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Vista Security The 'Longest Suicide Note in History'?
rar42 writes "The Inquirer is reporting on an analysis of Vista by Peter Gutmann — a medical imaging specialist. This isn't the usual anti-Microsoft story — just a professional looking at what is going to happen to his computer if it is upgraded to Microsoft Vista. From the article: 'Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost,' says Gutmann."
From TFA:
At first, I shared some cognitive dissonance with Gutman; China, however, is governed by Chinese and for Chinese: they're allowed to act in their own best interests.
The U.S., on the other hand, is beholden to parasites and corporations; and compelled into an unnecessary decline.
You're not supposed to use a consumer grade OS for mission critical apps anyway. So if you went with a vendor that builds its apps on such an OS, then you are at fault.
I've seen Vista in action, and sure it's pretty and everything. I'm just not willing to trade the whole purpose of my computer for some graphical niceness. My computer is my media machine. I download video and watch it. Legally circumventing the TV licence fee. I'm not paying for a product so I can pay for more products. No way.
Same story at http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/22/172 7245
For the kinds of purposes I'm interested in (research, science) this will make workers question the priorities of the operating system they are using. Is the priority to have maximum flexibility, performance, compatibility and extensibility (*nix) or to have maximum convenience for consumers (Windows).
Without a doubt, Windows is still the most convenient platform for consumers. But the priority behind the design is not purely performance and flexibility, but protecting content and other commercial interests.
We sure know the priority isn't security either
Nobody ever asked for Vista. Nobody wants it. I'm tired of MS trying to ram it down our throats.
Did you know DirectX 10 will only be released under Vista? Even if you have the latest and greatest G-card and a fast system, sorry, if you run XP you'll be stuck with DirectX 9. There's no technical reason for this. It's just that MS wants you to 'retrograde' to Vista.
How about someone do a web site reselling old XP licenses? eBay refused to do this because MS asked them not too. How about someone will some guts and enterpreneurship takes a go at this. Could be a huge market for XP resales especially to businesses?
As for games developers, do what I do: Switch to OpenGL next release.
Microsoft was legally forced to remove version numbers from Windows as the software they ship was technically no longer improved.
``This isn't the usual anti-Microsoft story just a professional looking at what is going to happen to his computer if it is upgraded to Microsoft Vista.''
Doesn't any professional investigation of Vista inevitably end up being an anti-Microsoft story?
(Just kidding. I actually think Microsoft put a lot of good things in Vista - although I'm not convinced it's a good product, and I'm definitely not dying to use it)
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Here's a link to the actual paper referenced in the article.
I would post the entire paper, but it's too large. Here are some notable excerpts:
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Vista is a fantastic piece of modern day engineering. When that boot screen loads, I almost cream my shorts. People are saying that Vista is a clone of the MAC operating system. Are they mad? Vista was planned 6 years ago, the MAC OS stole from those early demo versions that where released.
MAC is simple if you do everything Apples way, think outside the box and you will feel frustrated.
Vista is so versatile, smooth and it has all the DRM goodness a man can get.
Linux is for hardcore 1ee7 haxors, with no dress sense.
PS: Linux users are breaking the LAW every time they watch a DVD using their OS.
Peter is a security guy. He's written widely used crypto software. He is not a medical imaging specialist. Where did /. get the idea that he's a medical imaging specialist???
This article was poorly researched FUD the first time it appeared on /. last week. Editors if your gonna dupe something, At least make it something worth reading.
Slashdot "editor" isn't about being tech-savvy, and never was. It's about people like Roland Piquepaille and PreacherTom. It's about profit.
The "editor" is there to post as many stories as possible which will boost Slashdot's share of ad-revenue. That's the only requirement.
It doesn't matter if the story is uninteresting, irrelevant, or just plain idiotic. So long as Slashdot get's a cut of the advertising bucks, mission accomplished.
You'd think after all these years everybody would have figured that out. Why else would we have had to endure clueless gits such as Zonk, ScuttleMonkey, kdawson, or -- dear gods -- Michael Sims?
As a onetime colleague and friend of Peter, I can say that Slashdot employees are really the anti-Gutmans of the tech world.
Well it's becoming more evident everyday that many corporations, politicians and media sorts see people in markets as not much more that cultured bacteria in a dish. They give you a marginal amount of satisfaction and then stick you in the eye hoping in the end you will be just one more percent more satisfied than less and so they keep you in orbit that way while they move on to the next triangulation.
I bought a highly rated Dell 2007WFP last month and it turned out Dell was now making that model with a whole new panel without telling anyone. A 8 bit S-IPS was replaced with a junky 6 Bit S-PVA. It's a very different monitor now. Dell pretty much shows it has contempt for customers and Microsoft is the same. You get a few nice new features (some not ripped off from Apple) and then you get spanked and are told its for your own good (or somebody's).
I only cut Microsoft some slack because other parasites try to bleed Microsoft non-stop. When all the big players get done wrestling each other the little people not trampled yet get the chance to overpay for some compromised item that's more sizzle than steak. Vista will be ok - good enough to use. But it will kcik you in the balls all the time just to remind you that you are an extension of your computer (and those that run it) and not vice versa.
Now I will try to watch the game on television. They still show some of the action in between endless commercials that scream at you.
As Microsoft moves further into the entertainment business the actual computational side will either spin off or die off. Frankly I don't give a damn if the hollywood guys and the music guys all go broke. We have somehow bought into this idea that what they "create" entitles them to obscene profit and privilege. The resources law enforcement wastes making sure these parasites can afford more hookers and crack is a travesty. Now you can expect to have your mission critical and production machines lose their minds when some content protection system kicks in.
Sorry about the rant.
I could have Windows legally for free (university license, which includes copies for students for non-commercial use) but since it would mean that MS could claim one more legit copy of Windows in the world I won't to do it - but most consumers are willing to pay for shit like that? When will people wake up? I stopped buying music long time ago due to certain draconian legislation and music is just entertainment whilst I actually have to settle with being slightly less productive and more frustrated using certain Linux apps that aren't as good as some Windows equivalents.
fta: Disclaimer
:)
Any opinions expressed on this page are not in fact mine but were forced on me at gunpoint by the University of Auckland.
He a shill!
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
The trouble with M$ + SONY all that long ago 1999 cira...
Just shows what has happened. Not even SONY want to play with M$ in this game cause SONY have RESPECT to the people!
Just goes to show,
SONY dumps M$ for human colors not $
Happy XMAS!
The record and film industry do not want new technologies to be available to the public. They will fight bitterly until the last, until the new medium is forced on them. And then they will make money on it. Think of home video. The film industry brought the VCR manufacturers all the way to the Supreme Court until they lost. Now the film industry makes significantly more money in home video sales than in the theatres. Technology must be imposed non-consentually on the content providers. The manufacturers need to release their products regardless of the complaints of the content providers.
I don't know why Microsoft is bending over for the media companies. They should just publically state that any mandated copy protection will hurt the ability of corporations to develop their own proprietary software. I'm sure there is at least a dozen companies which will gladly provide written statements about how the copy protection hurts their business. Microsoft then gives the media companies the middle finger. Pirates rape the media companies in innovative ways by releasing the content in manners not approved by the owners. The media companies are forced to create new media delivery methods to match consumer demands. This increases their revenues which were stagnant because of media executives who couldn't innovate their way out of a paper bag. The consumer benefits from new options in the market. Everyone benefits from the rape.
