Screen Testing
We’re joined by Jenna Charlton to discuss David Fincher’s critically-acclaimed Mark Zuckerberg biopic which straddles a very fine line between hero worship and cautionary tale. We talk about the pre-Facebook internet days of Angelfire and MySpace, how the movie mostly gets its tech correct for a change, and our real-life experiences with the privilege which the film displays. We get a bit serious in the middle as we unpack the overt misogynism on-display in the movie, discuss the impact of Facebook’s push into the editorial and advertising spaces, and look at what happens when content...
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It's time for another long-overdue dive into technology in 90s movies, as we go deep into the "not as bad as you heard it was" Sandra Bullock thriller, The Net. We investigate whether Jack Devlin has the skills required to be an international spy, whether the film merited the little-known sequel and TV series which it received, and whether Angela should be briefer in her emails when she's being pursued. As usual, there are tangents upon tangents, as we uncover the secret behind Neil's unwritten novel, Dan's time spent working at the bleeding edge of the early days of the internet, and the time...
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Trying to sync your episode with an immovable calendar date? Doing two recordings in one week? Suffering with kidney stones as well? It’s no problem for your favourite (perhaps) test-focused movie buffs, who are here to talk about a sci-fi classic which has an unmentionable sequel, despite the fact that Neil keeps mentioning it. Dan and Neil are your guides on a trip through that most traditional of holiday tales, featuring a weird mix of American bravado and hubris. The explosions are almost as large as the plot conveniences, as they set out to answer all of the most important questions: Is...
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Where have the last two years gone? Neil and Dan reunite as they attempt to quantify the many things that have kept them away from their microphones, whilst also focusing on some of the bigger issues of today (virulent or otherwise). As well as the many subjects of births, deaths, marriages and bubbles, we attempt to put a positive spin on COVID, discuss the ever-evolving impact of Black Lives Matter on historical media, and there's a rundown of the mixed bag which is the current UK box office for 2020. Films and TV shows mentioned: Contagion Deep Blue Sea Brexit: The Uncivil War Doctor...
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We're back from a brief hiatus with - unbelievably - a film which actually deeply relates to testing! We're joined by Mark Tomlinson, who brings his own experiences of dealing with the National Transportation Safety Board, to discuss a film about a remarkable moment of true-life heroism, and the decisions that we make in the heat of the moment. The events of the movie give us a chance to get into in-depth discussions about the challenges of testing within regulated industries, developing risk mitigation strategies in life-critical environments, debugging/monitoring, and whether quality is a...
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Pop quiz, hotshot! You want to record a new podcast episode, but you also want a break from some of the darker plots that you've talked about recently. Plus, you're snowed-in at home. What do you do? Dan and Neil decide not to shoot the hostage, but to instead kick back with a discussion about Speed. In an episode recorded at the beginning of March (hence some timeline discrepancies and weird Oscar predictions), they find many parallels with Die Hard, and manage to work-in a surprising number of testing elements, including setting/reviewing acceptance criteria, pairing in the...
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We return a little later than planned, as we discuss one of the greatest thrillers of our time, getting into discussions about psychology, interviewing, misogyny and gender politics, and appropriate occasions for purchasing FBI-themed cakes. We also salvage the best bits of our failed Oscars announcement episode, highlighting a few nominations that we hope will win big, and staking our reputations on a few predictions of our own. Miscellaneous Links: YouTube trailers for films and TV shows mentioned: Twitters: Emails:...
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We begin 2018 with a discussion of Neil's favourite film of 2017, and a worrying early revelation about Dan's general problems with musicals. But we persevere, and discover not only a few musical gems in Dan's closet, but also a shared appreciation for some of the plot elements in La La Land. Things get a bit philosophical and introspective as we dig into how we motivate ourselves (and others) when we (or they) suffer setbacks, how we tell our own stories about the world around us, taking the opportunities that come your way, avoiding being paralysed by "what if", and a few of the many...
