Halt and Catch Fire 1×9
& Gordon: Okay, you think thousands of vendors are just gonna magically swarm our booth?
Cameron: Hell, yes. Get in line.
Gordon: The booth isn’t the point. That’s just a way to identify the real buyers and then get them up to our suite.
Donna: For the opening night party.
Gordon: Yeah, suite’s where the action is. It’s where we nail down all the real deals.
Donna: Everybody’s terrified. Nobody knows which technology’s gonna win.
Gordon: Oh, your friends are trying to rip you off. Your enemies are buying you drinks.
Donna: It’s a cat fight. It’s total chaos.
Gordon: It’s capitalism at its finest.
& MacMillan: In the Scottish Isles, they hold a festival on the coldest day of the year. The townspeople dress up in Viking costumes and compete in squads, drinking and singing and dancing. Finally at midnight, they march up to a huge wooden ship in the town square...
Cameron: .... Then what?
MacMillan: Then the winners burn it to the ground.
Gordon: Why the hell did you just tell us that?
& — Free software?
Cameron: Jesus.
— Free software.
Cameron: That’s one way to make a living.
Donna: No, that’s not their living. They’re porn stars moonlighting as “booth babes.” Vegas figured out that computer types don’t gamble, so they schedule a porn convention next door. Same time every year.
& MacMillan: Is it ready yet?
Gordon: No. I mean, almost.
MacMillan: It’s been “almost” for two hours!
Gordon: You can have it fast or you can have it work. It’s up to you.
& Xerox guy: I’m serious. You have to see it.
Cameron: See what? I mean, isn’t everything you guys do top secret?
Xerox guy: You’re right. I shouldn’t tell you about meta-classing or hypertext or object-oriented programming.
Ω 1983?!?! For sure?
& MacMillan: See, Las Vegas knows how hard it is to build a computer. Especially one as sleek and fast as our little bad boy right here. But Las Vegas doesn’t want to hear that our 8086 processor is running 76% faster than the IBM XT. It doesn’t care that our integrated LCD screen makes the Giant a featherlight 15 pounds, that it’s fully portable, fully compatible, and sexy as hell!
& Xerox guy: Nothing against Dallas. It looks great on TV. But California’s where it’s at. And you’re young.
Cameron: I’ll think about it.
Xerox guy: What is there to think about?
Cameron: Earthquakes.
Xerox guy: I don’t feel them anymore.
Cameron: Cults? Serial killers?
Xerox guy: That’s all down in Los Angeles.
Cameron: The Grateful Dead.
Xerox guy: Wow, you are mean.
& MacMillan: Did you have fun?
Cameron: I ate pancakes and watched the sun come up with the Xerox boys.
MacMillan: That sounds entirely too wholesome.
& Hunt: The Slingshot... Because, as Goliath found out, victory goes not to the swift, nor to the strong, but to the little guy who strikes first... Any questions?
Ω T’waz so close... Shite!
& Hunt: There’s some good ideas in that machine, Joe. Your mistake was falling in love with that precious query-based interface. Maybe it’s ahead of its time, but it’s a memory hog.
& — So, it’s fast and it runs all the software, but besides portability, I’m not seeing a lot that’s special. Nothing unique.
MacMillan: “Unique...” Interesting word choice. What are you really asking for? Something special? Give me something warm, something fuzzy?.. This is a machine. It’s not your friend, it’s your employee. It works for you. And the way it should be evaluated is thus... “How well and how fast does it do the things I ask?” Answer... “Instantly.” Anything less is a waste of your time. “What is the margin of error?” Answer... “Zero.” Anything more and you’ve failed. Here’s another word, one that’s infinitely more important than “unique” will ever be... “speed.” Let’s cut through the bullshit and act like adults. You want speed, and this machine is the fastest one you’ll find, period.
& Macintosh: Hello, I’m Macintosh.
Xerox guy: You okay, man? What’s the matter?
MacMillan: It speaks.
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