Bogus Technology in the Movies

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So I was watching a bit of Jurassic Park last night at a friend's place and, for some reason, was struck by the seemingly dull aside of how ridiculously advanced the computer system was that the park was using. Like, it was way too high-speed and technological for, what, 1994?

This seems to happen a lot in movies. ie some spies or the government or even just tom hanks in You've Got Mail seem to have these sweet-ass computer features that obviously don't even exist where they type a name into some anonymous program and it brings up everything on said person ever, etc. Are they using Windows here? What's the story?

Help me think of other films where the technology is so absurdly NOT possible that you stop and say, "this is bogus."

I'm thinking Project X is a good example here but I haven't seen that movie in like 10 years.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:26 (twenty years ago)

MATCH FOUND

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:29 (twenty years ago)

Like, it was way too high-speed and technological for, what, 1994?

That isn't even the half of it!

"It's a UNIX system!"

But I like idiot technology assumptions like that because they always seem to inspire somebody to go out and try and make such a thing real.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:30 (twenty years ago)

Hah, normally Jurassic Park is cited as an example of relative realism when it comes to computers - although the ones in the film were very, very expensive at the time, they were running genuine software in a lot of the screenshots.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:31 (twenty years ago)

Warp drive!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:32 (twenty years ago)

NAVICOMPUTER

― Jimmy Mod: GRILL ENSPEKTOR (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

Hacking the alien ship with a Powerbook in Independence Day. Gah!

― pixel farmer (Rock Hardy), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

i'm pretty sure the holodeck doesn't exist.

― gbx (skowly), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:36 (twenty years ago)

It does - you're in it

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

Yea, the 3d file browser thing in JP was actually a goodie that SGI gave out at the time.

Also, an ILXor owns the chasis to the computer used in JP

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

http://www.durfee.net/startrek/images/TNG238.jpg

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

Is that Conway Twitty?

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

>> Hacking the alien ship with a Powerbook in Independence Day. Gah!

I was going to say that!

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.popcorn.dk/imagez/s/s124_5.jpg

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:41 (twenty years ago)

yeah, that's a really good one. perhaps the most ridiculous of all.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:42 (twenty years ago)

Independence Day, that is. But, Simone...? That could be a close second.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

GREETINGS PROFESSOR FALKEN, PERHAPS YOU'D LIKE A GAME OF CHESS?

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:45 (twenty years ago)

Also, how many movies have made deliberate jokes about movie technology? As an example, the "reroute the encryption" bit from the South Park movie

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:47 (twenty years ago)

http://www.gamerevolution.com/oldsite/games/sony/action/danger_girl_science.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

South Park is unfunny.

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:51 (twenty years ago)

the 'bounty bear' thing in that wim wenders film. "I'm Searching, I'm Searching..."

every fucking week in csi where they blow a cctv picture up to 1000x and the licence plates are crystal clear. i hate that. this week it was 'just bring up the background' on some cheap voice recording.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:54 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I was gonna post the 'enhance it!' scenes in CSI.

There was an ep recently where, having enhanced the image, the super crime-puter was then able to analyse the bulge in a dude's sleeve and determine he was hiding a steering-wheel lock. I think it even worked out the make.

― robster (robster), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:57 (twenty years ago)

I hate where they can rotate into a scene from a static image

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:58 (twenty years ago)

I think my all-time "favoite" photo enhancement is when they determined that the reflection in the girl's eye was a boat window.

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Monday, 27 March 2006 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of which, I just watched "Blowup" yesterday.

― Dave AKA Dave (dave225.3), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:00 (twenty years ago)

Surely 24's Counter-Terrorism Unit is the palace of this?

"Chloe! Bring up an air-conditioning schematic of this building in downtown Buttfuck, Co. While you're on it, cross-reference the voiceprint of a phonecall received by the switchboard operator there last week against the database of ancilliary staff once employed by anyone who's visited Bosnia in the last 10 years."

