Has anyone seen this steaming pile of emetic pabulum?
I’m a huge fan of NUMB3RS, but this particular episode was so bad that it was painful to watch. It’s not the acting or plot that I have a problem with–it’s the science.
Just for starters:
Hard drive wizardry. While trying to extract data from the hard drive of a damaged computer, a technician puts the drive into a new computer and connects the IDE cable to the drive, but not the power connector. Surprisingly (for her), the hard drive won’t boot. But don’t worry…she has a solution: She removes the top casing plate from the drive, and waves a hand-held lighted-tip stylus in circles over the topmost drive platter. “Oh, here we go!”, she exclaims, as data pours onto the computer screen. “JPEG”, Charlie says, pointing to a filename on the screen. After a few keystrokes from the technician, we’re treated to the image of a house on the computer screen! I’m just going to have to buy one of those magic data wands!
Steganography. While trying to determine the meaning of the digital photograph recovered from the hard drive, Charlie and John Cage decide that the reason they can’t sharpen the image is because of “steganography”…“There must be another picture hidden inside this image”. After “adjusting the pixels by one more negative power”, the image magically morphs into a completely new image. Of the same resolution and bit depth! And, of course, the image is flawless. All of you that have been using multiple images for your steganographic cryptography, saving comparatively small amounts of data…you’re all suckers!
There is more, but there is no reason to dwell.
This is the first time I’ve ever replayed a TV show just to see who wrote it. And I do not mean that as a compliment. The writer’s name has been withheld to protect the guilty.