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From: welsch@houxu.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: War Games (The lady doth protest too much)
Message-ID: <158@houxu.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Jun-83 11:40:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxu.158
Posted: Wed Jun 29 11:40:00 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Jun-83 23:45:51 EDT
Lines: 42

I have read a number of reviews denouncing the movie because it
is not realistic.  The reviews are so strong that I wonder if
the reviewers are afraid that the movie is too realistic.  

I find I can either find reasonable explanations for many of the
objections or I am willing to give the director dramatic
license.  

For example some "experts" have claimed the the baud rate that
the hero's terminal is running at could not possibly have been
as fast as shown in the movie. First, do we really expect an
audience to sit there while the data comes up at 300 baud.
Second, the terminal was not directly connected to the modem,
but passed through a personal computer. The personal computer
could certainly have driven the terminal at the speed given.

Another example, the speech synthesis.  The "experts" say WOPR
couldn't possible have driven the unit.  True, but who says the
kid's personal computer couldn't have driven it.  After all it
was the hero who turned it on.  

The next claim is how secure our systems are.  No kid could
possibly break into them.  I hope your right, but remember the
military is where "Murphy's Law" came from and the term SNAFU.
Face it, if there is a way to screw something up the military
will probably find it. 

As for security, I recall a recent episode described on 60
minutes where a person stole top secret information from TRW, by
walking out the door to buy some liquor. His big problem was
bringing the secrets back to TRW.  The same person later
literally walked out of prison.  

Finally, the "experts" don't like the computer types shown.  The
computer types shown here were certainly more realistic than the
hackers in TRON.  To me they were diverse and funny.  Cann't
people laugh at themselves.

In conclusion, I hope the film was not "realistic."  I don't
want the world to end in global thermal nuclear war. 

					Larry Welsch