*screen beeps, scrolls and flashes up some photos and a wireframe spinning thing*

"Sending it to your PDA now, Jack"

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Thank god I never watched that show. I'd drop my balls in their mouths.

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:13 (twenty years ago)

KnightRider was 1000x worse than CSI at this thing btw, they would occasionally extrapolate outside of any photos that were taken.

> I hate where they can rotate into a scene from a static image

ie Bladerunner

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:19 (twenty years ago)

they were supposed to be "3D" photos.

― Marty Feldmen Books On Tape (sexyDancer), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:23 (twenty years ago)

http://i.imdb.com/mptv1.gif

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:25 (twenty years ago)

http://supermanjaviolivares.iespana.es/S3LUCHA.jpg

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:26 (twenty years ago)

The bit with the RSA encryption and the oral sex in Swordfish.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 27 March 2006 15:28 (twenty years ago)

OK, Bladerunner is THE FUTURE though... 24 is not

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

http://www.toastedpixel.com/comic/historyofcomputers/daryl.png

also,

http://www.dacre.org/flash/www/gbq01392.jpg

Computer voiced by Bud Cort! Music by Jeff Lynne & Giorgio Moroder! Cameo by Dr. Ruth! Starring the nebbish shut-in guy from Twin Peaks!

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:11 (twenty years ago)

Eraser: light speed bullets. duck!

― Slumpman (Slump Man), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

that eye reflection thing was the best. i think they did it with a killer's face too at one point in the sleepwalking episode.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:12 (twenty years ago)

I think they did it in crappo film Rising Sun too.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

pixels!

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

"Surely 24's Counter-Terrorism Unit is the palace of this?"

"switch your scanner to magnetic" referring to the tiny fag-packet-sized scanner on Jack's dash board.

"send it by IR" from a locked toilet cubicle to a PDA several kilometers away

etc

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:18 (twenty years ago)

"it is said that murder victims' retinas record the last image they see before death"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

in the current 24 he takes a camera phone pic of a terrorist theough a grille at a distance of ~ 20m. From the ~8 pixels of the image of the guy's jacket pocket they identify the phone, then somehow get the number of the phone and then call it setting off an explosive jacket. riiiiiight

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:30 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah - that was what motivated me to upgrade my phone.

In the last episode he somehow programmed the German agent's PDA to blow up in 20 mins time! I hope my Sony Ericsson K750i doesn't have that feature.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:38 (twenty years ago)

There was a brilliant scene in an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, where they tell a perp that the retina records the last thing a person ever sees, and that they're sending their tech down to take a picture. The perp confesses, of course.
There was another stunt (taken directly from David Simon's book) where the pull some technobabble hijinks with a photocopier.
I think CSI SUPER TECH shows help real cops fool dumb crooks. So, CLASSIC.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:42 (twenty years ago)

that's what i was thinking of, huk!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

There was another stunt (taken directly from David Simon's book) where the pull some technobabble hijinks with a photocopier.

Was it this story?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:46 (twenty years ago)

Bingo! No colander was involved. I don't think Bolander was there, even.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

a computer on hollyoaks just said "STILL no mail". well maybe there is a computer out there with a petulant/sarcastic voice synth that kick in if you keep hitting "get mail"

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

GREETINGS PROFESSOR FALKEN, PERHAPS YOU'D LIKE A GAME OF CHESS?

Wargames is not ridiculous! It's a stone classic!

― Gilbert O'Sullivan (kenan), Monday, 27 March 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

"The only winning move is not to play"

NOT A DRY EYE IN THE HOUSE

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 17:01 (twenty years ago)

great "goofs" on IMDB of wargames:

When receiving and sending text from his home computer, the modem RD and SD lights do not flash. On a 300-1200 baud modem, the flashes would be very visible

When David is playing Galaga as Jennifer is talking to him, he has three "lives" left. However, after he is killed, the game over screen appears. He should have had two more lives.

