Re:Screw you Sony?!?
on
Sony vs Modchips
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I mean, geez, if Sony doesn't want me hacking up it's [sic] boxes, why did it _sell_ them to me? Come on Sony, ligthen up!
Now that's rich. "I mean, geez, if Pac Bell doesn't want me phone phreaking, why did they _sell_ me a phone line? Come on, Pac Bell, lighten up!".
FYI: Sony doesn't make money off the boxes, they make money off sold games.
Modchip = #1 way to enable piracy for the masses = immense loss of profit for Sony AND game developers AND publishers. And since I'm in that group, I can say that Sony, by trying to get rid of modchips, promotes security for my very job.
But anyway, that's not news at all, it's been around for at least three weeks...
Actually, it's been there for months. According to the site, that thing started in September this year. And I do remember having heard of it many times in the last few months.
Infogrames Germany have released a statement about this issue on their homepage.
Google's translation is astonishingly readable, but just in case, here's the text in a nutshell:
- It's a clear violation of the copyright and Infogrames is required to enforce it.
- The official German localization is already in a pretty advanced state - its advantage over the "guerilla translation" is that it covers the entire game while Kai's translation only deals with certain parts of the game. [At least that's how I understand this part]
- In general however, Infogrames are very pleased about fan initiatives and plan to support them more in future. They are still trying to work out ways to cooperate with them.
I find the $500 lawyers bill to be insane though - I mean, seriously, the guy was just trying to help, no?
According to the heise article (in Krautish, sorry), the $500 bill has been declared void by Infogrames. They still threaten with a $10,000 fine if he won't cease working on the translations and remove all the work done so far from the 'net.
The user has unlimited access to the hard disk (and if only from a second OS), so he can modify the kernel AND the code that loads the kernel all the way up to the MBR.
[They've even managed to crack dongle-protected applications...]
Not worthy of an exclamation point. Most dongle-based apps just call a function that checks for the dongle...
Some. But a few applications have more intelligent dongles that actually do a little bit more than simply say "I am here" all the time, like the Capcom dongle you mentioned. There have been other approaches like this (I remember Ocean's Amiga "Robocop 3" protection scheme they claimed to be "uncrackable"), and they have been overcome.
There is no uncrackable protection system
on
Rent-a-Game
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· Score: 1
Not necessarily. If the operating system has tight memory protection (Windows XP feature)..., how are you supposed to fetch the 128-bit decryption key?
IMHO (and so far nothing could prove me wrong) no piece of software is uncrackable. So you want to embed protection in the kernel? Big deal, people will simply examine the kernel files and then hack the kernel.
You have no idea how innovative and cunning crackers are. They've been able to crack code which decrypts itself at runtime opcode by opcode. They've even managed to crack dongle-protected applications without having a suitable dongle!
As long as all code and data is accessible, it can be compromised.
But I was under the impression (what!) that some/. readers considered themselves to be fairly competent with computers, and perfectly capable of editing a text file...
And this is exactly the problem. We're not talking about/. readers here; those will not be 'mislead' by auto-links anyway. The problem is the majority of users, the not-even-casual operators who cannot even close down Microsoft Word without the help of the power button.
They will not fire up Notepad to edit that text file, and they're the ones who might be affected by that 'MS brainwash', should there be one. Just as you stated yourself:
"Certainly, there will be a default set of redirects installed with XP, and I have no doubt that these will be chosen to M$'s advantage."
btw, sony just came out with "psOne", a redesigened playstation. Don't you think if you were coming out with a new playstation model you would give it something faster than a 2x cdrom?
That re-design was on a purely optical basis. It was simply impossible to make signifcant changes to the hardware without abandoning compatibility. The PSX libraries are hard-wired to single speed and double speed, there is no way to change the drive speed to anything else, and since the programmer is given pretty much low-level access to the CD drive, you're stuck. I wrote some audio code for example which relied on the drive to be running with double speed.
Yes, the loading times of CD-based games suck, but cramming data onto those cartridges is one hell of a job. You have to compress the heck out of your data, it is NO fun, believe me. Especially when your producer is too greedy to come up with large cartridges. And just compare that embarrassing kindergarten music of a cartridge-based N64 title to real streaming CD sound. The sound issue alone would put me off a N64.
