
Jurassic Park computer system in the browser - tojr
http://www.jurassicsystems.com/
======
malux85
Wow! This is cool.

The computers in Jurassic Park is what got me into programming when I was
young. I saw their 3D weather overlay when the storm was approaching and
thought "THAT IS IT!". I was 8 years old at the time.

I was determined to learn and create that system - I started learning C, so
that I could open and close files. I learnt OpenGL so that I could create the
3D scene. I learnt socket programming so that I could download weather images
from the NOAA.

It took me until I was 15 (I was totally self taught and it took me a while
before I could learn all of the vector / matrix math myself) but I ended up
building it! I made a program in C that downloaded the weather jpg, cleaned it
up (removed noise, removed the NOAA logo, smoothed out the clouds) then
generated a heightmap in OpenGL, and made a fly-over.

I wish I still had the code, it's sitting on my old computer at the Farm in
New Zealand :<

~~~
NAFV_P
> _The computers in Jurassic Park is what got me into programming when I was
> young. I saw their 3D weather overlay when the storm was approaching and
> thought "THAT IS IT!". I was 8 years old at the time._

I'm guessing you would be around 28-30 years old, so I'm a couple of years or
more older ... but I started learning C when I was 31, currently I'm
interested in stuff like parsers and data structures (I really should look at
sockets soon). Perhaps I'm just too old to hack.

> _I wish I still had the code, it 's sitting on my old computer at the Farm
> in New Zealand :<_

I bet a fair few people on HN would be interested in it as well, it sounds
quite hardcore.

~~~
doorhammer
Warning: anecdotes and unsubstantiated speculation ahead

Did you do any programming at all before 31?

I don't think you're ever too old to do anything, personally. I was 26 (which
isn't terribly old, admittedly, but definitely past the little kid age) when I
talked to a friend who was a professional programmer and decided "huh, I like
computers and solving problems. I'm going to do that." I hadn't programmed
before then, though I was computer savvy, I guess. I also have a degree in
sociology, heh.

Took me about four years, but now I have a corporate job doing full stack .net
work in C#/MVC, I've done side projects in ruby, and I do some C, Haskell, and
python on the side. I'm also working my way through The Algorithm Design
manual and have Concrete Mathematics to work through later on.

I always got really discouraged because I constantly see and hear about people
who started programming when they were five, or eight, or something like that,
and I'd think "no way could I get into it that deeply, starting so late" but
that's just totally untrue. I'm finally at a point where I think "given the
desire and time, I can learn whatever comp sci topic I want," so I get
discouraged less.

I think part of it has to do with notions of talent, and natural abilities.
When I was a kid, I took for granted that something would be hard until I
learned it. I don't remember learning most of the basic skills I have, so I
forget that things can be difficult starting out. Every topic I've started
learning and stuck with in programming has pretty fully integrated itself into
the core of how I think about the topic. One for-example would be immutable
data structures as they're implemented in Clojure, or functional programming
in general.

Anyway, that's a rambling tl:dr for: stick with it. You're never too old. You
just have to try that much harder to catch up initially, but if you can teach
yourself to keep learning now, you've got an extra skill a lot of people don't
have, which is learning how to learn as an adult. I think it's the most
valuable skill I have right now.

(ps I'm making a lot of assumptions in this post; sorry if any of them are way
off base)

~~~
g0v
This is exactly my situation as well. I was always into computers when I was
young but didn't really have access to any until high school. I always envied
people that started learning how to code when they were kids, I still do. Like
you, I always thought my chance to code had come and gone because I'd only
ever heard of people that started when they were young. Like you, I always
felt discouraged.

A couple years ago I figured I would try anyways, so I started looking up good
books to read through and do the exercises. Started with Python and I've read
books on and written assembly and C. Now I'm an independent contractor doing
webmaster/web developer.

Any books you'd recommend other than The Algorithm Design/Concrete
Mathematics? Those look interesting and I'll probably go through them.

~~~
doorhammer
Code Complete 2 [1] was one of the first coding books I've read. As with
anything else, it's good to look around (HN is a good place) for people who
have problems with the book. I think I learn as much reading the commentary
people make about books like that as I do from the book itself.

I think I've listened to every podcast on software engineering radio a few
times [2]. The older ones are especially nice because they usually pick a
specific topic and cover the high points. I liked that I could listen to it
while I was driving, or otherwise not in front of a computer.

It's specific, but Javascript: The Good Parts is probably the most used book I
have on my shelf. It has such a perfect amount of usable information in it.
It's pretty great. Again, it's definitely worth looking up critiques and
counterpoints.