I don't believe piracy for profit should be legal. However, I don't believe that non-profit piracy is that bad. Many people would never purchase the movie or television show. Many people later purchase the legal version of the pirated product. For example, let's say a Slashdot reader named Jim missed out on the first 8 episodes of Heroes. He had heard it was a really good show, but didn't want to watch number nine first. Let's say that Jim downloaded the episodes in non-approved manner and watched them. Now Jim is a loyal Heroes watcher. Or let's say that Jim downloads technical books, finds which ones he likes and then purchases them online. Does Jim contribute to the media companies bottom line or does he hurt the media companies bottom line?
Could someone please like, read....something before they post a summary? I found no indication that Gutmann is a medical imaging specialist from his web page or report. He's a computer scientist who specializes in compression and encryption, which actually makes him a little bit qualified to perform a professional review of the new operating system.
The only thing remotely medicine related here is a quote from 'Brad Steffler MD.', a surgeon who claims that Microsoft's restrictive DRM methodologies make it more difficult for him to do his job.
Many industrial and medical applications run on Windows. You forget that Windows NT was advertised as a high-security C3 operating system. Many applications were ported on this advertising. Some of the lock-down permissions in Windows NT were pretty draconian, and worked really well.
With Windows Vista, Microsoft appears to be completely abandoning any pretense of high-reliability.
Many industrial and medical applications have fairly high reliability requirements. Using commodity software and hardware has some cost and reliability advantages. It is easy to source replacement parts, and implement hardware redundancy. Being able to easily obtain replacement hardware is a big advantage if downtime costs are large.
The problem is that Microsoft appears to have abandoned the high-reliability sector. Windows XP has a continuous stream of rolling updates for both XP and the Anti-Virus packages. The result is that your high-reliability application can stop working for no apparent reason. From all indications, Windows Vista will make this worse.
Recently, I have been looking harder and harder at Linux. Linux offers a much more stable platform, and I can customize the installation to make it much more difficult to corrupt. The issue is that such a high software investment has been placed in specialized Windows solutions, that it is difficult to port everything to another operating system overnight.
Sounds like a good case for a anti-trust trial in europe :-)
to see these old chestnuts dragged out with every new version of Windows. There isn't a single new complaint since Windows95. Most of it unqualified paranoid ranting. Keep notes and you can be amused when all this starts again with Windows Vienna!
Isn't it obvious ? Microsoft markets their OS to the movie/music companies as being the only system secure enough for them to release their content in. In turn, the movie/music companies only release their content to play back under Windows. A nice little win-win situation all round (except for the poor consumer, who loses twice...)
...but from the PR standpoint, it's a WIN. I'm all for discouraging Windows use, but I'm also one for personal
choice. And if it means someone has to give people crutches in the short-term to score points in the long run
so be it.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
...and sudenly Linux is the new gamers OS.
Rethinking email
MS are inserting themselves in the stream because they want to be the pimp of all media. they will shutout non-microsoft obedient hardware vendors as well as stopping use of VMs, alternative OSs and legacy multimedia I/O such as spdif and composite video
:-(...
Watch for iPod Vista compatibility 'problems' to start surfacing for the benefit of Zune. The other big thing this DRM play will also try to do is to reintroduce protected CDs or to make it more difficult to play/rip unencumbered CDs.
MS want the cartel-on-cartel action that the music and video industries also want so they can dominate the mOS/HW market the media cartels want to force the users to go the leased-conent model and eliminate private music ownership -it would almost be socialistic -in the Kremlin sort of way, but not like true Socialism
Plus they need more leverage against iTunes/iPod
-I'm just sayin'
Thanks for keeping the presses rolling on Christmas.
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Look at linux... its not like we have Linux 3.0 and Linux 4.0 where nothing old works.
Its still linux. 8 year old stuff still compiles mostly, its fluid.
If windows was so great, it would stay at one version XP forever, with unlimited updates forever, SP4 SP21. etc...
Just because they are forced by marketing to make a new version is admiting its core is crap and needs a rewrite.
They could just as easily update/replace portions of XP gradually, six monthly. And make sure each other component isnt
too tied to others. ie WMP shouldnt need IE7 or something else... it should be detect and use if available.
This whole idea of , lets stop current dev and all new dev is placed into a new 'version' edition is total marketing crap, and
old school stuff of the 80s. Modern complex systems should never have a major rebuild, its always small step updates, like real
biological evolution.
OSX is basically the same, but again its articially versionized because of just new components added, and the silly side effects like
newly compiled made software not working on old OSX's even if they use no new features, thats my biggest pet pieve of OSX. Sometimes
its only the result of the installer package, not the code it self which would work fine. If X library is less than version Y, then dont use
those features.
Btw does apple make the old OS10.1 and 10.2 upgrades from 10.0 FREE NOW? what about any one left in 10.2 land, do they get a free 10.3 upgrade
once 10.4 is widely installed? Having too many versions installed out there should be a worry for them, they should allow all 10.3 machines to upgrade
for free. It would surely be cheaper to have no support for pre 10.3 if you provide free upgrades.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Except Microsoft basically owns the OS market, and they can therefore dictate their own terms, much like Apple and the iTunes store in the portable music sector.
What are the media companies going to do, not release media that will play on Windows operating systems if Microsoft doesn't implement their DRM? Hell no. So again, why is Microsoft bending to their demands?
What rant? I must've missed it.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
No, you have it wrong. Your "companies" exist only from being granted a governmental license to be of the public interest and then make profits,in that order and not reversed, given that they follow the law all the time. MS is a convicted abusive monopolist of the highest order, totally guity of numerous crimes against consumers and other businesses. This is fact, not theory and not debateable. And they aren't done in court yet, either in the US or overseas. They are on the thinnest ice right now despite their huge size, and that psychopath Ballmer is on even thinner ice legally despite his braggadacio.
At one time Enron was huge, too, but their arrogance and questionable antics lead to their downfall and execs beinc charged and convicted.. The same can happen to MS and their goon hierachy as well. And the government-the people-can require the companies to do anything they say or lose their business charter, their incorporation.. yes, they CAN be forced. They do NOT have any "right" to be a corporation,none, zero, no rights at all, only named individual humans have "rights". They have limited PERMISSION to offer consumer products, as long as they don't screw up into illegal acts, which in their case they seem to have a hard time avoiding, they seem to be addicted to criminality. Telling the consumer they don't have to buy criminality is correct, we as a society can bust them up and chuck their executives in jail if we feel like it and pull theior products from the market and let the shareholders just eat ir raw.
IF we can get some non bribed off people back into government,which is *quite* possible now with the semi regime change that has happened, we can go back and revisit MS criminal actions, past and present, and bust that criminal gang up like they deserved to be a long time ago and their vista could be hasta la vista.
"Companies" are NOT allowed to just "go do what they want" even if you believe that in some sort of "money is god" cult like utterance.
If you want that sort of market try the horn of africa, no rules there other than how poewrful you and your fellow criminal hoodies are. In the civilized world, "companies" are coming under more close inspection because of the bogus crap they try and pull all the time and their alleged "products" can be regulated. In their case I think a total code audit is in order to see how much copyright violation is going on and how many patents they have infringed. Want to bet they are 100% clean? I wouldn't. In their business we need to see how much bribes or illegtimate "consumtant fees" are being paid to officials and purchasing officers in order to sell their products. Think they are really clean there too? That's two things society can do to take a look at these convicted criminals to see how much more mischief they have been up to to make the sort of profits they show. There's something not quite right there...
