At 03:18 PM 12/19/00 -0500, Charles E. Fox wrote: Could you add Probably right after they stop adding gratuitous sounds and inaccurate functions to computers: dot-matrix printer sounds, beeps and boops that would drive you nuts if the damn machine actually made that sound all the time, slow-motion text display, fonts larger than your mouse, etc. I seem to remember a Roger Ebert column on the topic. In short, he dreamed of the day when movie-makers realized that most people have seen a real computer and know how they operate, and they'd be portrayed as such on the screen. Why all the goofy fakery? * Just this morning on Sesame Street, Alan (who took over Mr. Hooper's store a few years back, in case you haven't been watching) was helping Baby Bear send a message to his poetry friends on a web site - and the skit confused the notion of an e-mail address and a web site address. My kid was wandering around adding "dot com" to things when he was two, and I hadn't even let him play at the computer for any appreciable amount of time. Now at 5, he sees something new and wants to know if it has a web site. - John * I'll tell you why they look fake... it's easier to fake something completely unrealistic than it is to make something look "right". Godzilla vs. Jurassic Park, for example. Although I think a lot of movies could handle their PC screen scenes with a little Visual Basic and a macro recorder, so much of what you see (in terms of GUI screen shots) is completely recreated on some other computer or OS, ready for replay, replay, replay at a moment's notice if a human needs to interact with it.

On Tue, 19 Dec 2000, Mark Gregory wrote: Mark, I have done consulting a few times now for television productions. One was the Steve Wozniak biography on A&E recently where I lent my hands and some hardware for their production (my hands were the ones doing the soldering and punching buttons on an answering machine). The last consulting I did was for a production company from England doing a documentary on "hacking". They find me through my website, and I try to be as helpful as possible, either providing them with the things they want (hardware, software, etc). or pointing them towards the people who can. To answer your questions: there is no possibility of damage as long as you are present and can dictate how items are handled, but once they leave your control they are at risk, so be sure you state in writing how you are to be compensated for damaged items. I don't yet have a catalog but I do have a good memory of what I have in my collection. The problem is knowing where it is :) And it does help very much to be knowledgeable about computer history and to be able to help the producers stay true to historical fact. If you don't, hardcore geeks will know, and they will scoff at the production and indirectly at you for being lame and not ensuring historical accuracy. I keep historical accuracy in mind at every step of the consulting I am providing to my client. If I don't then I have failed them, and I am a dork. One last thing, don't think just because it is TV or the movies that you can take these guys to the cleaners. If you ask too much, they will either go off and find it somewhere else for cheaper, or they will find an alternative that costs less. Be reasonable and willing to negotiate, but don't give your stuff and knowledge away for free. I don't want anyone to cut into my business by being way cheaper than me ;) Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

Yup... but there weren't too many 325's sold. Bill -- bpechter(a)monmouth.com | FreeBSD since 1.0.2, Linux since 0.99.10 | Unix Sys Admin since Sys V/BSD 4.2 | Windows System Administration: "Magical Misery Tour"