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 9 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Except that then we're getting into the realm of sci-fi, which can use the excuse that since things are in the future, computers are more advanced & shit.

and you all are forgetting Lawnmower Man(which is sci-fi).

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 18:56 (twenty years ago)

Oh sweet jesus, that's one reason I hate Disclosure, cause at the time lots of folks in my industry (corporate interior design) were pointing to the movie and saying "ah, see, soon enough our clients will be expecting us to present our designs using in VR, ooh!" Flash forward twelve years later: we don't even use PowerPoint in presentations anymore because clients find it too distracting!

(Which reminds me of another rant concerning predictions from the same time about how "alternative officing" was going to revolutionize the workplace and turn America's cities into unfunded burnt-out slums, but that's another fucking rant entirely.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Right, it's true that strange days was sci-fi and took place in the (very very near) future, but i just find it comical that the filmmakers genuinely believed that in four years time that the medium would have A) made such strides and B) have been more in demand than crack cocaine. Maybe not genuinely believed, but you know what I'm saying.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:03 (twenty years ago)

Maybe it was meant to be an "alternative timeline", where everything was basically the same as in ours except for the VR thing. I mean, the film-makers probably didn't want to set it too far into future, so that the parallels with real world politics would be clear enough, but they also wanted to introduce this cool sci-fi device as a plot element.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

it's possible. i honestly can't remember much else about the film to say otherwise, really.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Hey, what about when Andrew McCarthy downloads his photo to Molly Ringwald's computer in Pretty in Pink and it scrolls down like a bit of paper unrolling from the top down. That was kind of neat, when I was young. I'm sure our school computers wouldn't have been capable of that.

I can't even tell if Alba and Alan are dropping 24 season 5 spoilers, or whether they are taking the piss. This is how ludicrous 24 is.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)

i saw Bourne Identity and Minority Report on the same day, and i'm not sure which one is which really. But in one of them, im thinking it was minority report, they had these awesome transparent computer displays where they could move things around by waving their hands. and there was that awesome vertical highway system.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

yeah it was totally minority report. i guess pretty much all the technology was pretty bogus & cool.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Well yes, but they were also solving murders by having freaky things in swimming pools foretelling the future. Therefore not to be believed as, you know, fact.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

The Minority Report technology isn't bogus – I saw it at Currys!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Oh, hang on, it was Dixons.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:50 (twenty years ago)

i guess pretty much all the technology was pretty bogus & cool.

but that's the point I'm talking about; that doesn't really fit into the area of "bogus technology," since MR is set like a few decades in the future and conceivably technology would have advanced enough by then to seem plausible. Hell, it was even reported when the movie was made that they took extra steps to make the tech shown in the film as more realistic. (not addressing the whole "pre-cogs in a pool" bit).

But the entire thing we're talking about is plausibility, suspension of disbelief, creative license, etc. A sci-fi flick has more plausible(read: less "bogus") tech, since, as i mentioned, it's sorta possible for tech to advance that far to the level it's demonstrated in the flick.

But it's stuff set in the current day(e.g. technothrillers) that have the has the most implausibility, since we have a certain enhanced level of familiarity with the technology. We know that what's happening onscreen is so implausible it breaks the suspension of belief associated with enjoying a fictional work. Like Kenan said, we know that you can't hack a password one character at a time.

Another example, the scene from "Clear & Present Danger" where somebody deletes a file that harrison ford is viewing and it disappears from his screen.

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:51 (twenty years ago)

Wait, MR technology really is on the way.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Most of the tech shown in MR is just extensions of stuff they're already working on.

retinal scanning, cell phone headsets, cornea transplants, disposable LCD screens(the cereal boxes), etc

Here, there's even vid out there on youtube of both a multi-touch flatscreen and "Pong" played with brainwaves.

xpost

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:56 (twenty years ago)

Another example, the scene from "Clear & Present Danger" where somebody deletes a file that harrison ford is viewing and it disappears from his screen.

