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Matthew Inman

What code DOESN'T do in real life (that it does in the movies)

by Matthew Inman []
Published on 6/12/06 in Technology
Matt craps on a bunch of ridiculous ideas about programming and code that Hollywood can't seem to stay away from.
Following up our article: Top 20 Hackers in Film History and Vibrant's Top 10 Servers in the movies, I felt obligated to dispel some of the notions about programming that these movies endorse.  I understand that Hollywood needs to dress things up to make them more entertaining, but in the case of programmers, code, and hackers they've done more than dress things up  - they've morphed a little stuffed teddy bear into a cybernetic polar bear covered in christmas lights and phosphorescent hieroglyphics with a fog machine pumping rainbow smoke out of his ass.   In other words, they've layered a ridiculous amount of extravagance on top of something that in reality is very grounded.

1. Code does not move
In films and television code is always sailing across the screen at incredible speeds; it's presented as an indecipherable stream of letters and numbers that make perfect sense to the programmer but dumbfound everyone else.  I understand that to the non-savvy person the abilities of a programmer might seem amazingly complex, but do they honestly think we can read shit that isn't sitting still?  It'd be like trying to read six newspapers flying around in a tornado.    Sure, I can watch a kernel compile, tail a log file, or simply monitor the scrolling output of a program - but the most value I get out of those activities is when execution stops and I can actually scroll back to read what the hell happened (unless the output was going slow enough I could read it as it happened).

2. Code is not green text on a black background
Sure, code can be green text on a black background if you want it to, but most programmers use syntax highlighting and sysadmins configure their shell to use ANSI color.

3. Code has structure
According to the movies all programmers abhor the space bar and enter key.  In the real world code has structure - it's got line breaks, spacing, and indentation.  Granted, we've all written our share of unreadable hacks: I used to write a lot of perl and I had a knack for writing nasty regular expressions that moved many of my successors to committing seppuku, but those days are over.  It's all about clarity now. 

4. Code is not three dimensional
Remember in "hackers" when the gibson is depicted as a three dimensional city that the hackers must navigate through? Bullshit! We may use a dash of color in our shell to make things a bit clearer, but last I checked my terminal app doesn't require OpenGL.   I'm working here, bitches - I'm not playing quake.
 
5. Code does not make blip noises as it appears on the screen
This goes for ANY text, not just code.   When text appears on my monitor it doesn't make blip sounds - this isn't 1902 (or whenever monitors used to do that). 
This is one of the most common offenses in Hollywood films, almost every movie that has a scene where a character is composing an email or surfing the net has the text make blippity-blip sounds as it appears.  Do they have any idea how fucking irritating that would be in real life?    This article alone would be like thirty thousand blippity-blips.

6. Code cannot be cracked by an 8 year old kid in a matter of seconds
Sorry, no.  Just no.  

7. Not all code is meant to be cracked
Hollywood loves to endorse the notion that programming, encryption, and complex computing in general are all the same thing: a jumble of secretive data that must be broken by a seriously (srsly!) clever hacker.  This is somewhat understandable because the term "code" itself is ambigious.  In the realm of computing, code typically has two definitions:
  1. The symbolic arrangement of instructions that a computer can understand - like "Your PHP code is shit"
  2. The disguised transformation of a message - "The Navajo code talkers in WWII"
Hollywood usually applies #2 to all of a programmer's computing activities.  There are no windows to drag, no enclosing brackets or IF statements, there's no desktop.  Everything on the computer takes the form of an encrypted message, which must make looking at hot steamy pr0n a real bitch (md5 makes me flaccid).

8. Code isn't just 0100110 010101 10100 011
Sure, when you get down to the binary level it's a bunch of 1's and 0's, but who does that?  I've never met anyone who codes binary. 
Hey Hollywood directors: programmers use this neat thing called the ALPHABET.  It's got letters that you put together to form words.  We even put spaces between those words (see #3).  

Also, the whole joke about everything on a computer being just a bunch of 1's and 0's has become painfully not funny.  It ranks right up there with the joke about the user who uses his cdrom tray as a cupholder, I'm pretty sure I'd heard that joke a thousand times by 1997.   Just because all data on a computer is ultimately represented by one or a zero doesn't mean that the basis behind it is as simple as a one or a zero.  That's like saying all humanity ultimately boils down to a bunch of carbon atoms (or whatever the hell we're made of), so the next time someone steals my car I can laugh it off and say "Oh those silly carbon atoms!"

