Realistic Portrayals of Software Programmers? 874
lwbecker2 asks: "Warren Harrison has written a thought-provoking editorial piece on The Software Developer as Movie Icon. He explores the fact that new entrants to Computer Science curriculum are typically clueless about what 'real' developers actually do. While researching the issue of why this is the case, he determined that some potential CS degree seekers are forming opinions from portrayals in movies and cinema. He describes what he asserts to be inaccurate portrayals of developers in War Games, TRON, and The Net, and asks for input and opinions on 'the impact of the cinema and television on new software developers' expectations, as well as learn of any films that do a better job of portraying our profession...' I am sure Slashdot readers have some input on this, and I am curious if people believe _any_ movie has acurately portrayed software developers?"
Hackers (Score:1, Funny)
I guess if you join the military and do hacking for the Gov... might be some sort of accurate portrayal
office space jokes... (Score:5, Funny)
Office Space (Score:4, Funny)
Pretty accurate (Score:3, Funny)
Or at least I wish they did. Office Space has the most accurate portrayal of programmers I've ever seen in a movie.
Office Space (Score:2, Funny)
Michael... BOLTON?!?
Yes there is one... (Score:5, Funny)
Daniel
got one... (Score:5, Funny)
What? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't think the portrayal is inaccurate at all. But then I'm an EE.
Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:5, Funny)
--sex [slashdot.org]
Movie Programmers (Score:1, Funny)
I know a movie that accurately portrays me. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Office Space (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, you mean TRON wasn't accurate? (Score:2, Funny)
Oh wait, you aren't reffering to
Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Office Space (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Office Space (Score:3, Funny)
Unfortunately, the main characters weren't typical programmers, but there was some reality mixed in there...
Re:so what's new? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Duh. For me sex always involves at least 9 people, wives who don't care, and lots of toys, preferably of the mechanically driven kind. Oh, and people shaving one another. Gotta have that.
Re:Office Space (Score:5, Funny)
Too Late to Change Perception (Score:5, Funny)
Me and God have to have a little talk.
Re:Sweet Mother of crap (Score:4, Funny)
I don't understand. Are you saying that nerf guns aren't cool?
Alright, boys - take away his geek license.
this is ridiculous. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:4, Funny)
here's a day in my life... (Score:5, Funny)
i usually roll out of bed around 11 or noon (up all night clubbin wit da ladies!) and drive to work in my brand new hummer, completely disregarding traffic signals, speed limits and roads in general. assuming there arent any high speed chases with the bad guys on the way, i make it in to work in time for the boss to yell at me again for "violating protocol" again! im such an eXtreme programmer and i do things my way! thats about when the terrorists show up to the building to take my girlfriend hostage, forcing me to have to fight them all with my bare hands and the occasional uzi taken from fallen enemies (everyone else is taken hostage too, so im the only one that can fight). since im so ripped, i can streetfight anyone and win easily! at around 4 or 5 pm i manage to get to the leader and fight him to the death at the top of the building, throwing him off in the process. once i get my woman back, we get it on and then im off to the clubs for the night! but trouble arises at the club......
oh wait, you want honesty? well heres honesty: unless its a comedy, dont make movies about software developers!
Re:Office Space (Score:4, Funny)
Thanks for being the 10th person today to remind me that I'm just like "the fat guy in Jurassic Park".
Charlie's Angels (Score:3, Funny)
I remember watching that at about the exact same time our own tech team was denied free sodas by our pigfarking CTO.
Re:so what's new? (Score:2, Funny)
The next time you see a cop car sitting in the corner of a parking lot, answer this question:
What is the cop doing?
a) he's eating his donuts
b) he's trying to catch a master car thief
c) he's going to swoop in on a drug deal
d) sleeping
e) he's trying to get an inch thick stack of paperwork done so he can get back to his real job: driving around on his regular patrol and keeping one ear on the radio just in case he needs to take another police report.
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone who's anyone knows that's the VI macro for 'turn on the power'
Independance Day! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:4, Funny)
And what part of that statement are you saying is fiction?
