
Pied Piper - kyledreger
http://www.piedpiper.com/
======
sharkweek
At first I kind of rolled my eyes when I heard this show was coming out -- I
was pretty certain I could fully predict most of the jokes that would be used
for a cheap laugh.

But I like the characters, and the plot is pretty fun - it's a show that's
easy to watch and enjoy for those of us that don't take much too seriously.

~~~
wellactually
And it's making the world a better place.

~~~
hablahaha
...by constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and
extensibility!

~~~
sharkweek
they made something someone wants!!

------
minimaxir
Context: this is the official in-universe website for the central startup in
HBO's "Silicon Valley."

~~~
josephjrobison
It was funnier until I realized that it was created by HBO

------
rip747
does anyone actually watch this show? I've tried several times to get into it,
but I just don't find it funny at all. Sure hearing startup names being thrown
around (like Github) and knowing who they are is present day nostalgia, but
not enough to make me committed to the show. I compare the likeness of Silicon
Valley to "the Big Bang Theory"; those who are into those fields find them
more annoying then funny.

~~~
mikegioia
I love this show. Not only does it accurately portray the SV startup scene,
but it has a well-written story line. You can't really compare this to Big
Bang Theory. I've seen nearly every episode of Big Bang and that is way, way
more sitcom-style than Silicon Valley. Big Bang has a lot of nickle jokes
related to science fields, with situational comedy surrounding the characters
thrown in. Silicon Valley is not a sitcom, and the episodes follow a well-
researched story line.

~~~
pachydermic
Does Silicon Valley have a laugh track? I don't remember one from the first
episode, but I watched that a couple of weeks ago.

Often (not always, though) shows with laugh tracks are an entirely different
level of "not funny". It's bad when the show creators have to rely on cheap
psychological gags to trick you into enjoying yourself. Silicon Valley
operated at a higher level than that, although I still found a lot of its
humor just referential and not too humorous or too easy. Honestly, just
reading hacker news every day provides you with way more satire than the show
does... I didn't watch anything past the first episode, so I can't speak to
the story which you seem to like - I was just looking for a comedy show.

But tastes do differ. Especially when it comes to comedy. I'm glad you liked
the show. I wouldn't compare it to Big Bang Theory, but I wasn't a fan.

~~~
ssharp
It shouldn't be compared to Big Bang Theory. That show is a typical paint-by-
numbers sitcom, the kind that CBS has been cashing big checks on for the past
decade. They aren't particularly funny. I think Chuck Klosterman wrote
something that these shows are "in the form of funny", which means that they
follow a common comedic timing and use the laugh track as a cue. Once you
start looking for it, you always see it.

The three camera and laugh track are usually indicators that the show probably
isn't "smart funny", but it's not always true. I can watch Seinfeld reruns and
pick out the camera cuts, laugh tracks and joke timings, but the show is still
pretty clever.

But most people capable of making shows of Seinfeld-quality aren't going to go
do a CBS sitcom. Seinfeld's set up was mostly a relic of its era. Today, you
can get a single-camera comedy greenlit thanks to the cable channels. Even
networks took some chances. I don't watch too many network shows anymore, but
I know Scrubs and Arrested Development were single camera shows without laugh
tracks and they were on NBC/ABC and Fox, respectively.

As for Silicon Valley, I was expecting more from it. It's a Mike Judge show
and the reviews were very positive. I've only seen the first two episodes, but
they were at least good enough to make me want to watch more. It sometimes
takes these shows a while to build the characters and build enough background
for more jokes to connect, but at this point, I'm more worried about the story
lines being thin than the comedy. That's what ultimately lost my interest in
Entourage. That show started out as being a fun 30 minutes, but it was very
superficial and once you realized that the plots were ridiculous and the
characters didn't make that much sense, it became tedious to watch. Since both
Entourage and Silicon Valley are both based on specific, unique cultures, I
think they're fairly comparable.

------
elwell
How can I watch _Silicon Valley_ on the internet (legally)?

I already checked
[http://www.canistream.it/search/tv/silicon%20valley](http://www.canistream.it/search/tv/silicon%20valley)
but I don't have access HBO GO.

~~~
jedberg
You can't. To watch legally you have to have cable TV.

------
notjustanymike
Looks like this is actually code for sending completion pixels in a video ad.

[http://static.squarespace.com/static/531f2c4ee4b002f5b011bf0...](http://static.squarespace.com/static/531f2c4ee4b002f5b011bf00/t/5335d873e4b037066057e0e2/1396037777561/section_technology_bg.jpg)

------
mynd
User 01 : document.getElementById

------
ChrisArchitect
I almost wrote it off after the first episode but said I'd give it another
chance - pilots are hard.

Then some of the technical rants from the 'staff' in ep 2 won me over. There
is a striking balance/hover around real and humor/farce in the show I'm
starting to really like.

------
skc
Love the show.

Pretty sure I saw one guy using the Windows Phone emulator, which made me do a
silent fist pump.

But hey, it's TV :-)

------
ladzoppelin
I like it. The idea to make "the product" something simple like MP3
compression works and all the lead characters are some of my favorites.

------
aswanson
What editor is on that screen with the code?

~~~
philosophus
No idea, probably just a mock-up.

------
jemeshsu
Interested to know the technology behind Nipple Alert. They should create that
site.

------
aswanson
Aviato.com is available.

------
abracar
Clever move from HBO to create that page...

~~~
hanley
I've seen other networks do it for shows in the past. Most notably
[http://www.bettercallsaul.com/](http://www.bettercallsaul.com/) was created a
while ago in reference to Breaking Bad.

Edit: and [http://www.savewalterwhite.com/](http://www.savewalterwhite.com/)

------
chrismcb
So what year does this take place? 1999?

~~~
dkuntz2
Now...

------
brvs
Where's the Github repo?

~~~
andrewtbham
The show has mostly made sense technically. The only thing they got wrong is
the code is clearly proprietary but Richard tells the assistant that it's up
on github in the first episode.

~~~
km3k
Haven't seen the show, but could they mean a private github repo?

------
taskstrike
Amazon's beta had a better show and also a better idea as a startup.

They create real world meetings by setting up places for people to congregate
to.

~~~
taternuts
I actually watched the first season of Betas after someone recommended it in a
Silicon Valley thread, and thought it was pretty good. Beta's seems to use the
silicon valley theme as more of a backdrop for character development whereas
Silicon Valley does seem to poke more fun of the SV culture. I like them both.

------
batmansbelt
That algorithm sounds like total B.S. As if someone could stumble onto a
lossless compression algorithm with file sizes 50% of an mp3. Even a
comparable size would be a huge compression breakthrough.

And there are theoretical limits to what you can do with lossless compression
and I suspect that the algorithm in the show breaks those.

~~~
minimaxir
If you think the feasibility of the algorithm is the most unrealistic thing
here, I'd say Mike Judge is doing his job well. :P

~~~
anon4
Well, everything else can be waived as marketing-speak. From a cursory glance
it looked like the landing page for a small team that came up with some cool
compression technology and then got some marketing wiz-kid to throw up a
webpage. Everything except the technological claims I could just disregard.

~~~
checker
I was confused for a second and thought this was the most ego-centric startup
I've ever come across. What team stares at you from 80% of the landing page
instead of revealing the product?

