Why not disallow *phone* ordering of customized selection? Instead allow it over the web where you can browse the listing and click & pick? I know e-commerce sites are Difficult(tm), and cable/dish companies are not the brightest bunch, but still...
In europe it seems to work. On most durable goods you either offer straight up 2 year warranty, or you end up replacing/repairing the stuff within 2 years of purchase anyway. Something about good strong consumer protection laws punishing the '90 day warranty' junk pushers... Warranty is not a disclaimer to get the consumer to buy a new copy when the previous one fails 91 days after purchase due to shoddy manufacturing or sub-par parts. It must be a clear *benefit* to the consumer on top of what such products should actually last in normal use. Oh and cashing in with extended warranties to consumers is *illegal* in Finland. You *can* sell 'service contracts', but even those must offer clear and substantial benefits on top of what by law the manufacturer/importer/reseller is already required to offer in case of fault.
Gives companies nice beancounter-friendly incentive to improve products. Do we spend X$ for improving our stuff to last longer, or Y$ to cover replacements/repairs of failed products during the 2 year period? If X profit margin, raise prices or get out of the market. Beancounters may generally suck, but they are remarkably good in figuring out which plan of action gives more $$$ for the corporation. And if a single company prefers to keep pushing junk to countries with lesser consumer protection laws, there will always be competitors ready to step in and fill the void. Capitalism is great when someone weeds out the unhealthy extremes via sane laws.
Fridge? Yes. Good sofa? Check! Pause button? BLASPHEMY! Well, maybe for critical biological needs mid-viewing (stuff that ya take out of the fridge gotta go SOMEWHERE in the end), and even then only if you are watching all three extended editions in one go.
Yes, I still get my share of unhappy faces when I tell a customer his hard disk is toast and all his valuable files are now at the bit heaven. Then I tell of the data recovery companies, and quote couple of usual fees they charge. Then I swap in a new hard drive and either install windows or return the machine for end user windows reinstall. While doing so, I give quick lecture on how *easy* it is to backup just the critical files to a CDR or RW disc.
However, nowdays its more and more common to find end users who have been burned once, and have *actually learned something*. 'No problem, I have the critical files on CD - its a week old but thats no biggy'. They mostly curse the fact that its extremely unwieldy to backup whole windows installations, so they'll have some application reinstallation ahead, but thats not a major issue. As a bonus they get rid of all the junk that gathers up in normal end user PC.
If outlook and IE would just add a SIMPLE 'backup IE&Outlook/restore IE&Outlook' selection into their menus that would backup or restore all local emails, all settings and all bookmarks/address books to/from a single 'archive' file that would be easy to burn to a CD or copy to another HD. Right now its incredibly hard to teach a layperson to backup *everything* that will be gone if a hard drive fails.
Which reminds me - why no similar function in Mozilla or other open source products? People want it simple. One click, one file dialog for the 'export' file that contains everything that is required to restore the browser/mail client back to where it was after system rebuild. Even if you tell 'they are in so and so folder under your documents and settings', its WAY too complicated for a normal user. And thanks to microsoft, backupping whole 'documents and settings' is extremely unwieldy due to all the non-critical crap that is stored there.
Or is there a good (free) backup solution for XP/2K that only backs up the critical bits and restores everything commonly used happily on top of a total windows reinstall? No, 'Norton Ghost the whole drive' is not a realistic option.
You calling Apple enviromentally sound? The same Apple that makes IPODs with a battery that cannot be replaced without shipping the whole ipod to a service center and back? Not to mention the new 'mini ipod' which has 'disposable' written all over it...
Want to fix the 'disposable' economy? Outlaw ridiculously short (90 day, 6 month) warranties and force - by consumer protection law - the manufacturers to make sure their stuff is *durable* by forcing them to replace it at no cost if it fails within the expected lifecycle of the product. End result is better, more durable products with only a slightly higher pricetag.
Re:Can't be used to load other people's cards
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The Universal Card
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· Score: 1
Heh.
And you think your normal everyday person can be bothered with something this complex? My CC doesnt require the use of PC or internet connection.
I'd also love to know how PocketVault can know what cards are valid, unless buying a PocketVault involves in giving 'the crown jewels' (all my CC data and personal data) to PocketVault company? And if it requires that, good luck in finding suckers that agree to it. With banks in the picture it might work, but it still sounds like a way too complicated and expensive solution to a problem that is marginal to begin with.
