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Stack OverflowRecommended movies on history of computers/programming?
[+9] [21] Jahanzeb Farooq
[2009-09-23 14:43:46]
[ history movies ]
[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1466461] [DELETED]

I would like to know what are some recommended movies on history of computers and programming. Thanks.

(1) This question is certainly programming related! Vote to reopen! - mgroves
(1) Do you mean 'movies', as in Hollywood, or 'movies' as in video presentations, instructional videos, etc? - ire_and_curses
@ire_and_curses Movies as in Hollywood. - Jahanzeb Farooq
It's been made community wiki so no one now will care to answer it precisely. - Jahanzeb Farooq
Heh. Yeah, 'cause the first answers were just ever so precise... - Shog9
[+19] [2009-09-23 14:45:51] Michael Todd

The Pirates of Silicon Valley [1]

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/

+1 excellent movie - alex
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[+11] [2009-09-23 14:46:33] Kibbee

Wargames [1]

While it's probably not completely accurate, it does show a lot of older computer technology, and is actually interesting to watch.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/

(3) "... probably not completely accurate ..."? Even for its time, it was horribly inaccurate. - MusiGenesis
(2) I agree with MusiGenesis. Might as well list "Independence Day" where they upload a virus into the Alien Mothership. Anyone knows the aliens were using Windows 98, making them virtually immune to that attack. - Smandoli
It is a great movie, I love to watch it even today after gawd knows how many times, but it's hardly accurate. Maybe in the terms of how people who do not deal with them think of computers and react. That part is believable. - ldigas
I was thinking accurate in terms of dialing all the numbers until you find a modem listening, or dialing into your schools computer. Sure the whole idea of a computer controlling the nuclear weapons is far fetched, but a lot of the other stuff is pretty realistic. - Kibbee
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[+10] [2009-09-23 14:48:30] nicolaskruchten

Revolution OS is awesome: http://www.revolution-os.com/

It's got tons of interviews with key players in Linux history.


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[+7] [2009-09-23 16:07:38] Kluge

Robert X. Cringely did a PBS series entitled "Triumph of the Nerds: How the Personal Computer Changed the World," that I liked. You can get it on DVD [1].

[1] http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1978852

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[+4] [2009-09-23 16:22:04] ldigas

Freedom Downtime [1]
The Code (2001 film) [2]
In the Realm of the Hackers [3]
Microprocessor Chronicles [4]

and I've always liked Sneakers [5] and Cypher [6], but they fall in a completely different category then the above ones.

--

Cosmo: There I was in prison. And one day I help a couple of older gentlemen make some free telephone calls. They turn out to be, let us say, good family men.
Martin Bishop: Organized crime?
Cosmo: Hah. Don't kid yourself. It's not that organized.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309614/
[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315417/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In%5Fthe%5FRealm%5Fof%5Fthe%5FHackers
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor%5FChronicles
[5] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/
[6] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284978/

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[+4] [2010-08-28 23:50:33] timday

The technology is incidental, but Office Space [1] deserves a mention for doing such a fantastic job of capturing everything bad about working in IT.

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/

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[+2] [2010-08-29 00:19:02] Charles E. Grant

Code Rush [1] (documentary about Netscape)

The Machine That Changed the World [2] (history of computers)

Enigma [3] This one is actually kind of a stretch, it's really more of a spy/love story set at Bletchley Park during WWII. An early computer and cryptanalysis form the background to the story.

[1] http://clickmovement.org/coderush
[2] http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-machine-that-changed-the-world/
[3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157583/

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[+2] [2009-09-23 16:44:54] Buggieboy

A fun movie to watch along these lines is the Tracy and Hepburn movie "Desk Set" [1]. It's about office politics getting shaken up by a company's purchase of an "electronic brain". In this 1957 film they didn't even use the word "computer"!

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/

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[+1] [2009-10-01 21:10:48] Bart Kiers

Pi [1]

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138704/

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[0] [2009-10-01 21:13:24] Pavel Minaev

Terminator 2 - it's a very graphic explanation of why you shouldn't write shoddy unit tests.


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[0] [2010-08-28 22:55:07] mykhal

The KGB, the Computer and Me [1] is an interesting drama based on actual event

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308449/

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[0] [2009-10-01 21:06:21] Lukasz Lysik

Hacking Democracy [1] - document about bugs in computer vote counting software in US.

[1] http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/

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[0] [2009-09-23 14:48:50] JasCav

Hackers

...wait...what? That's not true? But...but...The Gibson!


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[0] [2009-09-23 14:47:03] Nicky De Maeyer

First of all I think this is a nice question!

My primary resource for "movies" is youtube. Just type in the subject and you get al list of presentations and lectures, in a lot of them they start of by giving some history of the subject they handle...


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[0] [2010-08-29 00:01:23] Otto Allmendinger

Sneakers [1] is a nice hacker movie

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/

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[0] [2010-08-29 00:07:32] PTBNL

Sticking to the historical request ... The KGB, the Computer, and Me [1] is a pretty good NOVA [2] ( PBS [3]) documentary taken from Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg [4]. The documentary doesn't seem to currently be available from the PBS site or it's Amazon page [5], but maybe you can find it other ways.

[1] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/listseason/17.html#1710
[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
[3] http://www.pbs.org
[4] http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1416507787
[5] http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/5553649137

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[-2] [2009-09-23 14:46:00] altCognito

Lawnmower man. It's a documentary you know.


I saw that late one night. It was...interesting. - Iuvat
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[-2] [2009-09-23 16:16:14] Evernoob

The Matrix... not the second two though and definitely not the last one.


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[-2] [2009-09-23 14:45:37] Heiko Hatzfeld

You want "history" or "movie"

I think TRON is the "prime" example, where the Users were God's


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[-2] [2009-09-24 16:55:07] Gopherkhan

Weird Science ;)


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[-2] [2009-09-23 16:38:18] Pete

Nirvana [1].

Fantastic movie ;)

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119794/

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