TV Shows should consider hiring programmers to review scripts on occasion
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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
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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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
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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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
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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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 . Naturally, the evil genius developer figured out a way to propagate the virus via the laptop's power cord. Sigh.
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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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
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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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
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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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
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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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
23.75.345.200several 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
I seem to recall watching a movie called "Dolan's Cadillac" based on the Stephen King story of the same name. In it a guy has an IP address for a webcam that has 666 as part of it. I don't think the story King wrote even contained the word "computer".
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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
BS sells even when it smells! http://news.distractify.com/jake-heppner/cards-against-humanity-sells-actual-bullshit-on-black-friday/
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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.
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.
