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Intel Bows to Pressure- Changes PIII ID
Justin Cave writes "Intel states that they will change
the PIII's unique ID feature in response to
public pressure. They will disable the feature by default and provide software to permanently disable it. "
This isn't about privacy at all, and never has been. I'm shocked people aren't cluing to this quicker, but maybe a lot of you are too accustomed to Windows and Intel to realize what you are saying.
This is about setting up tollgates. It doesn't matter a damn whether the PIII ID is on or off by default- or what the ID even is! They could all be the same for all the difference it would make. This ID says _one_ message above all else- 'I am a Pentium III chip!' 'Okay, you may pass'.
Who here has seen the 'Comic Explorer' effort on the Dilbert website? That's what we're talking about, not privacy issues. If I'm not mistaken Comic Explorer (and a silly idea it is, too- they seem to be confused about why anybody'd even want to play with such a toy) can be used by non Pentium II computers. However, Intel have paid off many people to suggest or demand that Pentium IIs, specifically, be used on their sites.
Expect payoffs for people to not only demand, but _require_ the PIII ID on their sites. Yes, this cuts down the demographics- but it is not the site's idea, it is _Intel's_ idea and they are getting desperate for a way to _force_ people to get PIIIs and not keep buying those damned celerons. I picture them trying to cut a _big_ deal with some major player like Amazon.com or somewhere else that is a key web location- Microsoft might well be a target, but again this doesn't benefit the web site at all, only Intel, which is why Intel will pay off people to do it, and why it probably cannot get Microsoft to require this. MS has its own fish to fry and will refuse to play along, but Intel will surely find _somebody_ who is willing to get paid to cut off access to non-PIIIs, and then goodbye AMD, goodbye Celerons, PPC? What's that? It'll be Intel- it's not just a good idea, it's the law.
And the boycotts will not stop this, and the notion that sites 'would never' do this is wrong because the site has to make a decision to intentionally hose their whole readership, or cordon off an area and deny it to their whole readership (like the Dilbert Comic Explorer?) for the purpose of requiring PIIIs alone, and getting paid off by Intel.
Be ready to keep an eye out for these, because they _will_ be turning up here and there, despite how unpractical the idea is. How much would you personally have to be paid to make an area of your site PIII-only? I think I'd only require a hundred thousand bucks. How about making the whole site PIII-only and hosing everybody? That would be more like a million. Intel won't be paying _me_, but they will be able to get to some webmasters.