Besides, many PSX games would have had much shorter loading times if the programmers hadn't been so sloppy about that issue.
Re:Playing devil's advocate here...
on
Nazis on Napster
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· Score: 1
Yup, agree with that.
Well, my point of view is that people just need an enemy. Romans were happy as long as they were fighting Carthago. When they finally destroyed it, they had no more enemies, became lazy and decadent bastards and started to rot from the inside.
Hmm, I fear for the United States now that the Communist threat has stopped! Hey, at least we still have Saddam.
It is - of course - a conspiracy by the government to keep people literally in line. As long as you're in your car, you can't bomb buildings or perform other means of attacking national security. You can't even escape. You're trapped! And at the same time, you're spending money (on gas), i.e. you'll contribute to the US economy.
And IF you realize this conspiracy and try to escape your jail, you'll end up dead - see Falling Down for details.
Presumably there's some penalty (other than living many years past senility:) )
Oh actually there is. You'll have people live much longer than they're supposed to be. Imagine, say, Tokyo citizens living twice as long as they already do. Housing space is that limited there, people would really SUFFER.
Every man is an awkward waste of resources. He has a car, wastes huge amounts of electricity, buys an uncountable number of consumer goods, each and every single thing eating at our soon-to-be-depleted resources.
Why do you think did the gas price rise that much? (At least in places other than the US). Just because the mineral oil industry felt like fucking us in the ass? What do you think would happen if there were twice as many cars on the roads?
Yes, I would like to live forever (as long as I'd stay fit, both physically and mentally), but as long as we haven't spread out to other planets that we can conquer and exploit, things would REALLY look dim around here.
Be thankful there is death in so many forms as a keeper of balance. It's tough shit, but that's life.
I don't care about whether Linux or Windows or MacOS controls the warfare (unless Windows - and thereby its steered jet fighters - crashes, of course).
1. If you don't write that code which will be part of the program that is involved, you didn't save the world. Somebody else will write the code.
2. If nobody else writes the code, then you'll stop the development of Linux. It's like, "hey, let's stop making babies, because the men might later go to war and kill people."
3. If you want to prevent GPL software from being used by the military, that's fine. Other OSes will be used. That will a. not benefit the Linux community (less funds), b. probably increase costs for the military (which is funded by the taxpayer - hint, hint), c. not make the slightest haze of a difference when hell breaks loose and the bombs DO start dropping. Oh what, you feel better because you didn't contribute to that? That's sweet, but since you're dead anyway and the bombing occured anyway, where's the difference? It's not like, "I could have prevented it".
4. Personally, I'd be PROUD if parts of my code would be used by the military.
Sorry about this tone, but I'm sick of all those "you may not use my software on any computer affiliated with military" license terms I have seen so often. The beauty of many pieces of software - such as the Linux OS - is its versatility, and I don't like people limiting it because there are things THEY don't like.
If you wrote the Linux kernel and everything that's GPL'ed, okay, go ahead and put in your ethical clause. But with the GPL virtually open to everyone, both pacifists as well as members of the military, I don't see why there should be a clause as subjective as that one in it.
Yes, I do think that black people often are stuck with shitty roles in "white man Hollywood movies" where the front cast is made up by an all-white crew, but that ain't got nothing to do with Arnold.
(Just as a hint... The Terminator had Paul Winfield as the very good-willed Detective Traxler. YES, he got killed, but he was neither spineless nor a bad guy.)
Guess it's the same old song. Hollywood is trying to please the mainstream audience, and unfortunately too many people still want to see stereotypes. There are so many other movies where the bad guys are made up by the classic bad guys: How about City of industry, for example.
Hey, I was shocked when I read some bullshit comment about The Perfect Storm where you really have to look hard to find grounds for racist talk.
Here, this is an actual comment on IMDB from some dickhead, submitted July 15:
"I found the begining of the movie to be especially irritating. The first 30 minutes of the film had a white woman kissing all over her black lover in several scenes... I could tell I wasn't the only one to find this unsettling as I could look around the theatre and see other viewers were upset with this bit of racial propaganda.
