The locks aren't illegal, and picking them isn't illegal - that's all that is said.
Exactly, and that's what is important.
Console manufacturers have made it incresingly difficult to mod their consoles over the past couple of decades, and they still can't do it right. AFAIK, there's never been a "popular" console that hasn't been compromised.
And the more difficult the hack, the more money the hackers make. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, for example, that should someone manage to crack DirecTV they will have signed themselves into the instant multi-millionaires' club. Sure, that's a bit offtopic, but the same easily applies to modchips, too.
It's funny how these companies actually cause their own protection systems to be hacked by indirectly making it worth someone's while in $$$ to hack it.
As for your shop, well... all I can say is, if you think those 'modchips for backups' are really being used for backups, well, you're living in a fantasy land. You may not be selling pirated game discs, but to say you've never made a dollar off of piracy is splitting hairs.
I consider that the same way I consider that a hospital makes money because people die from diseases. A hospital does not cause people to die or get sick no more than my selling of a modchip causes someone to pirate a game. The fact that mostly sick people use a hospital's services doesn't make the hospital bad, and on the same note, even if people are lying to me and, in fact, are using modchips to "steal", then I do not consider myself at all responsible for that, because I would not encourage anyone to pirate, just as a hospital would not (well, should not) encourage people to get sick just to reap the benefits of another patient.
You can say that's a rationalization if you like. Your point of view does have some valid arguments. However, as I mentioned, my store, unlike others, runs a far cleaner and much more copyright respecting operation than many others that don't offer the products I do. So, at least in my mind, I consider myself "clean" of encouraging illegal activity.
The homebrew-only modchips were almost universally deplored from the moment of their announcement;
Yes, unfortunately a *LOT* of people there aren't into respecting copyright. It really sucks. I really think the XBOX-scene (pun intended) has benefited from all the hardcore crackdowns by microsoft on illegal copies of their BIOS and other software. Nobody there would ever complain that a modchip only comtained legal software that can only be used for legal purposes. Well, one would hope so, anyways.
Well, I could see your point if it was difficult or impossible to reflash the cromwell rom with, say, xecuter2. It's not, and the process is usually described in the instructions that come with the modchip.
Why should it be difficult to violate the law? I don't see anyone making automatic doors that force citizens to use the sidewalk and stay off the road until the "WALK" sign turns on, so they don't jaywalk. It's your responsibility as a citizen to know what the law is, and it's your business to follow said law.
Of course, if you call pirated games "backups", it makes it all legal, right?
No, that just makes you incorrect. Let me see if I can explain this with a venn diagram.
See how the section "BAD" is bad and is what you're discussing.:-) And notice that the section "backups" isn't entirely in the section "illegal" or "piracy".
In math:
piracy n backups n illegal
I just get tired of explaining that to people. Sorry if I took it out on you! However, the concept of a "legal backup" is well known and, at least in my country (Canada), is a right enshrined in our copyright law.
A console modchip is no more likely to enable someone to pirate a game than this cartridge modchip is likely to make someone copy the copyrighted artwork on the lexmark original cartridge. It's all separate things.
A modchip is not acting as a replacement part. It does not 'unlock' or permit operation of the console. The purpose of a modchip is to bypass the signing mechanism used to prevent you from playing pirated games.
Okay, time for a list of modchip uses:
- Playing unofficial/unlicensed software (ex: Game Enhancer, which was almost definately first developed with the help of a modchip, since absolutely ZERO Sony code or patents were used to complete the software)
- Using unofficial devices (ex: New max memory devices made by Datel)
- Cheating devices (ex: Game genie by Galoob)
- Playing backups
- Bypassing region protection
These are all locks placed on the device by the manufacturer in an attempt to stop the usage of third party items, such as:
1 - Third party discs not authorized by the console manufacturer 2 - Third party software not authorized by the console manufacturer 3 - Third party hardware not authorized by the console manufacturer 4 - Authorized software from the manufacturer that was not intended to be used in your country
As far as I know, in all three situations, doing those things is legal. It is legal for me to put Maxell media in an HP burner (item 1), it's legal for me to install Windows XP to a Mac (item 2), it's legal for me to use a non sony DV tape in my Sony DV camcorder (item 3), and it's legal for me to watch a PAL videotape in the USA (item 4).
Now, for some reason, the person who built the device decided for me they didn't like items 1 - 4. So they built the device not to allow this. Now this law says such locks are illegal. And since the actions were legal to start with, where's your beef?
That someone might do items 1 - 4 with an illegal intent? Yeah, they could. In fact, you could install a pirated Windows XP on a Mac using an emulator. Does that make the emulator illegal? You could copy a copyrighted gameboy game into a blank flash memory cartridge and play it on your gameboy. Does that make computer memory illegal?
This is no different than banning box cutters on airlines because you think a terrorist is going to slash your throat with one. You're using an (extremely poor) band-aid to cover up what is a societal problem that already has PLENTY of legal recourse against the act, and you are inconveniencing and embarassing people as you do it. It's nasty and wrong, and, quite honestly, it makes me, as an outsider, afraid to enter your country. It's no different than trying to ban chewing gum just because someone might stick it under a desk.
The main purpose of a modchip, like it or not, is to pirate games.
The main purpose of a handgun in the hands of a non-police officer, like it or not, is to kill police officers.
