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Distributed TiVo Code Cracking
Twostep writes "With the newest version of the TiVo software (Version 3.2), TiVo has once again changed the secret password to enter "backdoor" mode, which lets advanced users enable hidden features. Unlike last time, people were not able to quickly find the new code, so a distributed computing project was started to find the backdoor codes. You can read about it Here, grab the Linux or Windows clients and pitch in some CPU time for a good cause."
Really, when the hell will these people (the companies) learn that this will do NOTHING.
In TiVo's case, would just removing the backdoor altogether work instead of just putting a new, totally hackable and insecure password on there?
Either way, I'm taking bets on how long it will take for the password to be cracked.
TV! Now there's a cause I can get behind.
Is it updated via modem? if so, why not tap your own line!
i don't have a TiVo... nor... well yes I have a modem but it is currently being used as a paperweight...
But couldn't we get one of these software modems to just listen in on the other trafic?
I suspect that some Satelite TV companies do their stuff over the satelite... and some do it over the modem... either way, If I buy something... it's mine... No bugger is going to get away with deactivating it on me...
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
good cause?
How is this a good cause? I am asking out of sheer curiosity, not against the statement. If there is a legitimate reason to cracking it, then can someone point me to some literature about this subject, or just explain to me why TiVo deserves to be cracked in this manner???
I'm just confused, sounds like this is cracking, and last time I checked thats a pretty illegitimate thing to do, even advocate.
And when are we going to stop giving a damn about consumer gizmos running embedded linux, as long as the actual interesting functions are in some closed application running in the box? The interesting gadgets are the ones that are fully hackable, so the application code comes with source and is easy to customize. Freevo might be a start at a hackable PVR.
If some vendor decides, rightly or wrongly, that giving hardware away is a sensible business model, that doesn't in any way entitle them to any control over what you do with it once you take it home. Think of the stupid CueCat bar code wands from Radio Shack. The "legitimate" application intended for those things is long dead, but people continue to do useful things with the wands using software based on reverse engineering them.
Why are people still buying these devices if they don't offer the features they want or expect out of the box?
- This is a serious question, mod as such.
You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound. Yes, it's your hardware, but rules exist to further a public good--a (relatively) pollution and noise free environment.
Similarly, laws exist that say that you cannot circumvent pretction mechanisms such as that on the tivo.
Why? because, again, there is a public good involved, but this one is subtler. It's the public good of a business climate where companies make products and services using a variety of business models and people buy them and use them in a manner consistent with widely-held notions of fairness.
the alternative is a world where prices are higher / options are fewer because companies would have to hedge against unauthorized uses.
of course, for some businesses, it turns out to be beneficial that there is a user commuity that likes to hack around. but it's up for the company to decide whether that is, indeed, the case as far as it is concerned.
The Win32 executable is in the archive, ignore previous post....
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
Yikes! /. and ask them NOT to run that post? I suspect that as soon as the post hits the front page, both tivocommunity.com and all of the pages associated with TivoCrack will be brought down by the load.
Is there any way to contact
Too late! Now go watch your servers burst into flames...
I'm a minister!
I'm sure someone out there can whip up a FreeBSD port without too much trouble...or at least some precompiled Linux binaries that I could run on my FreeBSD boxes...
I wish I could mod your comment up but I can't at the moment so I'll just say that I think you make good points and you make them well. I also agree with what I believe were the underlying points of your original comment.
+1 Insightful
God-damn independent people...doing whatever they want to with their own property. This must be stopped!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Is this a violation of the DMCA? Are the project and its participants likely to be prosecuted as such?
Please note, I did, follow the link and read the linked discussion, but saw no sign of this information.
Russ
Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
What are these maaaaagical "features" anyway? From the forum, all they seem to be covering is the decrypting aspect, but what else does it do beyond removing the rating system?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
You can if you don't disturb anyone, and its your own property.
Try to think of an example where
a) You own something
b) But you aren't allowed to do something with it, even in your own property, and it doesn't affect anyone else.
Compiles fine on Mac OS X. Just add:
typedef int socklen_t;
to the top of SSocket.h
and change:
-lcrypt
to
-lcrypto
in the Makefile.
-Ben
You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound.
You can't bludgeon someone to death with a Tivo either, but that doesn't make it any less a specious analogy.