Once again the media bosses strike with propaganda designed to make white women want black men instead of white lovers. Whenever I see this in movies I always let it be known that their ploy doesn't fool me. And I'm not the only one!"
So as long as assholes like Jerry Dean who submitted this bullshit form a major part of the audience, major motion pictures will mostly stick to their current formula.
I'm not saying that all non-whites are oppressed and it's a conspiracy by Hollywood and stuff, it's just that there is some undertone in many movies, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle.
It's hard to say something about a "trend" though with so many movies out there; every example can be fought back with four counter-examples. I guess in the end everybody forms his own opinion, finds 10, 20 movies to support his statements, and sticks to that.
Other than "Theo", the guy with glasses in the original "Die Hard", he's the only example of a black computer whiz I can think of in a Hollywood movie.
Since they are not able to produce a secure distibution channel over the internet they are thinking about demanding a fee for every soundcard or other music-related equipment.
This fee has also been considered for every scanner and every CDR drive and every CDR media; some people even demanded that fee for every PC sold.
There is a lot of crazy talk about copyright violation in general and MP3 in detail. There have been really stupid plans - there were ideas to force every major ISP to monitor traffic and scan for MP3s and stuff like that. But as usual, nothing much has happened.
No way - Yaroze basically allowed you to REALLY write code for the PSX1. This YABASIC crap however is simply - judging by what I've read - a simple basic interpreter with extremely high-level 3D support. This is more of some fun tool for kids and amateurs to mess around with.
And I don't understand this bitching about "Oh man, now PSX2 has 80's style graphics". Just because there is a BASIC interpreter available for the PS2 does not mean that professional game developers will use it! Hell, there is QBASIC available for the PC. Why does nobody complain that "we only have text-mode games on the PC" now?? Did you see just one professional game programmed in QBASIC?! It's the same thing.
By the way, if you'd know the prices for PSX1 development kits, you certainly wouldn't moan about $700 being expensive:-)
The first square chosen MUST be random. There are no clues as to what may lie under the first square clicked.
Not quite true, since Minesweeper will simply not allow you to click on a mine on your first attempt. It'll highlight the square when you click on it but it'll refuse to uncover it.
Still doesn't mean squat since your first click might be completely useless (just one "1" uncovered, nothing else), so once you again you're up shit creek without a paddle.
Does anyone remember the page of exploding heads? No big deal, really. It was online, like, 4 years ago, maybe. It was a pretty simple page with six "animations", i.e. four pictures. Each animation displayed a famous person (Bill Gates, Bob Dole, etc.) whose head did explode in a way or another.
Absolutely nothing spectacular, and those "animations" were totally simple too (just some crude Photoshop filter crap done on top of pictures of those guys).
However, several months after that page went online, the author of the page was visited at his home by FBI agents. He was given a date when he had to show up for "interrogation". They asked him whether he had a shotgun in his home and whether he'd been in a mental instituion.
Is this a good thing? Where's the line? When should the government take action? When they see someone posting a fun page about exploding heads?
Many, many years ago I wrote some hate article about a certain European country (which incidentally got me several death threats). Now I wouldn't want to have authorities interrogate me on grounds of that article.
I appreciate government and law enforcement trying to prevent crime rather than cleaning up the mess afterwards, but there is a line that should be drawn, and if I feel that someone is constantly watching me with a spying glass or if I feel that I have to watch what I say in public (i.e. if my opinion has been given to me by someone else), I can't really see that much freedom anymore.
all of its self proclaimed `successors' simply aren't standards because they're all tightly controlled by a single company.
Sad but true. After a wave of progress (3 1/2 to replace 5 1/4, HD to replace DD) the floppy disk more or less came to a halt after CD-ROM and HD took over.
It certainly is time for a new standard; this is not possible however as long as every notebook you buy and every pre-setup desktop computer you buy comes with a floppy drive.
I personally favor the ZIP drive, it is moderately fast (SCSI version, at least), and pretty reliable given the fact that it is not optical, but the price for a medium is not acceptable.