If you make a modchip that does not let you pirate games, but just lets you play homebrew ones, it might be legal -- but nobody would want it.
That's why they're the biggest news on the PS2 scene and why all the popular modchip makers have jumped onto the homebrew bandwagon, right? And that's why all legal XBOX modchips sold in the USA (yes, not *all* modchips are banned in the USA, just *most*) are preloaded with cromwell flash firmware, or just plain cromwell firmware, as well as a suite of popular homebrew utilites, right?
Honestly, I don't think you know what you're talking about. I make a living selling modchips legally (thank God for Canada) and there definately *is* a demand for modchips for homebrew software. There's also a larger demand for modchips for backups, and I'm happy to sell them for that purpose (thanks to our sane copyright laws). As far as a demand for pirated games, let's put it this way, I turn all customers to even mention warez away at the door, and my shop does $1/4 million+ sales per year. Seems to me there's plenty of demand for modchips for legal purposes. I would say I turn away about 1% of my customers for this reason. It's far less than I'd have to turn away if I were running a video rental store.
I've never made a dollar from piracy and I intend to keep it that way. And so do all the other places selling modchips. In the entire history of Canada, only one modchip store has ever been "shut down" for piracy. Or at least that's the only one that made the news.
Oddly enough, you'll find shops like mine MUCH more concerened with piracy than *any* other gaming store (some of which I happen to know are selling pirated games right now -- morons!), because unlike them, the corporations with big money send hired goons to my store to try to get us to sell them products for illegal purposes (this has happened to us, the hired goons that is, not the sale of illegal products) because the big money doesn't like the idea that their hardware might be used in a manner they didn't want it to be used in.
Now, I'm busy modding another PS2 so it can play imports... TTYL!
This really looks promising to make modchips legal in the USA (wow):
"Generally speaking, "lock-out" codes fall on the functional-idea rather than the original-expression side of the copyright line. Manufacturers of interoperable devices such as computers and software, game consoles and video games, printers and toner cartridges, or automobiles and replacement parts may employ a security system to bar the use of unauthorized components. To "unlock" and permit operation of the primary device (i.e., the computer, the game console, the printer, the car), the component must contain either a certain code sequence or be able to respond appropriately to an authentication process. To the extent compatibility requires that a particular code sequence be included in the component device to permit its use, the merger and sc's 'aire doctrines generally preclude the code sequence from obtaining copyright."
>Waco was kind of a slip there - or were you serious?
It was mostly a joke.:-)
>But even Canada has some problems.
I admit, we have a problem with terrorists managing to sneak about Canada and with some idiots funding them from here. That being said, despite those things having happened, one would have expected having more terrorists hanging out here would increase our chances of being terrorized -- however, it just doesn't seem to work that way, oddly enough.
>Frankly I think the reality is just about any place on earth is pretty safe from terrorism, short of a hotspot like Iraq.
That I can reasonably agree with. Well, there's a few other obvious places I'd throw in there, the gaza strip, the dufar region, colombia, karachi, chechnya, probably some others I've missed (sudan and north korea).
Terrorist bombings in my country in the past decade (Canada): Zero. Terrorist bombings in the USA in the past decade: Pentagon, Twin Towers, OK, Waco, the list goes on...
Yeah, I certainly do feel safe up here. You would too.
>Yes sir, It's a wonderful time to be from outside the US and stick your heads in the sand.
If sticking my head in the sand means nobody attacks me, and it means I don't have to start provoking people who explode thousands of my citizens when provoked, you know what, I think I'll just keep on doing it.
The West is now locked in a steel cage deathmatch with Radical Islam for world supremacy.
That's the neat thing about religion. Unless you are willing to commit genocide, you'll never, ever actually beat it down. It's not like a country whose citizens are ready to wax and wane on issues. It's like a virus, once it completely infects the hosts body, if it's not curable, that's it. Game over.
The most interesting part of a war between the US and Afghanistan and Iraq is that the latter haven't anything to lose. Life's pretty much as tough as it's ever going to get in those countries, and adding some bombs into the mix isn't all that interesting when you're fighting to feed yourself, as is.
Good luck on the war. However, we all know who will end up "winning" this war. Well, all of us outside the US. Those of us outside the US (apart from one silly nation) know better than to screw about with religious wars. Even those of us who don't believe in the bible know of it as a tome of (somewhat innacurate) history of the time, and it clearly shows how futile an all out war against a religion is.
Education and, to a certain degree, acceptance are the keys to destroying a bad religion. Acceptance to understand the peculiarities of a religion that don't harm, but may aggravate "outsiders".
Basically, this all comes down to the fact Bush is a deeply religious man, himself. People who already believe in religion aren't willing to do what it takes to force someone else to stop believing in religion. It just seems foreign, nasty, and, well, wrong to them. They feel best, instead, trying to force the other person into believing *their* religion, which is more at home to them. However, that's definately just not an option here.
I do too... I think it cost me about $800 last year for the top end 27" flat screen.
Probably worth about $100 right now.:-D Less if the tube had been burned in.
Actually, nowadays, it's getting tough to find a TV that isn't flat screen. You pretty much have to go to the absolutest shite brand, maybe say... "Apex" to get a rounded tube. Blech. And you only save $50 or something worthless like that (well, to a college student, $50 goes a long way, I suppose).