No one has a right to a profitable business model, and the power grab by content manufacturers has no more or less moral authority than the resistance of people using piracy. They rationalize that behavior because the corporations themselves are already trampling on the "widely held notions of fairness".
First off, if you really want backdoors enabled, that thread on tivocommunity.com details how to do it by changing the hash yourself. You can change the hash it's checking on the disk and voila, no problem.
So this search is basically pointless, but again, it's only for the hell of it.
How it works:
1. Tivo changed the backdoor code in 3.0 to be an SHA1 hash. So when you input the backdoor code, it hashes it, compares the hashes, and enables backdoors if it matches.
2. The hash for 3.0 was reasonably simple to crack. It was short (6 characters) and so was found quickly. 3.2 is longer (everything up to and including 8 characters has been searched already). That's really all there is to it and why it's now a distributed client.
3. The slashdotting I now expect will probably take the server down. I really wish this hadn't been posted. In any case, too late now.
For more info about Tivo backdoors, see here.
For more info about the 3.0 hash crack (the easy one), see here.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Now I know why IBM wants CPU time to be a metered utility... all the TIVO consumers have to do is buy some CPU time on IBM supercomputers, and voila :-)
I can now see why IBM's business will succeed.
What's under yellowstone?
I agree, it wouldn't be very nice to set fire to my Tivo and throw it through your window. Conversely if I rip the silencer off my motor, it would be perfectly OK to drive it around on private land (with permission) 20 miles from the nearest inhabitant (in the UK at least).
One reason I may want to mod the box is this: consider that maybe I want to use and pay for the Tivo service but I also want to add some random feature. That would be in the same league as installing an amp in my car or whatever. I do not expect to have to ask the manufacturer's permission to disassemble my dashboard.
The other reason I may want to crack the unit is that it's my box - I paid for it, I own it, it's on my property.
I take on board your argument supporting varying business models - but I hold that the business model is flawed. Sell the box at a profit and discount the service. In a way Tivo's business model is basically parallel to the "loss-leader" trick employed by supermarkets. They offer something at an attractive discount (actually with a negative profit margin) in the hope that I will buy other products. However, it is perfectly reasonable for me to isolate all the loss leaders and buy them and nothing else, thus making a loss for the company. That's the risk they took. On average it works out well for them (or they'd stop doing it).
I'm sorry - if Tivo want to guarantee that I will buy their service, they shouldn't sell the box on it's own. Or they shouldn't at least sell it at a loss. I can buy a phone without a phone line or rent a phone line without a phone. It would be silly, but I can do it and it doesn't cause the telco or the phone makers any problems.
I generally subscribe to the view "What I own I can take the lid off and poke around" as a starting point. I am very much against any business model which is so flimsy that it needs laws like the DMCA to support it.
All of which is why I've added 2 machines at home to the cracking pool :-)
Sod the DMCA and everything like it in Europe!
Best, Timbo
Why can't women be like Hedy Lamarr - beautiful, talented and inventors of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum techn
Wrong. I *can* do whatever I want to a 2003 ford mustang. I can remove the muffler, modify the camshaft... hell I can strap a rocket on the back if it pleases me. Obviously the manufacturer won't honor my warranty once I cross certain lines, and obviously because of laws for the common good, I won't be able to legally drive it on public highways after a certain point as well. But at any stage in whatever process, Ford will be more than happy to supply me all the technical data and help I need when it comes to how their car is designed and built - although some of the more advanced manuals come at a reasonable cost.
If TiVo were the same, then they should allow me to turn the box into a linux unreal tournament machine or an X.10 controller or whatever the hell else I want to do with it, and provide specs and documentation as neccesary to boot. They would of course void my warranty and/or tech support when I open the case or make invasive software changes - and at some point down the mod path they may no longer allow me to subscribe to their services, and may even disclaim to me that it's no longer legal for me to hook my TiVo up to a cable/satellite network (however dubious that may be) - but they wouldn't stop me from doing whatever I wanted with the hardware in my own home.
11*43+456^2
A better example might be buying a 2003 Ford Mustang, ripping off the exhaust and installing an aftermarket exhaust system for 2003 Ford Mustangs. If Ford says "but we sell our Mustangs at a loss, the EULA says you will buy parts and maintenance from Ford" you would tell them to go fuck themselves. Likewise when a hardware or software maker tells me what I can do with a product I legally purchased.
