FBI & CIA Computer Interface on Movies

[adamitj]

Hi guys!

There's something that drive me crazy when I watch any one of Hollywood movies involving FBI and CIA. At least in one scene someone sit in front of some computer with a terminal GUI opened.

I suppose that this kind of terminal is a Unix based, but I think isn't some of XTerm variants because is almost completely made of Text (with monospaced fonts and black background) and it also allows display a large set of pictures - generally the face of some criminal and the well know American Eagle and other maps.

Does anyone knows a tool or GUI terminal with this properties? Or maybe Hollywood is playing a trick on us?

[CharlesA]

It's artistic license. Who wants to watch a movie of someone just reading line after line of text with no flashy effects?

[KolorGuild]

The funniest is when they type a bunch of "commands" but don't actually hit enter at any point to launch the commands, yet windows are popping up left right and center. Personally I think most of them are animations that activate when they push a key.

[Spice Weasel]

It's a special GUI which was originally written by the Russians during the Cold War (using Visual Basic of course) to track a killer's IP address.

[David D.]

Its more than a GUI, its a special operating system. The OS code allows the bypass of normal transfer rates for instant access to data from other computer systems.

In addition, agents in the field can often bypass password security and download an entire hard disk to a USB flash memory stick in a matter of seconds . I am old enough to remember when agents would download entire hard drives onto a single 3.5" floppy.

[whiskeylover]

I think I have the source code of that OS somewhere. I can give you, but then I'd have to kill you.

[Helkaluin]

Zoom in on that. Yes. Now freeze time frame, change perspective, and ENHANCE.
We got him.

Also, Numb3rs on IRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rGTXHvPCQ&feature=related

[NightwishFan]

We managed to retrieve only 4 pixels of an image from the contents of this hard drive we found in the furnace.

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=175329&stc=1&d=1289497200

Good job, now enhance... We got him, suspect ID'd.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Justin_Bieber_at_Easter_Egg_roll_-_crop.jpg/220px-Justin_Bieber_at_Easter_Egg_roll_-_crop.jpg

[Decatf]

I think I have the source code of that OS somewhere. I can give you, but then I'd have to kill you.

No problem. I'll just mash some keys here and download it off your system.

[jfreak_]

Enhanced and got this..........

:D

[NightwishFan]

*Voice of Saruman booms down* It seems your "hacker" interface has found me to be the culprit. Well.. now what do you do. I'm Christopher Lee. :)

[urukrama]

also, numb3rs on irc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2rgtxhvpcq&feature=related

Wow, seems like someone did a lot of research!

EDIT: But this one is even more impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uoM5kfZIQ0&feature=related

[cpmman]

*Voice of Saruman booms down* It seems your "hacker" interface has found me to be the culprit. Well.. now what do you do. I'm Christopher Lee.

A quick kick of the zimmer and .....

[grahammechanical]

Great thread guys! Very amusing.

Why do they explain everything? Aren't they all experts? Why don't they just shut up and get on with their work? Then they will solve the crime 10 minutes before the program ends.

Regards

[KiwiNZ]

Great thread guys! Very amusing.

Why do they explain everything? Aren't they all experts? Why don't they just shut up and get on with their work? Then they will solve the crime 10 minutes before the program ends.

Regards

Then you would have a movie

Opening Credits

Body found

One minute wait

Fred did it

Closing Credits.

Hang on, that gives me an idea, I could send this down the road to Sir Peter for the Hobbit, could save a lot of time and save the torture of the LOTR :P;)

[cpmman]

I'll buy that even if it's free.

[adamitj]

Yup! It seems we have lots of KGB and CIA secret agents using this forum :)

But seriously... I know they do a lot of nonsense operations and miracle processings without too much data input... but... is there any kind of terminal that I can use to make a text based interface work with pictures?

I used to work with Clipper and Foxpro 2.6 in the past, and I remember it has a way to do that. I wonder if there is something close to them in Linux...

[Wiredfixer]

Wich Computer?

http://accessmaincomputerfile.net/


Maybe this gonna be work for Conky, compiz and some scripts...

[Spice Weasel]

Yup! It seems we have lots of KGB and CIA secret agents using this forum :)

But seriously... I know they do a lot of nonsense operations and miracle processings without too much data input... but... is there any kind of terminal that I can use to make a text based interface work with pictures?

I used to work with Clipper and Foxpro 2.6 in the past, and I remember it has a way to do that. I wonder if there is something close to them in Linux...

Dude, Linux has a framebuffer built in to the kernel. Have you never seen a startup screen with the little Tux at the top? :P

If you don't believe me, install links2 and run "links2 -g" in tty2.

[Quadunit404]

I enhanced the image and got this:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/richard_stallman_portrait_280o.jpg

:wink:

[wilee-nilee]

Hmm, I got this.
175369

[adamitj]

Dude, Linux has a framebuffer built in to the kernel. Have you never seen a startup screen with the little Tux at the top? :P

If you don't believe me, install links2 and run "links2 -g" in tty2.

Indeed, I believe you. I use linux since first versions of Fedora and openSUSE before jump to Ubuntu, so I really know this is true (just taking a look at Grub themes is sufficient).
I'm looking for an engine not too much difficult to use, to produce screens where I can create boxes (not "windows") to input data and make some processing in background, some "commercial oriented", you know.
I'm a linux enthusiast but a IS software developer too... guess I can find some tool to make graceful terminal front-ends for my applications. And before someone tell me there is a lot of other options like Web-based or multi-tier applications, what I'm trying to find is "the one" like that ones that exists on the movies.
But don't worry... this is not important, it's just a coffee-break subject ;)

[adamitj]

Wich Computer?

http://accessmaincomputerfile.net/


Maybe this gonna be work for Conky, compiz and some scripts...

