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360 Hacked To Play Backups
xorkid writes "Microsoft Corps '
unhackable' Xbox 360 console has been hacked. It is now possible to play copied games from recordable DVD DL discs without any soldering or hardware modification. The ingenious hack involves replacing the original 360 DVD firmware with a modified version that authenticates recorded DVD DL discs as original game discs. The hack does not require any modification devices but it requires a 1:1 copy of an original signed disc from the same region as the console. So it does not allow booting of unsigned code, yet. No Linux on the 360 for now, but its a start. There are rumours that there is an as-of-yet unreleased version that allows booting of unsigned code."
Might developers see that their games can be pirated now with a double layer disc and decide to develop for the PS3 instead?
Tux Racer! Oh joy!
What a great way to spend 300 bucks.
Some say he is made with ascii, others that he is eyeballed daily by millions. All we know is, he is known as the Sig
What a joke. "Unhackable!" indeed...
A reason to buy a 360!
These instructions are relatively complex, hopefully there will be a simplified and streamlined step-by-step guide posted sometime soon so most technically-literate people can mod their boxes like this.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Never, never, ever say something is unhackable. Someone out there with a much bigger brain than the developers will see it as a personal challenge.
Me: "Xbox, report."
Xbox: (sounding suspiciously like Majel Barrett) "Working... Verifying disc integrity with Microsoft servers."
Me: Um, hey. How about you open up the tray and let me have that back?"
Xbox: "I'm sorry, Dave. I can't do that."
(cue blaring klaxons, pan to to the horrified expression on my face as MS agents repelling through the windows with drawn MP40s)
Hah! Nonsense. This ship is unsinkable!
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
As E3 just gets over and the next-gen console wars start to heat up, a hack for the 360 comes out allowing for 'backup' games to be run. Now, I realize that MS loses money with each console sold, but how many people wait to buy a console till a way comes out to play 'backup' games?
I know many people that didn't own an original Xbox till they found out how easy it was to hack it, then ran out to get one. I am sure that MS will shut down Live for any systems that are running this hack just as they did for the Xbox running the softmod hack, but could this be something that MS planned on to sell more systems?
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
I went to all that trouble to look it up, when slashdot (probably automatically) had already linked it as a "related story".
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
Great job hacking Microsoft's Unhackable 360! Looking at the instructions, it seems a rather complex hoop jump, and if that's the case -- I'll stick with KnoppMyth and MAME.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Replacing the DVD drive firmware, which involves opening the X360 and plugging the DVD drive into a PC, doesn't sound like a hardware mod?
$300? Where have you been shopping? NewEgg has NEC, Lite-On, Plextor, and other drives for about $40. TigerDirect has a good selection too.
2 E16827152059
I have two dual-layer burners that, with enclosures and shipping, probably cost me $200 max.
Might as well get 'em while they're hot. Here, linkage: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
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I always love it when anything, anywhere is called "unhackable" because in the real world, absolutely nothing is. Microsoft (of all companies) should have seen this coming, having been founded by a bunch of hackers, having tons of highly-paid hackers on staff, and having many of the arguably most-pirated apps out there.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
That $300 drive is paid for with just 5-6 "backups". That's a small price to pay.
Umm.... what?
2 E16827106014 - dual layer burner: $35.99, free shipping
2 E16874100001 - low end xBox 360: $399
:)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
Maybe it's time to upgrade that DVD burner of yours, and tell the rest of us where you got an xBox 360 for so cheap
$300 for a dual-layer drive? What are you smoking? Check www.newegg.com, and you'll see that dual-layer burners start at around $30.
It sounds like this hack is a procedure that has to be performed for each 360, not a universal key that can be mass-produced like an Xbox 1 chip. And of course expect a new rev of the 360 that breaks this to hit pretty soon (or, as a stopgap, all 360s start using the Hitachi drive).
It looks like it's just another "hack the DVD drive to run copies of games", right? Geez. So it's just a way to run pirated copies, not even a way to build a homebrew system -- and it involves opening up the box and reflashing the firmware? And, of course, it's easy to mitigate; bets on whether the next rev of the 360 checks the DVD firmware signature on boot up?
Hell... I want to know where to get the $170 XBox 360!!! ;)
I wonder if it's just me who find it a bit tragicomic that you need a hack to play backups but not just any downloaded ISO's.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Hey man, some of us *like* Tux Racer. Seriously, if there was an easy no soldering way to run my own code on an X360, I'd probably get one. It'd make a pretty slick little media center PC, among other things.