I find it amazing that Tivo appologists fall for this type of tactic. The only reason they do is that they have not woken up to the fact that Tivo is not the only maker of PVRs.
I do not expect Tivo to survive. The clueless business model only works if there is no competition. There is plenty of competition in the space and that is only going to increase. Nobody succeeds with a razor and blades business model (the Tivo subscription) when there is a cheaper option flat fee.
Every one of the clueless 'I just want 0.01% of every transaction on the net' payment schemes failled miserably.
But every time we have a Tivo story the Tivo heads rush in to explain why everyone should pay twice the going rate for the technology. It is as pathetic as the Apple appologists, 'Macs are fastest, speed is what matters, buy a Mac, oops they are no longer fastest, well it isn't just CPU power that matters, its benchmarks, no its the pretty case'. Apple's price gouging and constant interface changing games to make old peripherals obsolete should be criticised as much as if not more than Microsoft's tactics. But they get away with it.
I don't want the video to decide what to record, I do that. I want a recorder with a removable disk so that the thing is not always full. There is an interesting port on the back of my DishPlayer PVR, anyone know what it does?
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
It would be appropriate to note that this "crack" doesn't allow you to obtain free service, and that this has never been about free service. It's just about the ability to modify your Tivo, install cool things like TivoNet cards and so forth. Tivo keeps making this more difficult with every release. And each time it wears away a bit of community goodwill, which is sad because its this thriving community on which Tivo has built a business.
let me ask you this.
You are all talking about how cracking this seems "wrong" and whatnot...
Has Tivo complained? No?
Shut up.
The effort doesn't relate to the stuff that is downloaded from the modem. It is an attempt to decrypt a password whose encrypted form is known which is used to activate "backdoor" features. Therefore, there is no way to attack it from the tty stream -- it is never used there.
"You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound. Yes, it's your hardware, but rules exist to further a public good--a (relatively) pollution and noise free environment."
Yes you can... removing your muffler is totally legal. You are are only breaking the law when you drive it on public roads. You can take it to a race track and drive it all you want.
If someone converts a Tivo into a hacking device AND uses it to break into computer networks, that would be illegal. You could also break the law by hitting someone over the head with your Tivo, no modifcations required.
Cracking and modding your Tivo is, and should remain, totally legal.
AdFuel
From a post (from "Otto", discussion forum, 10-31-2002 08:14 PM):
So, people: Relax. And: If you want to join Just For Fun[tm] (like I do), do it.
42. Easy. What is 32 + 8 + 2?
There is some controversy about the use of the Tivo to skip advertisements. As you suggest, this gives "plausible deniability" that the feature is readily availble.
Yes the updates come by modem (or more recently encoded in some "paid programming" shows on Discovery channel that the TiVo automatically tunes to and records), but that doesn't change anything. The software updates come in "slices" which are encrypted themselves. The TiVo has a hardware crypto chip that is used to decrypt those.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
"!seineew era sreenigne VTetamitlU"
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Running a distributed client on a GPU is an interesting idea, as it is esentially a very fast processor Optimised for 3d-math but with some general capabilities. OTOH, it would be difficult because it is hard to work directly on the GPU as the driver translates the instructions and GPUs very a lot (NVidia, Radeon, etc., and then the individual models). Also, the GPU would tend to run hotter as it would have to do more work (hard-gamers tend to ensure that their graphics card has additional cooling).
You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound. Yes, it's your hardware, but rules exist to further a public good--a (relatively) pollution and noise free environment.
First of all, you CAN remove your muffler and drive around at 3AM. You can do anything you want to that car. You just can not drive it on public roads legally after the fact. If you do this in your own property or a place like a track and no one complains about the noise it is 100% perfectly legal. Have you been to a race track on a test and tune night? By the way, removing the muffler does not increase your emissions levels, removing the catylatic convertors does, and yes, you can buy off road pipes (meaning no convertors) from thousands of companies for just about any vehicle.
Modifying a TIVO in no way shape or form bothers my neighbors or is a nuisance to the general public.
the alternative is a world where prices are higher / options are fewer because companies would have to hedge against unauthorized uses.