You don't have to be even moderately rich nowadays to get a flat screen. Even someone on welfare can afford their own with some heavy saving.
That being said, another article found by a slashdotter and linked somewhere in this thread explains that the testing done was a *little* more vigorous than to just tell the kid to turn off the source of illegal RF, so my theory is blasted out of the water that way. Oh well...
>So have you any evidence of 50% of the people in Australia voting randomly?
I've spoken with people living in Australia. I've asked, if people don't want to have to vote, then clearly, a party called "No Vote" whose only purpose would be to enact a resolution outlawing mandatory voting in your constitution/charter/whatever would be an easy sell on the ballot.
Since, I've been told, such a party never wins even a small percentage of the vote, the only other "obvious" answer has to be a random vote. But that's just my opinion of the option. It may not be completely random -- it's unlikely that an outlandish party, say, the communist party, would get a vote. A popular party (not sure what that would be down under, but let's say it's tory or grit since, like my country, you're a British Colony) is an easy choice that isn't going to leave the voter feeling that they managed to elect in someone that will destroy democracy in their country.
But hey, I'd love to see some survey results on the matter!:-)
>Perhaps a culture of mandatory voting encourages at least a passing interest in the system?
Nahh, it's just that those who didn't want to vote really do vote randomly, thereby cancelling each other's votes out and negating all the benefits to forcing them to vote.
That's probably why you're on my friends list. Would be nice if one could add a note...
The ONLY thing Live checks is a hash of the bios in ram.
I suppose it wouldn't be the first time I had a customer lie to me about how they got banned. Feh, better they use the original, untouched hard drive anyways, I doubt it's anywhere near impossible for MS to check the HDD contents and status in the future.
>Not everybody in this world is motivated by love of money.
Ummm, I would have thought that would be applied to the pirates, not the people buying a game to support a CORPORATION that, by law, MUST be motivated by money (or, in more general terms, wealth) ONLY.
I'd suggest it's much more likely that pirates are motivated by a love of many other things, law breaking, general piracy, hoarding, collecting, and some other things I can't think of right now, but the last thing on my list would be a love of money. More appropriately, I don't think it makes it *to* my list...
Besides, I would expect a pirate motivated by money not to be using BitTorrent to give copies of the software to others for free, but to use something like FTP and then sell copies to kids at high school.
>The ONLY thing Live checks is a hash of your bios in ram.
Not according to all the customers whose XBOXes I've modded that have attempted to play online with their chip disabled (I tell them not to, but they have to find it out for themselves, don't they?)
They also check if the Hard Drive is locked. Possibly some other checks too, but mainly the hard drive lock and BIOS check. You can, I believe, get away with using a modded XBOX on Live if you disable your modchip, and ensure your drive is locked, with an MS dashboard installed on C: (your modchip would have a boot from F: BIOS instead).
All that being said, I don't even care that much , since I refuse to sell chips with anything but Cromwell FlashBIOS preloaded, anyways.
>Some people know how to play on Live with a modified bios - it's actually not that hard.
Likely with an MS dashboard exploit, I would imagine. However, new games nowadays are coming out with dashboard auto-patches, invalidating known exploits. BUMMER! That'll teach you, nasty pirate, for buying an original instead of a cracked copy!
Personally, online play with anyone but people I know has never interested me. You end up battling people who know the game inside and out and quickly tire of it. Well, that's me, anyways. Instead, I phone up a friend and use XBConnect.
>Its more like video-game crack since it combines elements that fascinate both girls and boys, youngters and adults: community-building chats, personal vendettas (you can slam an opponent by name) as well as the usual eye-candy.
Sounds a lot like a high school football match. Plenty of chatting, lots of cheerleader eye-candy, and personal vendettas galore, with more than just words being used to slam opponents. Lots of "challenges" against their problem-solving abilities, too, as they develop new plays, etc.
Do you plan to ban the kids from that, too?
Just because these kids enjoy it a lot right now doesn't mean they'll be at it forever. However, if there's one surefire way to prolong how long they'll play this game (and, subsequently, annoy you trying to subvert your rules), it's to ban it from them without banning them from going outside your eyesight.
Remember that thing "X" that you really wanted as a child, but weren't given, and now are buying/playing/doing since your parents aren't able to tell you what to do anymore?
Yeah.
Nothing teaches someone to learn to abstain than just making sure they can't have it in the first place. Yeah, that was me being sarcastic.
I suppose what I'm saying is, you might want to talk this idea over with the school's counsellor and ask him how effective your ban will be at acheiving your anti-neopets' goal, and whether it is going to improve or worsen your student's abilities. There's a lot to be said for lettting problems sort themselves out.
All that aside, I had a hell of a lot more learning experience in high school trying to network together the old junk PCs with arcnet cards and attempting to get them to play network Doom and run an intranet based BBS than I had in the Physics class we took 15 pages of notes in per day (failed that one TWICE -- got it right in summer school -- we didn't do notes there, just book study). Thank God that first teacher realized how valuable it was to mix fun with learning -- oddly enough, it wasn't even his business to let us do that (he taught electrical class). That teacher took time out of his day for extracurricular activities that those of us not into sports would enjoy learning from.
>What if an ordinary fans fails? Do you have any evidence that the the cooling system in the PowerMacs are prone to failure?