I've got a refurb compaq under my desk that came with a dual layer drive. The whole system (including a gig of ram and an Athlon 64 3000+) cost $450.
Also, the two different models of $900 HP laptops my fiance and I bought came with DL drives standard as well.
Dual layer drives were pricey and rare two years ago. Now, every lower-mid-range PC comes with 'em standard.
Why hasn't anyone ever invented The Linux Game? Create a signed game, pay royalities to the game console provider, scream MONOPOLY at the top of your lungs if the refuse you, and have a running Linux OS on the game console. Might be a best seller.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
What kind of dual-layer DVD burner are YOU buying? I bought my DL DVD+/-RW drive for 50 dollars nearly a year ago.
Not to burst your bubble but dual layer burners cost approximately $40 to $60.
2 E16827152060 rates especially well.
This one in particular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N8
You mean so that Microsoft can lose even more money? Money they won't make up in game royalties since people will be running backups? Doesn't make sense to me.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I'll stave off the urge to exclaim "Bullshit!" in case there is something I am missing:
http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/98442/rb/19065232550
Dual Layer, +R(W), -R(W) for 25 quid ($40ish?) - what am I missing? I've had one for about 2 years, and thy were only 50 quid when I bought that one.
I paid 30 bucks for my NEC Dual Layer DVD+/-R in June of 2005. Where the hell do you shop? And can I sell you a DVD Dual Layer burner?
5 to 6 backups, and your ethics. Small price to pay, eh?
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
Bullshit. Nearly all dvd recorders in the last two years are dual layer. I bought my NEC-2510a just under two years ago and it cost me around $70 then (iirc). You'd be an idiot if you dropped 300 bones on a dvd recorder. Even $170 is ridiculous. I'm assuming you transposed those numbers as you're not going to find an xbox 360 for $170 either.
I have several, so thanks for sharing!. What is your point?
I'd bet anyone with a 360 has one or more, since it's a pricey tech toy -- literally.
MS never said it would be unhackable.
Also, this hack is not a real hack to run unsigned code or even something you can put on a mod chip. This doesn't even count...
Is this hack future-proof for unreleased games? Or will it only work with already-existing games? If this is only a "temporary" hack until Microsoft includes updated code in a future game release, then it doesn't serve much purpose for me.
Somebody "in the know" please provide some insight!
A community-oriented lyrics site
XBMC is absolutely the killer app of Xbox modding, with emulation close on its heels.
Of course, I realize it is cool to take things Microsoft says out of context the company is not made up by idiots (again, despite what many want to believe). They know it is going to be hacked. They're going to make every effort to make it as difficult as possible. But they aren't going to claim the ship is unsinkable.
Although, if I simply missed that article where the "unhackable" claim was made I look forward to a chuckle at Microsoft's expense. Perhaps someone could link that article though, since it isn't in the article summary.
You must understand, in the Conspiracy Theorist domain, no big company or government EVER has an "Oh shit." moment where they're caught with their pants down. Every action and apparent mistake is actually a carefully planned plot to make us eat Dorittos.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I bought my DVD burner that supports DL last year for $30. Piece of junk I'm sure, but it works. Burners are as disposable as printers anymore.
What main drag when it comes to DL is the media cost, not finding a burner.
Not 'again'.
A month ago someone claimed they'd done this. Now someone has released an actual firmware patch which does it.
I know very few people that don't own at least a couple of 'bought' games even if they bought the console to hack in the first place. Sure, they aren't going to go out and buy every game that they want to play, but there is always the games that don't 'backup' easy, or games that they do really like and buy to support the developers/publishers.
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
Most DVD burners I see on the market nowadays have DL support. I even got mine two years ago for $150.
NOW, DL media on the other hand... that stuff is still ridiculously expensive. ($5/disc? No thanks.)
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
By now it really isn't any surprise that a given console is hacked to play so called "backup" games. I think the interesting thing is that with each new generation, this process is becoming more complex, meaning that the average Joe/Jane who tries these hacks is more likely to totally disable (ie "brick") the console. And many of those who do successfully implement the hack are likely to be banned from the not so optional anymore online services associated with the console. Oddly enough, in the end this probably sells a few more consoles in the form of replacements. Oh and let's not forget those vandals who'll publish fake hacks with the intent of bricking as many consoles as possible, which happened to the PSP a few months back!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
their security is SOARING, like the Hindenburg
That's not the low-end 360, that's the premium bundle.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
I want stuff like the awesome homebrew software that was available for Xbox1. Like the XBMC, for example.