Starting to get it yet, shill? You start draggng billions out of economies all over and get caught time and again pulling illegal stunts eventually you WON'T be doing that. And there goes your paycheck.
And if they offer something for sale, they usually have to make it work, not hurt other people, and not hurt rival businesses by using illegal tactics. Fail any of those three things and they can get their product recalled, happens ALL THE TIME with other products, by law. They have been convicted before, think they have changed? Just because they have gotten away with being assholes for a long time with some joke fines doesn't mean they always will.
If it can be determined that Vista runs afoul of fair use rights, etc, or unfairly restricts other business or consumers with what they offer as software by abusing their monopoly status again, or if they acted in collusioon with other vendors to dominate a market illegally, they could possibly and should be told to either alter their software radically, or have
http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms/defa ult.aspx
this is a microsoft hosted page that you can pull up any EULA you want (MS products only of course)
Microsoft requires the right to DISABLE YOUR COMPUTER if it fails a validation check (WGA BOFH style anyone?)
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
There is a brilliant episode of the SIMPSONS that has an XMAS 'SHIT' in it, it realy reminds me of Micro$hit!
Let's say that Jim downloaded the episodes in non-approved manner and watched them. This one is totally off base. If you can download the content, why purchase it? I certainly wouldn't
I was running an industrial validation lab, and ran into similar stuff. In this case, it was stuff being pushed onto machines that needed to be operating. Combined with the usual blue screens, we had problems hitting time targets. se mabla
A lot of assertions about what will happen, but specific examples and evidence are few and far between. Without harder facts that demonstrate the effects he claims, the author's claims are no more believable as those of "Intelligent Design".
Peter Gutmann is a "security expert". In fact, he may well be the computer security expert.
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/
Don't be fooled by the WWW-Circa-1992 homepage...he is a world renowned and respected security researcher.
Umm, excuse me for being a buttinsky.. but I beleive second quote is in fact FROM INQ reader BRAD STEFFLER MD!!! Who may, in fact start off a quote with "As a physician who uses PCs for image review before I perform surgery.."
It seems some Slashdot "readers" also have the wrong title..
So many injustices..so little time..
Has anyone else heard of Microsoft shutting down production of the Vista installation CD, because there was a hidden swastika in the clouds on the cover?
This certain plant had to stop production for four hours before anyone got an explanation from Microsoft. And then, they had to shred all of the copies of the Vista cover (or booklet).
I didn't find anything about it on google. I figured that someone here would have heard about it.
Why does a Medical Imaging Specialist look into security of Windows Vista ? That is a complete oxymoron. All computer science personnel cannot be tarred with the same brush. This is the problem of most forum based discussions anybody can post stuff and it gets enough hype if its slashdotted.
Oh, I dunno, maybe they'll install their own DRM that breaks your computer?
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
I just bought a PC, "Vista Ready". I get to run XP Media edition, seems to rip MP3s quite nicely. So when Vista arrives I will shelf it for 2 years waiting until at least one major service pack, security and stability to be tested by others. By this time lets hope the DRM is disabled. If not, there is a reason why I use only MP2/3/4 formats.... it moves to Linux nicely.
They dictate the terms they do, because it helps them maintain their monopoly position. I can think of 5 benefits for Microsoft off the top of my head:
1) Locks users into their proprietary formats, and locks other operating systems/competitors out.
2) Allows Microsoft to charge a fee for encoding and decoding to/from those formats.
3) By being the only solution mandated by the RIAA/MPAA, causes those groups to support Microsoft as the only acceptable software solution.
4) Allows Microsoft and others to spread FUD about Linux being a system used by "pirates" and "hackers" (because it doesn't support DRM)
5) Makes Microsoft's offerings seem more attractive, since only they offer access to "premium" content
And by the way:
Note that exactly the same situation applies to Apple, except that having a smaller market, they have to at least appear to be more consumer friendly. Therefore the RIAA, MPAA also have a slight leverage, by choosing to support Apple or Microsoft more (see iTunes vs Zune for example).
I currently have a Chinese-made upconverting DVD player. Chinese made because the US and Japanese manufacturers have knuckled under to the demands of the entertainment industry that no DVD player will output HD content over component video cables. (Now think for a moment just how mind-numbingly stupid this restriction is. Upconverting DVD players don't actually output video in true HD, because the movie isn't on the DVD in HD in the first place, and no process can add more information that was there to begin with. All an upconverting DVD player does is interpolate. An upconverted signal is the absolute last thing that any pirate could want, because it massively increases the amount of data required to copy the signal, without adding any information. So the entertainment industry, out of sheer ignorance has added a completely useless restriction that imposes considerable inconvenience on the consumer. Many older HD TV's only have component inputs, and even newer ones typically have only one HDMI or DVI input. And HDMI/DVI switchboxes are much more expensive than component ones. So consumers end up switching cables, shelling out extra money for switchboxes--or doing what I did, and buying a Chinese DVD player that is oriented toward the consumer instead of sucking up to the content industry.
Registered Linux User #404114 [url=http://www.punkoiska.com][img]http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4379/posbannercf5.g
I find it odd that the main thing that inspired this is not linked from the Slashdot summary. Truly a scathing article.
It makes Vista sound like a disaster. All this really shows how far MS will go to satisfy the RIAA/MPAA crowd's insanity. They are truly mad.
No one will like this. Not hardware vendors, not consumers, not anyone. Surely they're not going through with this?
I don't know why Microsoft is bending over for the media companies.
Money.
rd
... The Soviets Consume (even) Russia For You.
What are the media companies going to do, not release media that will play on Windows operating systems if Microsoft doesn't implement their DRM? Hell no. So again, why is Microsoft bending to their demands?
Because the money for enforcing it is double dipping.
rd
A few years back, Sony tried to release a new format that was incompatible with computers-- SACD. Promising surround sound, and resolution superior to that of a Compact Disc, the format competed with DVD-Audio, which was playable on PCs. Neither proved to be very popular-- consumers preferred to listen to sub-CD resolution, stereo-only tracks.
I don't really think that DVD-Audio's PC compatibility helped it that much. In 1997, when DVD-Video was first released, the best video displays were to be found on PCs. But, for the most part, PC audio is horrible, and a lister needs a good system to distinguish DVD-AUdio from CD (or, in the case of surround, dts) anyway.
It's been my impression that Microsoft has been actively courting the media companies. They actively promote HD-DVD. Windows DRM is heavily promoted. Microsoft has its Zune, and some sort of Zune music store. It's not about begrudgingly crippling their operating system to satisfy the MPAA's demands. It's about turning a moribund operating system into an exciting new profit center-- extending the monopoly into new markets.
Who are the idiot programmers designing this important software for 'home use' / 'general purpose' operating systems? Why aren't things like this embedded systems, or a custom special use OS, that is designed fully around a stability model. You don't see go-karts used as ambulances.
It's this same story over and over. People now giving out that Vista is not really offering anything new, and isn't a worthwhile, and Microsoft are trying to force it down our necks. Of course they are, how many of you own a Gillete Fusion razor, this is the same thing, it's companies fluffing up a product so they can sell it to you again. You can't whine at a company to stop making money this way, it's a pretty guaranteed way to make profits, and they won't change because you give out.
