Halt and Catch Fire Tonight

[Tony Aiuto]

Taking this forward 30+ years, Silicon Valley is a period drama that gets
significant details spot-on right - both in the gross generalizations that
are network TV and in the nuances targeted to the cognoscenti.

I work with several people who could be the template for Gilfoil. There was
recently an episode with a sub-plot about code reviews and tabs vs. white
space that was so perfect for me - and so meaningless to my non-programmer
family. My daughter works for a start-up that has been going through rounds
of financing. She is sure she has met the woman running the fictional VC
firm backing Pied Piper. Between us we see it almost more as a documentary
than a sit-com.



On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 4:28 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:

> Who said anything about it being a documentary?  It's a period drama
>>> largely based on the kinds of flamboyant personalities that pioneered much
>>> of the personal computer industry.  While retro computers are in the show,
>>> I don't view it as being about the retro computers themselves.
>>>
>>
> On Wed, 24 Aug 2016, Geoffrey Oltmans wrote:
>
>> Not you. But several previous posters lamented about the
>> aprocryphal/anachronistic quality of the tech in the show.
>>
>
> The problem is simply that WE are less interested in a period drama about
> their perceptions of the personalities of an industry that they weren't
> in.  They might get them right; they might not.
> What WE would like to see is a well researched show that even gets the
> history right.  THAT would be fun!
>
> For example: IBM at the time (pre-DMCA, pre-Lotus "look and feel") had no
> objections to aftermarket that did not copy the actual code, was supportive
> of reverse-engineering, and PUBLISHED ($40) schematics and source code.
> Apple, until the Lisa? and Mac was open.  The secrecy of studying the
> machine and the threat of legal action from IBM was contrary to the current
> corporate cultures.
>
> The original culture clash of DRI and IBM would make a GREAT scene!
> (MUCH better than the completely nonsensical alternate reality of billg
> inventing OS and cold calling IBM in "Pirates Of The Valley")
> (although admittedly, even those who experienced it have divergent
> interpretations)
>
>