Many people choose your approach of simply using CDRs, yes, they're cheap, yes, CDR is standard and can be read almost everywhere, but that's an immense waste of resources! Especially when using the 650 MB media for 10 MB sessions! Hardly anybody employs multi-session CDs, and when you move over to CD-RW you're losing the "de-facto standard" argument. Besides, if you compare the cost of a CD-RW drive to that of a ZIP drive w/ one medium, you'll lose the price argument as well.
Furthermore, I consider the purpose of a CD is a different one: The data they contain is supposed to last longer. Floppies (and ZIP media) on the other hand were made to contain data that can be read, written, and re-written quickly.
So for "long-term data", we have a standard: CD-R. Our current standard for "short-term data" however, floppy disks, is hopefully obsolete. Time for a new standard, although this is always a pain and slow process. Look at how LaserDiscs tried to replace VHS and failed. Look at how MD tried to replace audio tapes and failed.
As an answer to the original question: Although it's a compromise, I'd go for ZIP drives.
MFC may be good for windows, But it all goes back to Microsoft's attempt to shut everybody out of Windows.Just like they did to J++, they have made the MFC and Visual C++ GUI classes so tied to Windows, its almost impossible to "digest" the code without 2 or 3 MFC and Windows API manuals.
MFC is simply a C++ wrapper for the standard Win32 API so that people who want to write code for *WINDOWS* do not have to use the awkward Win32 calls anymore. No thought of any kind about platforms other than Windows!
So what if MS hadn't developed MFC? Your code would have been portable and not bound to Win32? NO. It would have been Win32-only too. Actually, MFC makes your code less Win32-specific since IN THEORY the classes might be rewritten for a different OS (AFAIK MFC code might even be ported to Mac, albeit with lots of restrictions).
MFC just offers you some comfortable classes and an OO approach to the Win32 API calls. Creating windows, device contexts, and GDI objects is considerably easier to perform in MFC and less error-prone (the class destructors perform some cleaning up which all had to be done by yourself in standard Win32 code).
Hey, I'm not married to this MFC thing, I've even talked my boss out of using MFC in our current project, but I still get the idea of MFC and I'd say that for Win32 applications it ain't bad.
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I mean, geez, if Sony doesn't want me hacking up it's [sic] boxes, why did it _sell_ them to me? Come on Sony, ligthen up!
Now that's rich. "I mean, geez, if Pac Bell doesn't want me phone phreaking, why did they _sell_ me a phone line? Come on, Pac Bell, lighten up!".
FYI: Sony doesn't make money off the boxes, they make money off sold games.
Modchip = #1 way to enable piracy for the masses = immense loss of profit for Sony AND game developers AND publishers. And since I'm in that group, I can say that Sony, by trying to get rid of modchips, promotes security for my very job.
But anyway, that's not news at all, it's been around for at least three weeks...
Actually, it's been there for months. According to the site, that thing started in September this year. And I do remember having heard of it many times in the last few months.
Infogrames Germany have released a statement about this issue on their homepage.
Google's translation is astonishingly readable, but just in case, here's the text in a nutshell:
- It's a clear violation of the copyright and Infogrames is required to enforce it.
- The official German localization is already in a pretty advanced state - its advantage over the "guerilla translation" is that it covers the entire game while Kai's translation only deals with certain parts of the game. [At least that's how I understand this part]
- In general however, Infogrames are very pleased about fan initiatives and plan to support them more in future. They are still trying to work out ways to cooperate with them.
I find the $500 lawyers bill to be insane though - I mean, seriously, the guy was just trying to help, no?
According to the heise article (in Krautish, sorry), the $500 bill has been declared void by Infogrames. They still threaten with a $10,000 fine if he won't cease working on the translations and remove all the work done so far from the 'net.
[people will simply...hack the kernel]
Not if the kernel won't boot...
The user has unlimited access to the hard disk (and if only from a second OS), so he can modify the kernel AND the code that loads the kernel all the way up to the MBR.
[They've even managed to crack dongle-protected applications...]
Not worthy of an exclamation point. Most dongle-based apps just call a function that checks for the dongle...
