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One problem I came across recently was in the TV series Scorpion. The tech "genius" of the Scorpion team was in a car chasing another car, trying to take remote control of the other car by using a tablet to hack into its on-board computer and stop the car. The person said, "I'm accessing the car's operational mainframe." ...to which even my 77 year Mother-In-Law went, "Wha...?"
Thought the same thing for years. It's so annoying when blatant mistakes like that are allowed to make it into production. It won't matter to people who are not technical. But for tech folks like us, it's annoying because it takes you out of the story you are trying to be immersed in when you come across something like that. It's similar to the effect of a very noticeable anachronism. And it's so easy to fix!
What would something like this be called? Is there already a name for it? If not, we have a naming opportunity!
It is my understanding that there are script consulting companies out there that do help with this type of thing. But getting the director, producers, and writers to admit they should actually use them is one issue. The other they have to also know it's a problem to fix. To them, it's usually, "Sounds technical enough. Let's move on..."
BTW There are also companies that create those fake UIs you see in the backgrounds of scenes too. But that's a whole other conversation/rant and I'm not going there.
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A friend of our's is a doctor. She refuses to watch medical dramas for the same reason. When she did watch one, she exclaimed, "You're holding the x-ray backwards!" Left was right; right was left.
Employment a script/continuity consultant would help immensely.
To that effect, the series 'Numbers' did have a mathematician consultant and 'The Big Bang Theory' employs a theoretical physicist.
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>> When she did watch one, she exclaimed, "You're holding the x-ray backwards!" Left was right; right was left.
"Scrubs", right. The opening credits have the cast passing an x-ray person to person, and then putting it on the light board backward. In one of the later seasons, they ran a one-time credits, where a new cast member comes in and fixes it.
Truth,
James
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I watch Scorpion too, and have to gag at the variety of gaffs. I understand some of the technical ones, but I found it grating when they introduced a pronunciation error. They used the term SCADA in a recent episode about an offline nuclear reactor that came under terrorist attack. All of the actors pronounced the first 'A' as you would the 'a' in father, when the correct pronunciation is long 'a' as in way.
Certainly all they did here was do some online research without understanding the lingo.
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Commonly Occurring Random Number Holistically Ordered Language Enabled algorithm
or commonly known as the CORN HOLE algorithm.
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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Which, incidentally, was invented by Cornholio.
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dexterama wrote: Evidently this "complex algorithm", via these complex web of random generators, would generate the same output even with the code now running as a different instance on a different system.
Unfortunately, they took out the following dialog:
Joe: "WTF, I thought this was supposed to be random?"
Jane: "Well, the one comment in the entire 100,000 lines of code says that this was programmed by some Russian outfit."
Joe: "Heh, I guess that just goes to prove how bad outsourcing is!"
Marc
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You haven't been paying attention, have you? The generators are random, not their results!
My blog[ ^]
public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
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Switch the TV off.
Lean back.
Take three slow, deep breaths.
Then get up and throw the fruggin' TV out the window. It's not worth the time it steals from you.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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In the movie "The Net".
Note: I have not watched this movie; but in one of the online courses I took, the instructor, while introducing IP addresses said that only in movies (like this) can one of the four numbers be > 255.
modified 10-Dec-14 1:44am.
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I was a consultant and advised give a fake to liability in case real IP adddeess useud, only each octet can be used up to 999 but 1-255 reserved for civillian use, outside place of residence can find many "treebark camera" or "rock camera" all using >255 octet for IP. This goes back to
The Jurassic period produced such an abundance of lethal predators, that the oceans were a virtual STEW OF ASSASSINS - The history channel
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Often it will be that they don't care - assume that the majority of people won't know the difference.
Other times, they intentionally leave in incorrect/outdated techniques to avoid law enforcement/law enforcement fans from complaining that they are educating the criminals/terrorists.
Remember the outcry when The Matrix featured 'nmap'?
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I'd ask whether you've really grasped the concept of fiction, suspension of disbelief and so on, but there was a perfectly good explanation for why it had to be printed out which you obviously missed so I might plump for attention deficit instead!