9. People who write code use mice
According to Hollywood most programmers haven't discovered how to use a mouse.   Sure, we type fast, but a mouse is a very useful tool and there's no reason we'd abandon it.  While we're dispelling stereotypes, I'd also like to say that not all programmers are hot-pocket eating virgins who play WoW.  Some of us exercise and have active social lives.  Some have even had SEX! Holy Crap!

10. Most code is not inherently cross platform
Remember in Independence Day when whatshisface-math-guy writes a virus that works on both his apple laptop AND an alien mothership?  Bullshit!
If real life were like film I'd be able to port wordpress to my toaster using a cat5 cable and a bag of glitter.


Any others you can think of?

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208 Comments

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Joe_Bogus

Joe_Bogus
I built my first computer 42 years ago, and never in that length of time have I seen Hollywood actually portray computing accurately. Remember: It's Just a F*cking Movie!
Written on 8/12/06

coder2000

Dieter Lunn
Anyone seen Firewall with Harrison Ford? That movie has to have the most realistic hacking and computer usage I have ever seen in a movie. Otherwise I agree with the list and say its a movie enjoy. Written on 8/12/06

NetWraith

NetWraith
Realistic computer use? Give me a break. He pulls out his laptop under an overpass, is on the net in 3 seconds, finds the website that tracks his dog's collar (the bit about the GPS in the collar is believeable, at least)and then drives away with his secretary keeping tabs on the dog while driving out of town and obviously merrily skipping from one free Wireless Access point to another without ever losing his connection. Utter Bullshit. And before anyone says well maybe he had a satelite hookup...last time I checked the smallest one of those was still the size of a textbook and needs to be stationary and pointed at a satelite.

Oh..and call the cops from your cell phone in the middle of no where, just for good measure.

That said, I will admit it's better than most. Written on 15/12/06

spdygnlz

David
Oh, especially the part where he TAPES the scanner from the fax machine (or whatever it was) to the monitor and hooks it right up to the iPod. What was the line? "A thousand songs or a thousand accounts, it doesn't know the difference." How many things can we find wrong with that? Written on 15/12/06

elfidomx

Fidencio Garrido Trejo
It's so funny, he also developed (i guess because if not i should say that the fax was made also by apple and specially designed for iPod) a driver in order to make the ipod work with the fax, and what do you think about a group of a virus that falls the network as soon as it's send even if no one had opened it, what kind of code can do that shit without have been executed. Written on 15/12/06

groberts1980

Greg Roberts
Ever heard if EDVO? Cellular internet access? No?

I've never seen the movie, but from what you've described, he could easily have a PCMCIA card that uses a cell carrier to access the internet. Written on 16/1/07

andrek

Andre
I have 3G wireless card which gives me 120Mbs access to Internet in coverage areas, which is usually the most of Sydney. Nice thing to have when catching a train to office and back for an hour each way. So yes, it's quite possible. Written on 17/1/07

Jaqui

Jaqui
Satellite connection equipment that will work on a moving vehicle is available, has been for 5 years.
the smallest ones are about the size of a toaster oven.
want to see one yourself? head to a local marina and look at the funny little white domes on the yachts.
satellite telephone systems. :)

Not a viable option for a car, but for an RV they would work. Written on 8/4/07

gatorpower

gatorpower
I have a KVH Tracvision A5 Satellite on my SUV. It's about the size of a pizza box that you put ontop of your car. It gets direcTV ;) ...and it gets the internet. Though, nothing close to broadband, it's twice as fast as a 56K. It only costs $3K (advertised to boat-owners and RVs) You can also set up your computer to get dial-up from your cell phone. I haven't done that because I really don't need to, but it's an available option. There are also HUGE wifi areas near airports and in some downtown areas.

There is 'consumer electronics' and then there's 'rich person electronics'. Rich person electronics is actually pretty cool. With my own eyes, I have seen things like a HDTV in a shower with a remote on the massaging shower head lol Written on 7/5/07

firestorm69

Jamie
What I love is how most coders in movies know every programming language ever created. I am a PERL programmer, I have recently learned a lot of PHP mostly because of it's similarity to PERL. There have been times when I needed to fix or modify apps for a client that were written in other formats such as ASP or Cold Fusion. I can look at code written in other programming languages and gain a basic understanding of what is going on, but it takes longer to actually modify or change the code because of the differences between the way each one works. Each one has different built-in functions and different ways of using variables, and the list goes on. But in movies, they always just happen to know the language and are able to discover a hole or modify the code to do what they want. Written on 8/12/06

Atilaw

Law
Some of us out there end up having to learn more than a few languages... granted I couldn't switch from one to the other instantly, but it wouldnt take a whole lot of time.