Why does my post history abruptly stop? I want to laugh at the stupid things I posted as a kid.
Please don't misuse the word anymore.
Wrong:
Burners are as disposable as printers anymore.
Right:
Burners are now as disposable as printers.
Also right:
Burners aren't that expensive anymore.
It wasn't always illegal. It might not be illegal currently, depending on local laws. Legality aside, ethically I think backups are acceptable. Discs aren't indestructable, and the publisher won't replace damaged media.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Discs aren't quite that bad any more. $1.80/disc for the 2.4x DVD+R DL over at www.supermediastore.com. Not that that's cheap compared to the single layer ones, but not 5 bucks anymore at least.
Except the post I responded to used "backups" in quotes, and referred to the cost of the setup ($300) paying itself off through 5-6 "backups". $300 / 5 = $60... the post was implying software piracy.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
"Easily hacked"?
The XBox and PS2 lacked any way to run pirated games without hardware modifications. Being able to pirate games after installing a modchip is not so impressive. What's really impressive is the ability to just download something off the internet, burn it, and drop it in an unmodded machine. It lets piracy happen incidentally, instead of piracy being something that is limited to those people so dedicated to it that they'll pay money to be able to pirate.
Thus a much better analogy than the one you offer would be not the XBox or the PS2, but the Dreamcast.
MS has no problems losing money on something, when it fits their world domination plans in some perverse way.
E.g., they never had a problem giving away IE or MS Media Player, and even arguing in a court of justice that they can't stop giving them away withot breaking the OS completely, if it served some other plan. In both cases the plot was about owning the media format (HTML is a file format too), and in Media Player's case owning the DRM for the next generation of media. There's some real money dumped into developping those, too.
E.g., see the relatively recent (last year?) story about them starting to give away a pretty complete version of their latest compiler, to keep people from getting started on GC and the like.
Etc.
Now they're not the only ones, and I'm not going to argue either pro or against MS there. Just saying it does happen.
In this case, we don't know if MS planned their console to be hackable. Maybe or maybe not. (Relying 100% on DVD drive firmware, and not even trying to authenticate that firmware, seems surprising... _weak_... for a company also trying to push DRM. It could be stupidity not conspiracy, though.) However, it certainly won't be the end of the line for MS. They could:
A) realize that, in fact, piracy makes buggerall difference. E.g., see the Galactic Civilizations 2 game recently which made headlines by being _the_ bestseller for a while in spite of being completely unprotected. Some may even say partially _because_ of being unprotected. I'm a legit buyer and I know _I_ enjoy not searching for the freakin' CD each time I want to play, for a change. Plus there's some peace of mind from knowing I won't lock myself out if I get the CD scratched. (Don't laugh, it has actually happened to me.)
And speaking of consoles, I know people who actually own the games for, say, their PSP (and had the original with them), but preferred to hack the BIOS and play off the memory card anyway. It actually had lower load times. Or I know I've enjoyed subverting some of the stupid region protections to play imported games I have bought. Sure, Sony or whoever may regard that as piracy, but as far as I'm concerned they (A) got my money, and (B) got it for some games they weren't planning to sell in Europe anyway. So if they're gonna complain about my forcing them to take my money, as far as I'm concrned they can STFU and go fuck themselves.
So the equation "lack of protection == big $$$$ lost" isn't even that clear cut. You will lose some users' money, but you will gain other users' money. As Gal Civ 2 showed, it can even out or even work in your favour.
And point in case, look at near history. The PSX and PS2 were trivial to chip, and I don't think Sony made a loss with either of them. The Dreamcast didn't even require any modding: as soon as people figured out how to extract an ISO of those proprietary CDs, you could just burn it on an ordinary CD and the console would cheerfully boot it. Yet the Dreamcast enjoyed a particularly high rate of games sold per console sold. I.e., the average Dreamcast user was actually buying more games, which is pretty much the opposite of the supposed doom-and-gloom effect of piracy on the industry.
B) make a PR win out of it anyway. More consoles sold can be spun into sounding like not only a major console-war win, but as being a huge market for the publishers. God knows the publishers never stopped making PS2 games just because the GameCube is harder to put a pirated game in. Which in turn can further boost sales of consoles, and so on.
