
The Hacker Who Cracked the Code in Iron Man and The Social Network - jgrahamc
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/01/movie-fake-code/
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ChuckMcM
Well if nothing else this suggests there is a lifestyle level business in the
Entertainment industry doing "code" inserts. The article lays out all of the
things that are challenging (copyright issues, continuity issues, and cost) so
building a small consulting firm around providing "code" for these situations
cost effectively and reliably solves a need.

The go to market strategy is to get writers in the screenwriters guild aware
of your offering, and let the lswyers know you provide guarantees, both that
your "set" code will not conflict with anyone else's copyright, but also that
copyright can be asserted on it so that the film has greater protection out
there. Which gets the lawyers insisting the writers use your stuff.

You'll need a good design asthetic and some markov-chain like software which
can generate plausible looking code on demand.

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bazzargh
Did you see the article by the guy who did the effects for Tron: Legacy?
Brilliant stuff.

[http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178](http://jtnimoy.net/workviewer.php?q=178)

Not a markov chain, he just recorded himself at the shell. It made me grin
when I saw that bit in the movie and the commands actually made sense (the
rest of the film... not so much)

~~~
sorahn
Wow, that is obnoxious to read the whole thing in that font.

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trekky1700
My biggest surprise is that nobody did something like this sooner. Especially
how distracting it is when someone in a movie is controlling a weapons system
or saving the world with code written in ActionScript.

Unless ActionScript somehow becomes the dominant programming language of the
future, in which case the future looks darker than I thought.

~~~
phn
I know it is a little off-topic. But what is so bad about ActionScript?

~~~
trekky1700
Nothing in particular, it is very similar to other languages like Java, I just
wouldn't recommend it for saving the world. Unless the world is being attacked
by Flash game loving aliens.

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ben0x539
At the point where I'm fighting aliens in a metal suit with a super compact
free energy source strapped to my chest, I think the runtime performance
characteristics of the software involved is the least of my concerns.

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bazzargh
Be a movie hacker: [http://hackertyper.net/](http://hackertyper.net/)

the code it's using - [http://lxr.free-
electrons.com/source/kernel/groups.c](http://lxr.free-
electrons.com/source/kernel/groups.c) \- is GPL so hollywood may choke on the
copyright issue. Press alt x 3, caps lock x 3 or esc for special stuff

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Jun8
I don't get it: If you're some bored (and/or clueless) computer consultant for
a movie, isn't it _much_ easier to randomly google "C++ code" or grab from
github, or, even better, grab the source code from the Linux kernel than
pasting from an obscure Intel Architecture Manual?

Do you think this manual was just sitting on the guy's desk when his manager
came with the request "Create an authentic looking code snippet, you've got 5
minutes"? Who are these people who create these "code" snippets anyway? If
anyone with knowledge enlightens me I'd be much obliged.

~~~
mathattack
Maybe it was decided by a non-technical person. "Code? I have no idea, grab an
Intel manual!" This sounds plausible from someone who would have never heard
of github.

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disputin
"The 'quality' of the code really comes down to deadlines".

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Already__Taken
Fairly sure I remember the Archer guys pointing out some of the code they
wanted to put up on the show needed quite a bit of checking to make sure
there's no IP fowl ups. Including the output from the program, it can still
need correct licencing.

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matsur
The Social Network paid particular attention to this, to the point that they
tracked down[0] the actual slides[1] Zuckerberg would have seen in his Harvard
OS class for the scene in the classroom.

[0] [http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-defense-of-mark-
zu...](http://matt-welsh.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-defense-of-mark-
zuckerberg.html) [1]
[http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/course/cs161/notes/vm.pdf](http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~mdw/course/cs161/notes/vm.pdf)

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frik
Nothing new, we had similar articles and discussion on HN:

[https://www.google.com/#q=site:news.ycombinator.com+movie+co...](https://www.google.com/#q=site:news.ycombinator.com+movie+code)

Movie director David Fincher uses computer monitors with a green/blue Screen,
the computer graphic is added in post production. Check out the behind the
scene footage of "Social Network" (2 disc DVD ed)!

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merak136
Am I the only one thinking " Who cares "?

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maaaats
Hmm, ctrl+clicking the links in the article does nothing.

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JasonFruit
Check your popup blocker. I was surprised by that, too.

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ape4
So movies are superficial?!