Doctors, Lawyers, and Cops (Score:5, Funny)
"Why not a show about engineers?" someone asked.
"Yeah, we could call it 'CR' - Conference Room! They could show us sitting around at boring meetings, eating doughnuts, writing emails and stuff..."
That's when we realized why there are no shows about engineers.
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:2, Funny)
the command he types in?
"ls -A"
What would you prefer? (Score:5, Funny)
"Computer science is clearly a field for people with enormous anuses, way too much time on their hands, hot grits down their pants, and a homosexual lust for cowboys."
Of course, this isn't too far off the mark from CMU.
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:2, Funny)
I found it particularly amusing as early on she was visibly impressed by the rather curde multimedia boxes in the tour cars..... and God the windows manager! It used the power of two Crays and still ran like a dog
Re:office space jokes... (Score:3, Funny)
*Cough*Swordfish*Cough*
The average computer programmer does all of his programming at night, while drinking lots of wine??? (ewww hit the hard stuff already) and while hallie barry is naked in the room with you.
Oh and you have like 50 computer screens in front of you all showing rotating 3d objects. No...not for 3d development...for straight programming silly. Dont you have that C++ addon?
If you can get all the pretty shapes to align then you are done!
*cough*Office Space*cough* But you must keep all this a secret, last time I told my boss that he asked what real work I had got done in the last month and then fired me...but then i stayed and they kept moving my desk...but i kept my stapler.
Re:Alot of misrepresentation in movies (Score:4, Funny)
I'd watch it so I'd know when a @#$)(^@ cop was about to ticket my car!
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Pretty accurate (Score:1, Funny)
Speaking as a Jedi.... (Score:5, Funny)
Speaking as a Jedi, I have to say, the movie portrayals are quite unrealistic, but frankly, it's the only way to get new members.
I mean, for every trade negotiation that turns into an assassination attempt and daring escape from a battle fortress, there are thousands that are just plain boring; you sit around, listen to proposal and counter-proposal repeated verbatium for hours, until somebody changes something a whit, repeat, for a few weeks, then you break up for consultations.
For every five minutes you get to duel with a Sith Lord, you spend YEARS doing the sword-technique equivalent of sitting at a keyboard, typing 'jjj[space]fff[space]jjj[space]fff[space]'
Anywho, I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but the life of your typical Jedi is NOTHING like those flashy bastards you see in the movies.
Re:Office Space (Score:2, Funny)
I'll take an axe to the flashing red light hanging right over developers so everyone knows a client site is down. Even though all of the developers who can do anything about it are already involved in fixing the problem.
This was management's brilliant idea for showing that we're "doing something". All it really did was piss off all of the developers by telling the world we need a red light to do our jobs.
Funny you should ask . . . (Score:2, Funny)
Do you really want them to know? (Score:4, Funny)
I enjoy getting paid more because people are a little scared and a little bit intimidated by us. Letting them peek behind the curtain isn't a healthy career move.
Re:so what's new? (Score:5, Funny)
Does pr0n accurately depict sex?
Are you kidding? For most people here, pr0n is sex.
ID4? (Score:3, Funny)
Or perhaps Joe Morton's Miles Dyson from Terminator 2? Working with a team to reverse engineer a foreign piece of technology. Working long hours, forsaking his family for the project, always spending time on his computer. Also, completely ignoring the possible ramifications of his actions because the possible breakthroughs and creativeness are too tempting. Not to mention that he's observed the security measures at his place of employment and thought of ways to circumvent them.
Or how about Demon Seed? Ok, maybe that wasn't quite so accurate for 1977...
Re:Too Late to Change Perception (Score:4, Funny)
So from then on, in your minds eye, every overweight person is just an extension of that fat bastard who dripped butterscotch ripple and sweat on you in grade one and left you emotionally scarred till the end of your days...
just a guess...
Re:Alot of misrepresentation in movies (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:2, Funny)
complete lack of sane interface design.