C) just care about taking market share from Sony, as usual. Let's face it, I don't think the first XBox actually made a profit on the whole, and that didn't stop MS from making the XBox 360 an even bigger hole to throw money in. MS's plot doesn't seem to be about breaking even, or much less about actually making a profit, but about killing off those who do currently live off their profits in the market. To what end, I couldn't know, but they sure don't seem to mind losing money to that end.
So basically I wouldn't be surprised if they're perfectly OK with the idea of your buying an XBox 360 even only to play, ahem, "backups", as long as that keeps you from getting a PS3.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
> XBMC is absolutely the killer app of Xbox
Why haven't they registered here, and aquired real developer license then?
If it really is killer application, I'm sure all users wouldn't mind donating few $/ for good cause(say, to pay the neccessary license fee for developers to get their code signed).
If microsoft refuses XBMC as a suitable software, just slap them with monopoly lawsuit.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
5 to 6 backups, and your ethics. Small price to pay, eh?
Depends on how much you paid for your ethics.
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
...through all the words you put in their mouth. The article linked in the story does not claim that the system is unhackable, just that it's significantly harder to hack than previous systems. Taken directly from that story: "I'm sure sooner or later someone will work out how to circumvent security. But the way we have done the design doesn't mean that it will work on somebody else's machine." That's remarkably pragmatic considering the blanket claim you're attributing to them.
The difference this time around is the significant percentage of 360 owners who also use the Live service in some form or another. To put it very simply, an Xbox 360 without Live is a crippled machine, drastically reducing the incentive to use this hack. A piece of hardware can always be hacked; however, a well maintained online service is a moving target that cannot be consistently hacked. The PSP is a good example of this in practice, with hacks being stamped out by firmware upgrades as fast as homebrewers can write them. Perhaps we have finally entered into the era of the unhackable console after all.
only one everything
Every action and apparent mistake is actually a carefully planned plot to make us eat Dorittos.
Ha ha, you missepelled "Doritos"!
Man, I sure could go for a bag of Doritos right now, though...
It's not "backups". It's "copies".
First off, we all know damn well how many people really use things like this for "backups". (It's no surprise that Alcohol Software had to go to online authorization and activation; their customer base is 99% dishonest.)
Secondly, all these people "playing backups" must be awfully incompetent to have lost their originals so quickly. If you're "playing the backup" when you still have access to the original, it's not a backup, it's a working copy. The one that's stored in case of disaster is the backup; the one you actively use normally isn't.
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Well, last time someone had a video that said you could do it, but they wouldn't release the firmware. This time someone has released the firmware and full instructions on how to make a backup and everything.
They need more than just a developer license to distribute XBMC, wouldn't they need to license all of the codecs it uses as well?
The best way to do this and not give up your ethics is to "illegally" burn every fifth game. Thats because 360 games cost $65 new. So to make up for it, just rip every fifth game and while it will still be illegal, your saving money and not giving up your ethics. This is why I look forward to the Wii. Its supposed to be low in development costs, and they want to keep game prices down.
If we were able to run unsigned binaries, we probably wouldn't need this particular hack.
This hack has absolutely nothing to do with running Linux or anything else unsigned. And last I checked, DL media was like $10 per disc, so it made no sense to use it to pirate movies that cost $20 for a legit copy. Wake me up when we can:
- Upgrade the hard disk in the 360 with a stock SATA one off Newegg
- Run any game we want off the hard disk, instead of the DVD
That would be seriously good news for both Linux and pirates. Keep a game archived on two single-layered DVDs (less than $1 for both), keep the ones you're playing on the hard disk, delete old ones and copy new ones off the DVDs when you need to.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Right now is a very critical time for future devs looking to see what platform they might set sail with. If the 360 is really this easily piratable out of the gates, then you wont see much support down the road.
I can get a 25 pack of Ritek 2.4x DL +R disks for $30.
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
Per your comment about being able to buy the HDD peripheral and plug it into USB and it just 'works (tm)' is incorrect. Utilizing the PS2's HDD adapter requires a lot more work than that. It requires the purchase and installation of the HDD Adapter (which was useless for anything else, unless you're one of the four people alive that play FFXI), it required you to send a specific file to your memory card to allow for an exploit to load unsigned code onto the HDD and be able to execute it, then it required the HDD Loader software -- which is notoriously hard to deal with and doesn't work with every game.
