People using computers in TV/movies |
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pcgh
Commercial Hater Joined: 27 Aug 2008 Status: Offline Points: 129 |
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Posted: 05 Jan 2009 at 7:45pm |
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Has anyone ever noticed that when someone is using a computer in a TV show or a movie that they very rarely ever use the mouse? Even when the task they're doing is obviously something for which you'd use a mouse (like navigating a website), they still whack away at the keyboard for a few seconds instead.
I know it's probably done because there's more action involved with banging the keyboard, and it makes a nice sound effect and conveys the sense that they're actually doing something. But it's just not realistic in many circumstances. "Zoom in on that section" (clack clack clack clack!) "Open up this program" (clack clack clack clack!) "Adjust the color balance on that image" (clack clack clack clack!).
I know it's just a minor thing, but it's kind of a pet peeve of mine. Thanks for letting me vent. I feel much better now!
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That's a bleepin' dead alien body if I ever bleepin' saw one.
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Wild Starchild
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Savannah, TN Status: Offline Points: 1675 |
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I agree, but some programs have keyboard shortcuts you can use if you know how, to keep you from having to switch back and forth. But you are right, they Do seems to play up the action of Clacking on keys.
What I hate is when anyone does anything slightly computerized on TV/movies, they always have this animation that looks like the computer is the most wonderful thig in the world. I guess normal computer activity is boring, and they have to beef and flash it up with graphics and animations!! It's stupid, if you ask me!!
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AW DAMN!!!! Wild Shot the friggin TV again!!!
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N-Dizzle
Commercial Hater Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Location: Ak-rowdy Status: Offline Points: 1791 |
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And it seems no one wants to pay Apple or Microsoft to use a real operating systems. If you ever see a computer screen on TV, it's usually some generic looking user interface. Same thing goes with websites. On Ghost Whisperer, Melinda(Jennifer Love Hewitt) does alot of searching on the internet, and when they show her, she always uses some generic named search engine, rather than a Google or Yahoo. Which is strange, you'd think these companies would want the exposure. Like CSI: Miami, who has a huge flat screen monitor in the lab. Wouldn't Microsoft or Apple LOVE to have their logo on it? Or be the "Official Computer of CSI: Miami"?
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Ad nauseous
Revolutionary Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Connecticut Status: Offline Points: 23601 |
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Do you mean like those see-through things and such like they use in CSI:Miami for example?, that's too way to futuristic for this decade,who uses see through computer screens??? I don't think it's been invented yet. here's some examples: |
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One good thing about TV-you could always turn it off
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musicman
Revolutionary Formerly 0000 Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Greater Boston Status: Offline Points: 7539 |
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What I think is dumb. At this day in age, they still have Star Trek computer like sound effects when an image is pulled up on the screen. Or it does a beep beep.
Rememer the old Star Trek transporter. Bee boom boom baah fart fart Skeeeeeeeeeh.
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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One thing that somewhat troubles me are the 'Super-Duper-Big-as-a-Mainframe' Laptops that are sometimes "shown" in a movie. They can do thing that even a Cray Supercomputer cannot do - and the graphics! Amazing! Now...let's see one of these REALLY being available for 'John Q Public'.
Also note the apparent level of expertise that some movie folks appear to have - I rarely have seen folks trip around computers and read true machine code so simply...
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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musicman
Revolutionary Formerly 0000 Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Greater Boston Status: Offline Points: 7539 |
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Right along with that is the fuzzy far away photo that they can blow up 12 times and get a crystal clear view of a gun that is partly hidden.
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N-Dizzle
Commercial Hater Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Location: Ak-rowdy Status: Offline Points: 1791 |
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Of course. How do they take a cell phone photo or video and immediately identify the person in it? Totally unrealistic. At least right now, that kind of technology doesn't exist. |
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kushiro
Commercial Hater Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Status: Offline Points: 44 |
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For me, it's not so much what they do on computers, but the hardware they're actually using. You've got characters who are struggling to make rent, and here they are using the newest lightweight laptop with blazing fast internet. Yeah, computer prices have come down in the last few years, but c'mon, they started using Alienware laptops on Smallville six years ago. Those things are expensive!
And I seem to recall Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, living away from home, with no real job to speak of, using a MacBook. And this was back in the late '90s, when you had to pretty much had to have gold bars falling out of your pockets to be able to afford a MacBook. |
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MrTim
Ad Exec Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Status: Offline Points: 10421 |
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Much less typing in hundreds of numbers per minute without making a single mistake (can you say... "checksum" ? )
Come to think of it, I may have a computer or two similar to what was in Wargames (or at least of the same era. ) I even tried to learn machine language way back when, but couldn't figure out quite how to do it (the book for the compiler wasn't much help.) I bet I could have snagged some pretty good money programming sh*t....
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Yutolia
Honor Roll Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Владивосток Status: Offline Points: 2586 |
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What annoys me is that these people are usually the one person knowledgeable about computers in a group of super-cool friends. In real life, this person would probably be hanging out with other computer geeks and the other "super-cool friends" would shove the guy's head down the toilet once a week.