Re:office space jokes... (Score:3, Funny)
Inaccurate? I don't think so! (Score:4, Funny)
These movies PRECISELY describe what I do all day. Why, right this minute, I'm typing on one of my 8 totally custom made keyboards suspended in the air around me by a complex system of racks and harnesses, while glancing from side to side at the 21 monitors hanging around my control chair (with power swivel), and protecting my neon-lit plexiglass-cased server from being attacked by rogue agents and crackers going after the kernel! I'm regularly stopped by agents in expensive suits and 400 dollar Ray-Bans on the street and threatened about my attempts to bring down the national infrastructure with my super password cracking program that, if released, would allow instant access to every system on the planet. And don't even get me started with my super intense VR room in the back that let's me have hyper-realistic "intimate encounters" with my computer-generated love slave(s).
I think we need to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding our profession and let the world know that we absolutely have the best fucking jobs on the planet.
-Oakbox
Re:office space jokes... (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Would an eMac explode if you used VI to edit on it?
Re:office space jokes... (Score:5, Funny)
I got my interest in pursuing a CS degree when Tron came out. I wanted to make the MCP so it could kick everyone's ass.
I still can't figure out why no one likes the glow-in-the-dark frisbee I wear on my back every day. Its an icon of personal expression! I would be nothing more than a simple VB programmer without it!
OK, next question....if the MCP and HAL went head to head, who would win?
Hackers With Angeline Jolie Was Pretty Accurate (Score:2, Funny)
I also score with the Angeline-clones every day. We just knock the keyboard and mouse of the desk and do naughty things after work.
Sigh - back to work. I have to use a pay phone to save the world.
SNL (Score:2, Funny)
Or maybe the fat guy in Jurrasic Park...
Re:Archaeology has the same problem. (Score:4, Funny)
Dude, you're only supposed to take the intro once!
Re:ID4? (Score:4, Funny)
Make it like Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
The Hollywood portrayal could be worse, you know. Just imagine if they portrayed debugging like a ST:TNG episode, complete with flashing red alert lights and lots of noises:
Picard: What's our status?
Data: The process is attempting to completely allocate all available memory and CPU cycles.
Worf: Available memory is down to 50%. 40%...
Picard: Suggestions?
Riker: Perform a break. Try to find out what happened.
Picard: Make it so.
Data: Ctrl-C was not successful. Process is still consuming resources.
Worf: 30%, 20%...
Wesley: Captain, this may be due to an incorrect check in the while loop...
Picard: Shut up, Wesley!
Geordi: Captain, we're losing segmentation containment. We've got to dump the core!
Worf: ...10%...
Picard: All hands, this is the Captain! All hands, log out! Repeat, all hands log out!
Kaboom! Blue screen of death.
GMD
Re:Office Space (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention the speed of sound (Score:3, Funny)
Re:office space jokes... (Score:2, Funny)
SHHHHHH! (Score:5, Funny)
Accurate Portrayal (Score:5, Funny)
Been there, lived through it..
A portrayal of my life would be pretty
Follow me through Sunday evening and Monday..
---- Sunday Evening.
Sunday, 6pm.. Coding new authentication module for Apache..
20 minutes reading (from my personal O'Reilly library, dejanews, and the very few sites that may have clues to what I'm doing).
30 minutes writing.
5 minutes reading work
2 seconds deciding I didn't like parts of it, and deleting 90%
drink a beer.
[lather;rinse;repeat] for the next 8 hours. On the weekend. Like, when I'm not even supppose to be working.
Pager beeps at 2am. One server with 6 months of uptime is unreachable.
Log into server. It's running.
Check httpd processes, they're running.
Try browsing to server, it's unreachable.
30 seconds scratching head.
Kill all httpd processes. Restart web server, check error logs. Starts normally.
Try browsing to server. It's unrecachable.
Reboot server (for spite).
2 minutes drinking beer.
Server's back up, still can't browse to it.
netstat -a -n
Oh look, one IP has 10,000 connections from a university in Russia (212.96.201.28, for those really interested)
verify TCP_SYNCOOKIES enabled. yup.