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As the year draws to a conclusion, Neil and Dan give a rundown of their favourite movies of the past 12 months, and highlight a few festive turkeys. The show notes are deliberately brief to avoid spoilers, but if you want to see the films which we discussed in YouTube trailer format, there are some playlists linked below. References: Thanks everyone for listening to us this year, and we'll see you on January 12th as (joy of joys) it's finally time for LA LA LAND! Twitters: Emails: [email protected] Intro music: Outro music:
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In an episode recorded over the course of five hours, your hosts gather at Chez Neil for their own mini Christmas party, with a fine array of mince pies, cheeses and ales, as well as two of their favourite festive movies. The result? A fun and rambling journey which gets increasingly erratic as we continue. Both nursing sore throats and hangovers from previous nights' office parties, we nevertheless get to all of the important questions, such as why Hans Gruber owns a TARDIS on wheels, which of Macaulay Culkin's traps constitute appropriate force, whether the Nakatomi Corporation employees...
info_outlineAfter finally overcoming the communication problems associated with talking to the other side of the world, we're joined by Mike Talks for a discussion about WarGames, the film that did for the 80s what Hackers did for the 90s, yet somehow without feeling anywhere near as dated as the latter.
It's an enjoyable film with plenty to celebrate, and plenty of relevant discussion points including how humans interact with artificial intelligence, and the many obvious security vulnerabilities that are on display. However we don't neglect our duty in highlighting some very disturbing gender roles, and we reluctantly stray onto the topic of Donald Trump.
Along the way, the team talk through their childhood gaming and programming experiences, Mike shares some (non-classified) military IT stories, Dan proposes an unlikely trilogy of technology films, and Neil gets sidetracked by background details as usual.
Oh, and if you've got an Amazon Echo, Google Home or Siri-enabled device in earshot, you're probably going to want to disable its microphone for the duration of this episode. We didn't, and paid the consequences.
References:
- Mike blog post: Programming - it was acceptable in the 80s...
- Wikipedia: Official Secrets Act
- Wikipedia: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (shot down in 1983)
- Wikipedia: Able Archer exercise
- Wikipedia: 1983 Soviet nuclear false alarm incident (Stanislav Petrov)
- Wikipedia: Strategic Defense Intiative ("Star Wars")
- Wikipedia: Ditchling
- Wikipedia: Cuban Missile Crisis
- Box Office Mojo: 1983 US Box Office figures
- Roger Ebert's WarGames review
- Leonard Maltin's WarGames review
- Wikipedia: 8-inch floppy disk
- YouTube: Clip referred-to as the Tomorrow's World clip (it was actually the Thames TV show Database)
- Wikipedia: Micro Men (docu-drama about the birth of home computing)
- Wikipedia: The Computer Programme (1982 BBC instructional series about home computing)
- Wikipedia: Non-repudiation
- WhatIs.com: Four-eyes authentication principle
- YouTube: South Park - Cartman triggers Siri/Alexa/Google Home
- YouTube: Montage of Star Trek self-destruct sequences
- Gizmodo: Google anti-diversity memo
- YouTube: Thunderbirds "woman driver" scene
- Weta Workshop: Studio Tour
- Wikipedia: DEFCON levels
- Wired article mentioning John Lennon's proposed WarGames role
- Check Point: Overview of the Havij hacking tool
- YouTube: Troy Hunt - "Hacking is child's play - SQL injection with Havij by 3 year old"
- sqlmap
- Kali Linux
- Time.com: Avril Lavigne is the celebrity most likely to give you a virus
- Never Say Never Again - Domination videogame showdown
- Wikipedia: Zero-sum game
- Memory Alpha: Kobayashi Maru scenario
- Wikipedia: Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD)
- Neil's tweet of 120 different maneuver names from WarGames
YouTube trailers for films and TV shows mentioned:
- Return of the Jedi
- Octopussy
- Never Say Never Again
- Deutschland 83
- The Americans
- The Day After
- Threads
- When The Wind Blows
- The Terminator
- Colossus the Forbin Project
- Terms of Endearment
- Flashdance
- Trading Places
- Saturday Night Fever
- Staying Alive
- Superman III
- Fail Safe
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Computer Programme episode 1
- The Last Starfighter
- Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks
- Hackers
- Swordfish
- Whiz Kids
- Automan
- Tron
- Mad Max
- WarGames: The Dead Code (terrible 2008 sequel)
- Star Trek: Discovery
- Blade Runner 2049
In two weeks, we'll be venturing into the world of James Bond for the first time, to discuss Pierce Brosnan's first outing as 007, GOLDENEYE!
Twitters:
@TestSheepNZ
@ScreenTesting
@TheTestDoctor
@neilstudd
Emails:
[email protected]
Intro music: Arthur B. Rubinstein - WarGames Intro Theme
Outro music: Arthur B. Rubinstein - Edge of the World