7 ms·

> no longer being able to watch most space movies due to frustration caused by the filmmakers not grokking basic orbital physics Meh. I've a degree in Physics

> no longer being able to watch most space movies due to frustration caused by the filmmakers not grokking basic orbital physics Meh. I've a degree in Physics and I still enjoy Star Trek. I agree with the rest.

J5892 9y ago
And I think all of us here love hacker movies. Sneakers, Hackers, Swordfish, etc. :)
- kbenson 9y ago
  Yes, but we love them despite the horrible misconceptions they hoisted on the general public, and the generally horrible accuracy. :)
  - microcolonel 9y ago
    But RISC is nonetheless good.
- philsnow 9y ago
  In what way was swordfish like Sneakers/Hackers? The latter are cyberpunk-ish, a bit ideological. Swordfish is more of a "caper" movie with a cheap tacked-on hacking bit. Bad guy wants money, uses hacker and LOTS OF CRIME to get it.
  - celticninja 9y ago
    Yeah those three movies are not the same when it comes to the hacking.
  - vacri 9y ago
    I realised in Swordfish that the 'hacking' bit (with the 3D shapes rather than anything real) isn't meant to be literally hacking, but instead emotive of it, for the 98.2% of the audience who doesn't know what actually goes on.
    - philsnow 9y ago
      Hackers has a couple scenes like that, I don't have a problem with the device. But in Swordfish it's completely ancillary to the movie that it's computer hacking that's going on. The goal is money, not any part of any "hacker ethos" or anything.
  - J5892 9y ago
    Just in that they all have unrealistic depictions of hacking. It's definitely the worst of the three.
- captn3m0 9y ago
  I absolutely hated watching Mr. Robot. Gave up after 4 episodes.
  - optimuspaul 9y ago
    Any reasons why?
  - nopreserveroot 9y ago
    That's surprising. Mr. Robot has the most realistic depiction of hacking I have seen in mainstream media.
    - gaelian 9y ago
      Same. Massive reason why I watched the show. I remember watching the first few episodes and Elliot is doing one of his monologues about the technology he uses and his hacking activities and I was like hold on! That all mostly made sense! What's going on here? :)
  - jaegerpicker 9y ago
    I love Mr. Robot one of the best shows on TV IMO.
- Tylerosaurus 9y ago
  My personal favorite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
  - rrauenza 9y ago
    ...Or https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=URVS4H7vrdU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=URVS4H7vrdU
- Yhippa 9y ago
  Do you consider Office Space a hacker movie?
  - Mister_Snuggles 9y ago
    I consider Office Space a documentary.
- xanderstrike 9y ago
  A real hacking movie would be deathly boring. My favorite hacking in movies is either when it's cheesed up to the max (visually interesting) or happens off screen (more realistic).
  - Karellen 9y ago
    I love the 10 minute or so montage in wargames where David just goes to libraries to do basic honest research on falken, in order to figure out what his password is. Of course, he should have tried Joshua like a week before he actually did, but you can't have everything. And that's not counting knowing where the school password post-it note is kept, and getting yourself sent to the principal on a regular basis so you can keep looking it up. Or just letting your computer run for an entire day to determine which phone numbers in a given set of area codes have modems on the other end. Wargames does take a few shortcuts for storytelling, and it is a bit silly in the best possible way, but the actual hacking is genuinely good, and not boring.
    - flukus 9y ago
      Wargames was brilliant. How does everyone feel about the remake: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/? I've decided not to let it ruin my memories of the original so far.
      - eecc 9y ago
        According to the reviews on IMDB you linked to, that was a good call. Stick to it.
- moomin 9y ago
  Oh grief, Swordfish is laugh out loud hilarious. I cannot for the life of me think of a movie that tries so hard to be one of the cool kids.
- driverdan 9y ago
  I enjoy when older, unrealistic movies become more realistic over time. Remotely hacking the sprinkler system in Hackers was so unrealistic when it came out but today it's scary how real that could be.
rxhernandez 9y ago
I too have a degree in Physics but have trouble enjoying sci-fi entertainment that includes basic physics screw ups in its story. I about pull my hair out when I hear them insert quantum entanglement in random places to make up for a lack of creativity and/or ability to hire a decent science adviser.
- Florin_Andrei 9y ago
  Well, I was just watching yesterday an episode from TNG, where Geordie detects a "deuterium leak", and Riker immediately asks "toxic?" Dude, it's hydrogen, you need to have different concerns there. At least they did acknowledge that firing a weapon in a deuterium-rich atmosphere might not be wise, depending on concentration. Eh, just push the non-chewy bits to the edge of the plate and enjoy the rest of the culinary confection.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    As a nitpick, deuterium actually is toxic. The hydrogen bonding in molecules that substitute deuterium for light hydrogen is affected, such that if you drink enough heavy water, you will experience symptoms similar to radiation poisoning. It interferes with how your chromosomes line up during cell division. Presumably, if you inhale enough dideuterium monoxide vapor, you may experience a similar effect. It would not be acutely toxic, though--more like an occupational exposure level of hazard. Deuterium gas is likely as harmless as light hydrogen gas. If a retcon is necessary to preserve one's enjoyment of the show, Riker may have already been aware of the hazard level for humans, but was asking for a more informed opinion from the chief engineer, who has presumably read and memorized all the MSDS sheets, for the benefit of any nonhuman organisms on board. Vulcans and Romulans, for instance, experience an anaesthetic effect from TLTDH, similar to the effect of NO2 on humans. It would not be out of character for Star Trek to invent a bizarre species-specific toxicity if the plot demanded one.
    - 9y ago
TeMPOraL 9y ago
I enjoy Star Trek too, but mostly thanks to growing up with it. It's what got me interested in science and technology in the first place. I also very much enjoy the story and the message of TNG and later Trek series. It's the future I'd love to happen.
nategri 9y ago
Same! And I have theories about it. It's either because 1.) In general Star Trek isn't really about physics, its about sociology or (in the better episodes) political science. 2.) Star Trek gets physics so wildly wrong that its not as grating as a show/movie that tries really hard for realism and still fails utterly. If there's an uncanny valley of scifi physics, Star Trek is definitely standing miles from the opposite side. The only consistent exception to this is Voyager which does start to get on my nerves as a particle astrophysicist. I mean c'mon guys thats too many made up particles. Settle down.
- ue_ 9y ago
  >1.) In general Star Trek isn't really about physics, its about sociology or (in the better episodes) political science. I've never watched Star Trek, though curiously I know another show set in space about politics, the anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes; it runs about 100 episodes with a few feature films too. If you're interested in politics, specifically in this case the play between a democracy and rule by one person. It's also rather quaint, the imperial military is styled in a 19th century German style complete with uniforms, and the republic is styled in a modern futuristic style, not without berets though. It's great fun, but I don't suggest it be discounted because it's an anime, which is a response I have received before.
  - a_bonobo 9y ago
    The ten books the series is based on are currently getting an 'official' translation, I think they've now published 4 books out of 10 in English. It's not very different from the series but definitely not as time-consuming.
- hapbringer 9y ago
  How do you feel about The Flash? To me, it was fine at first, but as the show went on, too much habdwaiving was used, even for a tv show of its genre and it's becoming increasingly annoying (to me at least). I'm no physicist, though.