So far it's been:
BASIC
VisualBasic
Pascal
Delphi
Modula2
C
C++
C#
Java
PHP
Perl
Python

... there are more, but I can't be bothered! :)

Best Geek ever - that guy from Alias!! lol.. he was electric/maths/encryption/hacker/sysadmin/developer/physics/science in general expert... basically, he was god in human form... and he was terrible with the ladies... good stuff!! :) Written on 16/12/06

rcasha

Ramon Casha
I wrote a pretty similar article last month on a treeware publication. Some nice examples here too :)

http://technology.timesofmalta.com/article.php?id=2432 Written on 9/12/06

JaneCopland

Jane
6. Code cannot be cracked by an 8 year old kid in a matter of seconds

Sorry, no. Just no.




But I heard that if the kids is autistic, he can do it in at least two minutes. Written on 9/12/06

Fluxx

Jeff Pollard
Exactly Jane...he just "sees" it better than us common folk. We'll never understand. Written on 9/12/06

asdqweasd

asdqweasd
He just can't communicate it to anyone else. Written on 17/1/07

ScottWill

Scott Willoughby
What would be even more impressive is if, using that same cat5 cable and bag of glitter, you could get your laptop to crap out toast! Written on 9/12/06

Oatmeal

Matthew Inman
thptttt-fffffftttt



that's what it sounds like when laptops crap toast Written on 9/12/06

asdqweasd

asdqweasd
Is that what that little door on the side is for?
I thought it was a cup holder Written on 17/1/07

adam410

Adam S
"9. People who write code use mice"

While this is true, I know a lot of coders, including myself who very regularly abandon the mouse all together when coding. A lot of people use command line and editors like vi for most of their programming, I know I do whenever I'm working on a remote machine. Written on 9/12/06

gpyper

garth pyper
I hate it when In a movie or on TV code gets projected onto faces, far walls, and everything else in front of the screen. If this happened in real life you'd be blind in a few minutes. Written on 9/12/06

fil

philippe
... and you wouldn't see anything from the start. Think about looking into a projector directly instead of the wall. Written on 14/12/06

lmb

lex
I can agree to that. A mice can be handy, but when I work a entire day with it, it's a start of a bad evening. Written on 9/12/06

JimXugle

JimXugle
I hate to break it to you, but you can run WordPress on your toaster.



http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=25321



No glitter reqired, but you still need the Cat5e cable. Written on 9/12/06

soldierb

richard pendergast
9. People who write code use mice



So you obviously didn't see the CSI episode when the guy can't type quickly enough to hack the machine... so the girl sits down down next to him and hurries him up by typing on the other side of the keyboard? Written on 9/12/06

gvn2fly

Arturo Castaneda
Really?? NO WAY!!!! Written on 11/12/06

missweb

Carissa
Well, I think that was NCIS, but still, point taken.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy shows like CSI and NCIS, but I'm overly analytical, so more often than not, with the assistance of my equally-overly-analytical dad, I'll be pointing out the flaws in the show.....


In fact, last night, I watched Numb3rs and there was a part where a computer recovered from an explosion, was searched for information. First of all, they connected the fried hard drive to a computer of the exact same model (what's the likelihood that they would have access to every computer model, just in case???). They couldn't access it through the computer so they opened up the hard drive and used a "magnetic reader" to display the information onto the wall (debatable whether that is even possible....I've never encountered it, but who knows what the FBI has.....). and finally, the magnetic reader thing actually worked and displayed a bunch of gibberish onto the wall, from which they found the name of a .jpg file.....and they got the pic.

Now, I don't know everything, but I think that stretches imagination a bit. But it makes for a great storyline.

Haven't seen movies with friends lately.........connection?? Written on 30/12/06

asdqweasd

asdqweasd
Must have been an incredibly small magnetic reader. Written on 17/1/07

iamderrick

Derrick
CSI is a fictional crime drama artard.. Written on 5/3/07

Fonseca

Anthony
Best. list. ever. Written on 9/12/06

katz45

Ryan
alot of your examples cite movies that are set in the future. they are exagerating the way coders are so we can see the way they think the future could be. so you saying that things aren't actually like that is like dispelling myths about the self driving cars in i-robot because cars don't actually do that now. Written on 9/12/06

Electrocat

Electrocat
About half the movies he is talking about have annoyed me and are set in the present. Hackerz for instance is a crap movie about teen hackers and have several of the examples in this list. Get off you high horse and join the adult world katz45. Are does your code require open gl?

