
Mr Robot S02E01 easter egg - tilt
https://0x41.no/mr-robot-s02e01-easter-egg/
======
auganov
Is this season going to have a lot of "weird" stuff going on as well?

I watched the first one. I enjoyed the first few episodes, seemed like it was
going to be a drama about people working in InfoSec. Definitely appreciated
the relative plausibility of the hacks. Was very disappointed when it turned
into a psycho-druggie-anonymous-whatever sort of thing. It went so quickly
from a semi-plausible portrayal to a fetishization of [black hat] hackers.

I understand how that's more appealing to a wider audience. Just saying what
I'd prefer personally for my own sake.

~~~
bananaoomarang
The first two episodes were definitely on the 'trippy' side of things.

I wish they'd ditch the whole split-personality plot, but seems like we're
stuck with it. It's not a disaster, just sort of tiresome. Seems cheap when
compared to the rest of the show's plotting, and I was hoping there'd be less
focus on it this season now the 'reveal' is done with. I think it's mainly
that they want to keep Christian Slater on screen.

The trippy 'Lynchian' stuff really doesn't work for me here either, it seems
out of place/poorly handled. Judging by the critics/friends though, I think
I'm in the minority there. I think the show is generally a victim of its
writer's grandiose ambitions; it wants to appear epic and sophisticated but it
ends up oversimplifying.

Hacking is still great, though.

~~~
armitron
The brilliance of the show is that it portrays dissociative disorders in an
extremely realistic fashion.

If you didn't identify with that, then you're obviously not part of the
subculture that the show portrays and is really made for. Mr Robot is not
about the drugs or computer hacking, it's far more grandiose than that.
Similarly to Fight Club, it can be viewed as a social study of a subculture
that's operating on the frontier of consensus reality and could characterize
where that reality will shift in the future.

Have you had to juggle multiple identities in your head, every day for years
if not decades? Have you thought what this does to you?

Have you had to keep secrets from everyone around you?

Have you "felt" what cyberspace really is about? Have you experienced the
VICIOUS feedback loop of projecting a thoughtform/idea (what the audience
views as "hacking") into that new domain only to have it manifest and achieve
its own reality, as if by magic?

The technical aspects of the show are by far the least interesting.

~~~
nxzero
>> "Have you "felt" what cyberspace really is about? Have you experienced the
VICIOUS feedback loop of projecting a thoughtform/idea (what the audience
views as 'hacking') into that new domain only to have it manifest and achieve
its own reality, as if by magic?"

What would be an example of this?

Are you referring to something similar to multiple discovery:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery)

~~~
armitron
Hacking [breaking boundaries, making the seemingly impossible possible by pure
force of will] is the archetypal example of this. Obviously, the discipline is
not new and has been present for thousands of years, any sort of
artistic/creative process encapsulates it.

The arrival of cyberspace however and its subsumption of more and more aspects
of our everyday lives acts as a positive feedback loop. What was unthinkable
or even heretical 20-30 years ago is now routine.

In a sense, we are witnessing a new paradigm shift where the intermediate
substrates (mind/inception to manifestation) are being dissolved and the
feedback loop gets shorter.

~~~
paavokoya
>What was unthinkable or even heretical 20-30 years ago is now routine

You can see this with the subsequent breakdown of social structure and
monetary philosophy. The masses are reaching harmonization through their own
voices rather than having a conductor leading them
(politician/bankers/middlemen in general)

------
rwhitman
The coolest thing about this show I discovered was that every hack depicted is
actually tested to see if it would work, and the screenshots cut into the show
are always shown in the correct order of execution. Amazing.

Wish there was a clip on YouTube but their tech consultant Kor Adana explains
it in the "Hacking Robot" panel discussion they ran after the season premiere
(around 8:50 tons of ads sorry):
[http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/videos/hacking-
robot-101](http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/videos/hacking-robot-101)

~~~
746F7475
I still do not believe that the Steel Mountain hack could be pulled off the
way they did it.

~~~
orionblastar
They worked with Chinese hackers in order to pull it off. Most likely working
for the Chinese government to hack into US servers and steal data without
getting noticed.

I'm not sure how the data tapes got erased, but they planted a Raspberry PI to
the heating system to turn up the heat and fry them all? Bypassing safety
checks and displaying normal readings to the people monitoring it? Wouldn't
those people feel the heat going up and panic?

