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How many other people get annoyed by this? The tendency of TV shows and movies to have completely inaccurate interfaces, do things that computers just can't do, or so on; especially to the point where you are actually angry or laughing because of it.
Last night I was watching CSI: Miami (not something I normally watch, but I've seen CSI shows a few times-- they're mysteries, and they can hold my interest if I'm tired enough to be watching them), and their plot was heavily tied into computers (guy was found dead at his computer, involved emails and a webcam site, etc.). It just drove me nuts though, because they were constantly showing things that were just plain wrong.
For example, one of the IP addresses given was "3xx.6x.9xx.11xx". (Numbers, not xs, I just can't remember them all). This actually made me angry for a moment. Not only did they have to use an IP address that couldn't possibly exist, but they had to use numbers that weren't possible in three out of four places. There are better ways to handle this! (such as Antitrust, which used local addresses)
It also had laughably inaccurate file recovery programs (for example, one that took pieces of pictures and made them into whole pictures representing the websites someone had visited XD)
They also had at least two or three moments when someone would cut away for a minute to explain what terms like "Wifi" and "webcam" were. To people who are supposedly high-tech crime solvers. I'm not kidding.
I mean, honestly, I was disappointed. At the beginning they had used a clever trick (matching the amount of times a key that was held down had translated into a character in a text document to the key repeat rate settings), and even mentioned UPS (although it was accompanied by a hilariously unneeded cross section explaining how a UPS worked.)
I mean, maybe it's because most of the movies I watch with computers in them are either incredibly complex future machines to the point where their interfaces don't seem too far out; or are fairly accurate (for example, War Games, where other than the AI it wasn't too inaccurate)
Basically, my point is, does anyone else here ever laugh at the way computers are represented in popular culture, or do most of you just tune it out?
Last night I was watching CSI: Miami (not something I normally watch, but I've seen CSI shows a few times-- they're mysteries, and they can hold my interest if I'm tired enough to be watching them), and their plot was heavily tied into computers (guy was found dead at his computer, involved emails and a webcam site, etc.). It just drove me nuts though, because they were constantly showing things that were just plain wrong.
For example, one of the IP addresses given was "3xx.6x.9xx.11xx". (Numbers, not xs, I just can't remember them all). This actually made me angry for a moment. Not only did they have to use an IP address that couldn't possibly exist, but they had to use numbers that weren't possible in three out of four places. There are better ways to handle this! (such as Antitrust, which used local addresses)
It also had laughably inaccurate file recovery programs (for example, one that took pieces of pictures and made them into whole pictures representing the websites someone had visited XD)
They also had at least two or three moments when someone would cut away for a minute to explain what terms like "Wifi" and "webcam" were. To people who are supposedly high-tech crime solvers. I'm not kidding.
I mean, honestly, I was disappointed. At the beginning they had used a clever trick (matching the amount of times a key that was held down had translated into a character in a text document to the key repeat rate settings), and even mentioned UPS (although it was accompanied by a hilariously unneeded cross section explaining how a UPS worked.)
I mean, maybe it's because most of the movies I watch with computers in them are either incredibly complex future machines to the point where their interfaces don't seem too far out; or are fairly accurate (for example, War Games, where other than the AI it wasn't too inaccurate)
Basically, my point is, does anyone else here ever laugh at the way computers are represented in popular culture, or do most of you just tune it out?
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