Live Free or Die Hard Computers

[HagarTheHorrible]

OK - I know this may not be the proper forum, but I have to ask.

I just finished watching Live Free or Die Hard. What has me curious is that
the computer used by the co-star - Justin Long (the Mac Guy in the Apple
commercials) looked a lot like a Window's based PC and not a Mac.

Can anybody definitively tell me what type of computer he used in this
movie. If it was a PC the irony would leave me smiling for a week.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

OK - I know this may not be the proper forum, but I have to ask.

I just finished watching Live Free or Die Hard. What has me
curious is that the computer used by the co-star - Justin Long (the
Mac Guy in the Apple commercials) looked a lot like a Window's
based PC and not a Mac.

Can anybody definitively tell me what type of computer he used in
this movie. If it was a PC the irony would leave me smiling for a
week.

I am unsure why. As far as the commercial goes and the character who play
in it: the Mac guy knows nothing (admittedly) about computers and the PC guy
is an admitted Macintosh user.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Long
"Long is also known for his depiction of a Mac in Apple Computer's Get a Mac
campaign. The campaign features commercials in which Long as a Mac and John
Hodgman as a PC, are engaged in playful banter about "the strengths of the
Mac platform and weaknesses of the PC platform." Despite his various roles
as computer geeks, he admitted to CraveOnline, "I'm very, very computer
illiterate... I get the worst of both worlds; I look like a geeky hacker but
I don't know anything about computers"."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hodgman
"Hodgman appears in the Get a Mac advertising campaign for Apple Inc., which
started in May 2006. In the ads he plays an anthropomorphised PC, vaguely
resembling Bill Gates, alongside his Mac counterpart, played by actor Justin
Long. While he plays the role of a PC in the campaign, Hodgman is actually a
diehard Mac user: "I bought the very first Mac, or convinced my father to
buy it, in 1984.""

Both of them are playing roles that they have been paid to play.

Goofs and trivia of the movie:
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/trivia
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0337978/goofs

Does it tell you the type of computer? Not that I see.

 

[HagarTheHorrible]

True. But what I need to find out is in the movie's opening sequences, what
type of computer was Justin Long using - a PC or a Mac.

 

[Malke]

True. But what I need to find out is in the movie's opening sequences, what
type of computer was Justin Long using - a PC or a Mac.

It was a *movie* computer. The kind that shows "Virus Uploading" with a
progress bar. The kind that has a lot more blinkenlights than real
computers. The kind that goes "boop, boop" every time you press a key.
The kind of computer that lives in a world where *all* the financial
data in the *entire* United States is being kept in one place (no
originals on any hard drives) and will be downloaded onto (cue Scary
Music!) AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!!! Oh noes!

I actually enjoyed the movie but I'm afraid I laughed out loud in the
movie theater at the computer stuff.


Malke

 

[Onsokumaru]

It was a *movie* computer. The kind that shows "Virus Uploading" with a
progress bar. The kind that has a lot more blinkenlights than real
computers. The kind that goes "boop, boop" every time you press a key. The
kind of computer that lives in a world where *all* the financial data in
the *entire* United States is being kept in one place (no originals on any
hard drives) and will be downloaded onto (cue Scary Music!) AN EXTERNAL
HARD DRIVE!!! Oh noes!

and they can zoom in and get a perfectly clear close up picture from a fuzzy
super low rez security camera picture, and ever database search flashes the
results onscreen - lol.

Haven't seen the movie, but I think the OP has trouble realising the guys in
the Apple ads are actors *paid* to *act* in a certain way - it's not real
life, and therefore no irony at all.

 

[Malke]

and they can zoom in and get a perfectly clear close up picture from a fuzzy
super low rez security camera picture, and ever database search flashes the
results onscreen - lol.

Yes! You mentioned one of my "favorite" movie computer things - they can
get a clear picture of whatever by magically enlarging it with their Mad
Skilz Technical Stuff even though the data doesn't exist! My son watches
"CSI" and they do this a lot. There are quite a few sites listing the
differences between computers in the movies and in Real Life. Here's one
of them:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article09-127

And to actually answer the OP's original question, Justin Long's
computer was probably supposed to be running some form of *nix. No
self-respecting hacker would be running Windows *or* OS X. ;-) I saw the
movie twice, once in the theater and once just recently at home
(Netflix). You certainly could get a "look" like that with various
terminal windows being open.

Cheers,


Malke

 

[HagarTheHorrible]

OK - have a final verdict.

According to associates at MaximumPC.Com, the OS in question is Gentoo Linux.

I guess that you can dress up the penguin to look better than I thought you
could.

http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/Die+Hard+4.0+-+Matthew+Farrel's+theme+(E?content=66714

 

[Malke]

OK - have a final verdict.

According to associates at MaximumPC.Com, the OS in question is Gentoo Linux.

I guess that you can dress up the penguin to look better than I thought you
could.

Told you it was *nix. And we've been able to "dress up the penguin"
beautifully for years.


Malke