I know better than the tv stuff, but what I don't know is if, for example, it takes 20 iterations of a hashing algorithm to match the hash, if there were statistical, or other measurable, differences that converged as you started working your way up to 20. Or, if you knew the iterations, but you only had a few characters right in the guessed password, if there was a way to know (decreasing entropy of the hash or something). I don't know the mathematics behind the algos very well.
Your comment just make me thought of that, and how it makes me laugh each time I see that on a movie/show. And also realize that there is surely a (big) part of non-tech people that may think it's how it works.
If an encrypting method "tells" you you're getting close, it will be a bad one.
(and sorry if you took it personaly. Next time I'll check the poster profile first :)
No worries. I didn't take it personally. I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't trying to ask the "obvious" question- I was asking about way more subtle things. Actually, I wasn't sure I would get a response if anybody knew that there was a way to tell. But I decided to ask anyway.
Not trolling, I guess for people that don't know how it works it can be confusing.