Ep 41:War Games

Do you want to play a game? Let’s play… Global… Thermonuclear… War. That’s right, this week CFX takes on the classic 1983 technological thriller, WarGames, the film that introduced most of the world to a new kind of hero/villain, the “hacker”. But we put kind of a different spin on things as we also include quite a bit of discussion of a real life case of hacking as described in Cliff Stoll’s 1989 best seller, The Cuckoo’s Egg. We talk about our favorite and least favorite aspects of the film, how well it not only mirrors reality but how well it has stood the test of time, and also our personal histories with not only the film but with computers in the time period in which the film takes place. And, along the way, we also learn…

• How to tell the difference between a “super” nerd, a “weird” nerd and a standard nerd.
• How to properly butter a raw ear of corn.
• What real life computer guru appeared in the nude in is his own biopic.
• About another extremely dumb password cracking trope
• Why it’s a poor idea to bring an alleged spy into the command center for the US nuclear arsenal
• What pissing on a spark plug actually did to one shocked farm boy
• And of course…who first suggested the idea of asexual reproduction….

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