Call "bullshit" on Hollywood technology

[Howedar]

It doesn't matter. Under any significant depth of water, the pressure would be great enough that you wouldn't be able to fill your lungs.

This is why you never see a ten-foot-long snorkel.

[Patrick Degan]

[*]"Damn! We only needed 3 more seconds for the trace!"
Yes, it is possible to obtain the location of a cell phone through triangulation. Your cell phone will either output a constant RF signal or pulse a signal to nearby cell towers. Since the speed of radio waves in Earth's atmosphere is known, cell phone administrators can measure the delay between pings to a cell tower and determine the distance between the cell tower and the cell phone. Then, on a map, draw a circle with a radius of that distance around the tower. Do this for two or three more towers. The intersection of those circles is the approximate position of the cell phone.

That one's an amusing holdover from the days when phonecalls had to be traced by line. Totally inapplicable to today's celphone technology but the cliche persists.

[Knife]

Dodging Laser beam security systems: By blowing cosmetic powder across the beams to identify their position, using night vision goggles. Pointing another laser at the photodetector. Busted None of them worked to any effective degree, and none of the techniques effected infra-red laser systems used in real-life security systems.

How ever it is possible to fool a motion detector by moving really slow, as shown in the same episode. Most detectors are set with a lower limit so that they don't trip over mundane things.

It is also, apperently, possible to bypass a fingerprint id lock using latex gloves and a 'barrowed' finger print. Hell, even the photocopy of the finger print put on the scanner defeated the system.

[Darwin]

The thing I don't like about Mythbusters is that their logic often falls along the lines of "if we can't figure out how to do it, then it's impossible".

Their alternate bullet tests have chronically done this. Nobody thought to reduce the powder charge to account for a much lighter, more fragile bullet?

[Darwin]

How ever it is possible to fool a motion detector by moving really slow, as shown in the same episode. Most detectors are set with a lower limit so that they don't trip over mundane things.

I found it fascinating that a motion detector could be defeated by a large white bedsheet.

[Deathstalker]

Speaking of which, one thing I'd like to know- I've seen in a movie with I think Danny Devito, some sort of thriller, he's shot and falls into the water, only to appear running up to the protagonist (Michael Douglas? Buggered if I know ...) proclaiming that he "has his own air tank"- taking a puff of his asthma breather.

Is that bullshit? I personally don't know.

Romancing the Stone

I imagine it is BS, as asthma inhalers only hold medicine for relieving asthma
symptons, not oxygen AFAIK. Even if it did hold O2, it may only be good for one breath. Of course having asthma can save you from that nasty inept water-allergic alien who gasses you

[K. A. Pital]

I love the Hollywood computers.
ACCESS GRANTED,
OVERRIDE! and
ACCESS DENIED
are Oscar-worthy sentences.

[Ted C]

A sword can cut off the blade of another sword. Busted
A genuine Japanese-constructed katana did slice through the replica stainless-steel sword. It also broke another genuine sword, but this break was caused by stress fracturing rather than being cut through. Katana vs. Rapier: Rapier was bent into snapping, but not cut. Claymore vs. Katana: Katana flexed but didn't break. Claymore vs. Viking sword: Viking sword severely nicked the Claymore. In the end, though some swords managed to break the other, none were able to actually cut through another sword.
In short, the swords break, they aren't cut. And sometimes it would require superhuman strength.

This is one of their assessments with which I disagree.

They did have a blade made of high-quality steel break a blade made of low-quality steel. Given that the break looked much like the "cut" in the movie scene they showed from The Count of Monte Cristo, I would be inclined to call the result at least "plausible". Blade quality could vary wildly in the hand-forged blades common in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and any blade could have an undetected flaw that would make it easier to break.

Also, in the movie, the tip of the blade shown in the movie was supported, so the blade could not bend sideways to let the striking blade go by. In all of their tests, the tip of the target blade was free to bend out of the way. Therefore, they were't actually matching the circumstances depicted in the film, so their test is not conclusive.

