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  3. TV Shows should consider hiring programmers to review scripts on occasion

TV Shows should consider hiring programmers to review scripts on occasion

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  • D Offline
    D Offline
    dexterama
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

    "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

    J N Richard DeemingR P J 21 Replies Last reply
    0
    • D dexterama

      The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

      "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

      J Offline
      J Offline
      JMK NI
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Is that a 12 core?[^]

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • D dexterama

        The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

        "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

        N Offline
        N Offline
        newton saber
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Brilliant! That way the QA people can make sure the super-complex super-secret algorithm works. :D

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • D dexterama

          The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

          "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

          Richard DeemingR Offline
          Richard DeemingR Offline
          Richard Deeming
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          TV and movie writers generally don't have a clue about anything IT related, and assume that their audience won't either. IPv4 addresses with out-of-range single octets seem quite popular - for example, "The Net" used 23.75.345.200 several times. Spooks[^] had the marvellous line, "I had to trawl the non-indexed deep web to construct a cipher". There are some good examples here[^].


          "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

          "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined" - Homer

          M J C 3 Replies Last reply
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          • D dexterama

            The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

            "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

            P Offline
            P Offline
            Pete OHanlon
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            Well, they obviously used a pretty standard implementation of Random without using any form of Seed value. It's no wonder they were able to get the same values.

            J 1 Reply Last reply
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            • P Pete OHanlon

              Well, they obviously used a pretty standard implementation of Random without using any form of Seed value. It's no wonder they were able to get the same values.

              J Offline
              J Offline
              JMK NI
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              Mandatory XKCD[^]

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • D dexterama

                The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                J Offline
                J Offline
                jtrz
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                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.

                T W 2 Replies Last reply
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                • D dexterama

                  The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                  "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                  Mike HankeyM Offline
                  Mike HankeyM Offline
                  Mike Hankey
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  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.

                  M 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • D dexterama

                    The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                    "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                    M Offline
                    M Offline
                    Marc Clifton
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    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

                    Imperative to Functional Programming Succinctly Higher Order Programming

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • J jtrz

                      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.

                      T Offline
                      T Offline
                      Tim Carmichael
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      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.

                      J 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

                        TV and movie writers generally don't have a clue about anything IT related, and assume that their audience won't either. IPv4 addresses with out-of-range single octets seem quite popular - for example, "The Net" used 23.75.345.200 several times. Spooks[^] had the marvellous line, "I had to trawl the non-indexed deep web to construct a cipher". There are some good examples here[^].


                        "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Maximilien
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        Richard Deeming wrote:

                        TV and movie writers generally don't have a clue about anything

                        That is why most TV and movies work.

                        I'd rather be phishing!

                        1 Reply Last reply
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                        • D dexterama

                          The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                          "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander Rossel
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          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();
                          }
                          }

                          1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • D dexterama

                            The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                            "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                            M Offline
                            M Offline
                            Mark_Wallace
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            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!

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • D dexterama

                              The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                              "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                              A Offline
                              A Offline
                              Amarnath S
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              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.

                              N 1 Reply Last reply
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                              • A Amarnath S

                                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.

                                N Offline
                                N Offline
                                Nareesh1
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                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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                                • D dexterama

                                  The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                                  "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                                  A Offline
                                  A Offline
                                  AndrewDavie
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  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'?

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

                                    TV and movie writers generally don't have a clue about anything IT related, and assume that their audience won't either. IPv4 addresses with out-of-range single octets seem quite popular - for example, "The Net" used 23.75.345.200 several times. Spooks[^] had the marvellous line, "I had to trawl the non-indexed deep web to construct a cipher". There are some good examples here[^].


                                    "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    James Curran
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    >> for example, "The Net" used 23.75.345.200 several times. Well, I'd assume that's just the equivalent of using a 555 phone number. They intentionally don't want it to be a real address.

                                    Truth, James

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                                    • T Tim Carmichael

                                      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.

                                      J Offline
                                      J Offline
                                      James Curran
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      >> 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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                                      • D dexterama

                                        The missus is a big fan of "White Collar" and last night I endured such dialog as "It looks to me like some sort of complex algorithm" as these folks sat in a room perusing printed pages of source code." (Cause that's how us engineers like to look at code - you know, stacks of printed paper, and in black and white.) Later it was revealed that the code was a stunningly "complex web of random generators" that picked a city, airline, and people, etc. via this "complex algorithm" to move illegal products around the country. Eventually they got the code running on one of their computers and Voila! They had the city, airline, etc. of the next target to go and intercept the criminals! :wtf: 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. :doh:

                                        "Religion is the most malevolent of all mind viruses." - Arthur C. Clarke

                                        9 Offline
                                        9 Offline
                                        9082365
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        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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                                        • Mike HankeyM Mike Hankey

                                          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.

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          MKJCP
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          Which, incidentally, was invented by Cornholio.

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