Check logs. No entries for that IP.
Drop traffic that
Browse to site. It works.
Drink more beer. Go to bed at 3am
---------
Monday morning.
Wake up late.
9am Drag my happy ass into office.
9:20 discussion of what happened, and what we can do to prevent it happening again. I suggest going into used car sales.
10:00 arrive at my desk.
10:01 users start asking for their forgotten Email or FTP passwords.
10:20 start back on authentication module.
10:21 phone call forwarded from support.
10:45 hang up on support call. I hate users.
10:50 start back on authentication module.
10:51 "Urgent" help needed for other people's broken CGI's.
11:45 Finish fixing really shitty CGI's.
11:46 decision: module or smoke.. Choose smoke. Can't find cyanide cigarette, choose cloves instead.
12:00 back to desk with sandwich in hand.
12:00.01 Can you help this guy on line 3?
12:15 get rid of guy on phone. Unwrap sandwidth.
12:16 "My computer has a blue screen, can you help me". Decision: shoot user, or hit reset for them.
12:17->12:30 listen to user cry because they had some important program open, and I lost it. I'm so evil.
12:31 pick up sandwidth
12:31.0001 phone rings. Boss wants to talk about last night. I remind him I sent an Email on it. He asks for his Email password.
12:45 I reach for the sandwich. "important" customer walks in, asking for changes to his site. I point to my sandwich. He says it'll only take a minute.
1:30 {sigh} I look longingly at my lunch. Quickly I scribble on a post it "Comitted Suicide, memorial next week", and put it on my door. Phone stays outside the door too.
1:31 the first bite of my sandwidth.. MMmmmmm.. Almost as good as street meet, with less rodent parts.
1:35 all gone? I'm still hungry.
1:36 begin work on authentication module.
1:37 boss walks in (didn't he read the note?), wants to know why I haven't finished the authentication module.. And then throws another task at me that's more urgent.
3:30 more urgent task done. Back to authentication module.
3:35 parts arrive for servers that we've been waiting for, for 2 weeks. Delegate work. Spend the next half hour explaining how to do 5 minutes work.
4:15 smoke. smoke. smoke. it's oddly quiet. No phones, no users. I wonder if I can bring my laptop down here.
4:30 authentication module. I still haven't written one line yet, but I'm trying..
4:31 Boss comes in screaming, I think one of the networks is slow. Spend the next hour justifying the fact that nothing is slow, enforced with transfer rates and ping times.
5:30 smoke.
5:45 contemplate suicide. Go back to office anyways. Start working on authentication module.
5:50 girlfriend calls. "Why don't you love me, you never spend time with me."
6:20 finish with girlfriend. Take elevator to top floor to find out roof access is locked (smart people).
6:30 go home.
So, today I accomplished exactly *NOTHING*.
That's my typical fuckin' work day.
I've gone as far as to put the phones outside my office door (including cell), put a big note explaining that I'm on an important project and to leave me alone. I then lock and barracade the door. That'll get the boss banging on the door within 5 minutes. {sigh} After asking if I'm ok, and why I did it, he then asks if the project is done..
I tried working from home one day, because there was a project that needed to be completed (the boss wanted it immediately).. The boss insisted that I keep my phone on, in case there were emergencies.. I took 68 calls from the office that day.
I can't win.
I may as well be doing TPS reports with fish flavored cover sheets.
Re:Most Accurate Portrayal of a Computer Award... (Score:1, Funny)
An important thing to know is . . . (Score:2, Funny)
Re:duh. (Score:3, Funny)
I hope that clears some things up. Feel free to quote these rules when someone is bugging you throughout the movie trying to get you to explain what just happened and asking you incredulously if the bad guy or good guy is really dead.
Re:Doctors, Lawyers, and Cops (Score:3, Funny)
"But Anderson, that bridge can't handle the load it's under!"
(Anderson pulls out duct tape and a slide rule)
"It will if *I* have anything to do with it"
(cue MacGyver style music)
Re:office space jokes... (Score:4, Funny)
It just blew my mind.