~~~
adynatos
plausible imho. data tapes could be in area A where people rarely go. admins
could be in area B. temps could be set higher in area A, but not in B, at 4 am
on a saturday night.

------
Vexs
I think Mr Robot has good tech in it, because it's not a show about tech CSI-
Cyber style. It's a drama, which uses tech as a basebone. All the hacking
largely stays in quick snippets displayed, and maybe a sort of slow-marathon
style of filming where it's clear something takes a while.

It's a show about hacking, but hacking is secondary to the other aspects, it
just moves the plot forward, and that's why it works so well.

~~~
bduerst
Don't watch the new _Person of Interest_ tv show then, it's a lot like CSI but
they name-drop technical jargon in only semi-relevant context, which makes it
even worse for some reason.

~~~
glider97
I think that's rather over-criticizing it. Person of Interest may not be able
to match Mr. Robot in technical realism, but it _is_ set in a fantastical
universe with a fully functional AI. I wish they were as committed to
realistic hacking as Mr. Robot, but it cannot be said that they didn't try.
Its hacks were explained enough for a layman, and shown enough for a technical
person.

And its story was good, too. I'd recommend it to people just for that.

~~~
bduerst
But that's what makes it _worse_ than CSI, because it's so heavily grounded in
technology that suspense of disbelief is disrupted when technical terms are
misused.

~~~
glider97
Can you give some examples? I'm sincerely asking, since I never felt that
technical terms were misused. I want to know where I missed that.

------
partisan
I am probably going to wait for the season to complete so I can binge watch.
Am I the only one?

My big concern is all of the media and spoilers that surround these popular
shows. Why do I know who died in Orange is the New Black? Why does Google
think I need this as part of my news feed that I check only once or twice a
day because I just need the most important news items.

~~~
jordigh
It appears I'm pretty unusual in that I actually like reading spoilers and
they don't really spoil anything for me. The few times that people have had
spoilers but still read or watch the story in question, I've asked them, "did
you enjoy it less because you knew what would happen?" and they said "no". I
don't know of someone who actually had their enjoyment of the story modified
by knowing the story, but many people who loudly proclaim that spoilers make
them upset.

A good story should work even if you know what will happen. The components of
the story (such as the easter eggs in the present discussion) should be more
interesting than some gimmick of a big reveal. The whole concept of spoilers
is extremely modern, probably invented by Hitchcock as marketing to sell more
tickets to his movies. When you go see the ballet or an opera, you're given
the whole plot upfront as part of the programme.

~~~
m_myers
When a story is well done, I can immerse myself in it and see it from a
character's point of view. So I can still enjoy a movie with a big reveal at
the end even if I already know the reveal.

On the other hand, some movies are simply too intense to be enjoyable for me.
So I often pull up Wikipedia first to make sure that the payoff is going to be
worth it.

An example that falls into both categories is "The Fugitive" (Harrison Ford
movie based on the TV show). I already know who the villain is and who dies at
the end, but I can still enjoy Harrison Ford piecing it together and Tommy Lee
Jones trying to stop him. And the last part of the movie is more intense and
action-heavy than I really like, but I can take it because I know how it turns
out.

