Now, at this point in time you may be asking: "What does dinosaurs have to do with programming or Whaleventures for that matter?" Well ... a lot actually. Let me set the scene for you: I was 9 years old and in standard 1 (we still referred to it as standard 1 back in the day) when Jurassic Park was released. For a 9-year old dinosaur freak, this was the biggest thing since chocolate coated vanilla ice-cream. Every time I got a glimpse of a trailer or poster somewhere I would nag my dad about it. Finally; I think out of sheer desperation to shut me up; my dad took me to see Jurassic Park. However, there was one technical difficulty: Jurassic Park's minimum age restriction was 10, while I was obviously 9 years old. With a suspicious look from the lady at the counter, and a white lie or two, my dad got me into the theater. I was in for an awesome action-packed 2-hour roller-coaster ride that involved a T. Rex eating a man straight off the toilet, Velociraptors raining down death and destruction on the main cast and Brachiosaurus sneezing a ball of snot in a girl's face.
At the time, I din't notice it, but years later when I watched Jurassic Park again, something interesting caught my attention. One of the characters in the movie is a computer programmer by the name of Dennis Nedry (or Ned). If you didn't watch the movie, note: some spoilers are up ahead. He is basically the guy that was responsible for the downfall of the entire park. One set of scenes (right after the shit starts to hit the fan), is of particular interest where Samual L. Jackson (he goes by the name Ray Arnold in the movie) tries to get the security system of the park up and running again. Here is an outline of what sort-of happened:
Thus, to kick off part 1 of our: "Identify the programming language / operating system in the movie / television program"-series the first challenge (which is not that difficult) is to identify the programming language in which the Jurassic Park system is coded. The first one to provide an answer (do not cheat!, I'm watching you) will get 500 internets for his/her efforts. Here is a hint (more or less) of what you'll be looking for when watching the movie:
The second challenge is to identify the operating system that is running Jurassic Park. Lex (the hacker girl) is also using it when she tries to lock the Velociraptors out during a chase scene much later in the movie. If you can identify this (without cheating) you'll be really hardcore and you'll win 20000 internets (seriously).
So, go to your nearest video store this weekend, and rent this excellent movie. You'll be amazed by the special effects (given that it was 1993), the action scenes, and more importantly: the DINOSAURS!!!
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