Ever wonder what the codes shown in movies and television really mean? Turns out, most of them are either copy-pasted from inauthentic sources, or complete nonsense thrown in to make the scene look more legit.



This was first uncovered by a British programmer named John Graham-Cumming after he watched the movie Elysium. He had recognized a piece of code flashing across the monitor of a futuristic computer, which turned out to be a code written in an Intel manual.

Graham-Cumming's obsession soon led him to create a Tumblr to explore the origin and meaning of the code in everything from major blockbusters to nerdy television shows to music videos.

Within a week, the site had gained more than 12,000 followers, hundreds of notes and numerous daily submissions.
“I suspect it comes down to the director and the time constraints on the set designers,” says Graham-Cumming.

“I’ve actually had email from two set designers talking about the process, and it’s clear that sometimes they just don’t have time to work on the detail.”
Read more the full story over at Wired