CLOSEUP of a young hacker's face, bags under the half-closed eyes, lips curled in a scowl.
ZOOM OUT to reveal the hacker sitting with others on a courtroom pew, trying desperately to pay attention to the proceedings.
NARRATOR
So you've got those shot-on-sleep, backlogged-at-work, trial attendance blues? Nothin that a good weekend's rest and three full meals a day can't cure...
CUT TO
Cheerfully whistling hacker, walking jauntily towards the courthouse, wearing the 2600 "You don't know Jack" t-shirt.
NARRATOR
Food and sleep: a hacker's two best friends (besides his computer, of course!)
CUT TO
Hacker walking towards double doors of courtroom, pleasantly expectant look on face, reaches for one door handle, pushes, it's locked. Tries other door handle: locked. Looks around puzzled: no one else is around.
NARRATOR
Of course, some things even food and sleep can't fix.
CUT TO
Hacker trudging towards the subway, shoulders slumped, hands in pockets, mumbling "Bleepety-bleep EFF... nothing on their web site... 9 a.m. *tomorrow*?!... Bleepety-bleep EFF..."
If I'd been there Friday afternoon, I would have known. And if I had been there Friday afternoon, I would have seen the Livid player demo scheduled to take place then, truly a highlight of this trial. I couldn't even check the transcripts; as of Sunday afternoon they still weren't available.
But I console myself with the fact that Sunday evening I had my own demo. Yes, I finally fixed the cdrom driver so it prints out region information for your DVD player correctly; I finally set my new player to region 1; and I got the latest version of livid from cvs and built it.
Then, the fateful moment: I popped my very first (legally acquired with my own hard-earned money) DVD movie into the drive: "They Live", directed by John Carpenter, and hit the play button. Success! Imagine my joy at seeing the Universal logo, and Roddy Piper walking across the train tracks, hauling backpack and an attitude. I'm only getting about 12 frames/second, so now it's time to optimize, optimize, optimize.
BUT IT WORKS!