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Has your job ever ruined enjoying a movie?


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I've worked in business communications for over 20 years and specialized in radar, satellite communications and cryptology in the Navy.

 

Any time I watch a movie and they're communicating with radios, they always do something wrong or truly don't understand how the systems work. For instance, many radio systems are simplex or half-duplex. Which basically means you 'Push to talk and release to listen'. You cannot talk and listen at the same time. Full duplex you can talk and listen simultaneously (think cell phones) . All the time I see people never push the transmit button when talking, or if the other end is currently talking, they will also start transmitting and magically the other side will hear what they are saying. Even though there was no way to know they were interrupted and would have continued to talk.

 

Just watched a movie where a plane was flying and they had to go below cloud cover to talk with a ground station. Clouds offer very little interference to rf signals...(there is a chance of reflection, refraction or diffraction but we'll keep this simple). Clouds will only be a problem if the clouds are part of a very intense storm and/or lightning is present. Simple cumulus clouds wouldn't cause any problems.

 

Most systems are line-of-sight. Even repeaters and cell phones. So the higher that the tower (or in this case a plane) is, the less ground interference is in the signal path. Like mountains, buildings and trees. So flying lower would have worsened communications, not improved them. I won't even comment about what they did with the radar. That was just too ridiculous to even contemplate a response to.

 

So anyways have you ever shook your head or screamed 'b.s.' at something in a movie because you knew it was wrong because of what you do for a living?

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Just about every movie or show involving lawyers, trials and courtrooms. It's all fantasy. So much so that I actually had one professor in law school who had compiled an entire DVD of clips from various lawyer movies to teach us to spot when legal procedure, rules of evidence, etc. are being disregarded.

 

The more serious the story, the more it's a problem for enjoyment. I mean, I'm not really bothered by the Ghostbusters II courtroom scene where the judge says he wants to burn them at the stake, that's hilarious. But serious dramas with their intensive courtroom scenes almost always have something wrong, things that just no lawyer would ever do or be allowed to do by a judge.

 

By contrast, movies about working in restaurants (first job was dishwasher) mostly seem to be spot on. :D

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I have an Electronics and Computer background. I learned to repair radio, RADAR, and TACAN systems and then went to college and learned how to design digital systems.

 

Draw your own inferences. ;)

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Movies aren't the only time they get things royally wrong.

 

Just about EVERY single TV show out there like NCIS, CSI, and the like mucks about with computer software.. They show a screen shot of whatever they're doing and it's like Holy Hannah! are they doing? WHAT OS is this? It's not Windows, It's not OSX.. It's not even any flavor of Linux I've ever seen. You see them typing furiously to get things going - which in today's world is so... unnecessary. We've got these things called MICE...

 

And then there's DNA.... Seriously... DNA analysis can take DAYS, if not WEEKS to do - and yet, they magically get it done in a matter of a few hours or even minutes... Granted, it's a TV story and they have all of 40 - 42 minutes to tell the story from start to it's conclusion. Still. Not very realistic.

 

Going back to CSI... The New York spinoff... They also seem to have this rather cool, if not yet available holographic 3D projector tech which lets them display a body's innards, blood vessels and the like including the damage done by bullets and stuff.. It's like what year IS this? It's supposed to be taking place in the current world. And yet why don't we see this technology more commonly available?

 

There are stupid commercials too.. I could list a few hundred that are utterly preposterous.. Like this one with some ditzy blond who is deleting a bunch of her pics because she has yellow teeth. Gee.. Ever hear of PHOTOSHOP?

 

But my all time "What were they smoking" ad - Apple computers with their Mac Vs PC ads.. One of their earliest had PC saying the most fun you can have on your PC is playing with spreadsheets..

 

Seriously..? I think the 4.5 BILLION dollars the PC gaming industry rakes in every year kinda puts the kibosh on that.

 

The other side of the Mac vs PC issue in this lame ad had Mac saying the most fun you can have on a Mac is making slide show disks for granny...

 

Once again, there's that pesky 4.5 BILLION USD the computer gaming industry rakes in every year. They DO make games to run on the Mac.. Might not be quite as many as for Windows, but there's still games out there.. And frankly, any game still beats making slide shows and burning them to a disk.

 

Let's face it.. the entertainment industry is clueless as to how things work in real life. They write some crap and it sounds good - they run with it without bothering to check pesky things like facts... And that's all that's really expected of them.

 

Oh. And for the record, the first time I heard that stupid Mac Vs PC ad - I was playing GTA San Andreas - on my PC....