See also the entire plot of "The Net" starring Sandra Bullock.

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:57 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, MR is an example of the filmmakers actually giving a shit that the onscreen tech is possible/based in reality, as opposed to lazy screenwriting:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0800141768.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif

xpost again!

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

on a related note: computer movie cliches

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 20:04 (twenty years ago)

Controlling items on a computer monitor by waving your hands in the air like you just don't care may look cool, but it is pretty bogus. It's a totally inefficient way to handle the screen. It's a computer, not an aerobics class.

― Gilbert O'Sullivan (kenan), Monday, 27 March 2006 20:07 (twenty years ago)

It's a computer, not an aerobics class.

just wait for the home version of "Dance Dance Revolution: the Next Generation"

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 20:09 (twenty years ago)

Someone touched on it above, but that Will Smith/Gene Hackman movie Enemy of the State is guilty of a lot of these. Most memorably, the ability to "rotate" the view from a CCTV shot.

See, one of the main scenes I remember from that movie is one where one of the dodgy government bad guys asks Jack Black if he can do that, to a satellite surveillance pic, and Jack Black points out sarcastically that it would be impossible, given that the satellite is several miles up in the air, looking down.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 27 March 2006 20:20 (twenty years ago)

we don't even use PowerPoint in presentations anymore because clients find it too distracting!

POWERPOINT KILLS (courtesy of ILX's long lost greenspunish cousin!)

― R.I.P. West Village Bird Shaman ]-`: (ex machina), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

best thing in Enemy of the State int the bogus tech, but the sequence where yr man is slowly working out and disposing of all the bugs that they have planted on him (pen, jacket, pants, shoes). it keeps cutting to a close up on a list of the bugs on a VCR somewhere, and as they go one by one, we are finally left with one large word flashing on the screen:

PANTS *blink* PANTS

it made me laff.

nb, i may have ENTIRELY invented this LOL. something like it happened

― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:35 (twenty years ago)

yeah, you have a point kingfish.

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 27 March 2006 21:44 (twenty years ago)

WE SCIENTISTS ARE LIKE THE GREAT SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS. WE’RE ALL PROGNOSTICATORS OF THE FUTURE. AND SINCE OUR PARTICULAR PURPOSE OF VISION BELONGS TO THE CREED OF LAW ENFORCEMENT, WE OPEN INROADS INTO TOMORROW IN WAYS AND MEANS OF THOSE WHO WOULD SERVE AND PROTECT JUSTICE AND ORDER

http://www.jabootu.com/images/rtrani.jpg
http://www.jabootu.com/images/rtrwillard.jpg
http://www.jabootu.com/images/rtrrecall.jpg

― Mestema (davidcorp), Monday, 27 March 2006 22:38 (twenty years ago)

I think I first noticed this phenomenon with Scooter's computer on Muppet Babies, which was capable of some pretty insane 3-D graphic renderings.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 27 March 2006 22:45 (twenty years ago)

http://www.whiterose.org/pete/blog/images/robo.jpg

― kingfish ubermensch dishwasher sundae (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 27 March 2006 22:50 (twenty years ago)

HACKERS wins this thread

― POOP BITCH (Mandee), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 00:17 (twenty years ago)

Hacking the alien ship with a Powerbook in Independence Day. Gah!

-- pixel farmer (crump...), March 27th, 2006.

i think that was really just abject stupidity on the part of the screenwriters.

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 03:15 (twenty years ago)

ohhhh mandee otm!

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 03:18 (twenty years ago)

The worst offender by far is CSI.

I saw an episode where they extracted a voice recording from bouncing a laser off a half-finished clay pot on a revolving pottery wheel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 05:52 (twenty years ago)

That one was hilarious! They should do a CSI and Order series where the 1st half of each episode = normal CSI and the 2nd half = in court with the judge just going "WTF? NO WAY!!"

