Top 10 things computers can do (but Hollywood thinks they can't)

 

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Posted on 4 Oct 2010 at 08:29

We're used to seeing the ridiculous things that Hollywood film-makers thinks computers can do, but the studios are equally as capable as swinging the other way. In fact, when it suits them Hollywood is just as happy to show computers being completely inept. Here's our top list of the things that computers are completely capable of doing.

10. Keep working after the monitor's been shot

You know the scene: someone's working hard on a computer trying to recover secret files or kick-start Armageddon, when the hero or villain breaks in and shoots the monitor. Sparks fly, smoke pours out and perhaps a little fire starts. The key point is that the computer's ruined. Well, only in this case it's on the screen that's gone.

In real life computers don't explode because the monitor's been destroyed. Plugging in a new one would immediately solve the problem of being able to see what's going on, while the task running would carry on doing so.

While we're on the subject, home comes there's never a person with a dual-monitor set-up? How brilliant it would be to watch the hero burst into a room, shoot the monitor, only for the villain to press Windows-right-cursor and flash up the Armageddon software on the second screen and end the world.

So, please Hollywood, if you're going to show this again, at least have your protagonist aim for the tower (unless it's an iMac, in which case all is forgiven).

9. Can make backups

How many times have we seen some vital files stolen by a hacker, with panic ensuing because they're the only copies? How likely is this, really? The one thing that computers are good at is making perfect copies of files, as they're all digital.

In fact, the more important the file, the more backups of it there are likely to be. So, the theft of a top secret file may be bad, but the simple matter is that a backup could easily be restored and the problem would be over.