Because a lot of scientists use our software systems and we produce a lot of interesting graphics, we have a pretty regular stream of requests from moviemakers of various kinds saying, “Can we show this graphic in our movie”. This one was kind of amusing, because it was like—we’re about to start shooting this fairly big-budget movie, and we need these screens that should look realistic and can you help us do this? We’re starting to shoot in two weeks.

The only way one can do that is to say “show us the script”, because otherwise you don’t know what on Earth you’re trying to dress [the set] for. I don’t think the people who approached us for the movie were particularly expecting that I was going to look at them. It’s just that in a company like ours, if the request is sufficiently bizarre it eventually winds up at me.