J5892 9y ago

And I think all of us here love hacker movies. Sneakers, Hackers, Swordfish, etc. :)

kbenson 9y ago
Yes, but we love them despite the horrible misconceptions they hoisted on the general public, and the generally horrible accuracy. :)
- microcolonel 9y ago
  But RISC is nonetheless good.
philsnow 9y ago
In what way was swordfish like Sneakers/Hackers? The latter are cyberpunk-ish, a bit ideological. Swordfish is more of a "caper" movie with a cheap tacked-on hacking bit. Bad guy wants money, uses hacker and LOTS OF CRIME to get it.
- celticninja 9y ago
  Yeah those three movies are not the same when it comes to the hacking.
- vacri 9y ago
  I realised in Swordfish that the 'hacking' bit (with the 3D shapes rather than anything real) isn't meant to be literally hacking, but instead emotive of it, for the 98.2% of the audience who doesn't know what actually goes on.
  - philsnow 9y ago
    Hackers has a couple scenes like that, I don't have a problem with the device. But in Swordfish it's completely ancillary to the movie that it's computer hacking that's going on. The goal is money, not any part of any "hacker ethos" or anything.
- J5892 9y ago
  Just in that they all have unrealistic depictions of hacking. It's definitely the worst of the three.
captn3m0 9y ago
I absolutely hated watching Mr. Robot. Gave up after 4 episodes.
- optimuspaul 9y ago
  Any reasons why?
- nopreserveroot 9y ago
  That's surprising. Mr. Robot has the most realistic depiction of hacking I have seen in mainstream media.
  - gaelian 9y ago
    Same. Massive reason why I watched the show. I remember watching the first few episodes and Elliot is doing one of his monologues about the technology he uses and his hacking activities and I was like hold on! That all mostly made sense! What's going on here? :)
- jaegerpicker 9y ago
  I love Mr. Robot one of the best shows on TV IMO.
Tylerosaurus 9y ago
My personal favorite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
- rrauenza 9y ago
  ...Or https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=URVS4H7vrdU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=URVS4H7vrdU
Yhippa 9y ago
Do you consider Office Space a hacker movie?
- Mister_Snuggles 9y ago
  I consider Office Space a documentary.
xanderstrike 9y ago
A real hacking movie would be deathly boring. My favorite hacking in movies is either when it's cheesed up to the max (visually interesting) or happens off screen (more realistic).
- Karellen 9y ago
  I love the 10 minute or so montage in wargames where David just goes to libraries to do basic honest research on falken, in order to figure out what his password is. Of course, he should have tried Joshua like a week before he actually did, but you can't have everything. And that's not counting knowing where the school password post-it note is kept, and getting yourself sent to the principal on a regular basis so you can keep looking it up. Or just letting your computer run for an entire day to determine which phone numbers in a given set of area codes have modems on the other end. Wargames does take a few shortcuts for storytelling, and it is a bit silly in the best possible way, but the actual hacking is genuinely good, and not boring.
  - flukus 9y ago
    Wargames was brilliant. How does everyone feel about the remake: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/? I've decided not to let it ruin my memories of the original so far.
    - eecc 9y ago
      According to the reviews on IMDB you linked to, that was a good call. Stick to it.
moomin 9y ago
Oh grief, Swordfish is laugh out loud hilarious. I cannot for the life of me think of a movie that tries so hard to be one of the cool kids.
driverdan 9y ago
I enjoy when older, unrealistic movies become more realistic over time. Remotely hacking the sprinkler system in Hackers was so unrealistic when it came out but today it's scary how real that could be.

