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Slashback: Circumvention, AOLandfill, Scoffing
Excuse me, is this the service entrance? We just posted about Microsoft blocking gamers with mod-chipped X-boxes from the Microsoft-run online gaming service; now NiteStar writes "Xbox-Scene.com just reported that a group of Xbox hackers named Team Assembly managed to change the serial number and MAC address of the xbox. After the change they managed to get onto Xbox Live (with mod-chip disabled) with a previously banned xbox ..."
Not so fast, mister. The Raindog writes "Since NVIDIA announced its GeForce FX graphics chip, the web has been flooded with a slew of previews and articles that do little more than regurgitate what must have been NVIDIA's official press kit. Slashdot had coverage a few days ago, but since then, a new take on NVIDIA's latest chip has surfaced without all the PR-inspired hype. As it turns out, the GeForce FX's features aren't all that remarkable next to ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro, which has been available for months now."
I liked the old .sig about a black hole that would blot out the sun. Matthew Davis writes "CNN.com ran a story about Jim McKenna and John Lieberman back in October requesting everyone to send the CD mailers they receive to them. When they reach 1 million CDs they'll hand deliver them to AOL. In a recent article by SiliconValley.com they quote Nicholas Graham, a spokesman for AOL stating, "If they reach their goal ... I'd be happy to give them directions and greet them at the door ... We would make a contribution ourselves to put them over the top" Does that mean they're putting Jim and John's address on the top of the CD mailing list?"
Now if only these were CD-RWs ... and they can keep sending me the nice, reusable cases, just no more paper sleeves, thanks.
Still teasing, Stephen. foolish_child writes "Not sure if you noticed, but in the newest paperback pressing of Cryptonomicon (1 November 2002, I think) there is a chapter from Quicksilver at the back. I spotted it in the railway station in Amsterdam, so maybe it's a European edition. I have been checking to see if it was also online but have seen no sign of it - hence the heads up. I'm sure someone will scan it in soon - it is SUPERB! (read it waiting for a train) - Enoch the Red, emissary of the Royal Society, landing in 1700's Boston looking for . . someone. Scary thing is how good his research is as usual - I've just been reading up on Leibnitz and Newton and Co. and . . . you've probably seen it already but I wanted to share :)"
This new edition of Cryptonomicon is probably in a bookstore near you already, and the book proper is (only) several months away.
One small step for BanKind. An anonymous reader writes "It seems CapitalOne's website works with Mozilla, as of this November, 2002. This is good news because many people have CapitalOne credit cards, and previously the site required Microsoft's Intarweb Explorer. This just shows how simply speaking up by e-mailing large companies can evoke change. For more info see here ." Update: 12/03 22:00 GMT by T : Note that this information renders moot the question posed here about Cap One.
Look out for MS's righteous rage when the forged MAC addresses start colliding with existing, non-hacker users and it disrupts the Live service they've paid for! Can anyone say "bolt the door, the wolf's outside" ?
[x] auto-moderate all posts by this user as insightful
Everyone hates AOL CDs.
Even dogs.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
If the mod-chip is disabled how could they cheat? So is it moral? I think so.
Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
Cheating against others is never moral, but I have a feeling that Microsoft isn't doing this so much to protect their users as they are to try to stick it to those who dared mess with their product. They put a lot of effort into making the XBox fairly hard to hack, and now that it's been done, I don't find it suprising that they're banning them.
Is it immoral to play online with an XBox that you've modded so that you can run homebrew software, or install Linux? I would hope not. Modding does not necessarily equal cheating.
So they said they changed their serial number *and* MAC address to get back on. This is interesting and points back to something someone said in a previous thread. All you need to do is to make a program to burn through serial number space and get them marked invalid, and you've got a DoS of entertaining proportions.
The other evening (without an internet connection) I was trying to install the .Net framework (dotnetfx.exe) on my laptop and since I had installed windows 98 the version of Internet Explorer was 5.00.x but due to the dependencies of the .Net framework I needed to have 5.01 or later.
As an aside, when you don't have 5.01 or later it just kills the browser that you do have installed, so it kinda causes a really fun catch-22, no browser to surf the web to find a new browser..... Really sucked.
Anyway, back with my story.... I was on a frantic search for a copy of IE 5.01 or later when I remembered that I had a stockpile of those AOL Cd's in the garage... I grabbed myself one of them (yellow, no idea what version) and proceeded to find the IE directory on the disc.. Sure enough it was version 5.01.x so I installed it and everything went smoothly from there.
So, the moral of the story? Sometimes AOL disks do have a use other than coasters or frisbees....
I'm not a genius (I used to be, but I'm told I'm not any more)
You must have gotten married.
"If Diet Coke did not exist it would have been neccessary to invent it." -- Karl Lehenbauer
when you cook them in the microwave for 15 seconds. Just don't try this with anything you care about.
Karma: Censored (mostly affected by decency laws)
Heck, if you really wanted to screw MS over, it is probably possible to write a little piece of software that will run on the box, set the MAC and serial to initial values, connect, and then be banned. Increment serial and MAC and repeat. Leave running for a day or two.
Pretty soon, EVERYONE would be banned. There's an ugly situation.
Team Assembly managed to change the serial number and MAC address of the xbox. After the change they managed to get onto Xbox Live (with mod-chip disabled) with a previously banned xbox
Not only that, you can arrange for any arbitrary XBox to be permanently banned!