They don't have to be prone to failure, they just have to be mechanical, and that means they *can* fail. I doubt it happens often, or even as much as "rarely", but I don't like my odds with a liquid cooling system.
The simple answer to why it is better to have at least part of the cooling passive rather than have it all active is available here. The thermal conductivity of that heatsink missing its fan is MUCH better than the thermal conductivity of water. That means the heatsink without the man will still be able to do some cooling work. The water, when not pumped, has a thermal conductivity 393 times lower.
To top it all off, the specific heat capacity of water is EXTREMELY high, meaning it takes a LOT of CPU heat before it is transferred to the water, and that once that heat in the water, it'll take a very long time before it is dissipated to the air.
Considering how quickly my athlon CPU heats itself up if I stop the fan and watch the BIOS temperature indicator, I would bet dollars to donuts that a liquid cooling pump failure would mean near instant death for it.
Now, of course, the liquid cooling systems don't use water, they add in antifreeze, but that doesn't affect the thermal conductivity much, it just stops it from freezing and boiling.
Anyhow, I find that all too dangerous a solution for me to consider it an alternative for my undermaintained computers. I would especially not consider it for expensive hardware unless it were something I rigorously maintained. For a home user, it's expected the machine will receive almost no maintenance. In my opinion, using liquid cooling for a home computer is a defective design.
>I suspect that if Apple could have designed a practical passive cooling system, then they would have, as they have been a fan (excuse the pun) of this in the past.
Well, yes and no. The one machine that comes to my mind are some older Apples that used convective cooling. It still wasn't passive, and failure of the monitor (or a full powersave, if it were possible [hopefully that was disabled]) I assume could lead to overheat. At least it wouldn't all be wrecked within minutes, though.:-D
>Also. Alienware don't really count as a big brand.
Well, in the scope of home computers... Apple isn't exactly a big player, either... Not trying to slam on them, but I think I'd be safe saying I have a 4 in 1 chance of a random computer user having an HP as compared to having an Apple.
>People who are used to 2, or prefer trackballs can easly buy one of the many non-Apple products that will work fine with Macs
Yes, but it's not made by Apple. People that prefer 2 are left dissapointed that Apple makes poor hardware for them (_not_ "used" to 2, but genuinely prefer 2+ button mice, for example, X users [odd that Apple wouldn't make a multibutton mouse when they are basing their OS on what once was the OS of choice to run X])
>Liquid cooling
Not so good of a design, IMHO. If the liquid coolant cooling device fails, you melt parts down really fast without an instant shutdown (Well, this depends on how hot the CPU and other parts run. In the case of a PC, this can be true). A more passive solution, even if it uses a fan as an active component will leave the computer opportunity for a controlled shutdown and could avoid starting fires (!).
>Please show me a high-end desktop PC from another big brand which also does this.
>This is completly the opposite of Virgin, who are in the bussiniess of getting into as many industries as possible
Nothing wrong with that. Big thinking has turned many smaller companies (and, at one time, Virgin didn't even register in my mind as a company I knew of until I managed to pick up a geography title by time back in the early 90's) into successful larger companies. And, of all larger companies, I don't see a lot of particularly bad mojo coming from Virgin.
I'm not suggesting Apple hardware if of low quality, but it isn't necessarialy high quality either. The perceived quality level of it is really going to depend on if it fits your needs or not. I find it usually doesn't.
Quality is just a qualitative factor, and, IMHO, top notch utility and ability to withstand abuse make a quality product. I usually don't care how fast something is, I just want what I buy to last not matter how much it is abused.
For others, a well rated artsy design and exciting new featres are #1. That's fine too. But both sides need to recognize that people on either side of the water have valid reasons to say Apple products in general aren't "quality" or are.
>And that would be like... maybe... three slashdot nerds?
Contrary to slashdot belief, not everyone thinks that everything Apple makes is well designed for them.
For a primary example, let's look at Apple input devices. Note that most major mouse manufacturers almost have a line of trackballs. Note the lack of trackballs made by Apple. Note that most major mouse manufacturers rarely make a single button mouse. Note that mice included with Apple computers (made by Apple) are only single button.
>Virgin aren't really into creating a high quality device like Apple are
*cough* iPod high quality? *cough*
iPods have/get:
- Easily scratched and quickly uglified
- Sealed battery packs that often die within 1 - 2 years
And let's look at the tiBook, another top of the line "quality" Apple product:
- Broken hinges in no time
- Scratched amazingly fast
Apple hardware isn't particularly *worse* than most any other company's, however, it's not particularly better than most any other company's. It has it's faults, and isn't exactly "high quality", but "consumer quality".
"High quality" would be something like this, which can be used by a military officer during war and still survive. I seriously doubt an iPod could survive a war.
>they just want any old thing to place their brand name on.
That's funny, I thought that was what Apple was about. So many OEM products with Apple logos, so little time to classify them all...
Maybe if MS put features in their products before they worked, and actually had free support, they'd find out what's broken in the features and be able to fix them faster.
Of course, according to Bill Gates, MS Word is perfect for all users using the software properly, so why would MS need to do that?
Funny how rather than spend $1/2 billion on a phone line, open source software finds ways to solve such problems faster and quicker (and cheaper) than waiting for "statistically significant" numbers of people to call and complain.
Slashdot Mirror
The locks aren't illegal, and picking them isn't illegal - that's all that is said.