rxhernandez 9y ago

I too have a degree in Physics but have trouble enjoying sci-fi entertainment that includes basic physics screw ups in its story. I about pull my hair out when I hear them insert quantum entanglement in random places to make up for a lack of creativity and/or ability to hire a decent science adviser.

Florin_Andrei 9y ago
Well, I was just watching yesterday an episode from TNG, where Geordie detects a "deuterium leak", and Riker immediately asks "toxic?" Dude, it's hydrogen, you need to have different concerns there. At least they did acknowledge that firing a weapon in a deuterium-rich atmosphere might not be wise, depending on concentration. Eh, just push the non-chewy bits to the edge of the plate and enjoy the rest of the culinary confection.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  As a nitpick, deuterium actually is toxic. The hydrogen bonding in molecules that substitute deuterium for light hydrogen is affected, such that if you drink enough heavy water, you will experience symptoms similar to radiation poisoning. It interferes with how your chromosomes line up during cell division. Presumably, if you inhale enough dideuterium monoxide vapor, you may experience a similar effect. It would not be acutely toxic, though--more like an occupational exposure level of hazard. Deuterium gas is likely as harmless as light hydrogen gas. If a retcon is necessary to preserve one's enjoyment of the show, Riker may have already been aware of the hazard level for humans, but was asking for a more informed opinion from the chief engineer, who has presumably read and memorized all the MSDS sheets, for the benefit of any nonhuman organisms on board. Vulcans and Romulans, for instance, experience an anaesthetic effect from TLTDH, similar to the effect of NO2 on humans. It would not be out of character for Star Trek to invent a bizarre species-specific toxicity if the plot demanded one.
  - 9y ago

TeMPOraL 9y ago

I enjoy Star Trek too, but mostly thanks to growing up with it. It's what got me interested in science and technology in the first place. I also very much enjoy the story and the message of TNG and later Trek series. It's the future I'd love to happen.

nategri 9y ago

Same! And I have theories about it. It's either because 1.) In general Star Trek isn't really about physics, its about sociology or (in the better episodes) political science. 2.) Star Trek gets physics so wildly wrong that its not as grating as a show/movie that tries really hard for realism and still fails utterly. If there's an uncanny valley of scifi physics, Star Trek is definitely standing miles from the opposite side. The only consistent exception to this is Voyager which does start to get on my nerves as a particle astrophysicist. I mean c'mon guys thats too many made up particles. Settle down.

ue_ 9y ago
>1.) In general Star Trek isn't really about physics, its about sociology or (in the better episodes) political science. I've never watched Star Trek, though curiously I know another show set in space about politics, the anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes; it runs about 100 episodes with a few feature films too. If you're interested in politics, specifically in this case the play between a democracy and rule by one person. It's also rather quaint, the imperial military is styled in a 19th century German style complete with uniforms, and the republic is styled in a modern futuristic style, not without berets though. It's great fun, but I don't suggest it be discounted because it's an anime, which is a response I have received before.
- a_bonobo 9y ago
  The ten books the series is based on are currently getting an 'official' translation, I think they've now published 4 books out of 10 in English. It's not very different from the series but definitely not as time-consuming.
hapbringer 9y ago
How do you feel about The Flash? To me, it was fine at first, but as the show went on, too much habdwaiving was used, even for a tv show of its genre and it's becoming increasingly annoying (to me at least). I'm no physicist, though.