USA is bit behind Europe in this regard, but they are coming - in five to ten years magnetic strips will be history. Who would invest in a technology that is known to become obsolete in a few years? Especially when the usability and value of the whole trinket is dubious at best. The company in question is TOAST.
Not to mention - here in europe mobile phones/SIM cards are rapidly trying to wrestle themselves into this position. At first they'll be used as coin replacements - you can already buy soda from a vending machine or a bus ticket using a phone in Finland. Next step is to allow you to pay your purchases using a phone in stores. Naturally this bit has much more resistance from the established credit/debit card companies as phone operators are dreaming of taking the cake from Visa and other heavyweights. I'd guess than when the dust settles, there will be something like 'MobileVISA' - basically allowing you to pay using your mobile phone and the purchase showing up in your credit card bill, with the phone operator getting teeny cut out of the action for providing the authentication and linking to the customer's credit card data. Yes, there are naturally security issues - mobile handset theft would become a lot more lucrative if you could pay with one - but give 'em time... sooner or later you have one thingy that you always carry around that functions as a phone and an 'electronic wallet'.
So what's the reason to have this trinket then? There isn't one...
Actually their policy is that they WILL backport all security updates to SP1.
They support current and previous Service Pack level. Meaning right now all security related patches are published to original XP and SP1. Once SP2 is launched they support SP1 and SP2, but if you still would prefer to run untouched XP (why?), you'd be out of luck.
SP2 becomes non-optional after SP3 is launched.
This is rather recent change, so I don't actually know how it works regarding Windows 2000 - I know lots of places which are still running 2K SP1.
- It's expensive. Too expensive for a trinket that might be lost/damaged in everyday life. Credit card lost? No biggie - you just cancel it, request new one. At worst you pay few bucks fee for replacement card.
- Lose this trinket, and you just gave *every damn card/id thingy ya had* to a thief. Yeah yeah its fingerprint keyed. So what? The data is inside and everything is ultimately hackable.
- It can obiviously be used to swipe magnetic strip data off other people's cards you may be able to handle. As a bonus if it can 'dupe' smartcards, Visa & co wont be happy - they just spent gazillions in moving every (insecure) magnetic card to ones with chip inside. I think their timetable is something like by end of 2005 every Visa card is a smartcard. I'd expect credit card companies to sue the pants off this company for unauthorized reverse engineering of their security features against duplication in the cards. DMCA will be used to pwn these guys. (And if it does *not* dupe smartcards, it will be useless in couple of years when every card becomes one)
- Big credit card companies will just tell to the retailers not to accept anything except Genunie Visa(r) Card(tm):) - logos and all. And if you expect chameleon cards to be allowed to display those logos, think again. Not to mention that a chameleon card would either have to display gazillion different logos (fishy, wouldn't pass in most stores without tons of education and approval of credit card companies), or you'd need a custom card for every card you have - in which case the whole toy is useless.
- Huge hassles with most clerks refusing the cards 'swiped on' with this trinket even without guidance from credit card companies - "that's not a visa card, are you trying to fool me with some thieves tool with copied card data?". The education required to train every damn minimum wage clerk in the world to identify and accept this thingy in place of a real card would be astronomical - EVEN if the card companies would go along with it.
Dot.com boom coming back? This company is beyond loony to even attempt to develop something this stupid.
When ya head to windowsupdate, it queries the CD-Key used to install it, and if it's on their (very short) blacklist, you get booted out of the pages. Or, I think, more exactly it queries somekinda UID from the OS, which is generated from the CD-Key.
And yes, the way to get around this is to change the key to a new one from a working keygen or list of working corporate edition keys. 99% of clueles lusers who got their OS from friend's friend have no idea how to do this. So their machines sit open. Bad thing is that this gives nice installed base of unpatched boxes for all the worms, but in the long term each user who has had to eradicate an infection out of his box due to unpatched windows remembers this the next time they are buying a computer, and instead of a 'bare' computer, they choose to plunk down 100 euros for the OEM XP Home. I'm quite sure windows sales are up due to the activation and the fact that crappily warezed copies cannot be updated to SP1.
