# Halt and Catch Fire (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802 "2014-06-02T01:06:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/41 "2014-08-04T18:33:19Z")
Did I fall asleep while watching? Joe burned up the truck filled with the first shipment of Giants and nothing was ever said about it. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/42 "2014-08-04T19:14:54Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > Did I fall asleep while watching? Joe burned up the truck filled with the first shipment of Giants and nothing was ever said about it. There has not been time yet. After starting the fire, he went away to some rural location. I think he went to see his mother and was prompted to do that by the conversation he had where someone referred to the incident where his mother dropped him. Anyway, the season finale was a real disappointment for me. It didn’t promise anything to come next season. All in all, the first nine episodes were all pretty good but the 10th and last episode was not on the same level. They need to focus more on the relationship between Cameron and whoever she wants to fall in love with next - prob not Joe. If there is a next season, I just hope there will be more than 10 epis and that it will find some more interesting adventures for these people. But that seems very doubtful. If you recall the history of the PC, there was not a whole lot of exciting developments after 1983 except for the advent of Windows - and that was not really exciting except for people who held MS stock. I’m thinking this show is just out of gas and can’t possibly be any good in the 2nd season unless the showrunners are real geniuses. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/43 "2014-08-06T17:02:14Z")
> [@Gus\_Gusterson](#): > > Did I fall asleep while watching? Joe burned up the truck filled with the first shipment of Giants and nothing was ever said about it. That was just Joe resigning in an over-the-top melodramatic way. The truck he burned was a symbolic first shipment, maybe a few hundred units total out of 100,000 in the initial production run. Inconsequential for Cardiff’s bottom line, but a sure way for Joe to burn that bridge, forcing himself forward. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/44 "2014-08-06T17:22:31Z")
Or backwards. The guy was at IBM. Then he was working at a small struggling computer company in Texas (Cardiff). His self-destructive impulses aren’t helping him get anywhere. BTW, it was hilarious how massive the company’s portable computer was. It’s smaller than the [Compaq Portable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_portable) but you’re probably not going to want that thing on your lap. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/45 "2014-08-06T20:45:54Z")
Does anyone know if they are planning a 2nd season? If so, would you have any opinions what that season could be about? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/46 "2014-08-07T04:03:29Z")
Perhaps they’ll explain what possible repair to a telephone could require _wire strippers._ ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/47 "2014-08-07T04:49:35Z")
I’m not betting on a second season. But if it does get one, I think they could get some good mileage out of Cameron struggling with her ideals versus the realities of running a company. Hell, if they decided to get rid of Cardiff entirely to focus on Mutiny, I wouldn’t be sad. They could write off Cardiff with a throwaway line in the opener about how it failed or got bought or something. Gordon could join his wife working at Mutiny or just be a househusband who attempts to invent stuff in his garage. Joe could show up and possibly burn stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/48 "2014-08-11T10:04:47Z")
Thinking back to 1983, seems to me all the hardware innovation was done. From then on all the action was in Taiwan and China. They kept working on lowing the price and raising the speed of the machines. I can’t be certain. But I think that most of the work done in the Western World was in developing software. Does anyone here know of any work done in the hardware field in North America? ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/49 "2014-08-11T16:53:14Z")
Cameron’s company is inventing the internet, so surely that would be the focus of a season 2. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/50 "2014-08-11T17:00:40Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Cameron’s company is inventing the internet, so surely that would be the focus of a season 2. More like AOL - she said they produce/own the content they provide. The WWW and the first Web Page didn’t exist until 1991 - that’s a long time to keep a startup going. AOL debuted in 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802/51 "2014-08-11T17:28:52Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > Does anyone here know of any work done in the hardware field in North America? Lots. Most of the development of new processors at Intel happened in the US, as did much of the production. Hard drives were greatly improved at various companies like Seagate, Maxtor and Western Digital. That’s just a start. You ought to take a trip to Silicon Valley and drive around. This last episode took place in early 1984. I _think_ that was before Michael Dell started his company. Early on, the company was just a couple of people with power screwdrivers, assembling computers from stock components. And that’s the thing; because the components were easily available, there were low barriers to entry for any new competitor. Most of these companies didn’t develop hardware Cardiff did in the show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halt-and-catch-fire-open-spoilers/689802.md?page=2)