So, it is still pretty damn hard to pirate games on a PS2 using the HDD adapter. A lot easier if you use the Swap Magic disc and a Slide Card, which costs about $20, leaves your PS2 unmodified, and only requires a small modicum of time every time you want to play a burned/backup/import game.
I'm not really arguing that it's *hard* to pirate games for the PS2, just that it's harder than you made it seem in your last post, especially with the HDD Adapter.
Xbox and Dreamcast still take the cake. Both can be 'modded' without opening the case and without voiding warranties. Hell, you can ftp games onto the Xbox once it's modded. You don't even need those DVD blanks anymore.... A lot easier than the PS2 with any network adapter, hdd adapter, etc. The DC, as we all know, didn't require anything other than a good copy of Padus DiscJuggler -- it could burn all of the content protection required, and self-booting discs were a dime a dozen.
To the darkened skies once more, and ever onward.
$5 a disk is a lot better then $60 a game.
Dude, what world do you live in? DVD-DL burners have been out quite awhile now, and are getting to be a dime a dozen to purchase. CompUSA has them on sale every other week for about $100 or so....Heck a quick search revealed these cheap units for $79 and up...
Most any computer you even see from Dell can easily have a dual layer burner put on it...and media is getting cheaper, like near $0.50/disc or better...
Take a look around, dual layer burners are all over the place cheap...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
$2 / disc.
Thankyouverymuch.
sig?
This place is crawling with people who'd actually know, so talk to us: is it basically a few lines of code for MS to examine the firmware file size/date and know it's not legit? Or is this the sorta thing that runs separately from other processes and can run undetected? I'm assuming it's the former, but the cheap bastard in me wants it to be the latter.....
I love watching you hypocrites justify piracy. "Everything should be free! M$$$$$"
Backups are ethically beautiful. What are the chances that people will use this to backup games they own?
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Once balance is restored, however, the equation has been changed. I no longer feel sorry for any copyright infringement that may occur.
After all, taking away this right is pretty much an act of war. An act of treating your customers as if they were filthy criminals.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Actually, it is pretty easy. The hardest part is getting the files onto the memory card. There are multiple ways to do this. You can build a swap disc and make a slide card out of a credit card, you can use an Xport/Sharkport (the method I used), use a USB stick and that wierd memory card software, or (easiest of all) you can copy the files off someone else's memory card that already did all that.
What is so "notoriously" difficult about HDloader? What is so hard about inserting your game, clicking copy, and giving it a name on the HD? A few games had to have special modes set, but for the newbs out there, you just look up on a list what someone else said worked, or you try each one until it works for you (and mode 3 is usually the one that fixes it, all the others work only on a few games).
I would say there is a 80-90% success rate with games working on HDloader. Yeah, not everything works, but you can get most of your typical collection on there.
And the slide card? I wouldnt' risk the damage to the drive from using it all the time. Yeah, it's fine to do it to get the files on the memory card, but once you do that, it's best to just use the HD for the games.
The best part of all, you can take a PS2 with a partially damaged laser that gets Disc read Errors, and chances are good it will still be able to read PS1 discs, which are necessary to trigger the exploit. And if you have a good laser, what better way to keep it good than to put your games on the HD, and just play the ones that don't work off the originals?
>So, it is still pretty damn hard to pirate games on a PS2 using the HDD adapter.
3 lines down...
>I'm not really arguing that it's *hard* to pirate games for the PS2
You are contradicting yourself. You are confused. It is very easy to use the HDLoader stuff. It's a little more difficult to actually pirate games, because you have to use a computer to put the games on, since an unmodded PS2 won't read burns. Or you can use the network cable to send games over the LAN, but at 100mbit/sec, it's easier to use a USB 2.0 external drive cage. But just copying your originals is simple.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
It's almost like you actually believe that. It's so cute, the rhetorical horseshit the 'entertainment wants to be free' crowd will go through to justify their piracy. Just admit your an infringer, admit you know you're acting illegally, and get on with it. Stop pretending free video games are some sort of protest.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
* Can Microsoft detect it via Xbox LIVE? They probably can ... and when they start checking they will probably act like with the Xbox1, ban your Xbox 360 console serial for life from the LIVE servers ... or maybe even more, who knows what they are planning. You've been warned!
