On the Las Vegas' repeat last night I got to witness another of my TV pet peeves - where is the stinking mouse? When computers are on screen they are using some system that requires no mouse for even the most complicated and incredibly showy graphical interface: Tappatappatappa "Okay, I'm in the mainframe," tapaptapatapa "hacking into the security net..." tapatapa "ordering pizza for dinner a week from Thursday..." tapatapatapatapa "accessing shoe sizes of the last 15 presidents..." tapatapatapa " and I sent Mom flowers for Mother's day. My work is done." Half the time the computer doesn't even have a mouse.
Are actors, overall, stupid when it comes to how to use a computer? Or is it it the directors? Come on -- PCs, Macs and Linux all use mice, and still require use of it for some task. Yes, you can use keyboards shortcuts for windows, you can't use it for everything like navigating a graphical map or outlining a section of a photo.
A second tech peeve, and CSI and 24 are the biggest offenders of this one, what's with that "enhance section 6 by 47" crap? As if you can greatly enlarge a small portion image to be crystal clear like that, even if you know know what "sector" you want enhanced, even if the technology did work like that or used that terminology.
I want to beat people badly everytime I see this now.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-06-2005 @ 10:32AM
Keith McDuffee said...
Ohhh.. I am so with you on this pet peeve. I will say that one thing I'm loving about Veronica Mars is that they do not dumb down the audience with bad technology. They VERY infrequently get things wrong, and even hard core Linux geeks will smile at some of the references made here and there that are accurate, and don't make you cringe in embarassment for the actors having to regurgitate the idiotic lines made to sound like something "techy" is going on.
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9-06-2005 @ 10:41AM
Henrik said...
I am totally with you on this point. Plus, the fact that downloading a satellite movie from the other side of the world takes about 1 second, while text typing on the screen can take up to 3 seconds per row.
Amazing.
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9-06-2005 @ 11:18AM
Guillermo said...
I like it when they are searching the fingerprint database and they show millions of them flashing by until they find a match. Imagine if Google worked like that!
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9-06-2005 @ 1:28PM
Tobias said...
And what about the beeping? Every keystroke beeps. Every time a window scrolls, whirring sounds are made. Do directors think we're incapable of watching computers that don't make noise? Whose computer beeps every time a letter is typed?
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9-06-2005 @ 4:18PM
Hindencm said...
I can't stand this either. Every season in 24 there is at least one time when a computer is used to "enhance" and image to either find out what a blurry license plate says or to zoom in to identify a criminal. How about that scan of burnt paper in season 2 that had the letters N34.... on it (I think)? They brought in someone to "enhance" the scan to see what was underneath the "burt to a crisp" paper that revealed another 3-4 numbers and directed Jack to the correct plane. Another thing that bothers me in 24 is whenever they show a computer screen there are random loading bars that jump all over the place (season 2) and have no point but to look flashy as if something important is going on.
If the computers are so advanced in the show, why does Kim have to constantly "reformat" the hard drives in season 3 every 15 minutes? If they are so effecient, how come it takes 2 minutes to still trace a phone call on the show?
Another thing that bothers me is when actors randomly type on the keyboard so that it is obvious that the text appearing on the screen is not what they are typing. You'd think they would at least put some effort into it and pretend to type properly instead of harmfully smashing the keyboard.
Now go Cloey (spelling?)! and open up sockets 5 and 11 for me!
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9-06-2005 @ 8:51PM
honeybunny said...
you're so right! i hate that. and it's stretching to think that these actors/characters know UNIX or are working in VI and so that's why they don't use a mouse.
ever see the movie "Hackers"? that's all about, well, hacking and whomever wrote the screenplay forgot to add in the mouse as well. it was laughable when it came out 9 years ago, and it's even more laughable now. but with that said, i still have a soft spot for johnnie lee miller ;)
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