I've forgotten all the machine code that I used to know... |
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"Xbox Live is an online homophobia club for pre-teen Tourette’s sufferers." - Brockway, Cracked.com
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Vindicated
Junior Executive Joined: 24 Jul 2008 Location: Colorado Status: Offline Points: 345 |
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And no matter who that group is, the person who knows something about computers just happens to be so good that he can crack any computer? |
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N-Dizzle
Commercial Hater Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Location: Ak-rowdy Status: Offline Points: 1791 |
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They pulled that kind of thing on Prison Break this season. The cons needed to hack the computer to take down the company, so of course they're assigned a "computer person"(also from prison). And of course, he's Asian!! And of course he's taken lessons from MacGuyver and is able to build and do anything on the computer. Yeah, very realistic! |
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Grant
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[QUOTE=N-Dizzle] On Ghost Whisperer, Melinda(Jennifer Love Hewitt) does alot of searching on the internet, and when they show her, she always uses some generic named search engine, rather than a Google or Yahoo. Which is strange, you'd think these companies would want the exposure.
Entertainment has become so thoroughly addicted to working in proper names, that product placement is just the tip of the iceberg - there's also current events, historical ones, current celebrities, earlier ones, and on and on and on. So to me, it's nice to see anything generic once in a while. Nowadays, in a roundabout way "generic" can equal "original"!
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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'Scotty' ALWAYS embarassed me, no matter funny as he was.
All too often it was, "Hey! Pa! Isn't that what YOU..."
"No. I'm just a 'lawn mower' - you can tell me by the way I walk..."
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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Yutolia
Honor Roll Joined: 16 Apr 2008 Location: Владивосток Status: Offline Points: 2586 |
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Exactly! |
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"Xbox Live is an online homophobia club for pre-teen Tourette’s sufferers." - Brockway, Cracked.com
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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Anyone that has been 'officially schooled' on Tandem Computers - and paid attention - has been trained on hacking user i.d.s and passwords. It was actually part of a course - and getting yourself 'SuperUser' access was the target. I liked Tandems - a lot. However, this seems to be MUCH closer to the skill-level reality I encounter these days...
(WARNING: LANGUAGE)
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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kushiro
Commercial Hater Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Status: Offline Points: 44 |
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I noticed that on TV/in movies it's unbelievably easy to find information on the internet. Just type in a search phrase and the first result is a newspaper article from 1983 that has all the info you need. Heck, I have trouble getting an article published last week, and that's after about 3 pages of targetted results, ebay/amazon items, and a bunch of other articles on the same topic but not the one I need.
But apparently in TV-land, every newspaper, book, and administrative file ever produced has been scanned, organised, and cross-referenced in a simple-to-search database (and no pop-ups!). |
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musicman
Revolutionary Formerly 0000 Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Greater Boston Status: Offline Points: 7539 |
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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What has always gotten me about it, is the way they're obviously just randomly clacking away at the keys & typing gibberish.
If you could see what they actually are typing it would be something like...
They could at least act they're typing actual words.
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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musicman
Revolutionary Formerly 0000 Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: Greater Boston Status: Offline Points: 7539 |
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Yeah, they could type somthing like, "I am an actor in a scene pretending I'm typing on this computer, even though I have no idea what I'm doing.".
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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Exactly.
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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JimAyzing
Junior Executive Formerly powerboy Joined: 07 Jun 2008 Location: Ohio Status: Offline Points: 780 |
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And they will have the fastest internet speed, no matter where they go. Also if they search for someone, they will have found them and are able to chat with them right then. Without having any IM
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Jimbo
Honor Roll Joined: 19 Apr 2008 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 56960 |
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And if they need the layout of a building all they have to do is clackity-clack a few keys & BINGO!! they've got detailed floor plans that they can zoom in & out of & switch to 3-D views that show every fixture & piece of furniture inside of it.
El stupido!!!!
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...the ads take aim and lay their claim to the heart and the soul of the spender
Jackson Browne - The Pretender C'mon, man! Joe Biden - 46th President of the United States |
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PaWolf
Revolutionary Hoary Ol' Chestnut... doncha know.... Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Location: GreatWhiteNorth Status: Offline Points: 40769 |
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Ahhhhhh...but it is sooo romantic when a couple of real geeks come together in a true 'client-server' relationship. They whisper sweet instructions into each other's ears, the next thing you know, things expand and propagate.
Unless the 'Server' is shooting EBCDIC X'40' s, or ASCII X'20' s - (in English, he's 'shooting blanks'). THAT will not work - no satisfaction.
Computer relationships require results - any computer hooker knows that. There are no placebos, but there are extenders and extensions - most don't mind them at all. In any case, when passing bulk data, the Client usually can only take so much before exceptions, overflows, or total seizures occur - especially if the Server is REALLY big and fast. Even though it isn't something I care to see, a Server getting fed from the back-end can usually take more for a longer period of time - but they are more susceptible to acquiring a nasty virus. It just doesn't seem natural, anyway - with 'Dual Servers', it gets harder to deal with, or simply confusing when everything is operating parallel. Other times, one of the Servers is simply a 'hot standby' - generally useless, most of the time.
Or, if he's a really lonely server, he may have a preference for the 'Palm Pilot'.
Then again, 'Clients' can be problems, too.
They may be too small for that big ol' Server.
They may lack 'Function'.
They may not be connected to anything, but that's not to imply they are 'connectionless'.
They may be simply out-dated, or the wrong generation.
Maybe they don't speak the same language, or haven't an established protocol.
They leave it to our imagination.
This is a bad thing for an easily excitable and technically-inclined loner who may very well wander off to the other room to play with their mouse in private, until they are totally exhausted. All for nothing. "Wasted Seed".
Maybe the entertainment industry should reconsider what they allow to be shown, or at least revisit their 'ratings' guidelines...
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X <sig.nature>
"What we do for ourselves dies with us, What we do for others is and remains immortal." - Albert Pike |
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