Right now, I think all the critical security updates will be supported to both SP1 and original XP, but without windows update you have to manually install them. When SP2 launches, MS will limit their patch support to SP1 or SP2 *only*, and those with old unpatched copies have no way to patch their boxes up to date without installing at least SP1, and this kills the old Devils0wn version, if the user is not clueful enough to change the key.
Won't work for Joe Sixpack user. The support phone guys refuse to support it the instant he says 'I have not updated XP because I don't want to download the crap MS is trying to add to my OS'.
First question of a support tech over windows software issue; 'Have you ran Windows Update and installed all the critical updates?'.
""As I recall, people were declaring the death of Zone Alarm and Black Ice when it was heard that XP would contain a firewall. I remember the predictions of Symantec's doom because Windows 95 had a disk defragmenter (3.1 and NT did not). The deaths of MusicMatch and REAL were all too.. er... real, when Media Player was to be included.""
Well, BlackIce is just about dead. ZoneAlarm is popular because it's free & offers the all-important application-based rules. They also offer a nice value-added version that you can buy if you want bit more features. Compared to that, XP firewall is crippleware. XP firewall is also not 'visibly' there - you don't get a 'let's configure your firewall' wizard after installation. Heck, most people do not *KNOW* XP has one. And it's, funnily, disabled by default (And there will be lots of issues when it automatically turns on with SP2. I can't wait for all the support calls due to stuff 'no longer working' after SP2 turns it on silently. People use lots of odd stuff that needs open ports...)
95 and later disk defragmenter *has* just about killed the market for defragmeters. No home user buys a product to get a disk defragmenter. They might use symantec one if it comes bundled with bunch of other stuff, but they wouldn't go out and buy one because windows has one builtin and it seems to do what is needed.
And, like it or not, MS Media Player has a sizeable market. Only reason people also install RealPlayer and others is the sea of incompatible file formats. If MS software would play RealMedia files, realplayer would go byebye in a flash.
Nope. Current versions are only good for one year. Reinstalling them won't fix it. I dunno if total wipe & reinstall of windows does (or some digging of registry keys to eliminate any traces of it), but even if it does, end users do not consider 'Reinstall Windows' to be a solution.
What people don't understand is that even older AV software still gets definition/engine updated, so they buy the yearly subs, which IMHO is comparable to legalized extortion...
I agree. Lots of 'normal' people are royally pissed off when they find out that their bundled AV software only had a 90 day or 6 month 'trial' subscription, and that they get to fork out cash for continuing virus protection.
Even more people are happy to find out that their 50+ euro boxed AV/Internet Security box is good for only 12 months. They pay, but they are making noises and considering the current AV companies to be vultures, basically extorting protection fees to fix a problem that should not be there in the first place.
If MS AV/Firewall solutions are any good, AV vendors are *so* hosed with their current subscription models.
Of course I fully expect MS to bundle the AV software and then charge for updates after a trial period. First baby steps towards 'subscription' OS purchase model... They want it, but so far they had no way to sell it to end users...
They only block the warezed copies of the uneducated masses. Anyone with any knowledge has fixed the system around their 'check' - usually by changing the volume license key used from the most common pirate key to another working key. If the blacklist yet another set of volume license keys, it takes about 30 minutes for another 'change key'-fix program to crop up. As long as they have 'corporate' versions with no activation and volume license keys, they can't win vs the sophisticated users.
However, even the current tactics ARE working.
Before WinXP SP1, lots of people skipped buying the OS as 'they could just borrow it from a friend' (when buying a whitebox computer). Nowdays the OEM OS sells surprisingly well - the fact that most don't have access to the 'proper' warez version without the activation already foils some of them. The rest are usually driven to purchase of the OEM copy due to the blocking of the first old non-SP1 corporate versions from Windows Update based on the widely distributed CD-key.
The masses have learned that 'you cannot update the warez WinXP, and without updates your computer is insecure'. Everyone knows a friend who had the good old Devils0wn XP without SP1 or any other critical updates, and usually without any AV or firewall software - a friend who then promptly got hosed by the Blaster worm & endless reboots. This sells lots of operating systems, and I bet MS is happy. Heck, I'd say latest round of worms and viruses together with the common 'knowledge' that you 'cannot' patch warez XP is the best advertising campaing MS could have had for their product. Which is kinda funny...
""This is obviously an abusive use of the DMCA as that 'special' cd-key check only takes place on battle.net. It doesn't happen on single player, LAN, or TCP/IP games.""