Exactly, and that's what is important.
Console manufacturers have made it incresingly difficult to mod their consoles over the past couple of decades, and they still can't do it right. AFAIK, there's never been a "popular" console that hasn't been compromised.
And the more difficult the hack, the more money the hackers make. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind, for example, that should someone manage to crack DirecTV they will have signed themselves into the instant multi-millionaires' club. Sure, that's a bit offtopic, but the same easily applies to modchips, too.
It's funny how these companies actually cause their own protection systems to be hacked by indirectly making it worth someone's while in $$$ to hack it.
As for your shop, well... all I can say is, if you think those 'modchips for backups' are really being used for backups, well, you're living in a fantasy land. You may not be selling pirated game discs, but to say you've never made a dollar off of piracy is splitting hairs.
I consider that the same way I consider that a hospital makes money because people die from diseases. A hospital does not cause people to die or get sick no more than my selling of a modchip causes someone to pirate a game. The fact that mostly sick people use a hospital's services doesn't make the hospital bad, and on the same note, even if people are lying to me and, in fact, are using modchips to "steal", then I do not consider myself at all responsible for that, because I would not encourage anyone to pirate, just as a hospital would not (well, should not) encourage people to get sick just to reap the benefits of another patient.
You can say that's a rationalization if you like. Your point of view does have some valid arguments. However, as I mentioned, my store, unlike others, runs a far cleaner and much more copyright respecting operation than many others that don't offer the products I do. So, at least in my mind, I consider myself "clean" of encouraging illegal activity.
The homebrew-only modchips were almost universally deplored from the moment of their announcement;
Yes, unfortunately a *LOT* of people there aren't into respecting copyright. It really sucks. I really think the XBOX-scene (pun intended) has benefited from all the hardcore crackdowns by microsoft on illegal copies of their BIOS and other software. Nobody there would ever complain that a modchip only comtained legal software that can only be used for legal purposes. Well, one would hope so, anyways.
Well, I could see your point if it was difficult or impossible to reflash the cromwell rom with, say, xecuter2. It's not, and the process is usually described in the instructions that come with the modchip.
:-) And notice that the section "backups" isn't entirely in the section "illegal" or "piracy".
Why should it be difficult to violate the law? I don't see anyone making automatic doors that force citizens to use the sidewalk and stay off the road until the "WALK" sign turns on, so they don't jaywalk. It's your responsibility as a citizen to know what the law is, and it's your business to follow said law.
Of course, if you call pirated games "backups", it makes it all legal, right?
No, that just makes you incorrect. Let me see if I can explain this with a venn diagram.
See how the section "BAD" is bad and is what you're discussing.
In math:
piracy n backups n illegal
I just get tired of explaining that to people. Sorry if I took it out on you! However, the concept of a "legal backup" is well known and, at least in my country (Canada), is a right enshrined in our copyright law.
A console modchip is no more likely to enable someone to pirate a game than this cartridge modchip is likely to make someone copy the copyrighted artwork on the lexmark original cartridge. It's all separate things.
Sorry, I screwed up the game genie link. It should go here.
A modchip is not acting as a replacement part. It does not 'unlock' or permit operation of the console. The purpose of a modchip is to bypass the signing mechanism used to prevent you from playing pirated games.
Okay, time for a list of modchip uses:
- Playing unofficial/unlicensed software (ex: Game Enhancer, which was almost definately first developed with the help of a modchip, since absolutely ZERO Sony code or patents were used to complete the software)
- Using unofficial devices (ex: New max memory devices made by Datel)
- Cheating devices (ex: Game genie by Galoob)
- Playing backups
- Bypassing region protection
These are all locks placed on the device by the manufacturer in an attempt to stop the usage of third party items, such as:
1 - Third party discs not authorized by the console manufacturer
2 - Third party software not authorized by the console manufacturer
3 - Third party hardware not authorized by the console manufacturer
4 - Authorized software from the manufacturer that was not intended to be used in your country
As far as I know, in all three situations, doing those things is legal. It is legal for me to put Maxell media in an HP burner (item 1), it's legal for me to install Windows XP to a Mac (item 2), it's legal for me to use a non sony DV tape in my Sony DV camcorder (item 3), and it's legal for me to watch a PAL videotape in the USA (item 4).
Now, for some reason, the person who built the device decided for me they didn't like items 1 - 4. So they built the device not to allow this. Now this law says such locks are illegal. And since the actions were legal to start with, where's your beef?
That someone might do items 1 - 4 with an illegal intent? Yeah, they could. In fact, you could install a pirated Windows XP on a Mac using an emulator. Does that make the emulator illegal? You could copy a copyrighted gameboy game into a blank flash memory cartridge and play it on your gameboy. Does that make computer memory illegal?
This is no different than banning box cutters on airlines because you think a terrorist is going to slash your throat with one. You're using an (extremely poor) band-aid to cover up what is a societal problem that already has PLENTY of legal recourse against the act, and you are inconveniencing and embarassing people as you do it. It's nasty and wrong, and, quite honestly, it makes me, as an outsider, afraid to enter your country. It's no different than trying to ban chewing gum just because someone might stick it under a desk.
The main purpose of a modchip, like it or not, is to pirate games.
The main purpose of a handgun in the hands of a non-police officer, like it or not, is to kill police officers.