Edited by wolfie2kX
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Watched "Chappie" lately, and could not stop criticizing it.

 

Why is there a running conveyer line powerful enough to manufacture a 1000 robots a day, but a 100 unit purchase is a cause for celebration?

Why are the no spare parts in bulk in the repair and maintenance hanger? You send the bots into a near war zone.

Any firmware department needs to have several hardware rigs for software testing. And you don’t need CEO clearance to update those.

Or just buy a robot! You could try writing it of as a necessary business expense. That thing can’t be more expensive than a new car.

Why is the security update key universal for all projects? And why doesn’t it have a 24 hour manned surveillance post?

Emphasis on firmware being impossible to overwrite without manually installing an update key. But you can overwrite all if you shove the key into the antenna.

Why spend company money and time making an obvious war mech, then only try to sell it to the locale police?

The entire plot revolves around the battery fused to the body – just unscrew the head and put it on a new body. And when they finally do that they fraked it up by copying/cloning the minds.

 

I hate when self-proclaimed smart movies epically fail to be smart, and then stupid people phrase how smart the movie is. Ironically, these same great smart movies are never mentioned again years later.

 

P.S. "Let’s colonize a planet caught in a black hole." :bomb:

 

But my all time "What were they smoking" ad - Apple computers with their Mac Vs PC ads.. One of their earliest had PC saying the most fun you can have on your PC is playing with spreadsheets..

 

Always wanted to see the PC be some sort of Start Trek borg. Here is how one would go:

 

"Hi. I’m Mac"

"And I’m a PC"

"What are you doing PC?"

"The next gen video card arrived. I’m replacing it."

PC rips out his arm and replaces it with a better one.

Another Mac walks into the room and shoots the first Mac.

"Hi. I’m new and improved Mac"

"And I’m a PC"

Edited by SX255
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I've been away for a while, you know how it goes: parenthood changes so many aspects of your life. Anyway, inaccuracies in movies don't bother me, people whispering in my ear/pausing a movie at home to tell me about the inaccuracies does bother me, though. For instance; in the movie 300, the attire that the Immortals wore was far different than historical accounts. However, I couldn't give a flying fig; it's a movie, which means in my eyes that certain artistic freedoms are allowed. If the History Channel did a special about the Immortals and botched up facts, that's a little different in my eyes. I don't watch movies for their accuracy, I see them as fantasy. I respect the views of Knuckles, Flix, Spock, and Wolfie, and I totally understand where you gentlemen are coming from. I just don't share that view. My own career is far different than the jobs mentioned above; mine deals in aspects from gemology, anthropology, and archaeoastronomy (I'm no longer just a gemologist appraiser). A lot of movies touch in my realm of expertise. You know, I can go with a simpler career, as the average person probably isn't well versed in archaeoastronomy. Navy is a much simpler example. I've seen a lot of movies with inaccuracies about the Navy and the Corps. I've never screamed "b.s" at any of them. A few times I've thought "dang, I wish it would have been as easy/simple as that", but have never really gotten upset. However, maybe parenthood and a domesticated lifestyle have chilled me out more than I realize some times.

 

FWIW, I don't get upset. I realize that these people are just putting something on the screen to make it look entertaining. The bit with the 3D holographic projector thing - I WANT THAT!

 

I do have issues with Apple that go beyond their false advertising. They're idiots. Period. Full stop. Long story short - have a client who has 17 years worth of data in his old Windows based program. He can't migrate to an all Mac platform because Apple in their infinite stupidity makes it impossible to import all of his info. He can get basic info - name, address, city, state, zip, phone, fax, email address - but NONE of his notes. He has this guy in his database, but there's not much to tell him WHY this guy's info is in there. The flavor of SQL available to Apple can't import anything beyond a CSV file which means NO NOTES. NO emails...

 

 

Watched "Chappie" lately, and could not stop criticizing it.

 

Why is there a running conveyer line powerful enough to manufacture a 1000 robots a day, but a 100 unit purchase is a cause for celebration?

Why are the no spare parts in bulk in the repair and maintenance hanger? You send the bots into a near war zone.

Any firmware department needs to have several hardware rigs for software testing. And you don’t need CEO clearance to update those.

Or just buy a robot! You could try writing it of as a necessary business expense. That thing can’t be more expensive than a new car.

Why is the security update key universal for all projects? And why doesn’t it have a 24 hour manned surveillance post?

Emphasis on firmware being impossible to overwrite without manually installing an update key. But you can overwrite all if you shove the key into the antenna.