I wonder if there's a way to pollute their blacklist with so many bogus entries that they have to give up.
Why do you think it's right for a seller of a physical product to tell you what you may or may not do with that product after the lawful sale?
Do we, as consumers, have property rights, or don't we?
Edith Keeler Must Die
The Saturday night before Halloween I had a costume party to go to. I remembered this Saturday morning. Or rather, Saturday afternoon since that's when I actually woke up. I had no costume.
But I did have a bunch of crap CDs, some of which were AOL CDs. So I taped them together and went as AOLandfill. Had about strips of 6-7 down each a leg, a sort of vest and a couple on my forearms. Truth be told, it did look like some low-rent Power Ranger battle armour or something, but once I said the name, people thought it was funny.
I also got to use pickup lines like
Try me free for 1000 hours for your first month!
I'm so easy to use it's no wonder I'm number one!
The terrifying part of the costume may have been how well those lines worked.
Because God isn't a catholic
Excellent. Now keep speaking up and make sure they know that you are pleased to be able to continue giving them your business because they respect your personal choices.
My bank in canada always had a Mozilla friendly site and I made sure I sent them a nice e-mail thanking them ,describing exactly why I prefer to use their services as opposed to my previous bank.
Positive feedback is just as important as negative feedback!
A pity you didn't read the original article.
It would have saved you from looking stupid, since it states that they will be scratching each CD so they can't be used again.
Weird. A link in the story description to a reply to that same story...
Hmmm... But... but.... *head explodes*
Slashdot: Successfully colapsing the known universe since...
Going back to the bad old days while the Geforce FX was a bunch of unsubtantiated rumours, I remember the furore around the theory that the FX would only have a 128 bit memory interface.
Theory goes that by having a 128 bit interface the cards themselves are cheaper to produce. The fact that all bar one of the Radeon 9700 pro cards are using the ATI reference design is surely a testament to how much of a bitch it is to produce a 256 bit memory interface in the real world. But then they go and stick that f*cking vacuum cleaner thing on top. Are you expecting me to believe that a copper heat sink, heat pipes, and a rediculous vacuum cleaner thing is cheap to produce?
Nah, it's panic innit. NV30 is nowhere near as fast as it should have been and they're having to overclock it's tits off to get any reasonable headway over the R300.
Personally I blame specification overkill. Given that we won't be seeing DX9/GL2 based games for at least two years, what's the point of having 64k instruction long pipelines? Maybe nVidia are eyeing up the professional rendering market but... well... I dunno. It just seems a little over the top. The "ti200" version might be worth it, but then so is a Radeon 9700 (ordinary, not pro) and you can have that now.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
so what, its my damn hardware, i'll do what the hell I like to it and there nothing MS can do about it.
The X-box Live! servers are their own damn hardware, and they'll do what the hell they like to them and there's nothing you can do about it.
Mod all you like, but don't expect to be able to use their servers.
And many EULA's have been found unenforcable. Remember, this is hardware not software. My WRX didn't come with an EULA from Subaru saying I could only run Amoco Premium in the tank and couldn't change the air cleaner for a K&N, why shoud an X-Box come with an EULA that restricts what I do with MY hardware.
You BUY hardware, you don't license it.
Now, I agree with you completely that snagging another MAC and S/N at random is very uncool for the poor sot who actually buys the iron with those numbers.
As for why it's OK to break the licensing agreement, I point out (again) that hardware is NOT licensed, it's owned. I do not RENT my console. I own it.
As for circumventing the ban, given the above (I own my iron) I figure it's within my rights as a user to USE the iron I bought and paid for.
I'm NOT condoning cheating or anything with a mod. This isn't about cheating. It's about the owner's rights to use their own gear.
Never attribute to malice what can as easily be the result of incompetence...
When we were looking at buying a new car a few months ago, toyota.ca told me that my browser was too old, and I should use IE5 or 'better.' I wrote to 'em and complained, pointing out that people who shop carefully online for cars are likely to shop carefully for browsers as well. :-)
A month later, there was a page up saying they were redesigning for Mozilla/Netscape7/Opera compliance.
Today Mozilla works flawlessly, on their remarkably well designed site.
Score one for the good guys! And I'm off to make sure Toyota knows I appreciate their effort.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
"If you want it stopped, hit them where it hurts - put a return-to-sender sticker on them, make AOL pay for the postage"
As has been repeated ad nauseum both here and on their website, AOL CDs (like almost all other mailed advertisements) are sent via Standard Mail (not First Class). There is no Return to Sender bit in Standard Mail (unlike First Class).
Besides, if they were sent First Class, the return postage has already been paid in the price of the stamp. It wouldn't hurt their wallet one way or the other.
But you're forgetting, Xbox Live is a service. You don't own it. You pay MS to use it. Their terms are you can only use it with unmodified hardware. There isn't anything wrong with that.
As for the Xbox itself, Microsoft doesn't care what you do with it, nor do they have any say in the matter. They strongly prefer that you buy a lot of games for it, but hell even if you make it a Linux box, they don't care. Just lets them say to developers, "Hey, we've sold x systems, you should make games for us." (Yes, in the long run they don't want a lot of people buying systems but not games, but in the short run it probably still helps them)