Some. But a few applications have more intelligent dongles that actually do a little bit more than simply say "I am here" all the time, like the Capcom dongle you mentioned. There have been other approaches like this (I remember Ocean's Amiga "Robocop 3" protection scheme they claimed to be "uncrackable"), and they have been overcome.
Not necessarily. If the operating system has tight memory protection (Windows XP feature)..., how are you supposed to fetch the 128-bit decryption key?
IMHO (and so far nothing could prove me wrong) no piece of software is uncrackable. So you want to embed protection in the kernel? Big deal, people will simply examine the kernel files and then hack the kernel.
You have no idea how innovative and cunning crackers are. They've been able to crack code which decrypts itself at runtime opcode by opcode. They've even managed to crack dongle-protected applications without having a suitable dongle!
As long as all code and data is accessible, it can be compromised.
And this is exactly the problem. We're not talking about /. readers here; those will not be 'mislead' by auto-links anyway. The problem is the majority of users, the not-even-casual operators who cannot even close down Microsoft Word without the help of the power button.
They will not fire up Notepad to edit that text file, and they're the ones who might be affected by that 'MS brainwash', should there be one. Just as you stated yourself:
"Certainly, there will be a default set of redirects installed with XP, and I have no doubt that these will be chosen to M$'s advantage."
That re-design was on a purely optical basis. It was simply impossible to make signifcant changes to the hardware without abandoning compatibility. The PSX libraries are hard-wired to single speed and double speed, there is no way to change the drive speed to anything else, and since the programmer is given pretty much low-level access to the CD drive, you're stuck. I wrote some audio code for example which relied on the drive to be running with double speed.
Yes, the loading times of CD-based games suck, but cramming data onto those cartridges is one hell of a job. You have to compress the heck out of your data, it is NO fun, believe me. Especially when your producer is too greedy to come up with large cartridges. And just compare that embarrassing kindergarten music of a cartridge-based N64 title to real streaming CD sound. The sound issue alone would put me off a N64.
Besides, many PSX games would have had much shorter loading times if the programmers hadn't been so sloppy about that issue.
Well, my point of view is that people just need an enemy. Romans were happy as long as they were fighting Carthago. When they finally destroyed it, they had no more enemies, became lazy and decadent bastards and started to rot from the inside.
Hmm, I fear for the United States now that the Communist threat has stopped! Hey, at least we still have Saddam.
Reminds me of people trying to ban FPS in order to prevent young, innocent kids from wreaking havoc in their schools.
If your kid is willing to kill its school mates, taking Quake away from it will not "cure" it.
Taking Nazi music away will most certainly not do zip about the minds of those who download them! What's the point??
Oh, BTW, AHX, outstanding movie.
"The sensors contain a simple solution that has been tested" and "The Attention Trainer(TM) does not have side effects..."
You say that "you take a nice, non-conductive material...and...coat it with silicone (watch out, that stuff is carcinogenic)"
How do those two go along?
It is - of course - a conspiracy by the government to keep people literally in line. As long as you're in your car, you can't bomb buildings or perform other means of attacking national security. You can't even escape. You're trapped! And at the same time, you're spending money (on gas), i.e. you'll contribute to the US economy.
And IF you realize this conspiracy and try to escape your jail, you'll end up dead - see Falling Down for details.
Traffic jams are not of malicious origin. People didn't set up a jam to annoy you and exploit your car.
Oh actually there is. You'll have people live much longer than they're supposed to be. Imagine, say, Tokyo citizens living twice as long as they already do. Housing space is that limited there, people would really SUFFER.
Every man is an awkward waste of resources. He has a car, wastes huge amounts of electricity, buys an uncountable number of consumer goods, each and every single thing eating at our soon-to-be-depleted resources.
Why do you think did the gas price rise that much? (At least in places other than the US). Just because the mineral oil industry felt like fucking us in the ass? What do you think would happen if there were twice as many cars on the roads?
Yes, I would like to live forever (as long as I'd stay fit, both physically and mentally), but as long as we haven't spread out to other planets that we can conquer and exploit, things would REALLY look dim around here.
Be thankful there is death in so many forms as a keeper of balance. It's tough shit, but that's life.