It's kinda hard to perform the check in singleplayer and LAN games, as you could either circumvent it by unplugging your network connection to the world, or losing sales to every user who do not (gasp) have Internet connection.
No keycheck for direct TCP/IP games is bit more gray area, but basically they are 'LAN games' as well, and requiring a check would require an internet connection for a game which does not require it to function. How do you differentiate TCP/IP gaming over a 'private' WAN and a game over the Internet?
The other way to do it is Valve's 'Steam' system. Look how many 'fans' they got from the LAN party community when their new system basically disallowed LAN gaming without a connection to the internet!
Blizzard is still the bad guy, as 'server emulation' for a game that does not require a paid subscription is fair game to reverse-engineer. What happens in five or ten years when Blizzard runs down battle.net and you can no longer use it? Yeah, it has a secondary issue of 'disabling' the antipiracy check, but I recall bnetd devs offered to include the keycheck to their code, but blizzard refused to provide a way to include it.
In any case, complaining that they are 'abusing' the DMCA by requiring an online CD-check only on battle.net is moronic to say the least.
I had to pay the shipping to France(!), but otherwise they replaced GF4ti4600 with a dead fan with about two weeks turnaround time. And since Ti4600 was EOLd, they replaced it with a FX5600 Ultra.
Which was nice, since I bought a new Radeon 9800 pro anyway, and the FX5600 ultra, being brand new, was easy enough to sell:)
Re:AMD have been better than Intel for some time..
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AMD Back in the Black
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· Score: 1
KT400 and KT400A were pretty indifferent about memory, but the new KT600 chipset is showing some odd behaviour with some modules that work just fine on KT400/400A. And then there is nForce2, which should probably come with it's own 'nVidia' branded RAM that is tested to work:p
Penny pinchers go for AsRock K7S8X 3.0E. Something like 40 euros... For normal setups we currently recommend A7V8X-X (as long as they are still made), or A7V600-X (the new replacement). Sadly A7V8X-X has about 3-5% 'dud rate' out of the box, and A7V600-X has the KT600 memory iffyness problem with multiple sticks.
The new A7N8X Deluxe-E is pretty spiffy and seems to have something 'cured' in the memory timings dept, but I didn't expect anything less from a 'late revision' board.
But all this is pretty poor when you can pick almost any 865 or 875-based intel board, and you can throw almost any memory (preferrably branded) at it, and It Just Works(tm). I do admit intel has had it's own share of mobo/chipset issues back in the early days of P4, but the platform has matured a lot, while AthlonXP platform *still* has some issues, and it's almost end-of-life!
Thankfully, like I said, Athlon64 looks like it's 'born mature' due to the lateness of the CPU. At least once the chipset/mobo makers had plenty of time to finish their products:)
Re:AMD have been better than Intel for some time..
on
AMD Back in the Black
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· Score: 1
We junked the ECS from our lineup over an year ago. FIC and Gigabyte were dropped in testing before even taken into selection due to total suckage. Currently our lineup is MSI, Asus and AsRock for the penny pinchers. Abit and Epox are provided as options via special order to end users that know what they are doing (or at least claim so) - we usually don't recommend them due to variety of 'funny' probs here and there...
The problem is with the chipsets. Even the 'best' Asus boards (A7V600, A7N8X Deluxe) have their share of problems with *Brand name* modules. Kingston, for example has several different DDR400 modules. Some work, some don't. You need to pick the right ones. Funnily HyperX uber-RAMs are ones that most often have timing issues when running more than one stick.
And note that lots of these memory problems are *not* an issue with 1x512MB. Put that 2nd one in, and you may find out that in order to reach stability, you get to replace even the first one. HAPPY JOY JOY for the end user that bought his setup with one module, and plans to add 2nd later when he finds out he needs 1GB. Those boxes will come and haunt you in about an year when 'normal users' go beyond 512MB...
Due to finnish consumer protection laws, at that point the store I work in would be in deep doodoo. If customer can prove the initial module and/or the motherboard does not work as advertised when he sticks in 2nd module, we get to replace the first module (or the motherboard) for free. So we have to go and test this stuff. Some lowend systems we sell *telling the customer* that due to the (cheaper) parts used, upgrading to 1GB won't probably work. Some agree that it's a fair tradeoff. Most don't.