I guess our author ran out of time before his deadline as I can think of at least 10 movies he didn't cover. Written on 10/12/06

samzen06

sam
The movie "PI" is I think based around more of a real programming or coding. well it shows more of what people who use computers do a lot, and fill their rooms with it. Written on 14/12/06

EpicQuaker

Will
Nice digital apoplexy, Electrocat...also, nice withering putdown with that misspelled OpenGL nonsense. Written on 29/6/07

eyeonbooks

Bill Thompson
I know, it's not coding, per se, but it drives me crazy to see a movie or TV character (such as a "Law & Order" detective) sit down at a computer they have never seen before, tap a few keystrokes, access the entire contents of the suspect's hard drive, find the exact file they need, and display it in the precise format they need ("find all the left-handers who recently bought a Toyota"). Written on 9/12/06

ericmoritz

Eric Moritz
What drives me crazy is when reporters think I can do that. I work as a programmer at a newspaper, and numerous times I get reporters calling me up and asking me ta find "all left-handers who recently bought a Toyota"... I think from now on I'll call that a "CSI query". Written on 8/12/06

asdqweasd

asdqweasd
Doesn't everybody use computers that way? Written on 17/1/07

threeFiddy

Dave Johnshon
I think my favorite example of one of these points is the movie Swordfish, where Hugh Jackman is the amazing hacker guy. He has to code up a worm or something in the movie, and his setup is something like a six screen machine, where the actual coding is not lines of text, but rather 3D cubes. He has to place the 3D cubes onto a bigger 3D cube that spans all his screens, and if he screws up, cubes start to fall off...



It was so bad, I wish coding really was like that, might actually be more exciting... Written on 9/12/06

Fluxx

Jeff Pollard
I know, that scene always cracks me up. "Watch out skeezy John Travolta, don't bump the chair or the trojan cubes might all go out of alignment!" Written on 9/12/06

JaneCopland

Jane
So you're telling me that much of what we see in television and film that is set in the "present day" is spot-on accurate? Written on 9/12/06

katz45

Ryan
no actually, I never said it was accurate or inacurate. what I said was that trying to debunk something that is set in the future where we don't know what will happen doesn't make alot of sence. Written on 9/12/06

bugmenot

UnBugged
You're just trolling, right katz? Nobody could be THAT fucking retarded in real life, right? Right?

Please?
Written on 8/12/06

JaneCopland

Jane
I wonder how 3D cubes become a worm? Written on 9/12/06

codeninja

COdeNinJa
Square peg... Round Hole... It clogs the tubes...

Pfft! N00b.! :) Written on 10/12/06

mdedmon

Mikey
The best part of this multi-monitor scene was the sound effect. When Travolta opened the door and showed him the computer, it made a deep whooshing sound like it was about to take off. Of course the sound effect was accompanied by a graphic that "whooshed" around the 6 screens.

In the theatre I laughed out loud! Ridiculous. Written on 11/12/06

ahmadster

AhmadBaitalmal
This may not be code but BOY do I hate this. You will always see some police officer looking over a "computer whiz"'s sholder and he says "Hey enhance that surveillance camera image". And then you hear bleppity bleep and zooming then pixilization then some more zooming and some depixilization and tadaaaaa. Like magic, the crappy 0.00001 pixel cam produces a 200 mega pixel detailed shot of the criminals eye lashes.



Way too stupid. For once I'd like to see it close to how it really is. Written on 9/12/06

spike

spike
well, 2 things...



about #9...



Some have even had SEX! Holy Crap!



I've never had sex. oh wait.. yeah I have... hmph. you could be right...



but um...



about us using mice... speak for yourself. I spend most of my time in the terminal. Mice slow me down. cmd-rightarrow/leftarrow is the best for cycling through terminal windows... and when I'm in KDE or Gnome (depending on the box I'm using), I just cycle through tabs in there...



and even when I am using a mouse for computing, I position my hands in quake mode. one hand on the mouse and the other over to the left of the keyboard for quick access to modifiers and keyboard shortcuts.



just my $.02 Written on 9/12/06

CygnusX1

CygnusX1
Yeah, I got one. You CANNOT phreak (hack) a pay-phone with a soda can's pop-top that you found lying nearby (see WarGames movie), in order to get a free phone call.



