Another hater of graphical emoticons here. For awhile I even habitually reversed them when I typed so that parsers wouldn't change them into graphics (:
I meant "totally superior" versus rar. Agreed that common place formats with wider support have a huge advantage much of the time, and that minor (and sometimes even major) optimizations are not worth the time and/or effort.
But if you're going to deviate from a de facto standard, doesn't it make sense to use a choice that gives the best results? Perhaps rar has been around long enough to be considered a common format, but I don't think it has any serious advantages to make it rworth using over gz or zip, apart from stronger encryption. Plus, as pointed out by the OP, it's non-free.
RAR, the format, is not free-as-in-speech, even though there are free-as-in-beer programs to extract the info.
7-zip: an open source windows file archiver that supports unpacking (but not packing) RAR files, as well as other formats. (Note that the RAR unpacking part is not free software but under a proprietary "unRAR license").
A lot of comments here seem to be talking about what might happen to whatever MediaDefender employee leaked the email and soforth. This info suggests that it's not actually a renegade employee at all, just a stupid one who's gmail account got cracked.
I haven't played any yet, but I heard mention of something about needing to register as being from the United States, as well as possibly setting your time zone to a U.S. one.
I thought I remembered something in the original "rootkit" thread about how a third party could theoretically exploit the SecuROM hooks to hide malicious code on someone's machine. I can't find the reference at the moment, so maybe I'm mistaken, or paraphrasing FUD, or something. So, sorry.
My question still stands though: what is a more appropriate term for SecuROM? I consider this beyond what qualifies as typical "copy protection", even if that is it's intended purpose. Or is this just par for the course for copy protection nowadays?
Rootkit's an easy word for "software that installed without telling me, that modifies Windows Explorer, that could be potentially exploited to compromise my system, that makes my game not work if I've got certain other software running, etc. etc."
If it's not a rootkit by strict definition, what do we call it? "Copy-protection software" doesn't quite cover it.
- By saying that you would have pirated the game instead of buying it you are actually making the publishers point that a copy protection is necessary more valid.
Wow, you missed the point there. Parent is saying that he would get the cracked version of the game ONLY because he wouldn't want to deal with the copy-protection bullshit.
What you say is absolutely true, IF you are first and foremost a gamer.
I think a lot of people on slashdot, myself included, tend to be concerned with privacy and system security at least as much as being able to play the best games, if not moreso.
I will not support a company that uses software that goes behind my back, whether you want to call it a rootkit or not. I don't care how good the game is, or if my decisions doom us all to a lifetime of Madden. You'd be right in thinking I haven't bought a lot of PC games lately; this is kind of a shame but to me it's quite simply not worth it.
The child killing aspect is a different issue altogether, and I agree with you 100% that those focusing on it are missing the point.
Dealers don't pull strings to get people hooked, ask any pothead. They don't lurk around schools, or offer free drugs to 4th graders.
Maybe not to the extent the media would have you believe, but in 7th and 8th grades I most definately encountered individuals hanging around the vicinity of my school asking kids if they wanted to try pot.
Except that Doom predates the ESRB. In fact it was one of the games used as an example of video game violence that prompted the formation of a ratings board, along with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.
Absolutely for removing restrictions on pass lengths. Even worse is when the restrictions are written on the input form, i.e. Web Password (5-8 characters) which is an actual example from a bank's online access service.
I don't know about standardizing passwords though, unless it's something really broad, i.e. must have at least one number and be from 6-100 characters. Otherwise it narrows the possibilities down a bit much.
On that note, having only two passwords for all your services is a bit risky, unless they're very good passwords, and you're very careful about where and when you type them, and the sites you're visiting are all trustworthy. I have about 4 or 5 regular use ones, and all the important stuff like web banking, paypal, etc. each gets it's own separate password.
You could be the glorious hero, full of light and wisdom, but you were so damned fugley by the end game that the towns people would run away from you.
Except that, no matter what, you still get the same set of regular quests related to the main story arc. People might interact with you differently, but the core of the game is unchanged. This goes the same for the whole "good/evil" division as well, really.
One of the most underrated games, released in the post-SF2 era, I feel. There's a *lot* of innovation in that game, but sadly the developers opted to try to make it as ridiculously gory as possible, rather than refine the game play in any way.
But, instant win attacks, loss-of-functionality attacks (losing an arm), mid-air combos, taunting to regain health, unique control scheme that was actually pretty good, very low emphasis on projectile attacks, etc. etc. Not to mention being the first weapons-based vs. fighter, before Samurai Shodown which usually gets the honour. Though SS was a much better game...
Perhaps he means the original Street Fighter game, where you can only choose Ryu or Ken? That game is the first thing that comes to mind when I think "so bad it's good" actually. Even it was ahead of its time, but with the incredibly muffled voice samples, the awkward controls, and choppy animation it's quite a stretch to think it was ever a good game.
