This might not be quite as funny if you aren’t a computer geek, but I’m sure at least a few of these will be recognizable to even non-techies. The Programming Blog has a long list of things computer in movies can do that computers in real life just can’t seem to manage.
4. All monitors display inch-high letters.
5. High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces.
6. Those that don’t have graphical interfaces will have incredibly powerful text-based command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.
27. Searches on the internet will always return what you are looking for no matter how vague your keywords are. (See “Mission Impossible”, Tom Cruise searches with keywords like “file” and “computer” and 3 results are returned.)
Some of the things in the movie can be done by real computers, but that breaks part of the list if you consider that. They also left off the Wargames computer feature of the computer being able to talk to the user no matter what computer the user is on.
[tags]Things computers in movies can do[/tags]