So when your business has a model that can not make money, the governmant should change the law against the public good (to use your own words) to help you make money? Are you on someones lobbying payroll? Did you ever think that maybe if a company made these hidden options available or added more options that maybe they could sell more units? The consumer would have MORE choices.
the alternative is a world where prices are higher / options are fewer because companies would have to hedge against unauthorized uses.
No, the alternate is where companies compete on the quality and usefulness of thier products. Not trying to squeeze every last penny from a product that is not really exactly what someone may want because a government handout let them keep making it for a profit on it.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Kinda like a Mounds bar, but more crunchy.
They have already tried most of the 9-character space to no avail, and every additional character makes the search take 37 times longer. And, as was said numerous times, when they find it, TiVo will just change it again and tack on a couple more characters.
Plus, there is no verification of results, so surely someone will cheat a la SETI@Home just to inflate his score by returning a bunch of bogus results, and the results will be invalid. Worse yet, a truly malicious person could return bad results for a whole lot of valid usernames, and it may be impossible to separate the good results from the bad. (I don't know if the server tracks IP addresses, but those can be spoofed too.)
So, this is kind of futile, but it looks like they're having fun. :-)
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
The TiVoCommunity Underground is unofficially approved by TiVo (in fact some posters are employees) and they don't want any problems with networks like Turner's or the MPAA.
I mean, TiVo has supported hardware network card hacks with newer versions of their software. Contrast this to other hardware manufacturers and you'll see why we respect TiVo's wishes and don't discuss certain topics.
False! If modifying the TIVO leads indirectly to buying less software or services or whatever follow-on they are trying to sell is, then your individual actions HAVE outside affects, even if the actions themselves are restricted to your basement.
Now, we can argue whether or not a business model is a public good (I would clarify--I don't believe "a business model" as in "tivo's business model" is a public good, but I do think reasonable restrictions on use of products in order to facilitate innovative business models in general is a good thing / a class of public goods.) That is, I think our society would be worse off if companies could NOT sell hardware as loss leaders, because the sale of hardware as loss leaders has positive externalities of getting people into technical items WHILE remaining a sustainable state in that companies can profit from it)).
Again, we can argue over whether i'm right as far as public good goes all night, but don't try to tell me that people modifying TIVO's at home, in aggregate, has no external effects.
Actually, there was a recent law passed that automobile makers have to provide that information to the public. They don't have to give you a free code scanner, just like tivo wouldn't have to give you a lan card or larger hard drive, but they are legally required to give out the diagnositc information you speak of.
Also, if you have an import car like I do, all you need to do the same thing is a paper clip to short out 2 wires, then count some blinkin lights and look up the result in your manual.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups.
The effort is for fun, really. We've (subuni, anyway) already found ways to take the drive out of your tivo, throw it in your PC, and change the code to a known hash. This is more to say "Hey, cool, we did it."
So take a pill folks. Simmah down!
Think of stuff like drugs, suicide, fictional pornography, and you'll have lots of laws which can get you arrested for doing things in the privacy of your own home. On the other hand, I like to think that the actions are only criminal if you get caught which means, by definition that you are no longer affecting only yourself.
However... I have a theory about this. As an armchair political theorist, I will make the broad statement that capitalism is anti-democratic. In the eyes of government, the will of the corporation has long outweighed the will of the people.
International government power is found in economic well-being and competativeness. Corporations provide that power and are thus more important than citizens.
So if a corporation says "we can be more competative if you support digital-etcetera laws", the government is compelled to assist them. Why? Because if your country slips in the capitalist system, you loose international power.
From this perspective, the Microsoft case was one where the government was torn between defending the internal free market, and defending a great international economic power. From the microscopic perspective... hurting the corporation could do more damage to domestic jobs than could be recovered by a healthy domestic marketplace. A battle between the tangible and immediate (jobs) and the abstract (healthy internal economy).
So do you use government might to empower Disney, Warner Bros and other domestic corporations? or do you risk loosing those corporations in the interest of personal freedom. That is, do you preserve your healthy and powerful global industry at the cost of individual liberties?
What could the people gain by the government supporting individual liberties?
