Advanced Apathy

Hollywood has misconstrude many things, one of which being computers. Here is a list of the top 5 things hollywood thinks of computers:

5) All computers can be operated without a mouse.

In any movie that shows computers, you can count on them using (read: hacking) them without any help from a mouse. Whether it be accessing email, surfing the internet, or breaking into a top secret database with uber encyption, no one needs a mouse. Apparently we eventually grow out of using them, and everyone knows all the command prompt commands.

4) No computers use the windows operating system.

Out of all the movies I have seen that show computers, only maybe a handful of them use the most widely accepted platform, windows. Now, I understand them not wanting to put Vista up on their screens, if only for the hate mail they would get from the anti-vistaites, however, what about XP? Its stable, and used in almost all facets of computer industry. Instead, they all use a psudo-linux distro that no one has ever seen, and always has alot of windows, and good activity graphics.

3) All cell phones are fully compatable with all computers.

If someone wants some information thats on a computer, they can always use their cell phone to download the data. Of course this is possible, but almost all phones require some kind of program to be on the computer to be able to transfere files. Also, apparently you can send files of any kind to a phone instantly, with no kind of third party software (using a command prompt style interface of course).

2) Once accessed, a computer has no additional security.

When the good guy wants to get information off of a computer, there is always an initial password they have to crack. But once they get pass that, there never seems to be anything else to stop them. No individual files or folders are encrypted, and no one has security on additional applications.

1) No system is out of reach for a teenagers laptop.

Whether it be a government database, a corperation’s network, or the freaking carribean there never seems to be anywhere a laptop cant break into. Hollywood would have you believe that if a person has enough computer skills, they can break into anywhere, anytime, because their a hacker! One movie (XXX: State of the Union) had a guy break into a DOD database with only a home computer setup. But he can do it, because hes a HACKER!

credit goes to cartoonstock.com

-Trenton Stahl

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.