I don't care about whether Linux or Windows or MacOS controls the warfare (unless Windows - and thereby its steered jet fighters - crashes, of course).
1. If you don't write that code which will be part of the program that is involved, you didn't save the world. Somebody else will write the code.
2. If nobody else writes the code, then you'll stop the development of Linux. It's like, "hey, let's stop making babies, because the men might later go to war and kill people."
3. If you want to prevent GPL software from being used by the military, that's fine. Other OSes will be used. That will a. not benefit the Linux community (less funds), b. probably increase costs for the military (which is funded by the taxpayer - hint, hint), c. not make the slightest haze of a difference when hell breaks loose and the bombs DO start dropping. Oh what, you feel better because you didn't contribute to that? That's sweet, but since you're dead anyway and the bombing occured anyway, where's the difference? It's not like, "I could have prevented it".
4. Personally, I'd be PROUD if parts of my code would be used by the military.
Sorry about this tone, but I'm sick of all those "you may not use my software on any computer affiliated with military" license terms I have seen so often. The beauty of many pieces of software - such as the Linux OS - is its versatility, and I don't like people limiting it because there are things THEY don't like.
If you wrote the Linux kernel and everything that's GPL'ed, okay, go ahead and put in your ethical clause. But with the GPL virtually open to everyone, both pacifists as well as members of the military, I don't see why there should be a clause as subjective as that one in it.
(Just as a hint... The Terminator had Paul Winfield as the very good-willed Detective Traxler. YES, he got killed, but he was neither spineless nor a bad guy.)
Guess it's the same old song. Hollywood is trying to please the mainstream audience, and unfortunately too many people still want to see stereotypes. There are so many other movies where the bad guys are made up by the classic bad guys: How about City of industry, for example.
Hey, I was shocked when I read some bullshit comment about The Perfect Storm where you really have to look hard to find grounds for racist talk.
Here, this is an actual comment on IMDB from some dickhead, submitted July 15:
"I found the begining of the movie to be especially irritating. The first 30 minutes of the film had a white woman kissing all over her black lover in several scenes... I could tell I wasn't the only one to find this unsettling as I could look around the theatre and see other viewers were upset with this bit of racial propaganda.
Once again the media bosses strike with propaganda designed to make white women want black men instead of white lovers. Whenever I see this in movies I always let it be known that their ploy doesn't fool me. And I'm not the only one!"
So as long as assholes like Jerry Dean who submitted this bullshit form a major part of the audience, major motion pictures will mostly stick to their current formula.
I'm not saying that all non-whites are oppressed and it's a conspiracy by Hollywood and stuff, it's just that there is some undertone in many movies, sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle.
It's hard to say something about a "trend" though with so many movies out there; every example can be fought back with four counter-examples. I guess in the end everybody forms his own opinion, finds 10, 20 movies to support his statements, and sticks to that.
Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park?
Since they are not able to produce a secure distibution channel over the internet they are thinking about demanding a fee for every soundcard or other music-related equipment.
This fee has also been considered for every scanner and every CDR drive and every CDR media; some people even demanded that fee for every PC sold.
There is a lot of crazy talk about copyright violation in general and MP3 in detail. There have been really stupid plans - there were ideas to force every major ISP to monitor traffic and scan for MP3s and stuff like that. But as usual, nothing much has happened.
No way - Yaroze basically allowed you to REALLY write code for the PSX1. This YABASIC crap however is simply - judging by what I've read - a simple basic interpreter with extremely high-level 3D support. This is more of some fun tool for kids and amateurs to mess around with.
And I don't understand this bitching about "Oh man, now PSX2 has 80's style graphics". Just because there is a BASIC interpreter available for the PS2 does not mean that professional game developers will use it! Hell, there is QBASIC available for the PC. Why does nobody complain that "we only have text-mode games on the PC" now?? Did you see just one professional game programmed in QBASIC?! It's the same thing.
By the way, if you'd know the prices for PSX1 development kits, you certainly wouldn't moan about $700 being expensive :-)
The first square chosen MUST be random. There are no clues as to what may lie under the first square clicked.