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Another hater of graphical emoticons here. For awhile I even habitually reversed them when I typed so that parsers wouldn't change them into graphics (:
I meant "totally superior" versus rar. Agreed that common place formats with wider support have a huge advantage much of the time, and that minor (and sometimes even major) optimizations are not worth the time and/or effort.
But if you're going to deviate from a de facto standard, doesn't it make sense to use a choice that gives the best results? Perhaps rar has been around long enough to be considered a common format, but I don't think it has any serious advantages to make it rworth using over gz or zip, apart from stronger encryption. Plus, as pointed out by the OP, it's non-free.
Also, if more people had heard of 7-zip, maybe free and the totally superior .7z format would get used more often.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rar
A lot of comments here seem to be talking about what might happen to whatever MediaDefender employee leaked the email and soforth. This info suggests that it's not actually a renegade employee at all, just a stupid one who's gmail account got cracked.
We need a good term for when someone makes a ridiculous DMCA claim like this. It's like Godwining a thread, except usually more effective.
Well thank goodness! It sure isn't playable with the PS3 on it's own!
Most are available from http://www.gameupdates.org/ in torrent form, no less.
I haven't played any yet, but I heard mention of something about needing to register as being from the United States, as well as possibly setting your time zone to a U.S. one.
Erm, the first time, rather. You know what I mean.
The N-Gage barely rose in the first place..
I thought I remembered something in the original "rootkit" thread about how a third party could theoretically exploit the SecuROM hooks to hide malicious code on someone's machine. I can't find the reference at the moment, so maybe I'm mistaken, or paraphrasing FUD, or something. So, sorry.
My question still stands though: what is a more appropriate term for SecuROM? I consider this beyond what qualifies as typical "copy protection", even if that is it's intended purpose. Or is this just par for the course for copy protection nowadays?
Rootkit's an easy word for "software that installed without telling me, that modifies Windows Explorer, that could be potentially exploited to compromise my system, that makes my game not work if I've got certain other software running, etc. etc."
If it's not a rootkit by strict definition, what do we call it? "Copy-protection software" doesn't quite cover it.
Wow, you missed the point there. Parent is saying that he would get the cracked version of the game ONLY because he wouldn't want to deal with the copy-protection bullshit.
What you say is absolutely true, IF you are first and foremost a gamer.
I think a lot of people on slashdot, myself included, tend to be concerned with privacy and system security at least as much as being able to play the best games, if not moreso.
I will not support a company that uses software that goes behind my back, whether you want to call it a rootkit or not. I don't care how good the game is, or if my decisions doom us all to a lifetime of Madden. You'd be right in thinking I haven't bought a lot of PC games lately; this is kind of a shame but to me it's quite simply not worth it.
The child killing aspect is a different issue altogether, and I agree with you 100% that those focusing on it are missing the point.
Flash based memory is limited in the number of writes it has. It might very well be possible to develop a filesystem that takes this into account.
Maybe not to the extent the media would have you believe, but in 7th and 8th grades I most definately encountered individuals hanging around the vicinity of my school asking kids if they wanted to try pot.
Except that Doom predates the ESRB. In fact it was one of the games used as an example of video game violence that prompted the formation of a ratings board, along with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.
Never has a rimshot been more appropriate for a Slashdot comment! Well done.
Fair enough, but I imagine checking anything less than 5 characters with brute force is fairly trivial for a modern PC these days.
Absolutely for removing restrictions on pass lengths. Even worse is when the restrictions are written on the input form, i.e. Web Password (5-8 characters) which is an actual example from a bank's online access service.
I don't know about standardizing passwords though, unless it's something really broad, i.e. must have at least one number and be from 6-100 characters. Otherwise it narrows the possibilities down a bit much.
On that note, having only two passwords for all your services is a bit risky, unless they're very good passwords, and you're very careful about where and when you type them, and the sites you're visiting are all trustworthy. I have about 4 or 5 regular use ones, and all the important stuff like web banking, paypal, etc. each gets it's own separate password.
You could be the glorious hero, full of light and wisdom, but you were so damned fugley by the end game that the towns people would run away from you.
Except that, no matter what, you still get the same set of regular quests related to the main story arc. People might interact with you differently, but the core of the game is unchanged. This goes the same for the whole "good/evil" division as well, really.
One of the most underrated games, released in the post-SF2 era, I feel. There's a *lot* of innovation in that game, but sadly the developers opted to try to make it as ridiculously gory as possible, rather than refine the game play in any way.
But, instant win attacks, loss-of-functionality attacks (losing an arm), mid-air combos, taunting to regain health, unique control scheme that was actually pretty good, very low emphasis on projectile attacks, etc. etc. Not to mention being the first weapons-based vs. fighter, before Samurai Shodown which usually gets the honour. Though SS was a much better game...
Perhaps he means the original Street Fighter game, where you can only choose Ryu or Ken? That game is the first thing that comes to mind when I think "so bad it's good" actually. Even it was ahead of its time, but with the incredibly muffled voice samples, the awkward controls, and choppy animation it's quite a stretch to think it was ever a good game.