If you make a modchip that does not let you pirate games, but just lets you play homebrew ones, it might be legal -- but nobody would want it.
That's why they're the biggest news on the PS2 scene and why all the popular modchip makers have jumped onto the homebrew bandwagon, right? And that's why all legal XBOX modchips sold in the USA (yes, not *all* modchips are banned in the USA, just *most*) are preloaded with cromwell flash firmware, or just plain cromwell firmware, as well as a suite of popular homebrew utilites, right?
Honestly, I don't think you know what you're talking about. I make a living selling modchips legally (thank God for Canada) and there definately *is* a demand for modchips for homebrew software. There's also a larger demand for modchips for backups, and I'm happy to sell them for that purpose (thanks to our sane copyright laws). As far as a demand for pirated games, let's put it this way, I turn all customers to even mention warez away at the door, and my shop does $1/4 million+ sales per year. Seems to me there's plenty of demand for modchips for legal purposes. I would say I turn away about 1% of my customers for this reason. It's far less than I'd have to turn away if I were running a video rental store.
I've never made a dollar from piracy and I intend to keep it that way. And so do all the other places selling modchips. In the entire history of Canada, only one modchip store has ever been "shut down" for piracy. Or at least that's the only one that made the news.
Oddly enough, you'll find shops like mine MUCH more concerened with piracy than *any* other gaming store (some of which I happen to know are selling pirated games right now -- morons!), because unlike them, the corporations with big money send hired goons to my store to try to get us to sell them products for illegal purposes (this has happened to us, the hired goons that is, not the sale of illegal products) because the big money doesn't like the idea that their hardware might be used in a manner they didn't want it to be used in.
Now, I'm busy modding another PS2 so it can play imports... TTYL!
>Waco was kind of a slip there - or were you serious?
:-)
It was mostly a joke.
>But even Canada has some problems.
I admit, we have a problem with terrorists managing to sneak about Canada and with some idiots funding them from here. That being said, despite those things having happened, one would have expected having more terrorists hanging out here would increase our chances of being terrorized -- however, it just doesn't seem to work that way, oddly enough.
>Frankly I think the reality is just about any place on earth is pretty safe from terrorism, short of a hotspot like Iraq.
That I can reasonably agree with. Well, there's a few other obvious places I'd throw in there, the gaza strip, the dufar region, colombia, karachi, chechnya, probably some others I've missed (sudan and north korea).
Let me put this simply for you:
Terrorist bombings in my country in the past decade (Canada): Zero.
Terrorist bombings in the USA in the past decade: Pentagon, Twin Towers, OK, Waco, the list goes on...
Yeah, I certainly do feel safe up here. You would too.
>Yes sir, It's a wonderful time to be from outside the US and stick your heads in the sand.
If sticking my head in the sand means nobody attacks me, and it means I don't have to start provoking people who explode thousands of my citizens when provoked, you know what, I think I'll just keep on doing it.
The West is now locked in a steel cage deathmatch with Radical Islam for world supremacy.
That's the neat thing about religion. Unless you are willing to commit genocide, you'll never, ever actually beat it down. It's not like a country whose citizens are ready to wax and wane on issues. It's like a virus, once it completely infects the hosts body, if it's not curable, that's it. Game over.
The most interesting part of a war between the US and Afghanistan and Iraq is that the latter haven't anything to lose. Life's pretty much as tough as it's ever going to get in those countries, and adding some bombs into the mix isn't all that interesting when you're fighting to feed yourself, as is.
Good luck on the war. However, we all know who will end up "winning" this war. Well, all of us outside the US. Those of us outside the US (apart from one silly nation) know better than to screw about with religious wars. Even those of us who don't believe in the bible know of it as a tome of (somewhat innacurate) history of the time, and it clearly shows how futile an all out war against a religion is.
Education and, to a certain degree, acceptance are the keys to destroying a bad religion. Acceptance to understand the peculiarities of a religion that don't harm, but may aggravate "outsiders".
Basically, this all comes down to the fact Bush is a deeply religious man, himself. People who already believe in religion aren't willing to do what it takes to force someone else to stop believing in religion. It just seems foreign, nasty, and, well, wrong to them. They feel best, instead, trying to force the other person into believing *their* religion, which is more at home to them. However, that's definately just not an option here.
Just my 2 cents.
It's euro firmware. Just get european hardware (preloaded) or force your router to take the european firmware (good luck that it doesn't fail).
They put Apple stores in malls?
Not within about 1 million population of me there isn't one in a mall.
>the dude has a flat screen TV doesnt he?!
:-D Less if the tube had been burned in.
I do too... I think it cost me about $800 last year for the top end 27" flat screen.
Probably worth about $100 right now.
Actually, nowadays, it's getting tough to find a TV that isn't flat screen. You pretty much have to go to the absolutest shite brand, maybe say... "Apex" to get a rounded tube. Blech. And you only save $50 or something worthless like that (well, to a college student, $50 goes a long way, I suppose).
You don't have to be even moderately rich nowadays to get a flat screen. Even someone on welfare can afford their own with some heavy saving.
That being said, another article found by a slashdotter and linked somewhere in this thread explains that the testing done was a *little* more vigorous than to just tell the kid to turn off the source of illegal RF, so my theory is blasted out of the water that way. Oh well...