I've also got Introduction to Algorithms, which I use as a reference,
sometimes. I switched over to The Algorithm Design Manual [5] after I saw it
referenced in an older Steve Yegge post [6]. I read through the intro and it
seemed like a book that would be more appropriate from an autodidactic
standpoint. I really have no idea if that's going to pan out, since I'm not
that far into it, but we'll see, for sure. Doesn't kill me to have an extra
algorithms book laying about, though, and I've always got intro to algorithms
for cross reference. I've found that I really need to have as many sources
available as possible when I'm learning alone. Usually I don't get something
until the fifth person describes it from the tenth different angle.

That's most of what I can think of off hand. I really enjoyed The Joy of
Clojure [7], though haven't checked out the newer version. Programming
Collective Intelligence [8] is a fun book, and is what made me want to go back
down the maths route to get more into machine learning.

And of course habitually reading hacker news for an hour or three every night
:)

So that's my totally inexpert list of random stuff that I enjoy

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-
Const...](http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-
Construction/dp/0735619670) [2] [http://www.se-radio.net/](http://www.se-
radio.net/) [3] [http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-
Crockfor...](http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-
Crockford/dp/0596517742/) [4] [http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-
Thomas-H-Corme...](http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-
Cormen/dp/0262033844) [5] [http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-
Steven-Skiena/...](http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-
Skiena/dp/1848000693/) [6] [http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-
job-at-goog...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/get-that-job-at-
google.html) [7] [http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Michael-
Fogus/dp/161729141...](http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Clojure-Michael-
Fogus/dp/1617291412/) [8] [http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-
Intelligence-Bu...](http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-Intelligence-
Building-Applications/dp/0596529325/)

------
hcarvalhoalves
The cool thing about Jurassic Park is that it showcases all this high-end tech
(at the time) to set the mood. The setting of this movie made a huge impact on
me as a kid.

In the computer room scene you can see a CM-5 [1] from Thinking Machines in
the background (or at least, only the front panels with the futuristic
blinking red leds). Those were very interesting computers when launched, with
a fundamentally different architecture for parallel computing.

Also, fun story: the company hired Richard Feynman [2].

[1]
[http://www.sgistuff.net/funstuff/hollywood/images/hwd_jpark9...](http://www.sgistuff.net/funstuff/hollywood/images/hwd_jpark9l.jpg)

[2] [http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-
machine...](http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/)

------
bhouston
SGI IRIX operating system:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX)

I used that at my first programming internship at university. Even then (1999)
it was a dated OS, but it was still fun it.

I wonder if they used IRIX in the movie because the VFX guys making the movie,
ILM, were doing all the VFX work using Softimage on SGI machines running IRIX
at the time.

~~~
ghaff
Apparently the specific "It's a Unix system" scene used an experimental fsn
(file system navigator) that SGI developed but which was never released as a
product.

~~~
fit2rule
It was released on one of the Indie demo disks that SGI liked to hand out at
conferences and subscribers and so on .. the source is still around, and of
course there are a few clones by now:
[http://fsv.sourceforge.net/](http://fsv.sourceforge.net/)

------
dmm
Pour one out for IRIX, discontinued December 31, 2013.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX#Retirement](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIX#Retirement)

------
Aqueous
The Jurassic Park Computer System...created and maintained by Newman. Credit
where credit is due: it takes a lot of skills to keep a bunch of velociraptors
pent up using a Macintosh LC II.

What always amused me is that in order to trigger the locks, the "computer
whiz" girl had to navigate some sort of 3d control environment, probably the
most ineffective way possible to control something that should be random
access.

~~~
rcruzeiro
She navigated the file system using fsn (which by the way existed. it just
never catch on
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fsn))

~~~
Aqueous
I thought it was so cheesy that it had to be fictional, because of all the
misrepresentations of computer interfaces in other movies like "Hackers." This
is apparently a common assumption.

It's admirable that SGI was experimenting with interfaces. However in this
situation having to navigate such an interface created a very real safety
hazard. I suppose she could have used the regular file browser instead - or
perhaps the substantially less exciting XTerm.

~~~
itsnotvalid
Worst thing is when a movie did most things with real UI being thought as
mocking things up. So latter movies increasingly use fake UIs instead.

~~~
Kiro
I don't understand.

------
famousactress
Haha! My mom was a Sun reseller who sold them a bunch of Sparc stations for
the movies and I think even wrote some shell scripts to launch some spinning
3D dino-skull scripts on startup, etc. Around this time we were a pretty rare
family home with one of those boxes and an ISDN line at home as the family
computer.

------
astrojams
This brings me so much joy. This movie - the SGI and this scene in particular
made me want to switch from being a business major to a computer science major
in college. I did and it was the right decision.

I bought an SGI Indy and spent a lot of time in the shell just so it would
look and feel like the scene from this movie. I don't know why it affected me
so much but it did.

So much love for the author who create this simulator.

