Person of Interest (TV Series)

2 Pi R (2013)

Luke Kleintank: Caleb Phipps

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Quotes 

• Harold Finch : Maybe you and I are connected. Two reckless people.

  Caleb Phipps : Yeah? Then what's the use? We're just gonna keep breaking things Over and over. Why not save everyone the grief?

  Harold Finch : The thing about the world is that it doesn't have any extra pieces. It's like pi: it contains everything. You remove a single piece, no circle. Your recklessness, your mistakes, are the reason why when they say, "You can't change the world." you won't listen. The world is better off with both of us in it, Caleb, rather than the alternative.

  Caleb Phipps : Yeah? You sure about that?

  Harold Finch : Yes, and your mom is better off with you in it. If you think money can replace you, you haven't seen the whole equation. Take it from someone who thought leaving would make it easier on everyone and then learned otherwise.

• Harold Finch : You know, I used to do a little coding myself. That's an elegant string you have. But it occurs to me that if you want to implement multi-threading, you'd do better to use atomic variables. Just a thought.

  Caleb Phipps : Wait, that would work.

  Harold Finch : [Smiles]  I know, that's why I suggested it.

• Caleb Phipps : What are you doing here?

  Harold Finch : You're so smart, Caleb. Ask me something you don't know. The thing about being reckless - taking chances - is that you make a lot of mistakes, cause a lot of grief.

  Caleb Phipps : Gonna start lecturing me on mistakes? How I need to live and learn? Move on? That's really inspiring, Mr. Swift. I'd stand up on my desk and clap for you.

  Harold Finch : No. Your mistakes, like mine, are part of who you are now. You can't move on from that. Believe me. I've made a sizable number. But... sometimes your mistakes can surprise you. My biggest mistake, for instance... brought me here. At exactly this moment when you might need some help.

• Harold Finch : I grew up during the Cold War When computer networks were just a gleam in the eye of the department of defense. Things seemed more black and white then. Arpanet was the new frontier. Till a kid with a homemade computer turned the whole thing inside out. All I'm saying is It's a new era now, and things are about to get really weird. So you should keep your code close to your vest. And pick your friends wisely.

  [Hands him a paper] 

  Harold Finch : Pi. The first 3,000 digits. My number's in there somewhere. You're smart, you'll figure it out.

  Caleb Phipps : Wait, uh, the hacker. The one who got away? How'd you know he did that with a homemade computer? I've read all that research. No one's ever mentioned that.

  Harold Finch : I must have heard it somewhere.

• Chris Beckner : "Hacker" used to refer to industrious coders who pushed the boundaries of modern computing. Then that word became misappropriated by those who pushed the boundaries so far that they ended up with jail time. Like Kevin Mitnick, back in the 1980s. He was just trying to see how stuff worked. Mitnick was looking for flaws in the system. And he did so by breaking the law. But he proved people were the flaw, not the code. Now they're paying him millions for the same thing that got him locked up in the first place.

  [Class laughs] 

  Chris Beckner : Perhaps the most notorious hacker of them all was the one that got away. Back when Uncle Sam was trying to maintain IriTrip on the budding Internet Or Arpanet, as it was known then. This hacker, this coder, hacked into the system and laid its secrets bare, ensuring that the Internet would become an open forum.

  Caleb Phipps : Plus that hacker made his mark without ever getting busted.

  Chris Beckner : True. Whoever it was, that person's still out there.