LOTS of Hollywood movies have taken liberties with Layer 1 (the physical layer, ie copper phone lines and such) issues, such as Hackers with the pay-phone handsets duct-taped together to create an extra layer of "untracebleness". Seriously, I've tried DUN via a payphone... not happening, especially not while using said payphone(s) as a relay for a coordinated hacking attempt. Written on 9/12/06

1010011010

Daniel Myers
The POTS has undergone extensive hardening since the late 1980s. Usually any hack featured in a movie is already fixed or fixed shortly thereafter. Written on 9/12/06

Atilaw

Law
Yeah - they have done the same with Coke machines too now... the admin code you can access and pop out free drinks was plugged up on most modern machines... damn them all!! :) Written on 16/12/06

bugmenot

UnBugged
You could get free calls on old-fashioned pay phones with a pull tab (or paperclip or piece of wire). Like all the it-can't-possibly-be-that-easy phreaker tricks, this relied on in-band signaling; the resistance of one of the lines to ground was used to indicate payment or something, and you could spoof this by shorting one of the microphone wires to the chassis. AIUI this was a pretty-much obsolete phreaking technique when WarGames came out and it's ancient history now. Written on 10/12/06

JaneCopland

Jane
I only see a mention of Hackers and Independence Day. A lot of the examples don't even cite a film and many other things, like genius eight year olds, aren't likely to happen. There have been a thousand "futuristic" movies, set in the early 21st century that look retarded now. However, if we can surf into a 3D FBI database in magic coding cubicles one day, then that would be rad. Written on 9/12/06

CheShA

CheShA
How about Jurassic Park, that little known film where the genius 8 year old cracks the 3d, flying-through-space "Unix" system? You patently haven't seen many movies if you need citations for the items that aren't cited. Written on 12/12/06

focker

Brian Kelsay
Actually, you can surf the filesystem of a Unix system. There is a graphical program that does this. Google for it. I saw it back in 2001 in Linux Journal. Written on 19/3/07

beezel

beezel
i MUST know of this episode....PLZ tell me which it is. that clip will go down in my personal favorites. its just sooooo plausible!!! i mean, shit! now my typing teacher will know how my friend and i got 190wpm! Written on 9/12/06

beezel

beezel
so I'm not the only guy surfin the web with my fingers in WASD position? i find it makes it easier to start gaming if my fingers just never move from those positions...



on a similar note, we should lobby mavis beacon to make WASD the new home row. Written on 9/12/06

Psyfer

Alex
I agree, WASD is my 'home row' though, when I'm actually typing, I do use the real home row keys, I type a lot faster that way then using the 'hunt and peck' method that many of my friends use. Written on 14/12/06

Fulgore

Fulgore
How about?

*Code cannot be just 'whipped up' in a few seconds like Hollywood hackers. Well, perhaps a program that prints "hello world" can, but to write these exploits and programs that are required to hack/crack takes days, months or even years. They don't realise that most of programming is about making a change to the code, compiling it, testing it, debugging it, then changing it, then compiling it etc. Waiting for a compiler to finish compiling code alone can take hours.



Also, please make this site more compatible with Opera (I get logged out every time I click on a link) - get with the times people, Opera9 > Firefox2, IE7 and anything Apple could ever imagine. Written on 9/12/06

Vulcan

vulcan
ha, "hello world" was from my first java book. Written on 14/1/07

Spikeon

Michael Flynn
yes, sure, opera 9 is also GAYER than a french crossdresser.

never liked it, and well, honestly, noone cares about it Written on 10/3/08

Fulgore

Fulgore
Exactly, but of course this conveniently doesn't work if bigfoot or an alien are in the camera's shot. It gives a great excuse for the said authorities to not believe the hero until it's too late. Written on 9/12/06

eas

Erik S.
So you are saying that in the future

1. Code will move

2. Code will be green text on a black background

3. Code will lack structure

4. Code will be threee-deee

5. Code makes blip noises

6. Code will be crackable by 8 year olds

7. All Code will be encrypted

etc



Hmmm?
Written on 9/12/06

jon

Jon Strayer
Depending on which Unix box I've telneted into, code is either green text on black background or amber text on a black background.