I sometimes joke that I'm a member of the "Wikipedia Film Club" because I read
about more movies than I actually end up watching.

~~~
NDT
_I sometimes joke that I 'm a member of the "Wikipedia Film Club" because I
read about more movies than I actually end up watching._

That's so funny. I definitely do that too. However, a lot of the times I don't
end up watching the movie unless it's really good. That's probably my favorite
use of Wikipedia.

------
thieving_magpie
Cached:
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3sFdXb...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3sFdXb85U3wJ:https://0x41.no/mr-
robot-s02e01-easter-egg/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

------
breatheoften
On top of what I consider to be utterly extraordinary film making craft, this
show really gives me a new appreciation of the nature of anarchy. There is a
very real sense in which "anarchy" \-- a kind of lack of predictably -- is
always the resultant state after a large enough change to a power structure --
if it were more predictable then the rules of the incumbent power structure
would be likely to predict and prevent such a large change.

I feel like this idea is present at many levels in the story -- including the
dynamics of Elliot's personality disorder and his attempts to construct trust
in his perception of reality and his own motivations.

Intermingling these themes with the idea of hacking -- the art of
finding/manipulating unexpected behavior in systems -- is incredibly rich --
and mesmerizing.

~~~
mahranch
> There is a very real sense in which "anarchy" \-- a kind of lack of
> predictably -- is always the resultant state after a large enough change to
> a power structure

If this is the kind of anarchy you envision, you're going to be sorely
disappointed if something like that happened in real life. Real anarchy would
look more like how people would react if zombies broke out. There would be
mass looting, killings, raping, and people taking advantage of the chaos
(opportunists). It would literally be the wild west with all services,
including power and the internet going down.

The "anarchy" in Mr. Robot is a falsehood, it's a libertarian/hackers fantasy.
That's not anarchy at all. Not even close.

~~~
thedudemabry
While I agree with your assertion that a state of anarchy introduced by force
(technical or otherwise) in a relatively stable democracy would be
nightmarish, I suspect that's going to be the thrust of season 2.

The activists leveraged some technical know-how and swashbuckling intrusions
to bring down a big bank's systems, but the opening episodes of season 2 point
to a mobilization of the democratic government forces to restore order by
force. They didn't create anarchy by destroying the source of financial truth,
they handed the keys to democracy to the very conglomerate they attempted to
take down.

The series was supposed to have been composed as a three-act movie originally,
and it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds moving forward in the second
act.

~~~
nxzero
>> "they handed the keys to democracy to the very conglomerate they attempted
to take down"

Maybe, did you catch White Rose's fire side chat at the end of season one? Who
is handing the keys to who in season two?

~~~
breatheoften
White rose is fascinating -- his obsession with time comes across to me as a
very insightful attribute to associate with a hacker in a Confucian oriented
society -- I wonder if social hacking a great harmony society would tend to
involve a lot of precise timing attacks. And the name is great -- perhaps
referring to the anti-nazi protest movement in Munich -- a subtle reference to
an existence proof for the possibility that a "hacker movement" could be
deemed "correct" to oppose the existing paradigm in which its embedded. And
it's great that he's Chinese -- we are so conditioned in the west to think of
"Chinese hackers" as only and always state sponsored black hats. How strange
that preconception given how noble a calling we should perceive there to be
for "hackers" operating domestically in China -- to tweak at what we perceive
as an often overly authoritarian regime. It made me feel a startling lack of
examples in western media of "good guy" Chinese hackers. The realization has
me always looking to find ways to try to establish trust with the white rose
character. Not sure if he should have it, but I hope he is revealed to deserve
it.

------
stuxnet79
Mr Robot propelled Kali Linux into the top of the Linux OS rankings. After
watching the Season 2 premiere yesterday even I decided I'm going to check
Kali Linux out - either on Virtual Machine or my Raspberry Pi 3.

Also I was pleasantly surprised to see Joey Badass in the show (his first
acting gig I think). Hopefully they will allow the character he plays to
shine. Great show!