Think of stuff like drugs, suicide, fictional pornography, and you'll have lots of laws which can get you arrested for doing things in the privacy of your own home.
If you commit suicide, you don't get arrested, you get enbalmed (or cremated, I suppose, depending on your wishes).
Unless, of course, you screw up.
Same with drugs, really - unless you're either in public (maiking an ass of yourself), distributing, or get caught while buying, you're pretty much safe doing them in the confines of your own home. It's generally the periphery effects of drugs that get people caught (committing crimes for money with which to buy the drugs, or going into public whilst blasted and doing something equally stupid).
0linux1blows2chunks3x9
SHA is a stream hash. That means you can do 4 bytes worth, save the state and then cycle through the next 5 bytes much faster. When doing the same thing with md5, you can pre calculate all but the last two bytes and then cycle those real fast.
MD5 uses a table of sine values that it uses. If someone were to make slight changes in thouse tables, then this kind of crack wouldn't work unless the hash as verified. I suspect the same is true for SHA but I haven't looked at that yet.
but don't try to tell me that people modifying TIVO's at home, in aggregate, has no external effects.
Can you specify an effect this would have and it be DIRECTLY relate to my modifying my TIVO?
Did you ever read the side of a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese box (or any food product instructions)? It says to mix in 1/4 of Parkay Margerine. The fact that I used store brand margerine and not Parkay will result in about the same effect I think you are refering to. I am sure that Kraft Foods would make more money if people only used Parkay and Starkist Tuna with thier M&C. Does that make it WRONG for me to use something else? Does thier business model rely on me to use it? Are they selling the M&C at a loss so the butter can even it out? Should there be a law that only allows me to use what they say on the box? Would everyone be better off as consumers if ALL products had this legal requirement and we were forced into following them? I don't think soooo..
What happens when a TIVO competitor comes around and has a completely open system that allows you to do anything you want with it? Should they be legally banned so TIVO can stay afloat? If this other competitor does make it and TIVO fails would you know why? Because they gave the consumer what they wanted and they bought it!
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Nobody succeeds with a razor and blades business model (the Tivo subscription) when there is a cheaper option flat fee.
1. Who's this competition giving away the service for free? I hope you don't mean ReplayTV, where the cost is built-in up-front, do you? (Likewise, you can get a TiVo with lifetime service for about the same as the ReplayTV of similar stature.)
2. You are assuming all things are equal. If the service is better, people may pay more for it. Consider the Mach3 razorblades -- far more expensive than the other brands, and far more popular! Why is that? Because the perceived quality is higher and people are willing to pay for it.
But every time we have a Tivo story the Tivo heads rush in to explain why everyone should pay twice the going rate for the technology.
Honestly, what the fuck are you talking about?
There is an interesting port on the back of my DishPlayer PVR, anyone know what it does?
I'm not familiar with the DP PVR, but if it was as popular as TiVo, you'd probably already know what that port does.
"And like that
I'm not knowledgeable in these areas so perhaps this is off-base, but wouldn't it be possible to disassemble the code that accepts the password and patch it to just accept whatever you enter? That seems like a more fruitful line of attack than attempting to brute-force a password of unknown character set, unknown length, and unknown encoding.
Actually, many of the cable services in the US allow/require that you buy your own cable modem. However, it still is not legal to change your quality of service with it. If you want to set up your own headend, feel free to uncap your modem all you want, but if you are using the cable company's headend then upcapping your modem is theft of service and is a criminal act.
Enigma
So when Gilette sells razors at a loss, and i buy them, use them to decorate my walls, and never buy the razor blades, i am doing something that should be illegal?
How about when the Wright brothers used popsicle sticks to make an airplane, instead of using them to make popsicles, as the manufacturer originally intended?
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
I pay no more for my dishplayer satelite subscription than for either the same subscription without the PVR or for the local cable. In fzct I pay less than the cable charges. The dishplayer unit was free.
PVRs will be a commodity item in a couple of years costing no more than $250-$400 all in with no subscription.
2. You are assuming all things are equal. If the service is better, people may pay more for it. Consider the Mach3 razorblades -- far more expensive than the other brands, and far more popular!
Tivo are reselling TV timetable information which costs them nothing at $10+ per month. The dishplayer reads the satelite program guide.
