“Firefly” is the best Joss Whedon work to date, but I always try to give the benefit of the doubt on new sci-fi shows. So tonight, as I was watching “Dollhouse” on TV with my ex-Be engineer husband, JBQ (currently at Android, along with many other ex-Be engineers), I noticed something familiar at the Dollhouse supervisor’s computer screen. It seems that the Dollhouse’s business runs on… BeOS. Click in for some snapshots of the scene. Update: mikesum32 tells us that they used a screenshot of BeOS full screen! In the screenshot BeShare and ‘Jabber for BeOS’ were open. I recognize quite a few names in their lists (some of them are OSNews readers to this day), so congrats for those who made it to… TV!
This could also be ZevenOS – http://www.zevenos.com/ – which is basically Ubuntu designed to look and feel just like the old BeOS.
No, the Zevenos logo in the taskbar is different. It’s not very visible on the actual pictures, but when watching the frame on the TV it’s clearly the BeOS logo. I don’t think that they went into extra work to make the Zevenos logo look like BeOS.
There was also another scene with that monitor and I could see some other, very BeOS-like apps in there. Either they are using a very old PC there where BeOS can run, or whoever put that prop together for the series has hacked BeOS’ guts a lot to make it run on newer PCs.
or used some beos demo video as prop, playing in windows media player.
And then they probably used beos figuring that it
a) looks unknown enough to be “special”
b) no-one cares about them using such old material
Regarding point b) – isn’t free/open source software the safest bet? Typical OSS license doesn’t seem to mind any such usage…I only wonder about logos/trademarks/copyrightable stuff (and it’s even easier to find something that looks unknown/special)
I have been running BeOS as my primary OS since July 1998. I have found nothing that compares ( though I use many other OSes ).
In fact, I am currently running BeOS R5.1d0 (Dano) hacked to all heck’n’back. My biggest hassle is in not having 48-bit LBA support. Otherwise BeOS is still the best. It does more of what I need, and I learned to program to the Be API originally, so I am the most comfortable 🙂
And my computer is always modern:
Asrock 775Dual-VSTA
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200
Swiftech Water cooling w/ thermaltake pump & reservoir
OCZ DDR2 1066, 2 GB
5x HDDs, 120×2(IDE), 80×3 (IDE, 2xSATA)
16x DVD-RW
ATI Radeon x850
That is all that really matters 🙂
BeOS DID hold me back on a couple of items, namely the HD range of ATI cards, and larger hard drives.
I ran out of hard drive space so I assembled some spare parts into a server and threw in about 290 GB of hard drives in order to offload some archived movies, and provide a backup medium.
I’m started working on a custom ftp file system driver for BeOS today, hopefully I’ll get it going tomorrow – I could almost never hope to do that on another OS without borrowing lots of code – and I hate not knowing every tiny little detail of what is going on.
The server runs Ubuntu mini, gproftpd, and XFCE just for kicks 🙂
Hmm… I’m off track…
/me shouldn’t post on the web after coding for hours past midnite…
–The loon
Is that a 5090 Kuro over there? It rocks.
It’s the 5010FD: http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/03/03/the-new-tv-arrived/
It is one of the best models ever, the rest also belong to Pioneer. These plasma Pioneers were the best TVs ever, light years ahead of any current LCD. Too bad they had to kill them because no one was buying them!
Eugina, who would have thought you were such a TV snob. LOL
The Kuros were a very nice screen but they were not that much ahead of their Plasma rivals in tech and at x2 the price. The other point is that Pioneer used glass tinting to achieve their blacks which was a slight impedement on the highlights of the picture image.
Still, a great screen non the less but just priced out of the market.
Now BeOS in Doll House. Anything else worth watching in that series???
For my Sci Fi I’m liking Terminator the Sarah Conner Chronicles and for scare drama loving Supernatural. American Dad gets a look in as well but that’s for humour.
Gotta tease the author posting on an OS site for taking a photograph of a TV.
No tuner on your computer? 🙂
(I sent the author a computer capture of the HD stream)
I don’t need a TV tuner on my computer. I make my own videos, I don’t rip on my hard drive other people’s copyrighted work.
And why the heck would I be watching TV on a computer when I have in my disposal one of the best TVs ever made, and a couch with a husband next to me? Do I strike you like a college kid who crams everything on his PC or laptop in his dorm?
BTW, I received TWO stream-rip screenshots from TWO different people, but the compression used is so high that it doesn’t make it any better than what it currently looks like on my pics, sorry.
Hey, I cram everything on my PC
Using a beamer to project the video on a wall beats any TV, IMHO.
Speaking of BeOS, this weekend BeGeisterd is taking place, so maybe Haiku will show some progress. Still, it’s a pity that Be failed. I liked my 4.5 installation.
You could’ve stopped your comment there.
You think we haven’t noticed over the years your many many many comments?
What does hell does copyright have to do with watching TV on your computer? Or even, *shock*, temporarily wiring up your PVR to take a screenshot for your Web-site.
He didn’t want you to watch on your computer, he wants a *good capture*.
Is it also one of the best TVs to photograph? Is your camera the best? etc.
…
I’m bored, so i’ll leave it at that.
