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by ghusto 28 days ago
Jesus. Is this what _we_ sound like when talking about IT?
4 comments

Probably.

But I think sometimes we're more justified than the gun nuts. Take for example the movie series favorite "we'll track him through his GPS".

More justified for what?
IT mistakes are frequently glaring plot-holes that render entire sections of the story impossible. Gun mistakes are generally a choreography problem, a weapon that's possible but just hasn't been manufactured, or someone learning information about the gun's state via the wrong channel (where such an information channel does exist).

Sure, sometimes a bullet impact throwing someone off a cliff is plot-relevant, but I couldn't name a single example. On the other hand, I can think of several examples where (supposedly) state-of-the-art encryption is cracked digit by digit, or where a radio receiver is tracked from a distance where the receiving pattern would be orders of magnitude below the noise floor (most often from orbital satellites), or where a device is remotely "hacked" that is not even plausibly connected to a network (less common, now that everything is IoT, although it's really prevalent in works set in the late 90s / early 00s).

So... you cannot track anyone through their GPS because GPS is receive only.

You can "hack" their phone and get the location data from there, but I think the "we'll track them through their GPS" crap predates smartphones.

If _you_ sound like this when talking about IT then you really ought to reevaluate your social skills. It’s not the topic, it’s the stuck-uppiness of it all.
Yes, it’s the flip side of Gell Mann Amnesia - nerding out!
yeap. And if you talk about trains like this, they blame vaccines ;)