MovieOS is Universal

The Wall Street Journal is running an article on portrayals of computing and the Internet in film. I had plenty of discussions at CSH about the lame treatment of these topics by Hollywood. We even had a term to refer to the mystical graphical operating systems used in these films: MovieOS. Well, last night, I learned that these gripes are not limited to computer nerds.

was watching “The Ninth Gate” (despite my strong admonition) when I got home from the film club, and she instantly went off into a tirade. Some of the choice highlights were:

• “No real rare book dealer would smoke around his collection!”
• “Look at this guy, he’s supposedly the worlds most reputable rare book dealer but his books are piled up next to a live fireplace!”
• “Come on! Nobody would store a book with it’s spine facing UP! ALL THE PAGES WOULD FALL OUT!”

I was telling this story to this morning, and he told me of a guy who was complaining about the portrayal of lead miniature painting techniques in “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. So clearly, these feelings are universal among geeks, and aren’t limited to the computer variety.