As to code lacking structure, that's not exactly rare now. Written on 10/12/06

CheShA

CheShA
Um... That depends on the box you've telnetted in /from/? I have all mine in different shades of green so I can tell them apart ;D Written on 12/12/06

Oatmeal

Matthew Inman
Spike - don't get me wrong, I use the keyboard more than anyone else I know. What I'm saying is that programmers in movies NEVER seem to use the mouse even when they're doing tasks that clearly require it (like surfing the web or photoshopping something). Written on 9/12/06

bugmenot

UnBugged
[Gah, dang (lack of proper) threading] Written on 8/12/06

bugmenot

UnBugged
Oatmeal wrote...
{
Spike - don't get me wrong, I use the keyboard more than anyone else I know. What I'm saying is that programmers in movies NEVER seem to use the mouse even when they're doing tasks that clearly require it (like surfing the web or photoshopping something).
}

...Or, in the case of 'White & Nerdy', playing Minesweeper...with the whole keyboard none the less. Written on 8/12/06

Jameson

Jameson
That one is beautiful! And in almost every case it's another example of computer people eschewing the mouse. The shoulder-beasting cop says, "Zoom in on this area" and mashes his greasy fingers all over the nice screen, then you hear the computer tech go clackety-clik-clak on the keyboard, which produces a rectangular selection, which he then moves over the area in question (again, using the keyboard) before zooming in. The hell?



Of course, my all time favorite in this area was in "Enemy of the State" (which is actually a movie I enjoyed very much). They're reviewing grainy security-cam footage of Will Smith holding a shopping bag from a lingerie store. The footage is only from one angle, the opposite side of the bag from the part they want to see. So the computer tech is instructed, "Rotate that 75 degrees around the vertical" (priceless!) and - clackety-clak - he does! The computer somehow magically interpolates every crease and wrinkle on the opposite side of the bag from the side the camera captured. Man, would that ever be useful. Written on 9/12/06

DirtNap

Michael Donnelly
Yeah, but the opposite is true too. So much crime show drama still depends on taking three minutes to trace your phone call. ...the phone company switched to regular old digital switches LONG ago, and they know where you're calling from before they even connect you. ...sure, it's trivial to come up with your own VOIP client that fakes headers, or use a satelite phone where you just get the first over-land forwarder, but that's not what the shows are talking about. The sad thing is that all the writers, producers, actors and the grandma's who lap it up ALL HAVE CALLER ID! Written on 9/12/06

skullY

Zach
Actually, at the time that wargames was made, you could.



You see, payphones at the time didn't usually give you a dialtone until you deposited money. By grounding the microphone to the coin box he completed the same circuit that gets completed when you drop a coin in, thus fooling the phone switch into thinking he had actually deposited a coin. He was then free to call the operator to complete his call.



There are plenty of movies to bitch about, but Wargames is more accurate than most. About the only unlikely things in the movie are the voice synthesizer and listing the games before he had even logged in. Written on 9/12/06

chill

Charles
The voice synthesizer in Wargames was S.A.M., or Software Automated Mouth. It was popular in the early 1980s and ran on Apple II, Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64 computers.

The hardware component was twaddle, unless he was flipping on a speaker, but I will never forget that voice. Written on 9/12/06

strider72

Stephen Rider
According the Wargames DVD, the voice is that of the actor who plays Prof. Falken.

The way they got the computer-like disjointedness is they had him read all the words in reverse order so he was effectively reading lists of words instead of sentences. Written on 19/12/06

Unrealious

Marcus
Code is rarely read or stored on magnetic tape drives anymore (which it seems to be in many movies and perhaps will be again in the future after the fall of civilization:) but when it was the drive was not always fast forwarding or rewinding as in the movies. I think it would actually be cool to see the tape in movies find the marker, stop, back-up a little while the heads engage and begin to read at a much slower rate, skipping ahead only to the next marker where it would read again. A write cycle would be even more entertaining. I tire of endlessly spinning tape drives and twinkling lights representing computers. Oh and unless the lights have groupings or labels how can they tell us which instructions the computer is processing currently? They call it code for a reason. It's supposed to actually be decipherable. Written on 9/12/06

thedave

Dave Atkins
Ah, see the movie Dreamscape (Natalie Wood's last I believe).

They stored dreams on silver real to reals, and they would seek-set-and-play.

Written on 8/12/06

focker

Brian Kelsay
It wasn't Dreamscape, that had Dennis Quaid in it. You are thinking of Brainstorm.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085271/ Written on 19/3/07

Exillo

Tim
Is there a P4 in there? they get hot enough to make toast =oP Written on 9/12/06

SpiderBoy

SpiderBoy
On the topic of ridiculous scenes in Swordfish:



An effective way of testing a hacker is to get some gorgeous babe to suck his dick when he's working.







Come to think of it, let's keep that one :-)


Written on 9/12/06