Let us suppose for five seconds that a programmer had been brought in. How would your script go? In episode 3, the program is made available to the FBI computer expert who then spends 3 months trying to remember how people used to program when stuff was on 5' disks, adapting and recoding, only to realise that any opportunity to make use of it had long passed and telling the agents in episode 12 that they're screwed?
Reality is dull. That's why there aren't reality shows called Real Coders of Seattle, The C++ Dynasty, or Coding With The Stars! Of course the high tech on TV shows and films isn't feasible. Nobody would watch!
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Yes. I'm watching NCIS last night. They find something which looks like a micro SD card in a body.
Of course, you clean it up and immediately plug it into a laptop. But it's o.k., the laptop is in a box which will (somehow) protect the network and <something else="" i="" don't="" remember="">.
Naturally, the evil genius developer figured out a way to propagate the virus via the laptop's power cord.
Sigh.
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A computer used for things like this would not be able to connect to any networks - no hard-wired cable, wireless turned off, etc. Actually if they did not think about blocking a connection via a power cable network, it could work.
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Quote: Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white
I actually remember those days! 
Life is like a s**t sandwich; the more bread you have, the less s**t you eat.
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It always amazes me how tech-geniuses on television can do anything with any database they access, which apparently is every one of them in the world. Of course they always hack into them if access is denied by using some form of interpretive basic or even C\C++. Oh, and I love how fast any one of these people can do facial recognition searches in seconds when it is already known that it usually takes several hours...
Steve Naidamast
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Steve Naidamast wrote: It always amazes me how tech-geniuses on television can do anything with any database they access, which apparently is every one of them in the world.
No kidding...I must be doing something terribly, terribly wrong, given how much of a hard time I sometimes have accessing a database running on a different machine within my own LAN, with full permissions...
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Well, I was rather a cynic once. But now I've combined all my beliefs into this phrase I've been circulating: "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." It's adapted from a phrase by the British writer and scientist Richard Dawkins, who said that religion was a mind virus, an idea that infected the mind. He said that not all mind-viruses are malignant; some may even be beneficial. But many are harmful—racist theories, for instance.
From an Interview with Arthur C. Clark. February 18, 2004, The Onion, Volume 40, Issue 07.
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I have learned to PRETEND they are smarter than I am! It is the only way to enjoy the show.
NCIS is notorious for this kind of stuff.
I loved the movie Hackers... Mostly because the de-emphasized the tech stuff, and focused on how hackers challenged each other, and how they shared, and why they did it. (And I did not even know who Angelina Jolie was when I saw the movie, that is how big of a geek I am). The scenes could be considered silly.
BUT, I went there with an older couple who did not understand tech... And they liked the movie.
The problem is simple. If only about 2% of the population actually programs. And only 10% of those are generally the smart ones like we have here... Then how much work should the producers do to avoid turning off the 0.2% who could pick apart EVERY ASPECT? Enjoy the show, you are NOT supposed to be learning how to hack from the show!
Reminds me of a Star Trek (ST-TNG). There was an episode where they meet these people who can only communicate in comparison to historical events in their own culture. But they developed faster than light travel... I have a REALLY TOUGH TIME with that one. If your language is that cumbersome, how could you EVER describe the physics required? (Similar to Orwells NewSpeak Language used to limit thought by removing words and ergo concepts)...
In the end, it is like hating the smell of a rose because it has thorns...
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Ha! I was just saying the other night, "How is it that they still get everything with computers wrong when they include them in a plot on TV?" The best show to get annoyed at is CSI -- they have magic computers which can reproduce an entire crime scene, with criminals, victims and everything, all moving about and doing whatever they were supposed to have done, in 3D -- and the computers do it on demand. I wish I had something like that in my house. I'd use it to reconstruct the times when I'm beating off, watching the computers on CSI and wishing I had something like that in my house so I could use it to reconstruct the times when .... </recursive>
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So like what.. you want story to take a back seat to reality?
These days, all the science and technical stuff in American TV shows is pure fabrication made by people that barely know the buzz words. I guess this stuff is a technology so advanced that most people just think its magic and can do anything.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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