I'm Jim -- except that's not my name :P -- exactly. I started smoking the Heroes crack about episode 8 or so, and NEVER would have started watching it at episode 9, without having snagged it off BT. In the meantime, I've sold at least a dozen other people on the series. Will I buy the season when it comes out on DVD? Hellya. Did "piracy" cost NBC money in my case? Hmm.....
What does it mean to wake out of a dream
and be wearing someone else's shorts?
BNL, Born on a Pirate Ship (1998)
we /.ers are the ppl our friends and family look to when it comes to advice on a new PC, so why dun we juz get everyone to vote with their wallets and then maybe as a whole, consumers wouldn't be held hostage by DRM and the big media companies..
"This attack on your freedoms needs to become widely known."
And what freedoms would that be? The right to be entertained? The right to vote with my dollars? The right to complain to my congressperson? Vista isn't taking anything away from me because...
1-I still can use everything I've purchased.
2-I don't plan on purchasing Vista.
3-I can CREATE (one of those foreign words around here) whatever I want and enjoy it in the comfort of my house.
And last I CAN JUST SAY NO to the urge to own things, be it legally bought, or illegally downloaded. A lesson most of you are just now waking up to.
Don't try. You'll give yourself ulcers, users will hate you and the budget will go through the roof. Anyone who says it's easy is lying, but it can be done on a three year plan. Start moving critical apps to web-based alternatives, replace IE with FF and Outlook with Thunderbird/Sunbird and move off Exchange. In a hospital setting the most time consuming are likely to be a million Access databases scattered across the enterprise and linked spreadsheets. Even at the end of three years there may be a few Windows-only apps that you'll need to keep. You can run those on a kiosk in most instances. I just got done moving the primary application for a medical office from a network app to a web-based application. We had to write it from scratch...took three months. At first it was rough but now they wouldn't trade it. We're almost ready to pull the plug on Exchange. They'll be ready to swap out their desktop OS by this time next year, sooner if we pushed it. It's a small office but if you take it in small bites you'll be surprised how fast it can go. I also work on a lot of defense related projects and was surprised to see one big contractor using Thunderbird and FF.
I keep hoping for better enterprise support for applications like Gmail. That would make some of those bites go faster. But just try to get anyone from Google enterprise sales on the phone. Ha!
If Windows XP isn't routinely connected to the internet and used to surf with IE, it's a fairly reliable OS. Works great as a stand alone kiosk.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
here's why: if i buy expensive hardware for vista, i want to get the most out of my system, i will not have my machine slowed down by encryption and explorer.exe. the only reason why i think anyone would get it would be for the game compatibility. as for me i don't do much gaming and it will take something really special in vista for me to upgrade. as for now i have ubuntu on one hd and winxp on my main hd. and it looks like i will be moving to linux in a bit.
The world never had any entertainment before the dawn of DRM & copyright.
[sarcasm off]
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
"DRM potentially locks me out of my own creative work, speaking as a content-producing artist."
You're more than free to try to demonstrate that is a fact, as opposed to the rampent speculation it so far is.
Gutman is a computer security specialist, not a medical imaging person. He wrote his PhD thesis on Security Architecture. Go visit his homepage http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/ and it's pretty clear he knows what he is talking about in IT Security.
That's Steffler, not Gutmann, you idiot.
There's something else those who use the same argument as the OP you're replying to forget It was no bed of rose before copyright, be it creator or consumer. Also as a content creator myself, I fail to see the logic of the "right to be entertained" crowd, that I and others like me would be OK with being abused, be it by majour corporations or some joe in his basement? Open Source releases free "content" all the time but pursues those who abuse the system. And yet when I and other content creators go against those who do the same we're bad guys.* I guess abusing the former would break their system, while abusing ours will not, because...Yeah. People will always write open source no matter how you treat them (Pre-GPL days)
*Make a note that it's not always about money. Just ask any of the websites out there that have their content "borrowed" even when asked nicely not to, and the material is "free" to begin with.
I thought that people could follow the rest of it from the highlighting I'd done, but I guess there are a couple of you who need me to connect the dots for you.
Thanks for showing how it's done.[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
This isn't the usual anti-Microsoft story
Yes... yes, it is. It is quite the usual anti-Microsoft FUD story, which we can always rely on Slashdot provide. Oh.. and hey! The story is on The Inquirer... which is as rabidly anti-MS and fact challenged as Slashdot is!
File this under "OS Penis Envy", along with every other zealot post by Lunix people wishing their OS were as good as Windows. People who live in glass operating systems shouldn't throw stones.
Windows is on almost every PC in China... but only about 15% of computers in China are legitimately licensed. If Windows is such a horrible operating system, why aren't people using Lunix?
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Does your "tough" include Open Source (including Linux) as a choice? Or would that break your argument?
Well, if the editors edited, they would have noticed this is a dupe from last week.
Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection
On December 23rd, 2006 with 283 comments
David Gerard writes "Security researcher Peter Gutmann has released A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection, a detailed explanation of just what...
use Vista, but not DRM content...
Is there anything limiting the use of high quality, non-DRM'd media?
Mainly, I think it's a question of complance with laws like the DMCA, and not getting sued. if the RIAA sues hundreds/thousands of individuals for large amounts of money, do you think MS wants to have to defend a case that they 'aided' copyright violations?
I find it hard to, in the same breath, fault Microsoft for violation of the law for extending their markets, and fault them for not disreguarding the laws reguarding others IP.
Imagine what would happen to the market for iTunes purchases if Windows had the built in ability to crack iTunes content protection...
I second that, although I didn't get hooked until after watching my first episode (9). Actually, I only watched it to the first commercial break and then stopped to grab 1-8 before going any further. Did I download and watch 'priated' episodes commercial-free? Yes. Will I buy the series on DVD? Damned straight!!
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.
Because it's a wonderful opportunity for them. They can get all the benefits of DRM and blame all the problems on the media companies which "forced" them it implement it. The benefits for MS include making unauthorised software unrunnable; if they don't pay MS for a certificate it's untrusted. The PC will become a big dongle, to make it hard to copy or transfer MS software, and anyone else who signs up. And media companies will have to sign on (literally) to use media secured by the DRM. Don't be surprised if in a few years attempting to use open formats like MP3 trigger off alarms and send messages to the RIAA. It's certainly possible technically, and we have the recent example of Sony's rootkit to show that some have the will.
My article also includes a relevant cartoon.
Music: a super-stimulus for the perception of musicality. Musicality: a perceived aspect of speech.
The Geek is insignificant in the home market.
Harry Potter is significant in the home market. Captain Jack Sparrow is significant in the hone market.
Simply put, without big countries there would be no wars.
Simply put, that is pure, unadulterated poppycock.
Try a little educational reading such as War Before Civilization by Lawrence Keely.
------ The only greater hazard to your liberty than n politicians is n+1 politicians.
So does this "bit" let the optimist content through, while blocking the cynics content?
Live banjo music, played by relatives, close relatives. Very close relatives.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I don't know why Microsoft is bending over for the media companies.
They're not. Microsoft has a monopoly. They can tell anyone to get lost.
But "compliance" with "requirements" of the RIAA and MPAA is perfect cover for their real game plan, which is to eliminate Open Source (Linux, etc). If Microsoft simply pressured hardware manufacturers (video cards etc) never to release specs, and also to spend billions making it impossible to reverse-engineer their programming specs, just to stop programmers from developing Linux drivers, they'd lose an antitrust action in court.
But by wrapping the plan up in the excuse that it's to meet RIAA and MPAA requirements, Microsoft has a perfect defense.
