Originally published at: What the computer code seen in movies and shows actually does
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Obligatory:
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The first two links loop back to the article, Rob @beschizza
For those who need it, it’s https://behind-the-screens.tv/
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10 PRINT “HELLO WORLD”
20 GOTO 10
Yes thats a complete sentence
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Yeah. That was about the time I quit watching the series. I just couldn’t let go of that kind of “two people furiously pounding on a single keyboard while spouting random computer jargon to defeat a hacker.” I did appreciate Gibbs (I think that was his name) just unplugging the computer that was supposed to be the only one under attack.
I did like the U/Linux commands in that first bit of screen gibberish, though.
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Most of the time those ridiculous scenes are a product of ignorance and laziness—how much do most screenwriters really understand about how computers work?
But there’s simply no excuse for a screenwriter not knowing how a freaking keyboard works unless they wrote the draft for that scene in crayon.
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Why don’t teams of screenwriters try writing scripts that way?
eta: On some shows, maybe they do…? 
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For those of us that are fans of digital accuracy, Mr. Robot’s on screen monitors can’t be beat. The technical advisors actually performed the hacks that were shown, and you can see flashes of it on the screen. You could freeze-frame any image showing a monitor and type the commands into a shell and they would actually do what they said they were doing.
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Came here just for that. Mr Robot’s producers went to great pains for such authenticity. One of the many things I admired it for.
[ETA] I’m surprised and disappointed it wasn’t a top mention in the article.
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I always pause when there’s code on screen just so I can look at it and see if the filmmaker bothered to make it somewhat realistic.
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One keyboard being furiously pounded by 2 kids is exactly how us old folks were forced to play games in the early PC world. Maybe the writers experienced the same?
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Thanks @beschizza for writing about my little web site.
P.S. I was going to commend Graham-Cumming for paying to host the videos on Cloudflare instead of putting it on YouTube. It turns out he is the CTO of Cloudflare.
I do this because I want to use as many Cloudflare products as possible. I have an account that’s paid on my credit card and the idea is that I get to see what a customer sees. The team is now used to my stream of bug reports and quirks that I hope improve the product for everyone.
Looking into my account the Behind The Screens account has been popular lately and I think I’ll be paying about $300 for all the video traffic it’s generated this month. Most months it’s closer to $0.
Thanks for the exposure!
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Enough Exposure Bucks® to buy a Musk mobile!
And welcome to Boing Boing!
Stick around, it’s worth it for the food threads alone.
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If you’ve more into the hardware:
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I shout this at work when I do finish something amazing (like once a quarter, not every 10 minutes) and my coworkers have no idea what I’m referencing. It makes me feel so old.
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My favourite remains Trinity using nmap and ssh in the Matrix: Re-somethinged.
sshnuke is a cute touch, someone behind the scenes had a sense of humour.
Personally, I suspect having lots of people working behind the scenes on these little things shows up in the feel and finish of the final product…
Edit: seems SSH v1 did have a vulnerability related to a CRC-32 attack. Really nice touch…
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