Hackers Changed Everything: A Lord Nikon Laptop Build @Raspberry_Pi #PiDay #RaspberryPi
What do you think of when you think of a hacker? Today hackers have taken on international status as government-funded agents who can change the course of history. We might imagine a shadowy team in some droll office performing the 21st Century version of foreign interventions. That wasn’t always the case.
Forty years ago, hackers were thought of a nerdy solo acts. You might think about a particularly geeky Matthew Broderick accidentally pushing the world toward global thermonuclear war while trying to impress Ally Sheedy in WarGames. Hackers for quite some time were seen as basement dwelling, Doritos munching outsiders ready to break the law through nerdy means just to get a little status.
In 1995 that all changed. The movie Hackers dramatized in a very Hollywood sort of way what had already happened: rave culture, electronic and synth-based music, the early wild-west internet, conspiracy theories (back when they were fun), Blade Runner aesthetics, and a very cyberpunk view on politics had converged into a bleeding-edge cool. This vibe transformed the zeitgeist so much that by the turn of the century everybody was fluent in the visual language that first surfaced in the mainstream with Hackers.
Here at Adafruit, we love Hackers. One of the most fun Raspberry Pi projects we’ve seen comes from the ever-reliable HackersCurator. A re-creation of Nikon’s laptop, powered by Raspberry Pi. Here’s more:
We recreated a fully functioning reproduction of Lord Nikon’s laptop from the iconic cult classic film Hackers from 1995. Here is how we did it, and you can too! In Hackers, Lord Nikon A.K.A. Paul Cook, played by Laurence Mason sports an iconic laptop and startup sequence from the film. We wanted one that actually works. We captured the entire process on Twitch and have compiled the build into this video.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!