Not quite true, since Minesweeper will simply not allow you to click on a mine on your first attempt. It'll highlight the square when you click on it but it'll refuse to uncover it.
Still doesn't mean squat since your first click might be completely useless (just one "1" uncovered, nothing else), so once you again you're up shit creek without a paddle.
Does anyone remember the page of exploding heads? No big deal, really. It was online, like, 4 years ago, maybe. It was a pretty simple page with six "animations", i.e. four pictures. Each animation displayed a famous person (Bill Gates, Bob Dole, etc.) whose head did explode in a way or another.
Absolutely nothing spectacular, and those "animations" were totally simple too (just some crude Photoshop filter crap done on top of pictures of those guys).
However, several months after that page went online, the author of the page was visited at his home by FBI agents. He was given a date when he had to show up for "interrogation". They asked him whether he had a shotgun in his home and whether he'd been in a mental instituion.
Is this a good thing? Where's the line? When should the government take action? When they see someone posting a fun page about exploding heads?
Many, many years ago I wrote some hate article about a certain European country (which incidentally got me several death threats). Now I wouldn't want to have authorities interrogate me on grounds of that article.
I appreciate government and law enforcement trying to prevent crime rather than cleaning up the mess afterwards, but there is a line that should be drawn, and if I feel that someone is constantly watching me with a spying glass or if I feel that I have to watch what I say in public (i.e. if my opinion has been given to me by someone else), I can't really see that much freedom anymore.
all of its self proclaimed `successors' simply aren't standards because they're all tightly controlled by a single company.
Sad but true. After a wave of progress (3 1/2 to replace 5 1/4, HD to replace DD) the floppy disk more or less came to a halt after CD-ROM and HD took over.
It certainly is time for a new standard; this is not possible however as long as every notebook you buy and every pre-setup desktop computer you buy comes with a floppy drive.
I personally favor the ZIP drive, it is moderately fast (SCSI version, at least), and pretty reliable given the fact that it is not optical, but the price for a medium is not acceptable.
Many people choose your approach of simply using CDRs, yes, they're cheap, yes, CDR is standard and can be read almost everywhere, but that's an immense waste of resources! Especially when using the 650 MB media for 10 MB sessions! Hardly anybody employs multi-session CDs, and when you move over to CD-RW you're losing the "de-facto standard" argument. Besides, if you compare the cost of a CD-RW drive to that of a ZIP drive w/ one medium, you'll lose the price argument as well.
Furthermore, I consider the purpose of a CD is a different one: The data they contain is supposed to last longer. Floppies (and ZIP media) on the other hand were made to contain data that can be read, written, and re-written quickly.
So for "long-term data", we have a standard: CD-R. Our current standard for "short-term data" however, floppy disks, is hopefully obsolete. Time for a new standard, although this is always a pain and slow process. Look at how LaserDiscs tried to replace VHS and failed. Look at how MD tried to replace audio tapes and failed.
As an answer to the original question: Although it's a compromise, I'd go for ZIP drives.
MFC may be good for windows, But it all goes back to Microsoft's attempt to shut everybody out of Windows. Just like they did to J++, they have made the MFC and Visual C++ GUI classes so tied to Windows, its almost impossible to "digest" the code without 2 or 3 MFC and Windows API manuals. MFC is simply a C++ wrapper for the standard Win32 API so that people who want to write code for *WINDOWS* do not have to use the awkward Win32 calls anymore. No thought of any kind about platforms other than Windows! So what if MS hadn't developed MFC? Your code would have been portable and not bound to Win32? NO. It would have been Win32-only too. Actually, MFC makes your code less Win32-specific since IN THEORY the classes might be rewritten for a different OS (AFAIK MFC code might even be ported to Mac, albeit with lots of restrictions). MFC just offers you some comfortable classes and an OO approach to the Win32 API calls. Creating windows, device contexts, and GDI objects is considerably easier to perform in MFC and less error-prone (the class destructors perform some cleaning up which all had to be done by yourself in standard Win32 code). Hey, I'm not married to this MFC thing, I've even talked my boss out of using MFC in our current project, but I still get the idea of MFC and I'd say that for Win32 applications it ain't bad.