Finally, they always had a swinging blade striking a fixed blade. While it's not a situation that sword-fighters would seek on purpose, the possibilty of both swinging their weapons into each other at full speed is a real one, in which case the impact force would be twice what they were getting in their tests.

So I suppose they have plenty of material for a follow-up episode, if they so desire.

[Ted C]

So if I'm in a car and it somehow gets submerged in water, I'm basically fucked?

Wow, good to know.

Options:

1) If you open the door or window as soon as you hit the water, before the water level gets too high, you're fine.

2) If the water level gets up onto the window, stay calm, take deep, slow breaths, wait for the inside of the car to fill. When the inside of the car fills, the pressure will equalize and you'll be able to open the door. You just have to stay calm and patient (not so easy, to be sure).

[Xon]

I have a floppy with a similar script and a minimal Linux install here that I can use in case I ever forget my superuser password. It works beautifully. I assume a similar thing can be done with a Mac, but I know little about them, so I am not sure. I would think Windows would be similar too, but again, I don't know.

Most Windows machines with anything interesting on them are on a Domain (Microsoft or otherwise). Nuking the local admin account isnt going todo jack for cracking the network itself, a great 1st step but it isnt going to get you all the way.

Also, if they use EFS, nuking the password removes the ability to access any encypted files and you are fucked if someone hasnt backed the key up somewhere.

[Ender]

If a cable snaps, it can cut a person in two. Busted
A 5/8" cable at 30,000 lbs of tension was unable to cut a pig in two (or even cut into it), but did cause potentially lethal injuries. The MythBusters took the test even further by adding a smaller cable at the end of larger one to create a "whip" effect, and even pre-looped a cable around the pig itself. None of these methods could cut the pig by the pre-tensed cable's inertia alone. The pig was cut in half only when Adam tied a cable around it and then tightened the cable. Also, after making inquiries with almost every safety organization imaginable, the MythBusters were unable to find any concrete evidence of a person being cut in half by a snapped cable.

BMCM Brashear would disagree. While a natural line or a steel cable won't do it, a synthetic line that gives can easily remove limbs or kill a man.

[Ted C]

If a cable snaps, it can cut a person in two. Busted
A 5/8" cable at 30,000 lbs of tension was unable to cut a pig in two (or even cut into it), but did cause potentially lethal injuries. The MythBusters took the test even further by adding a smaller cable at the end of larger one to create a "whip" effect, and even pre-looped a cable around the pig itself. None of these methods could cut the pig by the pre-tensed cable's inertia alone. The pig was cut in half only when Adam tied a cable around it and then tightened the cable. Also, after making inquiries with almost every safety organization imaginable, the MythBusters were unable to find any concrete evidence of a person being cut in half by a snapped cable..

I've seen them use pig carcasses in tests like these a few times, and I dispute their universal applicability.

A pig's hide is much tougher than human skin. I don't know that a whipping cable would cut a person in half, but it would do much more damage to a human than it would to a pig. Failure to cut the pig with the cable is not proof that the cable wouldn't cut a human, so I don't call the myth "busted".

Granted, if the cable had cut through the pig, the myth would have been "confirmed", since the cable would certainly have been able to cut a human if it had been able to cut through the pig. The reverse, however, is not equally true.

[Darwin]

So if I'm in a car and it somehow gets submerged in water, I'm basically fucked?

Wow, good to know.

Options:

1) If you open the door or window as soon as you hit the water, before the water level gets too high, you're fine.

2) If the water level gets up onto the window, stay calm, take deep, slow breaths, wait for the inside of the car to fill. When the inside of the car fills, the pressure will equalize and you'll be able to open the door. You just have to stay calm and patient (not so easy, to be sure).

I keep a Timberline Bush Pilot Survival Hatchet under my passenger seat. it's amazing how many emergency situations a hatchet can be useful in.