~~~
Rohankumarbhoi
I'm installed my android phone & I want to operate kali Linux app

~~~
nwr41914
I want the program to cleanse the Wi-Fi network and Thanks

------
jfaucett
Thats really good detective work. I was not expecting this much attention to
detail at all - even after season one seemingly surpassed every film/tv show
in history on that account. I will definitely be screen pausing for the rest
of this season myself now.

------
jaegerpicker
This show is amazing IMO. It's like a love letter to all those late nights
when I was 15 and glued to my freebsd box until unhealthly late hours!

------
outofstep
Love this show bc it's like Fight Club meets Hackers. Can't wait to watch the
full season

~~~
jboy
Fight Club meets Hackers meets American Psycho, with a soundtrack like The
Social Network.

------
character
There is a QR code drawn in Elliot's journal that leads to
www.conficturaindustries.com (one of the URLs linked to the same SSL cert) -
the same company name that is on the front of the journal. And the meticulous
zoom-in on the apple skin left on the floor looks very similar to the logo of
the company. Looks like they had fun making this :)

~~~
csm-dev
They had a lot of fun but this is also why i love this series :)

------
hmate9
Really nice! But Mr Robot is something I won't watch anymore. It is just too
weird and slow at this point.

~~~
lucio
I saw it until it became too sad and depressing. Are joy and triumph not good
for plots? Why not a character like Mike from "Suits"?

~~~
masmullin
> Why not a character like Mike from "Suits"?

Suits already has a character like Mike from Suits. The characters name is,
surprisingly, named Mike.

If Elliot were to be like Mike from Suits, Mr Robot would need to change the
name of the show to Suits.

~~~
gunnihinn
> If Elliot were to be like Mike from Suits, Mr Robot would need to change the
> name of the show to Suits.

And it follows that the space of sitcoms is a singleton.

That explains a lot.

------
dclowd9901
"I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than
standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by
posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large
scale. – Thomas Jefferson"

Apparently I have more in common with Jefferson than I thought (Re my numerous
comments in the past regarding the danger of consumer credit).

------
bduerst
Can anyone get a read on the QR code from his notebook?

[http://i.imgur.com/4H0M2hj.png](http://i.imgur.com/4H0M2hj.png)

I tried to isolate the image but it's not reading:

[http://i.imgur.com/fQV1EIn.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/fQV1EIn.jpg)

~~~
RobotCaleb
[http://www.conficturaindustries.com](http://www.conficturaindustries.com)

~~~
bduerst
Looks like NBC registered it a month ago and it's hosted on Adobe cloud. Maybe
they'll change it later during the season?

------
pfooti
Does anyone recall a Mr. Robot giveaway with American Giant hoodies? I went to
the AG retail space two days ago to figure out what hoodie size I needed, and
made a Mr. Robot joke. The salesperson said, "hey, we did a promo with Mr.
Robot, actually, where there was a website in the show and if you followed a
bunch of clues, there was some morse code and eventually you got a free Mr.
Robot hoodie from us."

At the time, I marked it up as "awww, too bad I missed it", especially since I
tend to binge shows after they're all available at once. But I wasn't able to
find any evidence of this promo existing on the web, and now there's this
thing with morse code and so on. Soooo maybe there's a nice hoodie at the end
of this road.

~~~
nxzero
f you want to figure out this mystery on your own, the number is (212)
804-6003.

____ SPOILER INFO HERE: [http://decider.com/2016/05/18/mr-robot-season-two-
trailer-se...](http://decider.com/2016/05/18/mr-robot-season-two-trailer-
secret-message/)

