17 Feb
2012
17 Feb
'12
5:17 p.m.
I am forwarding this to the list in the hopes that it reaches interested
parties in the UK and/or Australia (not sure where this production is
intended to take place). Here's an opportunity to claim your 15 minutes
of fame. See below forwarded message.
A few comments...
1) I can find nothing to suggest that this has anythign to do with the
UK. The televisoin company is not a UK one (AFAIK), and while is at least
one small village in England called Melbourne, I cna't beleive it had
much of a hacker./cracker community.
2) Are common home computers of that period really that hard to find now?
I would be very suprised if there wasn't at least one C64 listed on E-bay
at hte momnet.
3) I don;'t wish to start a flamwar, but I've head unpleasant stories of
people who've lent genuine atiques (furniture, etc) to film/TV companies
and had it returned damaged (sometimes deliberately modified) with the
comment 'our insurers will pay'. Err, no, money doesn;'t fix everything.
Even for soemthing common lie ka C64 I'd want quite a bit in writing
before lending it.
4) Most importantly, I do realise the word 'hacker' is misued by
journalists nad that the common usage means a computer criminal ( to the
extend I tend to refer t o'hackery' rather than 'hacking' for (legal)
modifications, etc). But amongst technical people, includign the sort who
are likely to have such hardware, a 'hacker' is not a criminal, and to
suggst it is insulting. It also shows a certain lack of research o nthe
aprt of the TV compnay. I know that I wouldn't want to have anythign to
do with an organisation that wished misuse the word 'hacker' (and thus
insult me) in this way.
-tony
Reply-to: Janie Parker <janieparker at me.com>
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:50:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Janie Parker <janieparker at me.com>
To: vcf at vintage.org
Subject: Television Program about 1980s Hackers
Hi,
I am writing to tell you about a project that Matchbox Pictures is making
for Channel 10 called Underground. It is based around the hackers working
in Melbourne around 1988/89.
To help tell the story , we need to accurately replicate the equipment
that was used, Commodore 64, Amstrads etc and then the information that is
on the screen. We are searching for people that may collect this equipment
to loan, sell or hire to us.
In our story the hackers get into various Organisations including the US
Military/Police/University via the use of a modem. We will need to
replicate this by programming codes to make these visuals.
Also in the project we have a scene where we are recreating a Computer
Market- we will be making up several tables of equipment from the period.
This is a scene where we would like collectors to bring along their
equipment and be an extra for the day.
So there are essentially 3 areas where we would love to get some help from
your organisation members. I was wondering if you might be able to put out
a message to the group and we could offer you a souvenir from the film, a
signed photograph or similar.
We are very happy to hear about your organisation and realise that it can
be a very valuable resource and i hope we can make it worthwhile and
interesting for you.
Please feel free to call me to discuss further,
Cheers Janie P