago||
Love how many people here are thinking this is about (or just taking it as an opportunity to talk about) the under-appreciated TV show!
ScottWRobinson 4 hours ago|
I mean, it is the thing that made me go down this rabbit hole. Need to watch it now!
dbg31415 4 hours ago|
> I have never watched the AMC show Halt and Catch Fire…

Go watch it. Great show.

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