~~~
pfooti
Aha, thanks - so the free hoodie (and they're really nice hoodies!) happened
already. The promo page is still pretty neat, though, and a quick perusal of
the javascript indicates there may be some more hidden material in there
somewhere.

~~~
cpcarey
Yes, they sent hoodies on premiere night to the first 509 people that reached
the end sign-up page. Very cool of the marketing team and everyone involved.

------
nickysielicki
There is also an archive quine embedded within the image at
[http://www.conficturaindustries.com/images/linkexchange_bann...](http://www.conficturaindustries.com/images/linkexchange_banner.png)
, which is the website corresponding to the QR code that was shown briefly in
his notebook.

I didn't look at it closer, there might be more in there.

------
jmkni
I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who doesn't drink the Mr Robot
kool-aid.

It's cool that they get the tech right, but I just feel as though the
protagonist has the mentality of an angsty teenager trying their best to be
'edgy' by 'fighting the man'.

Maybe if the show took itself a little less seriously I might enjoy it more.

------
avs733
>AdobeTracking.showSiteFeature = 'Mr. Robot : S2 Easter Egg Sites';

[view-source:[http://www.evil-corp-usa.com/](http://www.evil-corp-usa.com/)]

 _Sites_

I get the feeling this will be ongoing...makes the show more fun and a little
interactive

~~~
SurrealSoul
they actually had a really cool ARG before S02ep01, the winners got a really
cool sweatshirt

------
SG-
I'm pretty happy they used BitchX for the IRC client.

------
labmixz
Neat easter egg. Though you should get some better servers for your site. That
load time is crazy. Especially on my 1GB connection. Granted, I'm going
through proxies, but wow, still horrible.

Anyhow, can't wait to see what this season has in store. I find myself
relating to a lot of the personal struggles in the last season. Maybe that
makes me crazy. ha.

------
yeukhon
Fun fact. Mr Robot S02E01 was doing a scene right around the corner next to
AWS NY Loft. Not sure if it was accidental or intentional. I only came to
realize until this HN post and looked at what the main character looks like.
Yeah the kid with hoodie. He was there.

------
pizza
Thought it was intriguing that a schizophrenic uber-hacker's poison of choice
was morphine; it seems more in line with methamphetamine use, imo! Hacking on
morphine... would.. be... something..... like...... this........

------
kogir
Stuff like this is a nice touch. I wonder how long it will stay up?

It would be controversial but really interesting if they dropped an actual
0-day during the show as well.

~~~
mahranch
Episodes are filmed 6 months to a year ago. Would it be a 0-day at that point?
I remember when 0-day actually meant brand new (typically a release on that
particular day), but that was 15-20 years ago. Over that time, the definition
could have changed.

~~~
detaro
That's still the definition. But if they filmed an episode with an unknown
exploit, it didn't get leaked and nobody else finds it between filming and
release, it would be 0-day. Very questionable to do though.

------
blu3gl0w13
Apparently, I'm way behind on this series if we're already in season 2. Yikes.
I guess I better catch up!!! no more spoilers please!!!

------
cygnus
what about?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/4joo75/no_spoilers...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MrRobot/comments/4joo75/no_spoilers_mr_robot_arg_master_thread/)

------
rachelbythebay
And the eyeball seems to be delivering ASCII in hex to you, The Martian-style.

------
Cengkaruk
Tell me where Tyrell is...

~~~
50CNT
I just binge watched the show a couple of days ago. Remember how Elliot
stashes the gun given to him by Darlene in the popcorn machine instead of
taking it to the meeting with white lotus? When Elliot shows Tyrell the
Fsociety space, that same popcorn machine starts making popcorn.

I sincerely doubt Elliot turned on the machine just for popcorn.

~~~
rudolf0
There's no doubt he was reaching for the gun. You can see him sticking his
hand in there and digging around.

One fan tinfoil theory is that he killed Tyrell and the last two episodes have
been him sitting in a jail cell.

I don't really buy that, but he probably did shoot or try to shoot someone.

~~~
andrewpi
The voice on the phone at the end of s02e02 is Tyrell though. He's obviously
on the run somewhere; most likely overseas.

~~~
bduerst
We joked that Tyrell is another split personality, since the main character
never really seems to interact with Tyrell and other people in the same
conversations.

Tyrell's wife could know about his personalities and just not care, hence the
weird conversation at the end of season 1.

------
r4ltman
Clearly no one here has seen blue 'heet me' velvet

------
s_q_b
Scan the QR code hand-drawn in Elliot's notebook.

------
jboogy
This is great. Nice job!

