Hollywood Technological Catastrophies

OK, so after watching how hollywood movies rape the technological scene, i decided to compile a list of the 10 most unbelievably absurd ideas hollywood came up with over the years. With no further ado, here they are in no particular order:

1)Firewall (starring Harrison Ford): Not only is harrison ford a great linux system administrator (as shown in the first 5 minutes, when he's changing iptables rules to thwart an attack on the network), but he is also a Mac Developer. He managed to reprogram his iPod without having to learn any new syntax, APIs, or interfaces.

2)Minority Report (starring Tom Cruise): You see tom cruise in his office manipulating the computer desktop with a holographic touch activated device. If we disregard that 3D desktops aren't a thing of the future (they have been around for years now), having to work by touching and dragging icons in mid air is EXTREMELY tiring. Just imagine having to keep holding your hands up during the 8 hours you spend at work!!

3)Star Trek: You ask the computer a question and it magically understands you and responds. This is somewhat available these days, but seriously, who would want such a limited medium to convey extremely rich information? which is better for you to hear a listing of options or view a select menu in front of you?

4)Hackers: When hackers from around the world are trying to "Hack the Gibson" simultaneously, instead of dealing with each attack by itself, didn't the system administrators consider declaring a stateful firewall that would have blocked all attacks except on telnet? And then manually block or control the telnet port?

5)The Net (Starring Sandra Bullock): It's funny how every program must have a "back door", that enables the developer access to the system whenever he wishes. Didn't they hear of code review? coding standards? And why would the FBI buy a system that they can't verify?
Also, did anybody else get annoyed by the "virus" that was destroying the network did it's job by making the screen look like gibberish? looks like a bad video driver to me!!

6)Jurassic Park: The heroes are trapped in a room, dinosaurs are following them, and they need to reactivate the security system for the park. So the 12 year old girl looks at the computer terminal and declares "This is unix, i know it".
If we put aside the fact that it is extremely unlikely that a 12 year old knows unix, the girl managed to go to the high level security system, gain root privileges, and activate the security system in under 30 seconds. The only thing that comes to my mind is: WTF?

7)Independence Day (starring Will Smith): Will smith and Jeff Goldblum ride an alien aircraft and go to the alien mothership to infect it with a virus. Luckily, the alien's computer system are compatible with windows, and have the same technical vulnerabilities that allowed them to implant the virus and save the day.

8)Alias (starring Jennifer Garner): No matter what country she's in, no matter what language is being used, no matter what computer system is before here, it's only a matter of seconds for her to manipulate any computer that comes her way.

9)24 (starring Keiffer Sutherland): He's in the field, his team get the schematics for a building from an outside agency, import them to their system, then download the schematics to his PDA all without facing any kind of interoperability hassles and with impressive download speeds that are yet unattainable.

10)Any movie: Whenever there is a user authentication screen, the user first tries a username and password combination that doesn't work resulting in a huge "Access Denied" message. After a few attempts, the hero gets the correct username and password which results in a huge "Access Granted" message. This access granted message just annoys me.. who in hell would program such a lousy authentication system? if a user is authorized let them into the system, not congratulate them on their correct choice!!


Now, i know that hollywood is after entertainment value, not technical literacy, but this is just ridiculous. Also, it makes me (the developer) face end users who believe what they see on the screen, and demand things like it, or are annoyed by the fact that i can't program their microwave to monitor their pace maker, and communicate with the fridge to prepare a snack suitable for the current temperature!!

PS: If you have any additions, plz feel free to add.