Interestingly enough, the flying trash container retrieval combo from the Serenity episode “Trash” apparently runs Microsoft Windows 2000 ->
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0579540/trivia
BTW.: I always find it very amusing what kind of futuristic computer interfaces people invent/adapt/present in TV shows, while every attempt to introduce new concepts for interacting with computers in real life is per se rejected by users, geeks (especially those who attempt to speak in the name of joe and jane sixpacks) alike
Edited 2009-04-04 07:19 UTC
http://www.ok-cancel.com/comic/3.html – seems relevant
Generally, you have to remember that those movie interfaces are designed only to be SEEN, not USE. Typically they’re either of “computer does everything anyway, user just clicks next” (so what the user is for?) or of “information/garbage overload” type. And neccesarilly style over substance. I’m kinda glad we don’t fall for this trap in real UIs so much…
And I disagree new interface concepts are outright rejected and have no chance of becoming popular – just look at the iPhone. It’s just that there’s only limited number of UI concepts which make sense, especially (though not only) given the constraints of technology. And currently prevalent GUI style simply seems to fit them rather well…
What PVR are you using?
We rent an older Comcast HD-capable DVR. Works fine.
I guess you don’t work in a TV show scientific computer lab
Where is the the zoom on the dell monitor, plus enhancing the extremely blocky picture to the point that it is totally clear and sharp
It is possible on TV!
:b
If only I hadn’t been at work ! I’d have all the glory. Well, I guess I’ll always discovered the ones from Journeyman… and that menu ordering system.
http://tinypic.com/1r50y2qb
And some other ones I haven’t mentioned.
*Edit*
Don’t most of the shows the icons appear on get canceled ?
Edited 2009-04-04 07:50 UTC
I remember seeing a couple of BeOS (Zeta maybe?) screens in the earlier episodes of “Heroes”.
the software It’s BeShare!!!
Well baby
You’ve been gone so long
It makes me wanna cry
And you know
I feel so wrong
It makes me wanna die
It makes me wanna die
BeOS
It’s the OS
BeOS
It’s the OS
Ah-whoo-hoo-hoo
“i only was searching for it, and I found it”
http://aros.cba.pl/160106.png
Like the Journeyman icons, it’s cut and paste.
I also mirrored it at tinypic.
GIS shows it comes from here http://bs0.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_archive.html
I don’t know where.
*Edit*
It’s under the following entry.
Monday, January 16, 2006
Tired…
Edited 2009-04-04 09:17 UTC
Just load up KDE with the appropriate Be-like theme.
I miss FireFly to this day =(
Amen. I will always be a browncoat at heart.
We all do!
nostalgia…
Definitely, this is BeOS. Nice! I was impressed by BeOS back in time. That was many years ago. I even thought it will be a real alternative for my Windows 98 workstation back in time… But then, everything gets complicated and there were no option – Open Source and GNU/Linux. Still, I hope, we will have some good feedback from Haiku guys one day.
Anyway, it’s good to see BeOS in movie! 🙂
ooh, my name is on the IM list. Does that mean i can tell people i was ‘kinda’ on TV now.
just to see what wikipedia had, i followed the above link… and although the content is ‘ok’ .. i must say that they have a horrible screenshot. For starters they should have the Deskbar in the default location, and why not Soundplay over CL-Amp. (personal pref, though SP is a more Be-like app, and the first mp3 player to play backwards) What happened to all the good demo apps too, i mean, open up some Cube or Chart .. maybe even Net+ … something… i would take the one used by the TV show over the one from wikipedia any day.
oh well
But Deskbar *is* in its default location there…
sorry if I wasn’t clear
the wikipedia screenshot has the Deskbar in the mac style layout, instead of the default top/right corner
also as a “back on topic” note, it seems that the dollhouse screenshot is of Dano (at least it has boneyard)
The reason that CL-Amp is shown is probably because CL-Amp was free if you bought R5-Pro and came as the default player for music. I dont knoe about dano though, as Be.inc did not renew its license with Claes Loefgren for a CL-Amp 2.0.
For ending up on a sci-fi show on Fox
If that’s the actual picture (the dump Eugenia put up isn’t clear enough) then they’re clearly the ones that leaked the screenshot of their desktop: how can you tell? The light blue response is a private message
Now, where do I apply for ASCAP???
I saw my name! I used to use that background! Look at me all searching for stippi. Probably when we were doing things with Wonderbrush. I even see my status as pyCepting, which was when I was learning python! LOL…the good ol days…
and yes, it still boots faster and smoother than any other platform to date (even on 2Ghz machines!!).
I use it as a CD-to-Ogg Vorbis archiver, and BeBattle!!!
Gawd I LOVE BeBattle!! I have a Haiku VMware image on my XP laptop solely for the purpose of playing BeBattle. Yes, you could probably write a full clone in Javascript, but it just wouldn’t be the same…
…hmmmm… though it may be worth asking the author about that..
Some days ago I’ve noticed that thing too. BeOS on the Joss Whedon’s TV show! How cool is that, how lovely is that?!
Be-baby looks so cute on TV. ^_^
I hope to see some Haiku-OS desktops on tv shows in next few years