Whiz Kids (TV Series) - Technology Featured in The Show

Technology Featured in The Show

There are lots of old machines from the past (especially the 1970s and 1980s) that act as props in the show. Several of the manufacturers are listed in the credits. Some machines included:

• The Gavilan portable computer
• A Heath Hero robot kit
• Apple II
• Apple IIe
• IMSAI PCS 80/30
• A code machine that is described as an Enigma Machine
• A Dynalogic Hyperion
• TRS-80 Model 100

Several pioneer companies of the personal computer industry were listed in the credits as providing technical support. Some are still around (as of 2010) but many have disappeared. They included:

• Apple Computer
• Autodesk
• Bytec Comterm, Inc.
• Computer Components Unlimited
• Heath/Zenith Data Systems
• Heath Co.
• Hitachi America, Inc.
• Microbot, Inc.
• Magnavox Co.
• Photonics Technology
• RadioShack
• Action Computer Enterprises, Inc
• Televideo Systems, Inc.
• ATARI home computer division
• GRiD Systems (probably GRiD Systems Corporation)
• Proton Corporation
• Tycom Corporation
• Office Systems by Xerox Corp
• Xerox Electro-Optical Company and Interlisp-D
• Mattel Electronics
• CTT Data Systems
• Dale Wilson / Code Right
• Paul Lutus / Insoft Inc. (Lutus is also credited with GraForth graphics)
• Commodore Business Machines

Activities included things like war dialing (one kid even mentions WarGames), editing hexadecimal machine code in a hex editor, brute force password cracking, denial-of-service attacks, emulation, facial recognition, speech recognition and speech synthesis, image enhancement, social engineering, and even computer dating. In almost every episode, the kids (sometimes at the instigation of Farley) perform what would be considered serious criminal acts within a few years of the show airing (if not during its airing); the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was first passed in 1984. They also sometimes doubt the ethics of their activity.

Another notable feature that dates the show is that characters frequently hit the 'off button' to instantly turn off their machines, often to hide what they were doing. Modern computers typically do not have a power-interrupting on/off switch but instead the 'power' button hooks into operating system software, which asks the user if they want to quit or not, or possibly puts the machine in sleep mode.