MovieChat Forums > I Am Number Four (2011) Discussion > Super cool technology for superior race ...

Super cool technology for superior race lets them use "magic"

posted 10 years ago by Mellow-Fellow
2 replies | jump to latest

So they can access "pyxfriends" AKA facebook, and take a posted photo from a company's server off of the internet with their cool little computer box by just circling the face with the mouse and hitting a button.

I just like mentioning the funny ways movies use computers and the old general lack of knowledge of computers to advance a plot line in a really cheap way. It's getting better with more and more people understanding computers. But still take a look at the crime shows, or remember movies like Swordfish, and how USB drives can suddenly do everything. Oh, and hacking any encryption is really easy, if you are a super nerdy smart computer dude. You just plug in some gadget and it rapidly reads a bunch of numbers out and viola you have the pin code or password! Or lets trace fingerprints to see what buttons were pressed, no matter the order right? That narrows it down to millions of possibilities instead of billions. Haha. good times.

[–] raf-33 8 years ago

Actually with the advent of "script kiddies" most hacking done today is very similar to what you see in movies, someone with limited knowledge of computers who has a shiny tool loads that tool on their shiny desktop with the animated wallpaper and they use it for mischievous purposes. The tool has been created by a real hacker previously, or just a helpful chap who wants to help angsty teens stick it to the man.

A flash drive makes a handy toolbox to store such tools, so again it's not so far fetched. If you have time to go loading up a shell and exploring the file system for documents pertaining to Roswell then it means you are either in an 80's movie or you don't mind getting caught by a security guard, if you really want to be in and out of somewhere quickly you use tools.

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived. -Isaac Asimov

[–] Mellow-Fellow 8 years ago

Don't remember this movie very well... Must have been forgettable.

Hacking is a broad generalized term. Yeah I suppose simple little mischievous things can be considered hacking but it's not to me. I'm talking about black hat stuff Linux, backtrack, Steganography, brute force attacks, bypassing SSH, TLS, SHA, keyloggers and stuff, well... It is really pretty simple stuff once you learn about it I guess...

It seems foreign if you don't understand it though, like theres no middle, it's easy to understand or just nonsensical to some people (mostly older folks IMO). It gets kind of deep and there are certainly levels of expertise. But it takes lots of money and manpower to do headline hacking stuff, like the Chinese and Sony awhile back. I mean, it gets complex, but the simple stuff is simple... I don't know, don't ask me lol.