It's also funny how just about ever Athlon motherboard has 3 ram module connectors. Once you go thru the 'fine print', you find out that the chipset won't work with 3x DDR400 module at full speed. And this is with single-channel VIA chipsets. Guess what a customer *expects* from a motherboard with 3 memory module slots...
Just pure chipset crappiness. AMD should get into chipset business and make a good one at a premium.
Slashdot Mirror
Stupid reaction to stupid problem.
Why not disallow *phone* ordering of customized selection? Instead allow it over the web where you can browse the listing and click & pick? I know e-commerce sites are Difficult(tm), and cable/dish companies are not the brightest bunch, but still...
In europe it seems to work. On most durable goods you either offer straight up 2 year warranty, or you end up replacing/repairing the stuff within 2 years of purchase anyway. Something about good strong consumer protection laws punishing the '90 day warranty' junk pushers... Warranty is not a disclaimer to get the consumer to buy a new copy when the previous one fails 91 days after purchase due to shoddy manufacturing or sub-par parts. It must be a clear *benefit* to the consumer on top of what such products should actually last in normal use. Oh and cashing in with extended warranties to consumers is *illegal* in Finland. You *can* sell 'service contracts', but even those must offer clear and substantial benefits on top of what by law the manufacturer/importer/reseller is already required to offer in case of fault.
Gives companies nice beancounter-friendly incentive to improve products. Do we spend X$ for improving our stuff to last longer, or Y$ to cover replacements/repairs of failed products during the 2 year period? If X profit margin, raise prices or get out of the market. Beancounters may generally suck, but they are remarkably good in figuring out which plan of action gives more $$$ for the corporation. And if a single company prefers to keep pushing junk to countries with lesser consumer protection laws, there will always be competitors ready to step in and fill the void. Capitalism is great when someone weeds out the unhealthy extremes via sane laws.
Fridge? Yes.
Good sofa? Check!
Pause button? BLASPHEMY! Well, maybe for critical biological needs mid-viewing (stuff that ya take out of the fridge gotta go SOMEWHERE in the end), and even then only if you are watching all three extended editions in one go.
Actually - backup situation is improving.
Yes, I still get my share of unhappy faces when I tell a customer his hard disk is toast and all his valuable files are now at the bit heaven. Then I tell of the data recovery companies, and quote couple of usual fees they charge. Then I swap in a new hard drive and either install windows or return the machine for end user windows reinstall. While doing so, I give quick lecture on how *easy* it is to backup just the critical files to a CDR or RW disc.
However, nowdays its more and more common to find end users who have been burned once, and have *actually learned something*. 'No problem, I have the critical files on CD - its a week old but thats no biggy'. They mostly curse the fact that its extremely unwieldy to backup whole windows installations, so they'll have some application reinstallation ahead, but thats not a major issue. As a bonus they get rid of all the junk that gathers up in normal end user PC.
If outlook and IE would just add a SIMPLE 'backup IE&Outlook/restore IE&Outlook' selection into their menus that would backup or restore all local emails, all settings and all bookmarks/address books to/from a single 'archive' file that would be easy to burn to a CD or copy to another HD. Right now its incredibly hard to teach a layperson to backup *everything* that will be gone if a hard drive fails.
Which reminds me - why no similar function in Mozilla or other open source products? People want it simple. One click, one file dialog for the 'export' file that contains everything that is required to restore the browser/mail client back to where it was after system rebuild. Even if you tell 'they are in so and so folder under your documents and settings', its WAY too complicated for a normal user. And thanks to microsoft, backupping whole 'documents and settings' is extremely unwieldy due to all the non-critical crap that is stored there.
Or is there a good (free) backup solution for XP/2K that only backs up the critical bits and restores everything commonly used happily on top of a total windows reinstall? No, 'Norton Ghost the whole drive' is not a realistic option.
You calling Apple enviromentally sound? The same Apple that makes IPODs with a battery that cannot be replaced without shipping the whole ipod to a service center and back? Not to mention the new 'mini ipod' which has 'disposable' written all over it...
Want to fix the 'disposable' economy? Outlaw ridiculously short (90 day, 6 month) warranties and force - by consumer protection law - the manufacturers to make sure their stuff is *durable* by forcing them to replace it at no cost if it fails within the expected lifecycle of the product. End result is better, more durable products with only a slightly higher pricetag.
Heh.
