What Movies Teach You About Computers -
16 interesting things you can learn about computers from the movies...

1. Any PERMISSION DENIED has an OVERRIDE function.

2. Complex calculations and loading of huge amounts of data will be
   accomplished in under three seconds. In the movies, modems transmit
   data at two gigabytes per second.

3. When the power plant/missile site/whatever overheats, all the control
   panels will explode, as will the entire building.

4. If you display a file on the screen and someone deletes the file, it
   also disappears from the screen. There are no ways to copy a backup
   file -- and there are no undelete utilities.

5. If a disk has got encrypted files, you are automatically asked for a
   password when you try to access it.

6. No matter what kind of computer disk it is, it'll be readable by any
   system you put it into. All application software is usable by all
   computer platforms.

7. The more high-tech the equipment, the more buttons it has. However,
   everyone must have been highly trained, because the buttons aren't
   labeled.

8. Most computers, no matter how small, have reality-defying
   three-dimensional, real-time, photo-realistic animated graphics
   capability.

9. Laptops, for some strange reason, always seem to have amazing real-time
   video phone capabilities and the performance of a CRAY.

10. Whenever a character looks at a terminal, the image is so bright that
    it projects itself onto his/her face.

11. Computers never crash during key, high-intensity activities. Humans
    operating computers never make mistakes under stress.

12. (From Independence Day) No matter what kind of virus it is, any
    computer can be infected with it -- even an alien spaceship's computer
    -- simply by running a virus upload program on a laptop.

13. (From Jurassic Park) A custom system with millions of lines of code
    controlling a multimillion dollar theme park can be operated by a 13 year
    old who has seen a Unix system before. Knowing an operating system means
    you know how to run any application on that system, even custom apps.

14. You cannot stop a destructive program or virus by unplugging the
    computer. Presumably the virus has it's own built-in power supply.

15. You cannot stop a destructive program downloading onto your system by
    unplugging the phone line. You must figure out the mandatory "back door"
    all evil virus programmers put in.

16. Computers only crash if a virus or a hacker is involved. In real life
    Windows '95 has the amazing ability to crash for no reason at all!

--
Phil
Email: phil@godnet.freeserve.co.uk
SMS: pjgodd@sms.genie.co.uk