the onda

24 is a great television concept and this season has been brilliantly executed. Occasionally though, even an ardent fan like me has to trip over the suspension of disbelief required to truly enjoy the show, and for whatever geeky reason, the portrayal of modern technology is always my own particular speed bump (I have a theory that geeks needs to point out the tech flaws to feel better about so whole-heartedly enjoying the larger plot issues like the terrorists that sneak into the White House through the sewers).

Last night, Jack Bauer escapes from custody in a hospital, Vulcan grips the security guard and runs off with the CD that contains all of the security video footage from the hospital (he is looking for a bad guy). He then smashes a car window where the owner happens to have left his Macbook in the passenger seat fully charged and ready for some counter-terrorist kungfu. As he rips away from the FBI at 55MPH down a 25MPH street, Jack nonchalantly opens the Macbook and pops the cd into the drive. And what is awesome is that instead of being some heinous Windows 3.1 security system with some crazy video format that was standardized in 1982 and abandoned in 1986, the security videos as conveniently archived as an iPhoto library which Jack is able to load up in mere seconds, proceeding to grab a frame and then use the awesome "terrorist face enhancing wand" to get a clear closeup from the grainy black and white video frame.
(Almost done here, bear with me as I have a point)
Because the Macbook's original owner is cheap and doesn't pay $80/month, Jack is then forced to take out his Sprint Novatel 3G modem which he pops into the laptop, and magically sans drivers, instantly establishes a strong EVDO signal to zip the picture of said bad guy to his accomplice in the FBI office.

As I was watching it happen, all I could do was think about how slow the real iPhoto is, how ridiculous it is that he's able to get the Sprint modem working without installation, and how awesome the fact that he doesn't have to know the FBI agent's email to send her stuff.

But as I thought about it more, I realized that we're really almost there today, and that this has been as a direct result of how fast the Internet has taken over our lives. In fact, iPhoto does act like a swiss army knife for many different types of video, Facebook and Twitter (and their inclusion into phones) are showing us the way which the address book can automagically find you recipients, and perhaps most impressively, 3G networks and their associated modems really do work the way they did in the show— and have become a totally normal and boring part of mobile computing. To say nothing of the progress of video conferencing, search engines, and all sorts of other technologies employed in 24 that are quickly becoming de rigeur for mainstream consumer users.

We do live in good times indeed.

And if you don't believe it, check out this hilarious sendup from Collegehumor.com on what 24 would have been like with 1994 technology.