― robster (robster), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 06:33 (twenty years ago)

this entire movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096962/

I wrote a review in the "other commenst section"

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 07:09 (twenty years ago)

family matters and saved by the bell were also kinda suspect, for the nerdy characters having created seemingly sentient robots.

also, steve urkel invented (IIRC): a time machine, a shrinking device, and a booth that turned him into his suave alter ego, Stefan Urquelle.

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 07:22 (twenty years ago)

oh did i mention Urkels' transformation booth ran on a liquid called "Boss Sauce"?

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 07:25 (twenty years ago)

ip addresses with octets > 255

― koogs (koogs), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 07:29 (twenty years ago)

That always makes me laugh too.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 09:24 (twenty years ago)

I pissed my pants.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 09:48 (twenty years ago)

omg, they pulled the "blow up the video recording screencap and catch the guy's face perfectly clearly in a reflection" trick on Prison Break last night. As soon as the person on the show asked someone to pause the tape and go back, I knew they were going to do it, and I knew I had to post it here.

― phil d. (Phil D.), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:08 (twenty years ago)

I missed Annabelle's post upthread where she mentioned this, but a sub-topic here that I've always found intriguing is when movies project technology in the future based on the most high-tech stuff available at the time the film was made. So it does wind up looking somewhat dated.

OTM about Blade Runner being the perfect example of this. Especially when Harrison Ford is running around and you see signs all over the place for Atari, etc.

Though, in a lot of cases, this has more to do with advertisers wanting to place their product name in a film with the assumption that they'll be around for a few decades into the future. From what I recall, Minority Report was chock full of stuff like that. Brands like Dasani or whoever plastering their name all over the place.

But other technological examples that come to mind are Alex's super mini tapes in A Clockwork Orange (seemingly where Kubrick, et al projected that tapes would continue to be the standard medium, only smaller, not being able to conceivably predict CDs) and pretty much half of the 70s-looking technology from all the original Star Wars films.

― Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Plastic Gas Booby Trap), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:48 (twenty years ago)

To be fair Star Wars is more fantasy than speculative SF, though

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:56 (twenty years ago)

What's pretty amazing is how good Blade Runner and the first two Alien movies look, despite a few anachronisms

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:58 (twenty years ago)

btw star wars was a long time ago & far far away. so technology is gonna be historic rather than futuristic.

― teh_kit!!1 has 2 friends (g-kit), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 12:58 (twenty years ago)

i liked how in one of those jurassic park films they had this moment where they almost got eaten by this T-rex, but they managed to nip through this hole in the giant fence in time. and they all hug and was like 'phew'

but THEN the trex bashes itself through the giant fence altogether and they had to run into this building, and locked this steel door with this thin bar of metal. and SOMEHOW, this thin bar of metal, unlike the GIANT FENCE was sucessfull in blocking out the dinosaur.

what the hell?

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 13:01 (twenty years ago)

t-rexes are alleric to certain alloys

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:12 (twenty years ago)

*allergic, gah

― latebloomer: band to the planet mars (latebloomer), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

i still sincerely beleiwve that in 2015 LA will look like bladrunner. i know this because i have never been there.

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:26 (twenty years ago)

If in Star Wars the Empire had invested in blasters that fired rounds quicker than a man could run, they'd have never got in such a pickle.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:32 (twenty years ago)

xxpost but why wouldn't they do the fence in that alloy also?

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:34 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i like that Star Wars lasers were h4x3d so that their beams were a damn sight slower than the speed of light. very sporting of them.

― teh_kit!!1 has 2 friends (g-kit), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 14:37 (twenty years ago)

I kind of want to live in the future where everyone dresses 60's mod. Like shiny miniskirts & furry boots.
I wonder if this stuff went on in the victorian era of science fiction.
"Clearly one can't run a time machine on steam power.Has the man not heard of the Tesla Coil?*shines monocle*

― Annabelle Lennox (Arachne), Tuesday, 28 March 2006 15:24 (twenty years ago)

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