I saw it coming a while ago. When I heard of Longhorn in preparation I knew that it would fail. For several reasons, but mostly one simple thing.
Microsoft tried to protect its interests with XP, using the WGA scheme, and service packs that checked for validity and so forth. Consumers *hated* those measures. How many false positives has the WGA detected? More than enough. Virii, spyware, spam, it's taken too much toll on the users' ability to perform their tasks. Now, when you buy a PC, you have to have Anti-this, anti-that, firewall and so forth. Those services eat ressources. People running 3 year old machines that have installed all those things can expect lag while webpages load because of all that padding to prevent infection of their system, and then even after waiting for too long, non-responsive windows and so forth, they will STILL get spyware/adware and always spam.
Well no sh*t Sherlock!
Microsoft has long ago decided it's in the money making business, not customer satisfaction business. Companies used MS because that was the only viable alternative for a while, and even today, many industries still rely on Windows 2000 rather than XP, for the simple reason that it works with what they've invested in. However, Linux and OSX have been working VERY hard to get ahead, and thankfully, these systems are designed to fit the customer/users' needs.
Linux? Do anything you want with it. Run webservers, databases, phone systems, rendering, and even desktop applications on it. All that flexibility for very little cost of actual software. You're not paying for software AND support, you're paying only support.
As XP came out, Linux wasn't ready for prime time. RedHat was providing an Entreprise version, as were SuSE and Mandrake, but in all honesty, there was a gap that existed, Windows wasn't evil enough, and there weren't quite yet enough advantages to Linux to warrant the switch, retraining everyone and so forth.
Today however, after Service Pack 2 failed to properly secure XP, and all those DRM addons have been force fed into media player, and all other wmv portable players, well, simplicity, stability and functionality seem to have somewhat disappeared from the leading OS on the market. Apple has reminded everyone that alternatives do exist, like OSX, and, because it is Unix based, Unix has appeared once more on the radar of common knowledge. If Apple can make Unix look and work well, then why can't Linux? Oh sure, there are more than enough Macboys out there preaching OSX, but not everyone likes Aqua, or an already made system that will lock you into some things you don't want to be force-fed (iTMS' DRM for instance). But it reminded people of that newcomer on the playing field, Linux.
In the past few years, I've watched gnome go from a squarish desktop reminiscent of OS 9 and in some ways windows 3.11 to a full featured Desktop that offers as much integration, and much more logic, than the XP interface ever did. KDE has made at least as much progress, and we're seeing more options than ever, and from all the development that has happened since 2002 a LOT of good things have come out. Openoffice 2 pioneered the use of the ODF, Firefox has been gnawing stronger and stronger on the share of Internet Explorer, and even Safari in some respect.
Ubuntu is probably the biggest advantage Linux can get to date. I am ready to claim that anyone, anywhere, that really wants to use an alternative to windows, can burn an Ubuntu disc and use their computer freely, to satisfy their needs (save gamers, and even they aren't going to lose for very long, some major games already have native releases, like the UT and Quake series).
It is time that players like Adobe invest in the alternative, because the tide is coming, and it would hurt for them to be behind.
---- I am certain of only one thing : I know nothing else.
You had me at "Hello."
First thing he mentions is disabling S/PDIF. Since I use Windows for audio production, Vista's gone. Bye-bye. See-yah.
I look forward to seeing what Cakewalk will do about that one.
Gutmann did talk about medical imaging in the article, which was probably the cause of the submitter's confusion. That, or they were looking for the author's name in the Inquirer article and grabbed the first name with a quote attributed to it.
That's the best list of reasons to install Vista that I've ever seen. Well said.
Recently, I have been looking harder and harder at Linux. Linux offers a much more stable platform, and I can customize the installation to make it much more difficult to corrupt. The issue is that such a high software investment has been placed in specialized Windows solutions, that it is difficult to port everything to another operating system overnight.
If someone was smart, they'd start advertisting the fact that they support a distro with high availability and with standardized APIs and file locations for medical software manufactors. Then get more medical software manufactors to build to their distro. Like the LSB but with the whole system spec'ed out.
Cheers
Ben
The only question is how long is it going to take for GNU/Linux to become a complete and viable alternative. Which version of Ubuntu will finally gain mass adoption: Will it be Ubuntu Promiscuous Penguin or Ubuntu Unscrupulous Unicorn (UUU)?
A good analogy would be: Is it illegal for me to open a book and read some of it in a book store? Should I be convicted under the DMCA? Should I pay the $10,000 minimum fine under the DMCA? Perhaps I should be executed for doing this? Just shows how ridiciculous this all is.
China's economy was destroyed primarily by England who whupped their butts in order to open China up to opium trade. Capitalism, thus, played a part in their downfall. Actually, it was British imperialism moreso than capitalism.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Because Apple's business model for iPods is more along the lines of "get some DRM'ed songs for nearly free (as Apple's bottom line is concerned), and pay us big bucks for an iPod to play them."
Apple doesn't actually make much money with iTunes, and it's actually managed to push the record labels into making even less money in the process. (Which is an accomplishment, no doubt, when dealing with some of the biggest sharks in history.) Previously you'd buy a whole CD or a single for pretty much half the price of the whole CD. Now you buy the 1 or 2 songs that interest you from iTunes, for $1 or $2. (And unlike radio, you don't thereafter go and buy the CD too.) The record label gets even less of that, and Apple gets barely enough to cover their expenses.
Where Apple makes its money in that deal is by selling iPods to play those songs. If you look at their sales numbers, for every 10-20 songs sold on iTunes, they sell an iPod. That't the money maker in that deal.
Seriously, the whole thing is a textbook example of how to build a monopoly of interlocking parts. You can't compete with the iPod on fair ground because the first thing the average lemming will see in your player is: "but it doesn't work with iTunes!!!" You can't really compete with iTunes because it's predatory pricing at its finest, and because "but your DRM doesn't work on my iPod!!!".
The only wrench in what could be a good monopoly mechanism is the availability of MP3s, but otherwise the model is there.
So, as a side-note, if you detested it in MS, well, glad to know you admire Apple for doing the exact same thing. Windows and Office, Windows server and clients, etc, is the exact same model of interlocking parts to raise the entry barriers. You can't compete with one part without competing with all of them. That's how you kill a free market.
And if you wondered why, for example, Sony shafts themselves so often by trying to push their own shitty codecs or media (minidisk or UMD) on everything, even game consoles, now you know why: because if they actually pulled that heist just once, they'd be in just that kind of situation, where they control both halves of an interlocking monopoly mechanism. But I digress.
At any rate, now you know why Apple can't just give free iPods. You somewhat guessed right that it would indeed be even more profitable to bring in the Macs as third piece of that monopoly recipe. But that would require it to be a part that raises the entry barriers, as in, for example, making the iPod and iTunes only work with Macs. But they're not in a position to pull that kind of a heist at the moment. If it were back in time, at the apex of Mac popularity, then they could. But not right now.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Warfare is endemic in Humanity.
From the Book of Joshua (abbreviated)...
Chapter 6 -
1. NOW Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out and none came in.
21 - And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.
24 - And they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? This is almost pre-historic siege warfare and what could be described as ethnic cleansing. I'm not picking on the Jewish Nation, it's just that they were kind enough to record their deeds where so many others did not. The archaeological record shows many examples of pre-historic walled cities that were destroyed in sieges, so from the earliest days of 'civilisation' we have fought each other.