The only possible leverage that Tivo has in this market is to patent the blatantly obvious and try to bully competition out of the market. That is the type of behaviour that is generally objected to on Slashdot. Tivo is an exception, Apple tends to be the other exception.
Tivo will be deservedly roadkill when the XBox II and Playstation III come on the market offering PVR technology with no strings attached.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
This is why I sent back the Tivo I ordered (it was Series 2 which to my knowledge has never been successfully hacked ... yet). I don't want to be constantly locked out of my machine when some corporation decides to tighten the screws again by a forced software upgrade. In some sense, TiVo is worse than Microsoft, even though they nominally "support" open source by using Linux. With Windows, I choose when to install the Service Pack update ... at least thus far :)
... don't buy a card with the lower quality VIVO Phillips chip) and a ATI TV-Wonder capture card. Grabbed two old 10Gig drives from another machine and I had something that cost me nothing more than the Series 2 TiVo.
Instead I bought a Pentium IV 2.4, Asus P4PE, 512 333 MB DDR, Leadtek A250 GF4 Ti4200 (which has a Conexant HDTV-capable video out
What software will I run? Well, right now I'm leaning heavily toward MythTV. With this I will eventually be able to surf the web, check email, play games, as well as schedule programs and skip through commercials in TV broadcasts. A few bucks and an afternoon of tinkering will also hopefully allow me to control the channel switching on the digital cable box from the computer's infra-red port.
There is also Freevo, which I may consider looking at if I don't like MythTV, although the activity on the mailing lists indicate that this system is already quite functional for many users.
Hope this is useful to anyone out there still sitting on the fence. I reached my decision after several hours of research on the web. I hope I don't regret it!
It's not stealing... it's innovation.
When all else fails, run.
That said, I'm in favor of the deal, as long as one's Slashdot id directly determines one's status in the new world order -- the lower the better.
You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound. Yes, it's your hardware, but rules exist to further a public good--a (relatively) pollution and noise free environment.
Your analogy is flawed. In this case you are talking about modifying your personal property to do something forbidden by law.
In the case of the tivo its like a VCR. The only things you can't do with something you've videotaped on your VCR is sell it or publicly display/broadcast it without permission of the copyright holder.
A better analogy with the Mustang, is if you weren't allowed to chip it, replace the exhaust system, the spark plugs, lower it, replace the spoiler, add neon lights, NOS, and everything else that rice rockets do.
The 'chipping it' option is even more appropriate. The tivo ships with options that are disabled by a password. The Mustang ships with more horsepower and torque but is 'disabled' by a computer chip. Replacing that chip to give yourself more HP is not illegal (even though it does void the warranty). So why can't someone find the password to give them the features already in the hardware?
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
"unless you're either in public (maiking an ass of yourself), distributing, or get caught while buying, you're pretty much safe doing them in the confines of your own home."
This is an interesting point. Most young people do not do drugs at home for fear of being caught by their parents. Therefore they go outside and do drugs or drink.
Now if you are white suburburnite middle class kid you drive daddy's car into the "woods" with your friends and drink, do drugs and fuck your girlfriend pretty confident the you won't ever see a cop in the middle of the night way out there. Same situation if you live in rural farm country or in the west.
If on the other hand you are an inner city kid who is poor (ie black and hispanic) then all you can do is try to drink or do drugs in some alley. As an added bonus you live in well lighted areas that are heavily patrolled by cops especially at night. Your chances of getting caught are much much higher.
This is why there is a HUGE discrepency between the number of whites and black felons.
War is necrophilia.
Nobody succeeds with a razor and blades business model
Um, Gillette seems to be doing fine...
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
You cannot drive it around in public places without its muffler, but if you owned a huge estate with its own network of roads, and it was large enough that the sound wouldn't reach your neighbors, you are not only allowed to drive without the muffler, but also without license plates, driver's license, insurance, registration, or serial numbers!
This is an argument frequently put forth by the anti-gun lobby: you have to license cars and drivers, why not guns and gun owners? The difference is that in the former case you are licensing the right to use the vehicle in a public road you share with others, whose safety depends on your ability to use it correctly, whereas the latter would be required even for ownership in your private home.