Why spend company money and time making an obvious war mech, then only try to sell it to the locale police?

The entire plot revolves around the battery fused to the body – just unscrew the head and put it on a new body. And when they finally do that they fraked it up by copying/cloning the minds.

 

I hate when self-proclaimed smart movies epically fail to be smart, and then stupid people phrase how smart the movie is. Ironically, these same great smart movies are never mentioned again years later.

 

P.S. "Let’s colonize a planet caught in a black hole." :bomb:

 

But my all time "What were they smoking" ad - Apple computers with their Mac Vs PC ads.. One of their earliest had PC saying the most fun you can have on your PC is playing with spreadsheets..

 

Always wanted to see the PC be some sort of Start Trek borg. Here is how one would go:

 

"Hi. I’m Mac"

"And I’m a PC"

"What are you doing PC?"

"The next gen video card arrived. I’m replacing it."

PC rips out his arm and replaces it with a better one.

Another Mac walks into the room and shoots the first Mac.

"Hi. I’m new and improved Mac"

"And I’m a PC"

 

Haven't seen Chappie yet.. Haven't really had much interest in seeing it - but I do get where you're coming from. The scenario makes no sense - if you get this key anyone can reprogram the bot to do his own bidding - and given what I've seen of the movie (trailers mostly) that's exactly what happens. The rebels reprogram Chappie to do their bidding and fight the big bad government/corporate entity..

 

The Mac Vs PC thing.. Hmm.. Maybe might work... Tho, to be honest, that scenario doesn't fly very well with me. The Borg were all about conformity, and that's more the Mac's thing - you gotta do things the Apple way.

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I can usually ignore small stuff that happens but when part of the plot revolves around something entirely impossible it does ruin it for me.

 

***SPOILER ALERT***

I watched Flight World War II...A plane goes through a time portal and flies over France during the war in 1940. But this war is a little different. The Germans already have jet fighters and the evacuation of Dunkirk never happened...The British and French forces trapped on the beach were wiped out. And the big thing....Britain has not yet developed radar.

 

They realize they need to get the British the radar from their plane to preserve history.

So the pilot and passengers somehow rip out the radar and antenna (and all cabling), find a usb battery to power it, and manage to drop if off the plane using a poncho for a parachute. British troops are able to find it, assemble and get it working within minutes...the whole sequence left me speechless.

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I can usually ignore small stuff that happens but when part of the plot revolves around something entirely impossible it does ruin it for me.

 

***SPOILER ALERT***

I watched Flight World War II...A plane goes through a time portal and flies over France during the war in 1940. But this war is a little different. The Germans already have jet fighters and the evacuation of Dunkirk never happened...The British and French forces trapped on the beach were wiped out. And the big thing....Britain has not yet developed radar.

 

They realize they need to get the British the radar from their plane to preserve history.

So the pilot and passengers somehow rip out the radar and antenna (and all cabling), find a usb battery to power it, and manage to drop if off the plane using a poncho for a parachute. British troops are able to find it, assemble and get it working within minutes...the whole sequence left me speechless.

WOW. Some major plot issues there. These idiots went way out of their way to assume that people could figure out what the device was, how it worked, and could reverse engineer it before the German bombs started dropping..

 

But this isn't the first time something sorta like this was used as a plot device in a movie. There was one back in the late 80's/early 90's that had an entire aircraft carrier being somehow sent back in time to the morning of December 7, 1941 - just off the coast of Hawaii..

 

Of course, the Navy guys were all gung ho to go in with their F14's and teach the Japanese a lesson before they strike. Of course the time vortex that sent them back in time returns just before dawn and they weren't given much of an opportunity to change the tide of the battle. One pilot was lost in the engagement.. And at the end, it's revealed that he managed to leverage his technical knowledge off modern era stuff - and became a major player in the military industrial complex - and the guy who happened to have built the aircraft carrier in the first place..

 

At least the plot of this one is at least semi plausible - unlike that other one.

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I remember that movie, it was called The Final Countdown. When I go to a movie, it's to help me escape reality, so I have a tendency to suspend judgement. For that reason, I very rarely watch anything that could supposedly be about "current affairs" or even the near future. I prefer Sci-Fi, fantasy, even cartoons over things that will not allow me to easily suspend my reality system.

 

On the other hand, I hope terrorists watch lots of those sorts of movies and either think they can do the same thing and get way overconfident or think we actually can and get scared off.