Travelling forward in time at a rate of 1 second per second.
The second one is, artists do need to eat, but nowadays we have a glut of artists producing music solely for money, and the quality of that work is crap. Utter crap. See: Britney Spears.
Also, plenty of artists produce music for free - good quality music. Check the demo scene for a good example. Look up Skaven, Xerxes, Necros, Basehead, oh heck just go to http://www.modarchive.com/ - there is a whole universe of artists who make free music, and a ton of it is very good.
Also look up The Ur-Quan Masters for artists who make KILLER game music.
As far as I know, the latter wasn't paid. How does that figure into your equation?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
It's is the same History with different writer and for the same purpose (Frear that malevolous Windows OS), It's the same history when people upgraded from w98 to w2000 and from w2000 to XP and from xpto XPsp2, it's the same tale, you must to frear to upgrade your system to the new windows Just look at these "joke" Vista's content protection will 'have to violate the laws of physics if it is to work'. The Fact is that Windows Vista is The Best MS (or M$) Product EVER, have strong DRM protection because if you want to view DRM protected content your OS must complaint the (movie)Publisher's requeriments, If you want to watch the same content on Linux surely your OS will be upgraded, if not you'll never (at least legally) can watch that content. Vista is the safest and most powerful environment for users and programmers (specially the 64 bit version),in the near future hacking a DRM protected software will be impossible or at least too hard to be a commercial Issue. If You are a Smart User, instead to beleive on Linux & Anti-DRM Fanatics, you must to try W.Vista and Judge By Yourselves. Fact Windows UP, Mac/OS UP, Linux losses in desktops (linux desktop base is now the half as few years ago), linus still winning on servers (only LAMP, samba & others are near inexistent), that's because the People Gets what they want, not what the fanatics wants. Most Linux Fans are people that believes are "smarter", but why the Linux desktop is a BS, and why non-linux fans are people with a happy and prosper family?. Be Smart just Live your Life .
Despite all efforts of Apple, Vista is my prime reason for switching to Mac.
Doing a good job is like spilling coffee on a dark suit, you feel warm all over, but nobody notices.
From http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/output _protect.mspx
From the doc
"By contrast, the Windows-based PC is designed to be an open platform. Anyone can load software on it; it is easy to write software for it, because all the interfaces are well defined and published; and there are many good software tools available."
Open platform? By who's definition?
LOL!
Look man, people don't care. Most computers run Windows. That's all Joe Sixpack knows and he'll never "wake up". Joe Sixpack uses his PC to browse the Internet, read and write e-mail, to write the occasional letter and perhaps some other tasks like balancing the checkbook, doing his taxes, managing photo's, etc. When Joe Sixpack wants to watch TV or listen to music he moves to his living room and pop's in a DVD or a CD and watches or listens that way.
We geeks are the ones who rip and re-mix media. Make backup copies of our DVD's, rip DVD video to our iPods to watch on the go, etc. We are aware that the **AA and companies like Microsoft are trying to take away our ability to do this but Joe Sixpack has no idea it's possible and if he finds out it's possible when he sees the process we have to go through to do it he thinks it's way to complicated anyway. He's not aware that he's losing anything because he isn't since he can't do this stuff in the first place.
He's got bigger problems to deal with like taking care of the family, saving for retirement, watching the game on Sunday, etc.
While I think Peter Gutmann is a capable fellow on the tech side I fail to see one piece of actual FACT presented in his paper that purports to support his rashly concluded suppositions.
He doesnt have access to the Vista source code
He doesnt have access into any special insight(s) to the hardware manufacturers
His entire argument is based off of speculation and nothing factually provable
Nothing in his paper actually examines the "cost" of the Vista DRM
No medical imaging system in use today or anytime in the future is EVER going to use HDCP or its like because thats something that the MPAA wants for *its* content, it could care less if anyone else used it
Elimination of Unified drivers is a complete and total fabrication on his part. The reason NVIDA's Forceware drivers fragmented recently was because of the new G80 chip architecture being a total departure from previous chips. Not because of bloody Vista DRM demands.
I could go on, but this entire paper is rife with statements he never backs up with any kind of rational assertion. Just for amusement here are things he says that he never shows evidence for:
"...in order to work, Vista's content protection must be able to violate the laws of physics, something that's unlikely to happen no matter how much the content industry wishes it were possible."
---Riiiiiight.
"In order to prevent the creation of hardware emulators of protected output devices, Vista requires a Hardware Functionality Scan (HFS) that can be used to uniquely fingerprint a hardware device to ensure that it's (probably) genuine."
---This existed in XP of course, after all XP had to create a table of hashes for your hardware. But how he describes it simply doesnt work that way.
"...this leads to a problem: It's no longer possible to tell if a graphics chip is situated on a plug-in card or attached to the motherboard, since as far as the system is concerned they're both just devices sitting on the AGP/PCIe bus."
---But wait! If the HFS is so damned smart and intelligent in knowing if hardware will obey the Almighty DRM Commands or not, then it should be trivial for HFS to tell if your bleeding video card sits in an AGP, PCI-E slot or is onboard the motherboard. So which is it? Smart AND dumb? Let me guess, you'd just tout that MS is capable of writing that kind of software to fulfill your little bit of paranoia.
"Once a weakness is found in a particular driver or device, that driver will have its signature revoked by Microsoft"
---Riiiiight. Microsoft will issue a Windows Update to MILLIONS of users, QA, test, and engineer a single patch or piece of code just to update Vista to DISABLE A DRIVER FOR ONE VIDEO CARD? What does Occam's Razor tell you is more likely? Device driver signatures arent even NECESSARY! Half the drivers you install right now dont even come with a proper signature to begin with. You can install unsigned drivers on Vista 32-bit (I havent tried it with Vista 64-bit) and it works.
"Cannot go to market until it works to specification... potentially more respins of hardware" -- ATI.
---Why is this quote even here? Graphics card makers already operate under this modus operandi, otherwise they would be shipping BROKEN HARDWARE.
"The high-end graphics and audio market are dominated entirely by gamers, who will do anything to gain the tiniest bit of extra performance, like buying Bigfoot Networks' $250 "Killer NIC" ethernet card in the hope that it'll help reduce their network latency by a few milliseconds."
---Oh brother, please, freaking spare me what you think of "gamers" it pains me. I cant think of a single gamer I know of that thinks the bloody Killer NIC is anything but a giant waste of money.
I could go on here, but what is the point. By Gutmann's own admission in the acknowledgments section of the "paper" came from other people "involved" in Vista or other aspects of the ecosystem, but wishing to remain anonymous. So I cant tell what in this pape
As of a year ago, brand new Phillips MRI scanners were using Windows. The customer engineer I worked with said they had switched recently from UNIX and couldn't figure out why. I do know that we ran into problems that forced us to reboot the system at least daily and more often when doing heavy scan regimens.
science is a religion
People don't cry when you cut up a banjo.
This makes XP seem positively desirable, meaning MS will certainly shut down XP product activation soon.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Because usually there are things on the DVD when it's released that you can't just get by downloading the episodes. Granted, as soon as the dvd comes out, you will find that material online too...
But, if it's a show/movie that you enjoy and want to encourage to be continued, or want to encourage similar shows to be produced and aired, you cast your vote to the producer by paying them.
mgcady
(who would sign in, but whose workplace blocks webmail clients and so she can't get her inital password...)