You have been warned I guess.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
Actually, there was no modification required at all! Just pop in the properly prepared CDR. There was no risk to my warranty. No messy soldering to screw up. And no risk of bricking my Dreamcast... or even if I did, it'd be "covered" by the warranty. This hack for the X360 is not in the same league as the Dreamcast hack.
Why haven't they registered here, and aquired real developer license then?
Probably because a lot of its attractiveness comes from functionality that is either illegal under laws like the DMCA, or goes far enough against what MS and the media corporations think is "proper" use of a media device that it would never be approved.
If microsoft refuses XBMC as a suitable software, just slap them with monopoly lawsuit.
Yeah, I'm sure the XBMC team has enough money for that legal battle in their spare change jar.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Unless the entire disk content is signed, now you can modify the data the game will use... Which makes it potentially feasible to use something like a buffer overflow attack (crash the signed code to have it execute something else). The cost in DL media would be pretty steep mind you. But hey, it's a 'start'.
Disclaimer: I don't actually know if that can really be done, but I'm no xbox hacker.
Mind the frickin' laser...
They are a protest when the alternative is buying something that uses Starforce.
TigerDirect is shit, do not shop there. (at the least research the place's reputation before shopping there)
I play Jardinains! and old commodore 64 games, ones I bought back in the day. (played on an emulator these days) Modern games are very boring to me.
Anyway, I've watched copy protection come and go for 30 years. It's always hacked. Every time. And, the more oppressive it is the more I celebrate when it gets hacked.
I mainly infringe copyright by downloading tv shows like Battlestar Galactica. I can't feel very guilty about that, since otherwise I'd dvr it and watch it when I wanted without commercials anyway. I don't really see any difference. I freely admit that it is copyright infringement, even dress up like a pirate sometimes. But it isn't different in any material way, so it's not an ethical problem for me personally.
You seem to want to give away our rights, but I remember when people fought for the right to have vcrs, tape recorders, and backup media for fragile 5 1/4" diskettes. Copyright is untenable currently, and I root for the pirates. Hopefully the pendulum will swing back towards a more equitable copyright system, but until then I have nothing but contempt for efforts to further erode the situation.
Man, you really need that seminar!
Yep, I'm a terrible psychic, then in your fourth paragraph you admit to being a law breaker. Congratulations on your failed attempt to rationalize shitty behavior by explaining how you're entitled to free entertainment. Your 'right' to be entertained shall not be infringed!
Fight the good fight, brother. When you win, and you teach creators the lesson that there is no reward to create and distribute content, you may find the victory hollow. I suspect you have some sort of rationalization to back that up, as well. Just remember, when you start using excuses to justify behavior, (I would watch it without commercials anyway, so there is no difference) you're generally not very 'morally correct.'
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
Firstly, you ignored my point that copyright is more strict now than ever before. Is there a limit to what is acceptable? What if we had to pay for every show being broadcast whether we watched it or not?
What is the difference between dvr-ing a tv show and watching it without commercials and pirating it and watching it without commercials? What creators get paid? and how?
Are you depriving some corporation if you make a sandwich during commercials?
What is your position on timeshifting shows?
You come off as a corporate shill or copyright lawyer. I'd like to understand your point of view, but you're not doing a very good job.
Man, you really need that seminar!
The "New Improved Flavor" crap they added to Doritos in the past year or so stopped me from eating them. I used to buy them all the time.
Maybe this video will help you refresh your memory on that second one.
4 0145858863&pl=true
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-29912547
This is the first time I've seen the Games section skin on the slashdot site.
The purple on this page is absolutely hideous. It's making mine eyes hurt.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Remove the quotes and the statement is just as true. A dead backup is better than a dead original, since you'd have to rebuy the original again
...is that nothing is ever certain. I doubt that there will ever be an unhackable system. It is the nature of things that when one system evolves, it promotes evolution in other systems. Coevolution is a fundamental process in the biosphere and I am sufficiently humble to think that we are not yet so smart as nature. I actually printed this bit of news out to pass on to our school committee. They want to put teacher's gradebooks online and firmly believe that they can keep the system safe from little hacking fingers. Our computer system was scavagend from the castoffs of another district and was likely cutting edge when Regan was in office...Another example of people with no understanding of technology being in charge of technology.
Seriously, without some major HDD space you're reduced to using it as a thin client. Put in a big HDD and it's a media center.