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My own career is far different than the jobs mentioned above; mine deals in aspects from gemology, anthropology, and archaeoastronomy (I'm no longer just a gemologist appraiser). A lot of movies touch in my realm of expertise.

 

Good to see you around. Congrats on the rugrat.

 

So, I guess if you saw a movie where the scientists are talking about how emeralds are purple sedimentary rocks formed by dinosaur poo being compressed with stardust and they have joint-healing powers but only for native americans you might get some idea of how divorced from reality lawyer movies tend to be. :nono:

 

If they call one blue gem by the name of a different blue gem, or a fantasy movie where the magic gem holds a trapped soul - sure, that can slide. But a serious drama where the facts about the gems are crucial to the plot and are just totally wrong again and again, I bet that would stop you from taking it as seriously as you would otherwise.

 

It's not always an irritating thing - I still like Law and Order regardless. Sometimes we would pick out flaws in the show just for fun, to hone our b.s. detection.

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I can usually ignore small stuff that happens but when part of the plot revolves around something entirely impossible it does ruin it for me.

 

***SPOILER ALERT***

I watched Flight World War II...A plane goes through a time portal and flies over France during the war in 1940. But this war is a little different. The Germans already have jet fighters and the evacuation of Dunkirk never happened...The British and French forces trapped on the beach were wiped out. And the big thing....Britain has not yet developed radar.

 

They realize they need to get the British the radar from their plane to preserve history.

So the pilot and passengers somehow rip out the radar and antenna (and all cabling), find a usb battery to power it, and manage to drop if off the plane using a poncho for a parachute. British troops are able to find it, assemble and get it working within minutes...the whole sequence left me speechless.

 

I learned at military school that RADAR got a Patent as early as 1904 by the german Hülsmeyer. He got a patent for it from England the same year ;)

It worked even before vacuum tubes were invented. Military had no interest because a good telescope would have been cheaper. The day they tested had no fog, bright day light and they weren't impressed at all that the prototype had a range of 3 miles. It would have saved the Titanic :(

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I think what upsets us in these accounts is Deus Ex Machina. The writer of these gems needs to move the plot from A to B, and thinks he (or she) can do it quickly by xyz. Well. Turns out xyz is impossible. But the writer doesn't know that.

 

xyz is why I generally can't enjoy computer movies or tv shows. The writers make completely clueless assumptions of the capabilities of technology, and just run with it.

 

Star Trek often does that by using baffle-gab (as the xyz) and making a simple analogy, and bam! Everything is solved! And "understood". Babylon 5 succeeded in telling science fiction stories that made sense. I loved that show, and didn't detect xyz in it (or if it was there, it slipped by unnoticed).

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A german SciFy film had an intro like this:

 

This is a space opera and not reality. But we hope that young people will be inspired to make it real....

 

When you read how many scientists were inspired by Jules Verne, some poeple at CERN say they got their interest in physics by this series. So moving the borders of imagination by SCIENCE fiction is not the worst.

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  • 4 years later...

Working with explosives I am speechless to see that professionals try to run away, or when being smart and hide for cover they take a deep breath and keep the mouth closed. When you expect a shock wave, keep your mouth opened...

Or this movie with a trained SEAL who fights in swimming shorts against another soldier in swimming shorts to the death. They do something like underwater wrestling. Playing underwater rugly and water polo for years I know rules demand that you wear certain caps with ear protectors. It is really easy to destroy the eardrums of someone by moving your hands quickly to the ears of your opponent. But no such move was shown or tried. We learned it at the base survival training for navy fireworkers.

 

 

Wasserball+Kappe+Water+Polo+500+Erwachse

 

 

 

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...and exhale forcefully, chattius. Your lungs might get ripped to pieces otherwise. Please wear ear protectors too, if you carry away
jammed ammunition, or other explosives. Just in case that the 240 mm shell goes up right infront of your nose. (;

Edited by Dax
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Lol I can’t believe all these years and never seeing this thread 😲

I have a pretty boring  Job with the phone company for almost 10 years now  .. a myriad of Duties ranging from training , floor  support  , calling ornery customers and making people happy as the last tier anyone can raise their complaints too  With our company to find solution.

im trying to think if my job has affect .. and now that we’re chatting about it I’m thinking it does .. lol when I see people getting into arguments I’m always going ugh or nooooo because there is so little listening when people are arguing ... their tempers make them bullet proof to being changed emotionally.. and I always feel like ‘coaching ‘ them ... to acknowledge the persons anger first .. then look for solution... lol these feelings are a part of  almost every movie I watch now... trying to learn to take a step back 

😜

gogo

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