Been smoking crack long? Yes, Windows Vista is the best rat shit ever - but it is still RAT SHIT!
Let me say that again: Businesses!
Most businesses aren't concerned that their employees may not be able to view HD content on their desktop PC's, as that is not what they hire people to do (in general). As long as Microsoft can assert that a desktop machine running Windows Vista will continue to be able to fulfill enterprise business requirements in a stable, reliable way there will be plenty of businesses perfectly ready to plunk down their money to get what Microsoft promises will be "the most stable and secure computing experience to date."
Better have a look at Microsoft's balance sheet - somehow, I doubt that the majority of profits come from individual user sales! Their big bucks come from per-seat volume licensing of OS and productivity products - that's their bread-and-butter! I don't think a financial clearing-house, or a medical supplies company, or your average insurance office will really get sweaty about HD-DVD playback being broken because there's no HDMI interface to the ol' VGA monitor.
Before the masses point out that there are plenty of productivity killing traps in Microsoft Vista (and there are), Microsoft will simply assure businesses that as long as their hardware doesn't change drastically they can expect their machines to continue operating flawlessly. The relative truth or falsehood of that assertion is irrelevant; Microsoft will say it and businesses will accept it. There are way too many large organizations with PHB's at the helm for the technically savvy to prevent this from happening. After that, those businesses which were insightful enough to avoid the "Microsoft upgrade cycle" will ultimately be forced to come along by way of remaining compatible with the rest of industry.
Don't like what you see in Vista? Too bad - once it's entrenched in business it'll make inroads in the home (how many /.'ers use software at home similar to their employer's software so that they can be more productive at work? I, for example, run openSuSE at home because my employer uses SuSE Linux Enterprise Distribution in the workplace; it lets me be more productive at home and at work because I can leverage what I learn in one environment to the other).
'Windows Vista Ultimate'
.. It also applies even if .. Microsoft knew or should have known about the possibility of the damages"
"While the software is running, you may use but not share its icons, images, sounds, and media"
"The software is licensed, not sold. This agreement only gives you some rights to use the software"
'You may not sell software marked as "NFR" or "Not for Resale."'
"The first user of the software may make a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party"
"You can recover from Microsoft and its suppliers only direct damages up to the amount you paid for the software
"The limited warranty covers the software for one year after acquired by the first user"
--
was if you want to read LSNiH then just read the EULA (Score:5, Interesting)
davecb5620@gmail.com
US CEO's need Chinese slave labor to increase their bonuses. I can't think of an example where they have lowered cost to the consumer rather than boost profits.
To me it seems that Microsoft has been willing to make the changes to their OS that the content providers have "demanded" in order to allow their protected content to be played back on a PC. That doesn't mean that Microsoft will completely control this market just that other people who want to provide that same service will also have to meet the approval of the content providers. Apple might, I doubt Linux ever will. Bitch about that all you want but Microsoft wanted to sell their product and having this functionality is a sales feature and I'm sure it cost them a bunch of development time to implement it, hopefully it will take less time to break it :-) Cablecard is a perfect example - try getting your hands on the hardware if you don't have an "approved" device for instance. What should have been a boon for say MythTV instead could kill it. Microsoft simply made their product compliant is all - and so did TIVO :-(
So, in this particular case, I'd say it's the content "providers" you ought to be angry with not Microsoft for being willing to bend over and take direction from the providers. Certainly they could've "taken a stand" but they want to make a profit and thus bent over. Want to make a change? Don't buy the new content and stop buying the old if you can manage it. Just realize that until enough people do that no one will notice....
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Just sayin'.
This story is nothing but the ramblings of someone that has never used or seen a product but proclaims to know all kinds of horrible things about it which in fact have absolutely nothing to do with him or his work anyway. There is ZERO information in this article. "News for nerds" no no more. There is not one tiny nerdy piece of factual or technical information presented here. It is 100% FUD and put on the front page for no other reason than it is "anti-Vista".
/.!
Shame on you
Then we have the article about smashing your RFID chip with a hammer to disable it. How many levels of neanderthol is that? No mention of the fact that you can buy RFID secure wallets (THat's atleast a little bit nerdy) from multiple sources that prevent the problem in an elegant way that won't get you arrested (contrary to what that person postulates). Or AT LEAST it could have been an article on using your microwave, that would have been a tiny bit nerdy (but still stupid).
Come on! PLEASE stop sinking onto National Enquirer terrirtory!!! Reject FUD and reject stupidity for the love of...
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
I don't know why Microsoft is bending over for the media companies.
You are missing the point!
From the article:
In order for this to work, the spec requires that the operational details of
the device be kept confidential. Obviously anyone who knows enough about the
workings of a device to operate it and to write a third-party driver for it
(for example one for an open-source OS, or in general just any non-Windows OS)
will also know enough to fake the HFS process. The only way to protect the
HFS process therefore is to not release any technical details on the device
beyond a minimum required for web site reviews and comparison with other
products.
Once a weakness is found in a particular driver or device, that driver will
have its signature revoked by Microsoft
Because *all* D-Cinema content will (presumably)
be premium content, the result is no playback at all until the hardware
support appears in PCs at some indeterminate point in the future. Compare
this to the situation with MPEG video, where early software codecs like the
XingMPEG en/decoder practically created the market for PC video. Today,
thanks to Vista's content protection, the opening up of new markets in this
manner would be impossible.
The worst thing about all of this is that there's no escape. Hardware
manufacturers will have to drink the kool-aid (and the reference to mass
suicide here is deliberate [Note J]) in order to work with Vista: "There is no
requirement to sign the [content-protection] license; but without a
certificate, no premium content will be passed to the driver". Of course as a
device manufacturer you can choose to opt out, if you don't mind your device
only ever being able to display low-quality, fuzzy, blurry video and audio
when premium content is present, while your competitors don't have this
(artificially-created) problem.
This has very little to do with "content protection". This is all about protecting Microsoft's monopoly!
the people revolt and stop buying this stuff.
Or...
the content creators offer this stuff at a fair price so that it doesnt have to be pirated in the first place.
This crap has totally ruined the next 10 years of entertainment. The only thing that will make this simple is to remove this crap from computers completly. Lets see how much of a market they have when the only place to use thier content is in a dedicated, expensive home theater system- Make them come begging for it.
Whats more important: some movie star or music execs high salary or keeping consumer prices (especially computers) low??
What creates more jobs? What gives back more to society?
Stop allowing these people to dictate laws they dont fully understand. Do your self a favor and just dont buy it.
Pick the next huge blockbuster movie, then dont go to it- make it a fnancial disaster- make these execs lose their jobs. And make sure they know why it happened- you have the power so use it
How many of these incident are they willing to eat before they change? Consider how much they bank on the next Superman movie- this is the type of movie they absoutly depend on- so kill it, but make sure they know why it had to be killed.
And the funny thing is - they never made it easier to legally purchase and use this stuff as it is to pirate it!! Its just easier - being free is just a bonus. Lets see, Free and Easy or Difficult and over priced? Your customers have already told you how they want your content to be deleivered to them- but you dont listen -- you deserve to die off.
This is part of the subtext both of the original article, and of this most recent post, so I thought I'd share what I know about it. FWIW, I'm a radiologist--that is, an MD who interprets the results of imaging studies--and an informatics geek.