I think an analogy exists with consumer electronic hardware as well. As long as you are not entering or affecting a public space or other persons, shouldn't your hardware be yours to do with as you wish?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Distributed computing projects must meet 3 criteria:
1. Non-Profit or I get a piece of the action. Seti@home is non-profit, I get a free gig from easynews for every 15 days I run the UD client screening for Cancer drugs. They both pass this test.
2. Tight well written prefferably small secure code. If a DC client crashes my machine once it is out the door. I hate to be overly sensitive to such issues, but if the programmers tried to keep things small they will have less problems.
3. Must get the hell out of my way without my interferance when I want to do things. I don't want to have to close it when I want to play video games. I know that this seems like a stupid thing to want, but consider what this is saying about how well written the code is?
Now once you give me a client that passes all three of these criteria then who cares if it is a good cause or not?
I mean stuff the drug companies want you to do have good cause written all over them, but why do I want to pay for there bandwith, there processor time and there upkeep if they are not willing to send a little something-something my way?
I don't know if this DC Tivo thing meets #2 and #3 yet. But it definetly passes #1 with flying colors.
And if you consider that all the people that take part in it are probably Tivo-geeks from the Tivo Community that want access to this code anyways, then who cares?
This is like the Seti thing. Are they gonna find Space Aliens? No. But the project itself, them bringing the DC format to the forfront of the networking world and what it could bring with it in the future is too exciting a prospect to pass up.
I encorage DC apps. I find it a fascinating feild. Let the Tivo-geeks have there fun.
Besides.... and I know you won't believe this. Tivo doesn't really mind. These particular geeks are a huge faction of the Tivo population. Tivo kinda has a hands off policy with them anyways.
Um, Gillette seems to be doing fine...
Hmm, looks rather different when you read what I actually wrote rather than the deliberately out of context quotation:
Nobody succeeds with a razor and blades business model (the Tivo subscription) when there is a cheaper option flat fee.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
That said, I'm in favor of the deal, as long as one's Slashdot id directly determines one's status in the new world order -- the lower the better.
:)
I'm all for that - said I, with #1449
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
You cannot buy a 2003 ford mustang, remove the muffler, and drive around at 3am generating 100db of sound. Yes, it's your hardware, but rules exist to further a public good--a (relatively) pollution and noise free environment.
I sure the hell can. If I live in a rural area, nobody cares about sound except for me and I can happily drive without a muffler. In fact it is 100% LEGAL in michigan to drive on interstates without a muffler. (Old law, still on the books) Just because YOU dont like it and it's illegal to make excessive noise (Why cant my car make 100 DB of noise yet these damned HARLEY drivers can?) in some areas does NOT make it a smart thing for the car manufacturers to weld a pan on the bottom of the car to keep people from doing it.
It's the same as welding the car hood shut... It's not ethical to do it... I dont care what your reasoning for it, it's MY PROPERTY, and I have the right to do with it what I please.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Bad analogy. The proper analogy would be if your Mustang came with the hood locked shut, so that only Ford dealers could service your car.
that was for an 8 character password. the stats are now for an 9 character password.
48% complete
No, Tivo rents software at grossly inflated prices.
You're pissed because you didn't think of it and your too proud at this point to admit you could be wrong.
Actually the idea of the video recorder that thinks for itself is one of the things that Nicky Negroponte and Co have been talking about for years - long before Tivo existed or filed any patents.
As for intellectual jealosy, wait until Tivo has as many users as the stuff I have designed. I don't think that is likely to happen any time soon. Tivio is nothing more than incremental engineering improvement made possible by advances in disk drive technology and hardware compression. I don't do that stuff, I rarely work on a problem until after it has been called impossible.
Oh and from a business perspective, the company I helped build makes more money each year than Tivo has lost in its entire history (which is a lot).
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Anybody can order tech specs from Ford or GM for their cars. It may not be detailed enough to help you compete with them, but it's plenty detailed enough to do extensive repairs and modifications.
11*43+456^2
The corporation is required to act in the best interest of the shareholders, not the best interest of the employees.
Votes by shareholders are not one-person, one-vote.
This has been done. Someone at the TivoCommunity forum has replaced the hash we are trying to solve with a known hash. Then entering the code with enable back doors. What we are trying to do is find the correct code, so Joe User doesn't have to pull out his drive from the TiVo and hack around just to get back doors.