>So have you any evidence of 50% of the people in Australia voting randomly?
:-)
I've spoken with people living in Australia. I've asked, if people don't want to have to vote, then clearly, a party called "No Vote" whose only purpose would be to enact a resolution outlawing mandatory voting in your constitution/charter/whatever would be an easy sell on the ballot.
Since, I've been told, such a party never wins even a small percentage of the vote, the only other "obvious" answer has to be a random vote. But that's just my opinion of the option. It may not be completely random -- it's unlikely that an outlandish party, say, the communist party, would get a vote. A popular party (not sure what that would be down under, but let's say it's tory or grit since, like my country, you're a British Colony) is an easy choice that isn't going to leave the voter feeling that they managed to elect in someone that will destroy democracy in their country.
But hey, I'd love to see some survey results on the matter!
It's well known that certain hardware hacks for Dishnetwork receivers emit this same frequency.
What a coincidence that a college student (no money) would be doing something technical (education) to get TV for free.
>Perhaps a culture of mandatory voting encourages at least a passing interest in the system?
Nahh, it's just that those who didn't want to vote really do vote randomly, thereby cancelling each other's votes out and negating all the benefits to forcing them to vote.
>Ah yes, that racist outsourcing humor never gets old.
Ahem, you meant to say "racial" rather than "racist", correct?
If you plan to insult someone, you would do well to first be perfect yourself.
Hi, I'm one of the original "xbox hackers".
That's probably why you're on my friends list. Would be nice if one could add a note...
The ONLY thing Live checks is a hash of the bios in ram.
I suppose it wouldn't be the first time I had a customer lie to me about how they got banned. Feh, better they use the original, untouched hard drive anyways, I doubt it's anywhere near impossible for MS to check the HDD contents and status in the future.
>Not everybody in this world is motivated by love of money.
Ummm, I would have thought that would be applied to the pirates, not the people buying a game to support a CORPORATION that, by law, MUST be motivated by money (or, in more general terms, wealth) ONLY.
I'd suggest it's much more likely that pirates are motivated by a love of many other things, law breaking, general piracy, hoarding, collecting, and some other things I can't think of right now, but the last thing on my list would be a love of money. More appropriately, I don't think it makes it *to* my list...
Besides, I would expect a pirate motivated by money not to be using BitTorrent to give copies of the software to others for free, but to use something like FTP and then sell copies to kids at high school.
>The ONLY thing Live checks is a hash of your bios in ram.
Not according to all the customers whose XBOXes I've modded that have attempted to play online with their chip disabled (I tell them not to, but they have to find it out for themselves, don't they?)
They also check if the Hard Drive is locked. Possibly some other checks too, but mainly the hard drive lock and BIOS check. You can, I believe, get away with using a modded XBOX on Live if you disable your modchip, and ensure your drive is locked, with an MS dashboard installed on C: (your modchip would have a boot from F: BIOS instead).
All that being said, I don't even care that much , since I refuse to sell chips with anything but Cromwell FlashBIOS preloaded, anyways.
>Some people know how to play on Live with a modified bios - it's actually not that hard.
Likely with an MS dashboard exploit, I would imagine. However, new games nowadays are coming out with dashboard auto-patches, invalidating known exploits. BUMMER! That'll teach you, nasty pirate, for buying an original instead of a cracked copy!
Personally, online play with anyone but people I know has never interested me. You end up battling people who know the game inside and out and quickly tire of it. Well, that's me, anyways. Instead, I phone up a friend and use XBConnect.
>Its more like video-game crack since it combines elements that fascinate both girls and boys, youngters and adults: community-building chats, personal vendettas (you can slam an opponent by name) as well as the usual eye-candy.
Sounds a lot like a high school football match. Plenty of chatting, lots of cheerleader eye-candy, and personal vendettas galore, with more than just words being used to slam opponents. Lots of "challenges" against their problem-solving abilities, too, as they develop new plays, etc.
Do you plan to ban the kids from that, too?
Just because these kids enjoy it a lot right now doesn't mean they'll be at it forever. However, if there's one surefire way to prolong how long they'll play this game (and, subsequently, annoy you trying to subvert your rules), it's to ban it from them without banning them from going outside your eyesight.
Remember that thing "X" that you really wanted as a child, but weren't given, and now are buying/playing/doing since your parents aren't able to tell you what to do anymore?
Yeah.
Nothing teaches someone to learn to abstain than just making sure they can't have it in the first place. Yeah, that was me being sarcastic.
I suppose what I'm saying is, you might want to talk this idea over with the school's counsellor and ask him how effective your ban will be at acheiving your anti-neopets' goal, and whether it is going to improve or worsen your student's abilities. There's a lot to be said for lettting problems sort themselves out.
All that aside, I had a hell of a lot more learning experience in high school trying to network together the old junk PCs with arcnet cards and attempting to get them to play network Doom and run an intranet based BBS than I had in the Physics class we took 15 pages of notes in per day (failed that one TWICE -- got it right in summer school -- we didn't do notes there, just book study). Thank God that first teacher realized how valuable it was to mix fun with learning -- oddly enough, it wasn't even his business to let us do that (he taught electrical class). That teacher took time out of his day for extracurricular activities that those of us not into sports would enjoy learning from.
>What if an ordinary fans fails? Do you have any evidence that the the cooling system in the PowerMacs are prone to failure?