Great! This was the movie I watched (for the tenth time I guess) which motivated me to create this thread!

http://accessmaincomputerfile.net/photo/1280/1320299815/1/tumblr_la7sezOyRp1qdhhtj

[FuturePilot]

Zoom in on that. Yes. Now freeze time frame, change perspective, and ENHANCE.
We got him.

Also, Numb3rs on IRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rGTXHvPCQ&feature=related


Wow, seems like someone did a lot of research!

EDIT: But this one is even more impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uoM5kfZIQ0&feature=related

But this takes the cake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU&feature=related

[jcolyn]

EDIT: But this one is even more impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uoM5kfZIQ0&feature=related

Those TV cops sure are smart. They should teach real lawmen how to do what they do..:P

[forrestcupp]

The funniest is when they type a bunch of "commands" but don't actually hit enter at any point to launch the commands, yet windows are popping up left right and center. Personally I think most of them are animations that activate when they push a key.I hate it when they're typing on the keyboard and everything on the screen is graphical. They can pull up the blueprints to any building in the world by typing three words.

They're actually probably animations on a timer and it doesn't matter what they do.


We managed to retrieve only 4 pixels of an image from the contents of this hard drive we found in the furnace.

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=175329&stc=1&d=1289497200

Good job, now enhance... We got him, suspect ID'd.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Justin_Bieber_at_Easter_Egg_roll_-_crop.jpg/220px-Justin_Bieber_at_Easter_Egg_roll_-_crop.jpg

:lol: That's right after he hurt that kid in the laser tag arena.

[wkhasintha]

I think I have the source code of that OS somewhere. I can give you, but then I'd have to kill you.

:lolflag:

[BrockStrongo]

I enhanced the image and got this:

http://www.masternewmedia.org/images/richard_stallman_portrait_280o.jpg

:wink:

Does Richard Stallman look like double rainbow guy?

[Quadunit404]

Does Richard Stallman look like double rainbow guy?

I dunno. Either way I don't like him.

[Alpha101]

:)
Nightwish.
I love your signatures.
"And ubuntu will become DEBIAN"
Aaahahahaha

[Alpha101]

But this takes the cake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU&feature=related

You know...I never caught that until you have shown this.
*snip*
Just...wow

[Tigerclawz]

What also annoys me is that any time they do ANYTHING on the computer, it makes a noise.
Open - noise;
Scroll - noise;
Zoom - noise;
Click - noise;
Loading - noise;
Type - noise;
Etcetera.

And the other thing, opening a folder seems to automatically open every single file within.

[Khakilang]

Now I got this old picture of the suspect. It's a rock group of some sort. I don't know what they call themselves. Anyway zoom in on the guy on the top right. Now make the hair shorter at shoulder length and change the colour of the hair. Change the glass, the tinted one and put a head band. Forward his age to maybe 20 years older.

175389
Click, click , click. click and more click!

Bingo! That's our guy.

175390

[Rhubarb]

Red Dwarf had a sketch about "enhancing" photos.
Quite entertaining to watch :popcorn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU

[forrestcupp]

But this takes the cake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU&feature=relatedLol. "I'll create a gooey interface using Visual Basic and try to track the IP address." :lol:


Red Dwarf had a sketch about "enhancing" photos.
Quite entertaining to watch :popcorn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU

That's hilarious.

[nlsthzn]

A man, stuck at work so I can't watch any of the Youtube links... now I am itching to see... Guess I am waiting till I am home, funny thread non the less :D (reminds me of Hackers where they are all using Macs... 1337 h4x FTW!)

[Helkaluin]

Red Dwarf had a sketch about "enhancing" photos.
Quite entertaining to watch :popcorn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFkb0d1kbU
That's not quite entertaining. That's very entertaining. Thank you!

[cprofitt]

Zoom in on that. Yes. Now freeze time frame, change perspective, and ENHANCE.
We got him.

Also, Numb3rs on IRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2rGTXHvPCQ&feature=related


That numbers episode is just so wrong...

[cprofitt]

But this takes the cake. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU&feature=related


A GUI interface with visual basic to see if you can trace an IP address....

It took me five minutes to stop laughing about that.

[linuxforartists]

This thread is hilarious. I remember reading an article way back about a visual effects company that specialized in creating the stuff on computer screens in movies.

Ah, found it!

Shaking up Hollywood (http://www.apple.com/ca/pro/film/torres/)

The company was called Blackbox Digital. Their site doesn't seem to be up anymore. They had a demo reel of some of the stuff they've done. I remember they did the scene in The Italian Job remake where they overlay computer graphics on the Mini Coopers when the thieves are doing practice drives for their big heist.

[bishopdante]

Yes, it's rather silly isn't it.

Stanley Kubrick would have got it right, and had the NSA types using Solaris or Debian-skinned SeLinux, and maybe a bit of vintage X-window system on beige CRTs. General office bods will have Windows.

http://www.chandlermay.com/images/gcs_interior.jpg

I expect that in real life it's like a bank's systems. As you go deeper, the look & feel gets older and older. There's doubtless plenty of 80s mainframes knocking around.

[Bandit]

Nice post, but I think the Milk in this fridge has expired.. :lolflag:

[bishopdante]

http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/pictures/450-cameron-petrie-as-a-young-man.jpg

[CharlesA]

Nice post, but I think the Milk in this fridge has expired.. :lolflag:
Yep. By about 2 years even.