Hacker News Reader

Comment by sabat | Hacker News Reader

That was a fun movie. I was a teenager, a hacker, and was blown away to see my secret society hit the big screen. A friend of mine actually had an Imsai 8080 (David Lightman's computer), so I recognized it immediately. One thing that bothers me in this article: Ally Sheedy's eye-rolling at us in that sidebar. Listen, Ally, no one even knows your name anymore -- and we hackers rule the world. Bite me.

View on HN

One more thing that I found strange:

"Parkes: If there's something naive about the movie, it's that we didn't anticipate the power of hackers. For the handful of people who ended up doing things like unleashing viruses, well, most of those guys got arrested and then worked for the computer security business. So I guess it's all worked out."

What does he actually mean? The first sentence, I get. But the thing about virus writers not being a problem, and a handful of people writing viruses... In which world does this guy live?

"Crunchman" Draper, most if not all of the old L0pht crew, Condor, Woz, Dark Dante, etc.

Did Draper and Woz write viruses?

Anyway, that's not what I meant. He seems to suggest that nobody writes viruses anymore, while I seem them running rampant.

I also reacted to this. I think her comments are telling a close minded and anxious worldview. I also think that actors who are suspicious and anxious gets less interesting and lower paying jobs, unless they are in a circle of people who share their worldview.

So if Ally Sheedy had watched WarGames, and been a little more curious, she might not be acting against Meat Loaf in a direct-to-TV movie called "Citizen Jane" today.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1415256/

The greatest human disease on the Internet is pride. It infects every corner and can culminate in the decline of great communities. Ally Sheedy can't hear you.

Pride? No. Self-respect? Yes. Ally's dissing us for no good reason, and I'm pointing out that if anyone is to be shrugged off into a corner, it's not us. I'm also being a little hyperbolic for (intended) light comedy.

Come on now. Ally had nothing to do with WarGames. The script may as well have said <insert random ordinary looking girl>. She was damn near an extra in this film. The plant used to ask the dumb questions in order to fill in the less technically savvy viewers.

I saw the movie when I was nine. I remember being distinctly disappointed that a dumb girl was screwing up a good computer movie.

Even an aged once-cute girl has a much higher status in our society than any geeky engineer and Ally Sheedy knows it.

If that were true, what does that say about our society? I don't agree anyway considering geeky engineers are responsible for a lot of what's changed our society significantly in the last ten years.

Hell hath no fury like a Hacker scorned.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com