:-D
They don't have to be prone to failure, they just have to be mechanical, and that means they *can* fail. I doubt it happens often, or even as much as "rarely", but I don't like my odds with a liquid cooling system.
The simple answer to why it is better to have at least part of the cooling passive rather than have it all active is available here. The thermal conductivity of that heatsink missing its fan is MUCH better than the thermal conductivity of water. That means the heatsink without the man will still be able to do some cooling work. The water, when not pumped, has a thermal conductivity 393 times lower.
To top it all off, the specific heat capacity of water is EXTREMELY high, meaning it takes a LOT of CPU heat before it is transferred to the water, and that once that heat in the water, it'll take a very long time before it is dissipated to the air.
Considering how quickly my athlon CPU heats itself up if I stop the fan and watch the BIOS temperature indicator, I would bet dollars to donuts that a liquid cooling pump failure would mean near instant death for it.
Now, of course, the liquid cooling systems don't use water, they add in antifreeze, but that doesn't affect the thermal conductivity much, it just stops it from freezing and boiling.
Anyhow, I find that all too dangerous a solution for me to consider it an alternative for my undermaintained computers. I would especially not consider it for expensive hardware unless it were something I rigorously maintained. For a home user, it's expected the machine will receive almost no maintenance. In my opinion, using liquid cooling for a home computer is a defective design.
>I suspect that if Apple could have designed a practical passive cooling system, then they would have, as they have been a fan (excuse the pun) of this in the past.
Well, yes and no. The one machine that comes to my mind are some older Apples that used convective cooling. It still wasn't passive, and failure of the monitor (or a full powersave, if it were possible [hopefully that was disabled]) I assume could lead to overheat. At least it wouldn't all be wrecked within minutes, though.
>Also. Alienware don't really count as a big brand.
Well, in the scope of home computers... Apple isn't exactly a big player, either... Not trying to slam on them, but I think I'd be safe saying I have a 4 in 1 chance of a random computer user having an HP as compared to having an Apple.
>People who are used to 2, or prefer trackballs can easly buy one of the many non-Apple products that will work fine with Macs
Yes, but it's not made by Apple. People that prefer 2 are left dissapointed that Apple makes poor hardware for them (_not_ "used" to 2, but genuinely prefer 2+ button mice, for example, X users [odd that Apple wouldn't make a multibutton mouse when they are basing their OS on what once was the OS of choice to run X])
>Liquid cooling
Not so good of a design, IMHO. If the liquid coolant cooling device fails, you melt parts down really fast without an instant shutdown (Well, this depends on how hot the CPU and other parts run. In the case of a PC, this can be true). A more passive solution, even if it uses a fan as an active component will leave the computer opportunity for a controlled shutdown and could avoid starting fires (!).
>Please show me a high-end desktop PC from another big brand which also does this.
Okay!
>This is completly the opposite of Virgin, who are in the bussiniess of getting into as many industries as possible
Nothing wrong with that. Big thinking has turned many smaller companies (and, at one time, Virgin didn't even register in my mind as a company I knew of until I managed to pick up a geography title by time back in the early 90's) into successful larger companies. And, of all larger companies, I don't see a lot of particularly bad mojo coming from Virgin.
I'm not suggesting Apple hardware if of low quality, but it isn't necessarialy high quality either. The perceived quality level of it is really going to depend on if it fits your needs or not. I find it usually doesn't.
Quality is just a qualitative factor, and, IMHO, top notch utility and ability to withstand abuse make a quality product. I usually don't care how fast something is, I just want what I buy to last not matter how much it is abused.
For others, a well rated artsy design and exciting new featres are #1. That's fine too. But both sides need to recognize that people on either side of the water have valid reasons to say Apple products in general aren't "quality" or are.
>And that would be like... maybe... three slashdot nerds?
Contrary to slashdot belief, not everyone thinks that everything Apple makes is well designed for them.
For a primary example, let's look at Apple input devices. Note that most major mouse manufacturers almost have a line of trackballs. Note the lack of trackballs made by Apple. Note that most major mouse manufacturers rarely make a single button mouse. Note that mice included with Apple computers (made by Apple) are only single button.
>Virgin aren't really into creating a high quality device like Apple are
*cough* iPod high quality? *cough*
iPods have/get:
- Easily scratched and quickly uglified
- Sealed battery packs that often die within 1 - 2 years
And let's look at the tiBook, another top of the line "quality" Apple product:
- Broken hinges in no time
- Scratched amazingly fast
Apple hardware isn't particularly *worse* than most any other company's, however, it's not particularly better than most any other company's. It has it's faults, and isn't exactly "high quality", but "consumer quality".
"High quality" would be something like this, which can be used by a military officer during war and still survive. I seriously doubt an iPod could survive a war.
>they just want any old thing to place their brand name on.
That's funny, I thought that was what Apple was about. So many OEM products with Apple logos, so little time to classify them all...
Maybe if MS put features in their products before they worked, and actually had free support, they'd find out what's broken in the features and be able to fix them faster.
Of course, according to Bill Gates, MS Word is perfect for all users using the software properly, so why would MS need to do that?
Funny how rather than spend $1/2 billion on a phone line, open source software finds ways to solve such problems faster and quicker (and cheaper) than waiting for "statistically significant" numbers of people to call and complain.