------
edgeman27
It's a Unix system. I know this.

~~~
alex_anglin
Except that the 'Ah Ah Ah You didn't say the magic word' sequence shows up on
a Mac desktop.

~~~
S_A_P
That movie was ahead of its time and predicted a unix based Mac OS. Prophetic
indeed Newman!

~~~
scelerat
Apple already had a unix-based Mac OS for five years by the time Jurassic Park
came out, A/UX. My first computer job was at a nascent ISP around this time
and most of the servers (mail, www, accounting) were Quadras running A/UX. One
IIfx with several massive (for the time) hard drives for Usenet. It was
basically the System 7 (Mac) UI bolted on top of System V unix.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=A/UX](http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=A/UX)

~~~
vidarh
"Everybody" had Unix systems back in the day. People forget that there was a
time when it was seen as critical to have a Unix offering to be taken
seriously in certain markets.

On the "low end", besides Apple's A/UX, Microsoft had Xenix and Commodore had
Amiga Unix.

------
k-mcgrady
Really nice recreation. Why the annoying dialog repeatedly telling me not to
use Safari though? It seemed to work fine for me in Safari.

~~~
kalleboo
Seems it shows up each time the site tries to play short audio clips. See
starting line 32 in
[http://www.jurassicsystems.com/js/jurassicSystems.js](http://www.jurassicsystems.com/js/jurassicSystems.js)
Instead of feature detection it'll use HTML5 audio in Chrome, show an annoying
dialog in Safari, and an SWF fallback for anything else.

edit: Here's the GitHub issue for it
[https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/issues/1](https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/issues/1)

~~~
qrohlf
Hopefully this will be fixed with
[https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/pull/4](https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/pull/4)

------
tylermauthe
Some other commands...

> access main security system please

> display zebraGirl.jpg

~~~
sonnyz
> system Raptor

------
edgeman27
I like the irony of the site telling me not to use Safari.

~~~
freshyill
Another day on Hacker News, another interesting project where the author
hasn't heard of Modernizr.

~~~
kalleboo
Ironically, it is using Modernizr.

    
    
        <script src="/js/lib/modernizr-2.6.2.min.js"></script>
    

Seems like whoever created it had trouble with HTML5 audio though...

~~~
freshyill
Ugh. In that case, they're missing the point of Modernizr. If there's no
polyfill or fallback available, the solution isn't to say "Don't use Safari".
At the very least, they could display as useful message that says something
like "Your browser doesn't appear to support feature X, try browser Y
instead."

When I see "Don't use Safari", I interpret that as "I'm too lazy to make this
work in Safari", rather than "this doesn't work in Safari".

------
fennecfoxen
how do I launch fsn?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fsn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fsn)

------
yashg
Where's the 3D model to lock/unlock the doors?

~~~
edgeman27
[https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/issues/2](https://github.com/tojrobinson/jurassicsystems.com/issues/2)

------
cessor
Did anybody notice the picture of J. Robert Oppenheimer next to the screen?
Details, my friends...

------
shalander
You didn't say the magic word!

------
erlkonig
I used fsn on the SGIs in 1994/5, but I think this initially free (as in beer)
program was later bundled with some for-pay package and vanished from the
downloads area.

The funny part is I probably still have a working copy of it on the SGI Onyx
in my garage.

------
nullc
Funny, I don't remember that "you must install flash player" from the movie.

------
cmatteri
Play this song for the full experience
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQuH4woPDn0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQuH4woPDn0)

------
basicallydan
You should've seen the grin on my face when Newman's smug little face started
speaking to me. You've fulfilled a childhood dream for me, thank you.

------
angelgcuartero
I used to work with some Silicon Graphics in the 90's in a F-18 Simulator for
Spanish DoD. We used C with GL (the graphic library that existed before
OpenGL) and had Indigo² workstations for each developer. Origin and Onyx were
used for calculation and visualization. When they offered me that job I
couldn't refuse! I was like "Yes! I'm going to use the same computers that
appeared in Jurassic Park!!!" :D

------
denibertovic
We have a SGI machine (wights like ton) in our shop. Can't remember the exact
model but I remember how someone mentioned it's the exact model used for
animation in the movie....we use it mostly as a chair XD

------
capkutay
Weird I can't get into the security system..

------
banachtarski
The zebra girl is a nice touch.

------
guiomie
What is the hidden feature ?

~~~
mobra
"access please" with double space between words

~~~
bronson
Well, it's meant to be "access (pretty much anything) please".

access main computer system please

access local security grid please

access yer mom please

That said, it's more fun to get it wrong...

------
trekky1700
Having loved this movie since childhood, this was really awesome.

------
filmgirlcw
As a kid, this was my dream system. This is so great.

------
dredmorbius
1993\. Jurassic Park is old enough to drink in a bar.

------
simon1246
legit