And you think your normal everyday person can be bothered with something this complex? My CC doesnt require the use of PC or internet connection.
I'd also love to know how PocketVault can know what cards are valid, unless buying a PocketVault involves in giving 'the crown jewels' (all my CC data and personal data) to PocketVault company? And if it requires that, good luck in finding suckers that agree to it. With banks in the picture it might work, but it still sounds like a way too complicated and expensive solution to a problem that is marginal to begin with.
Which is why everyone outside rural areas in India knows English as second language... :)
USA is bit behind Europe in this regard, but they are coming - in five to ten years magnetic strips will be history. Who would invest in a technology that is known to become obsolete in a few years? Especially when the usability and value of the whole trinket is dubious at best. The company in question is TOAST.
Not to mention - here in europe mobile phones/SIM cards are rapidly trying to wrestle themselves into this position. At first they'll be used as coin replacements - you can already buy soda from a vending machine or a bus ticket using a phone in Finland. Next step is to allow you to pay your purchases using a phone in stores. Naturally this bit has much more resistance from the established credit/debit card companies as phone operators are dreaming of taking the cake from Visa and other heavyweights. I'd guess than when the dust settles, there will be something like 'MobileVISA' - basically allowing you to pay using your mobile phone and the purchase showing up in your credit card bill, with the phone operator getting teeny cut out of the action for providing the authentication and linking to the customer's credit card data. Yes, there are naturally security issues - mobile handset theft would become a lot more lucrative if you could pay with one - but give 'em time... sooner or later you have one thingy that you always carry around that functions as a phone and an 'electronic wallet'.
So what's the reason to have this trinket then? There isn't one...
Actually their policy is that they WILL backport all security updates to SP1.
They support current and previous Service Pack level. Meaning right now all security related patches are published to original XP and SP1. Once SP2 is launched they support SP1 and SP2, but if you still would prefer to run untouched XP (why?), you'd be out of luck.
SP2 becomes non-optional after SP3 is launched.
This is rather recent change, so I don't actually know how it works regarding Windows 2000 - I know lots of places which are still running 2K SP1.
- It's expensive. Too expensive for a trinket that might be lost/damaged in everyday life. Credit card lost? No biggie - you just cancel it, request new one. At worst you pay few bucks fee for replacement card.
:) - logos and all. And if you expect chameleon cards to be allowed to display those logos, think again. Not to mention that a chameleon card would either have to display gazillion different logos (fishy, wouldn't pass in most stores without tons of education and approval of credit card companies), or you'd need a custom card for every card you have - in which case the whole toy is useless.
- Lose this trinket, and you just gave *every damn card/id thingy ya had* to a thief. Yeah yeah its fingerprint keyed. So what? The data is inside and everything is ultimately hackable.
- It can obiviously be used to swipe magnetic strip data off other people's cards you may be able to handle. As a bonus if it can 'dupe' smartcards, Visa & co wont be happy - they just spent gazillions in moving every (insecure) magnetic card to ones with chip inside. I think their timetable is something like by end of 2005 every Visa card is a smartcard. I'd expect credit card companies to sue the pants off this company for unauthorized reverse engineering of their security features against duplication in the cards. DMCA will be used to pwn these guys. (And if it does *not* dupe smartcards, it will be useless in couple of years when every card becomes one)
- Big credit card companies will just tell to the retailers not to accept anything except Genunie Visa(r) Card(tm)
- Huge hassles with most clerks refusing the cards 'swiped on' with this trinket even without guidance from credit card companies - "that's not a visa card, are you trying to fool me with some thieves tool with copied card data?". The education required to train every damn minimum wage clerk in the world to identify and accept this thingy in place of a real card would be astronomical - EVEN if the card companies would go along with it.
Dot.com boom coming back? This company is beyond loony to even attempt to develop something this stupid.
Well, google gets more hits with "Sim Ant" than with "SimAnt", so I guess the majority is typing it wrong in this case.. :)
He got off way too lightly.
10 years should put the fear of god into typosquatters, spammers and other lowlifes.
Maybe because the game is called 'Sim Ant', not 'Simant'?
Google is broken, but if you can't even type your search terms correctly, you sure get even more crap than usual.
You forgot couple of lines from there pointing randomly to new york times (free reg blaah blaah blaah...)