[phongn]

It is also, apperently, possible to bypass a fingerprint id lock using latex gloves and a 'barrowed' finger print. Hell, even the photocopy of the finger print put on the scanner defeated the system.

It depends on the type of fingerprint-reader technology; some are much more resiliant to those kind of attacks than others.

[Ted C]

It is also, apperently, possible to bypass a fingerprint id lock using latex gloves and a 'barrowed' finger print. Hell, even the photocopy of the finger print put on the scanner defeated the system.

It depends on the type of fingerprint-reader technology; some are much more resiliant to those kind of attacks than others.

They got both a low-end system and probably a mid-range system for the show, and they managed to crack both with fairly primitive exploits.

[Admiral Valdemar]

It is also, apperently, possible to bypass a fingerprint id lock using latex gloves and a 'barrowed' finger print. Hell, even the photocopy of the finger print put on the scanner defeated the system.

It depends on the type of fingerprint-reader technology; some are much more resiliant to those kind of attacks than others.

They got both a low-end system and probably a mid-range system for the show, and they managed to crack both with fairly primitive exploits.

Additionally, after an incident in Malaysia with a guy losing his finger to thieves nicking his brand new Merc, most systems analyse blood flow and skin conductivity to make sure the user is alive and not merely a severed finger.

I also find Mythbusters lacking in some areas, namely for their limited ability to recreate supposed myths, but for most common misconceptions they're good enough.

[Stark]

It depends on the type of fingerprint-reader technology; some are much more resiliant to those kind of attacks than others.

More amusingly, 'is it alive' is a basic requirement for biometric systems. If you can cut off a guy's finger and use it to validate, the system is TOTALLY USELESS for anything even remotely sensitive.

[Stile]

If a cable snaps, it can cut a person in two. Busted
A 5/8" cable at 30,000 lbs of tension was unable to cut a pig in two (or even cut into it), but did cause potentially lethal injuries. The MythBusters took the test even further by adding a smaller cable at the end of larger one to create a "whip" effect, and even pre-looped a cable around the pig itself. None of these methods could cut the pig by the pre-tensed cable's inertia alone. The pig was cut in half only when Adam tied a cable around it and then tightened the cable. Also, after making inquiries with almost every safety organization imaginable, the MythBusters were unable to find any concrete evidence of a person being cut in half by a snapped cable.

BMCM Brashear would disagree. While a natural line or a steel cable won't do it, a synthetic line that gives can easily remove limbs or kill a man.

I've heard it from many a sea-story myself but I've never seen any documented proof.

[Grandtheftcow]

I love the Hollywood computers.
ACCESS GRANTED,
OVERRIDE! and
ACCESS DENIED
are Oscar-worthy sentences.

How about those super awesome totally 3D operating systems that make no sense what so ever.

I saw Swordfish a few nights back and kept laughing at whatever the hell they were trying to pull off as a realistic operating system.

[Knife]

It depends on the type of fingerprint-reader technology; some are much more resiliant to those kind of attacks than others.

More amusingly, 'is it alive' is a basic requirement for biometric systems. If you can cut off a guy's finger and use it to validate, the system is TOTALLY USELESS for anything even remotely sensitive.

For those that didn't watch that particular episode, if not the series itself; they took a photocopy of the finger print and after initial testing, blew it up (can't remember the zoom) on a transperency. They used a sharpie to fill in the lines that didn't photocopy too well (and the main reason their early tests failed) then resized the photocopy again to regular size.

On the doorlock scanner, they started out by placing the photocopy on a latex gloved hand to simulate the 'live' bit for the lock and it opened the lock. They then just tried the photocopy and it too worked.

[Ryushikaze]

The thing I don't like about Mythbusters is that their logic often falls along the lines of "if we can't figure out how to do it, then it's impossible".

Of course, not all of their tests employ this logic, but I've seen quite a few episodes where I couldn't help but think that they should have tried some other ideas.

And the one about the swords was stupid. Of course you can only break a sword with another sword rather than slicing through it like butter, but since when did the movie myth require cutting rather than breaking?