Images are created on whatever imaging device--CT scanner, MR scanner, ultrasound machine, digital X-ray machine--and manipulated by the device's controlling system to do simple annotations, reformatting, etc. This is typically a Unix-based system running custom software designed and maintained by the device's vendor. The images are not usually interpreted on these systems.
From there, the images are sent to the PACS (Picutre Archiving and Communication System), which is just a gigantic central image database. These also tend to be Unix-based systems.
There tend to be two front-ends for looking at images in the PACS database. The first is the radiologist's interface, which is a high-end video workstation dedicated to showing medical images with the greatest possible fidelity. Most systems I've seen are Windows-based (Windows 2000, in our case) and run software which was built by the the imaging system vendors in the late 1990's. Much is made of the "lossless" nature of the images which are displayed; for example, when you log into such a machine, you're warned about how "This is a medical device" and that you shouldn't mess with it. Much is also made of "diagnostic-quality monitors" and high-end video cards to drive the monitors. This is an artifact from the early days of digital imaging interpretation in radiology, when there was a great deal of concern about whether the quality of the digital images would be adequate for us to figure out what was going on in Grandma's chest X-ray if we weren't looking at a piece of acetate. Most of these concerns have died away, as the differences in resolution and dynamic range turned out to be relatively minor and the added conveniences of being able to manipulate the images digitally turned out to be huge. For example, the new LCDs I seen being put on PACS workstations are off-the-shelf Dell 22-inchers, as far as I can tell.
Finally, there are "non-diagnostic" interfaces to the PACS images, which do tend to be web-based. These are so non-radiologist doctors can look at the images, too. Some are IE-based, and use an ActiveX control to display the images, and some use a Java applet. These are displayed with lossy compression (since someone might want to look at them from off-site via a VPN), and officially are not allowed to be used for interpretation. And in fact, I wouldn't want to; it's a lot harder to see subtle things on them than on a full-blown PACS workstation. Part of that is just the interface (it's hard to use those stupid ActiveX/applet things) and part of it is crummy/mis-configured monitors, but I suppose compression artifacts could also play a role.
So, to review: you go see your doctor, Dr. Smith, in her office, and she orders a chest X-ray for you because you're coughing and have a fever. You come to the hospital, and the nice technologist takes frontal and lateral view of your chest on the digital X-ray machine. He then goes back to the X-ray control room, and sees that the images are pretty good, and so he sticks your name on them, and a marker of the date/time and his name, and so on, and then sends them to the hospital's PACS system. I (the radiologist) am working at my PACS workstation, going through the long list of all of the CT scans, MR scans, and X-rays taken in the hospital. I get to your chest X-ray and look at it; I don't seen any sign of pneumonia, so I write a report (the subject of a whole different set of informatics) that basically says "Clear lungs" and that gets entered into your electronic medical record. Then, Dr. Smith back in her office can see your X-ray via her Web-based interface. If she wonders about something she sees, she can call me up and say, "What's that stuff at the left ape
Happy Premise #3: Even though I feel like I might ignite, I probably won't.
From TFA:
Elimination of Open-source Hardware Support
In order to prevent the creation of hardware emulators of protected output devices, Vista requires a Hardware Functionality Scan (HFS) that can be used to uniquely fingerprint a hardware device to ensure that it's (probably) genuine. In order to do this, the driver on the host PC performs an operation in the hardware (for example rendering 3D content in a graphics card) that produces a result that's unique to that device type.
In order for this to work, the spec requires that the operational details of the device be kept confidential. Obviously anyone who knows enough about the workings of a device to operate it and to write a third-party driver for it (for example one for an open-source OS, or in general just any non-Windows OS) will also know enough to fake the HFS process. The only way to protect the HFS process therefore is to not release any technical details on the device beyond a minimum required for web site reviews and comparison with other products.
There's more where that came from. RTFA, people!
And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.
I'm no imaging expert however as a physician, (dual-licensed DC/MD with Orthopedics Specialty) I find Windows intolerable for my daily imaging use. FreeBSD/Linux have become the mainstays at the hospital imaging center and the school where our X-Ray facilities are now completely digital.
- David Donovan, DC, MD
In New Zealand, it's actually impossible to buy a region-locked player. All DVD players here play all regions.
It's stunning to me, that in the USA things are different. Why would your consumers support defective/restricted products? Sure, you probably get 95% Region 1 DVDs, but what do you do when someone sends you a DVD from Britain or Australia?
I guess consumer ignorance is easy to blame (Given that the average American consumer couldn't distinguish his asshole from his elbow), but DVDs have been available now for a long time, and conventional wisdom must already have come down on the side of "You must have a region free DVD player", rather than "Let's just buy what's easily buyable."
Personally, I always take great care to tell businesses that I won't be buying their latest piece of DRM infected crap, and in many cases, I assert that I'll continue breaking the law by downloading copyrighted material, until such time as non-DRMed content is available for legitimate purchase.
If the manufacturers don't get this feedback from potential customers, then how can they ever hope to break out of the DRM cycle? Only by making it more costly to have it IN than to remove it, that's how.
How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
To add to your very helpful post, our neuroradiologists and interventional radiologists like using the web interface from home so they can give an opinion on an acute stroke without having to wait to come into the hospital. So if the interventionalist says it's a go the patient can be waiting in the angio suite by the time he gets there.
The DRM in Vista will probably make all our lives a bit more expensive, and probably more irritating, but for medical applications that use Windows I suspect a bigger problem is going to be MS's more and more invasive copy protection. Do you want a hospital computer chatting over the network with Microsoft? What about the possibility that a more or less critical computer could have it's OS shut down because MS mistakenly decides it's not certified?
...they get the money from us. See my small cartoon: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2006/12 /its_just_not_ea.html
Bye,
Oliver
Two things against your post (at least according to slashdot). One there's no such thing as IP "Property" (so property rules and thought don't apply), and two since IP is derived from previous works (that whole taper bit), it must be unoriginal and hence available for their use without compensation to the "creator".
..., at least in this case, it's a young prodigy trying to impress their dumb bosses by being proactive in the "protection" area.
I truthfully have not had this issue. My first surprise is that you are making content on Windows rather than a Mac. I do this, but its for personal use. If I was making content commercially, I would be using a Mac.
/or some codec pack (yes, I use codec packs, so sue me), and you should be fine. I am dualbooting XP and Vista, and its not like Vista goes in and puts DRM in all your media files or something wierd like that.
That aside, I doubt you will have this problem unless you are using Microsoft's tools (which, in using RC1 and RC2, I have been quite impressed with). I use Adobe Premiere usually, and I have not had any problems. Hook it with Canopus Procoder and
The only issue I have had is trying to use the 64 bit version of Vista - there are practically no supported codecs for it. A handful of codecs, such as Quicktime, will let you install and work with them. VLC works, but of course, I am pretty sure VLC uses its own built in codecs. As such, I can get videos to play in VLC on Vista x64 that I cannot get to work in WMP on there, because of lack of codecs. However, if youare running the 32 bit version of Vista, this should not be a problem. I am also sure in a few months, there will be 64 bit codec packs out there.
So I say, if you really want to upgrade to Vista, go ahead. Of course, going from Windows 2000 to Vista, you will notice a HUGE difference in system requirements. I could run 2000 on 64 meg of ram, on some higher end Pentium 1s. Heaven help you if you try running Vista on a machine older than a P4 or a 1GHz Athlon with under 512 meg of ram. If you are doing content editing in Vista, I recommend some dual-core processor, with a minumum of 1 gig of ram, preferably 2 gig.