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Phoenix DRM Reads Your E-Mail

martensitic writes "eWeek reports that Phoenix has developed a utility allowing users of its laptop DRM BIOS (last discussed here) to 'check their Outlook data on a notebook computer without needing to boot the machine.' Since Longhorn is still several years away, Pheonix is developing their own trusted apps to sell the BIOS to laptop manufacturers. One can only imagine what other innocuous bells and whistles will be used to leverage DRM onto Joe Laptop's machine."

14 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Cool !!! by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can write an Outlook virus that takes out the system BIOS

    1. Re:Cool !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      When DRM comes out for some reason all of my mail will include a zip called "porno"...

  2. How dare they! by Channard · · Score: 2, Funny

    How dare such a potentially privacy infringing combination be developed? I find it sickening that this could allow someone else to go through my emails about generic viagra.

  3. Great! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Funny


    Now viral e-mail can spread even when your computer's down.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  4. So? by Licensed2Hack · · Score: 2, Funny

    The NSA has been reading my email for years! :-P

    'check their Outlook data on a notebook computer without needing to boot the machine.'

    Sounds like another Outlook virus.

  5. Re:Solution looking for a problem by ducman · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't have to wait 10 seconds. I use a Mac.

    --
    "We have nothing in common, your attitude annoys me, and your political views are appalling."
  6. BIOS by r00zky · · Score: 4, Funny

    BIOS: Acronym for Basic Input-Output System


    s/Basic/Bloated/

    --
    I'm a chainsmokin' alcoholic sociopath, so-ci-o-path
  7. No... you have it all wrong... by cnelzie · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...when you boot a computer equipped with this new BIOS you get the following:

    POST

    BIOS initialization

    Nag Screen Asking you if you want to read your email or continue to boot.

    Nag Screen Asking you if you want to read your email or continue to boot.

    Nag Screen Asking you if you want to read your email or continue to boot.

    Nag Screen Asking you if you want to read your email or continue to boot.

    Then you come back to your new computer with your cup of coffee expecting to see your Windows desktop...

    You hit the NO key, which is a combination of CTRL-SHIFT-N-Enter keys.

    Nag Screen Asking you if you are really sure you want to boot into the OS, because you can read your email from the BIOS.

    You confirm by contorting your hands and hitting the combination of keys confirming that you really want to boot into the OS.

    The comptuer boots and you enter Windows, check a few web sites and then check your email.

    Who the heck is going to use this? This seems like that 'wonderful' push technology that MS pushed so many years ago that turned out to be something nobody wanted.

    It's like the new "2-Stroke Gasoline Engine Powered Toothbrush". Sure, it might be more powerful then a plain old battery powered toothbrush, but nobody wants that stinky gasoline exhaust smell in the morning, plus it brushes to 'well' that the enamel on your teeth is removed after one use...

    --
    If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
  8. Wow! by inteller · · Score: 3, Funny

    So is there any way I can erase and use that 200Mb BIOS that it's going to take to cram in Outlook?

  9. DRM reads my email? by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought that's what we had the FBI for?

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  10. They changed name! by Den_onda_kotten · · Score: 2, Funny

    You guys are so behind, phoenix changed name to Firebird and then Firefox a looong time ago.

  11. Re:Program evolution by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

    You mean, some day I'll be able to read email with my light switch?
    Maybe if I'm pressing it for more then 5 seconds it'll send me the message by morsing through the light bulb ...

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  12. The bios reads your email... by Hoplite3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey! The BIOS and I have something in common!

    --
    Use the Firehose to mod down Second Life stories!
  13. Re:Basic?? by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Funny
    What does checking Outlook email have to do with _Basic_ Input or Output? Why don't they keep going and put a spreadsheet in the BIOS while they're at it?

    And the spreadsheet will have a flight simulator.