I think the whole point was that cut or break, it was A: not possible to do with reasonable human strength (the machine was ramped up several times above what the master swordsman was capable of), and that B: the breaks never occurred where the sword struck, and only came from snapping on the rebound, not from being severed by the actual strike.

In any case, I do agree that they sometimes miss possible alternatives, but that's what the revisit episodes are for- people telling them "you got this wrong, retest it" and them going and retesting it.

[Stark]

For those that didn't watch that particular episode, if not the series itself; they took a photocopy of the finger print and after initial testing, blew it up (can't remember the zoom) on a transperency. They used a sharpie to fill in the lines that didn't photocopy too well (and the main reason their early tests failed) then resized the photocopy again to regular size.

On the doorlock scanner, they started out by placing the photocopy on a latex gloved hand to simulate the 'live' bit for the lock and it opened the lock. They then just tried the photocopy and it too worked.

Biometrics might suck for logical security reasons, but it really gets a bad rap in the media. A latex glove simulating life? A *photocopy* working by itself? That's even worse than the 'dust something to show a print then transfer it to the sensor somehow shazam it works' thing. But really, the worst part is biometrics being used as an important part of a high security system: the other components are BY DEFINITION going to be more secure, so the biometric is unlikely to be the part that catches anyone up.

[SyntaxVorlon]

A sword can cut off the blade of another sword. Busted
A genuine Japanese-constructed katana did slice through the replica stainless-steel sword. It also broke another genuine sword, but this break was caused by stress fracturing rather than being cut through. Katana vs. Rapier: Rapier was bent into snapping, but not cut. Claymore vs. Katana: Katana flexed but didn't break. Claymore vs. Viking sword: Viking sword severely nicked the Claymore. In the end, though some swords managed to break the other, none were able to actually cut through another sword.
In short, the swords break, they aren't cut. And sometimes it would require superhuman strength.

I saw that episode and they were using a shit sword to do the work for them. A stainless steel replica of something meant to made from folded/forged steel.

[SyntaxVorlon]

The amazing hacking portable computer
So you need to hack into an ATM to steal some cash, bypass a security lock to get into a building, or tap into some top secret network to get some files. The solution? A laptop computer or PDA and some random wires and connectors. Somehow the computer never gets fried from the wrong wires going to the wrong slots, and they always have just the right adaptors & wires for the job. And somehow the computer always manages to interface with whatever the hell it's trying to hack, and throws up nice neat lines of code instead of failing to connect or just getting a bunch of random garbage. The OS, language, and communications protocols always miraculously match up and the portable computer always gets into the system just by typing in the right password. It's like seamless perfect plug & play every single time.

While this is obviously myth, there is a security hack, that has since become outdated, that could be occuring here. In old password protection schemes if you typed enough letters into the password box you could overload the password memory buffer and start overwriting root-access code, such as the code that runs the password access.

[Academia Nut]

Actually about the whole sword cutting episode, while I disagree with two major aspect of their experiment, the swords and robot arm were not the ones I had issue with. The robot arm was calibrated to swing at the same speed and penetrating power as the master swordsmen they studied, and the only sword they actually broke was the piece of shit stainless steel one when it was hit with a reasonably well made and period accurate one.

The two problems I have is first of all, while the robot arm did not swing arbitrarily fast, the target sword was held with arbitrary strength. Therefore, the stress fracture breaks might not have occurred had an actual human been holding on, rather simply been bent and knocked out of the hand, but then again, they might have been held long enough for a stress fracture to occur anyway. Then the issue becomes one of semantics, ie. if in the movies when a sword is "cut" is it really being cut or just breaking?

The second issue is that the only calibrated their robot arm, and even their holding arm to a certain extent, for a roughly Japanese style configuration. Might not matter much for such a brute force attack, but then again, if you're going to use heavy European style swords, you might want to see if they are swung in any sort of different manner in case that will affect the results.