One of my favourite factoids on the French language, generically the final letter is not pronounced except C, R, L, & F, so DOS line-endings. Once seen, never forgotten.
part of the development of the IFB, the earpiece in common use on every tv news show: The turboencabulator skit was originally intended to demonstrate the usefulness of earpiece radios as a replacement for cue cards when actors are delivering lines for a video. Bud Haggart wanted to show that you could use the earpiece effectively even when the lines get ridiculously difficult to follow, so he used the turboencabulator as a subject because it'd been a running gag in the engineering community ever since its first technical description was published by John Hellins Quick in 1944.
the hackers soundtrack is fantastic and includes some of the best electronic music from the era. the version of halcyon and on is in my opinion almost as good as the original 11 minute 12" uk promo edit [0], which may not have fit on this soundtrack.
in 2020 varese sarabande released an expanded 2xCD of the hackers soundtrack [1]. the second disk includes full length versions of the instrumental electronic music composed for the film by simon boswell [2] but not included on the 1 disk soundtrack and is absolutley essential listening while rollerblading to the payphones at penn station.
it is hard not to mention the fine WGBH produced re-enactment [1] version of this story any time this book is mentioned. there's also a german film from the POV of the other side of cliff's story [2]
D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org) 3/2/2013 https://youtube.com/watch?v=cIQ9IXSUzuM