When ya head to windowsupdate, it queries the CD-Key used to install it, and if it's on their (very short) blacklist, you get booted out of the pages. Or, I think, more exactly it queries somekinda UID from the OS, which is generated from the CD-Key.
And yes, the way to get around this is to change the key to a new one from a working keygen or list of working corporate edition keys. 99% of clueles lusers who got their OS from friend's friend have no idea how to do this. So their machines sit open. Bad thing is that this gives nice installed base of unpatched boxes for all the worms, but in the long term each user who has had to eradicate an infection out of his box due to unpatched windows remembers this the next time they are buying a computer, and instead of a 'bare' computer, they choose to plunk down 100 euros for the OEM XP Home. I'm quite sure windows sales are up due to the activation and the fact that crappily warezed copies cannot be updated to SP1.
Right now, I think all the critical security updates will be supported to both SP1 and original XP, but without windows update you have to manually install them. When SP2 launches, MS will limit their patch support to SP1 or SP2 *only*, and those with old unpatched copies have no way to patch their boxes up to date without installing at least SP1, and this kills the old Devils0wn version, if the user is not clueful enough to change the key.
Won't work for Joe Sixpack user. The support phone guys refuse to support it the instant he says 'I have not updated XP because I don't want to download the crap MS is trying to add to my OS'.
First question of a support tech over windows software issue; 'Have you ran Windows Update and installed all the critical updates?'.
""As I recall, people were declaring the death of Zone Alarm and Black Ice when it was heard that XP would contain a firewall. I remember the predictions of Symantec's doom because Windows 95 had a disk defragmenter (3.1 and NT did not). The deaths of MusicMatch and REAL were all too.. er... real, when Media Player was to be included.""
Well, BlackIce is just about dead. ZoneAlarm is popular because it's free & offers the all-important application-based rules. They also offer a nice value-added version that you can buy if you want bit more features. Compared to that, XP firewall is crippleware. XP firewall is also not 'visibly' there - you don't get a 'let's configure your firewall' wizard after installation. Heck, most people do not *KNOW* XP has one. And it's, funnily, disabled by default (And there will be lots of issues when it automatically turns on with SP2. I can't wait for all the support calls due to stuff 'no longer working' after SP2 turns it on silently. People use lots of odd stuff that needs open ports...)
95 and later disk defragmenter *has* just about killed the market for defragmeters. No home user buys a product to get a disk defragmenter. They might use symantec one if it comes bundled with bunch of other stuff, but they wouldn't go out and buy one because windows has one builtin and it seems to do what is needed.
And, like it or not, MS Media Player has a sizeable market. Only reason people also install RealPlayer and others is the sea of incompatible file formats. If MS software would play RealMedia files, realplayer would go byebye in a flash.
Nope. Current versions are only good for one year. Reinstalling them won't fix it. I dunno if total wipe & reinstall of windows does (or some digging of registry keys to eliminate any traces of it), but even if it does, end users do not consider 'Reinstall Windows' to be a solution.
What people don't understand is that even older AV software still gets definition/engine updated, so they buy the yearly subs, which IMHO is comparable to legalized extortion...
I agree. Lots of 'normal' people are royally pissed off when they find out that their bundled AV software only had a 90 day or 6 month 'trial' subscription, and that they get to fork out cash for continuing virus protection.
Even more people are happy to find out that their 50+ euro boxed AV/Internet Security box is good for only 12 months. They pay, but they are making noises and considering the current AV companies to be vultures, basically extorting protection fees to fix a problem that should not be there in the first place.
If MS AV/Firewall solutions are any good, AV vendors are *so* hosed with their current subscription models.
Of course I fully expect MS to bundle the AV software and then charge for updates after a trial period. First baby steps towards 'subscription' OS purchase model... They want it, but so far they had no way to sell it to end users...
FAA would nuke their asses out of the business if they'd build aeroplanes like they write OSes.
They only block the warezed copies of the uneducated masses. Anyone with any knowledge has fixed the system around their 'check' - usually by changing the volume license key used from the most common pirate key to another working key. If the blacklist yet another set of volume license keys, it takes about 30 minutes for another 'change key'-fix program to crop up. As long as they have 'corporate' versions with no activation and volume license keys, they can't win vs the sophisticated users.
However, even the current tactics ARE working.
Before WinXP SP1, lots of people skipped buying the OS as 'they could just borrow it from a friend' (when buying a whitebox computer). Nowdays the OEM OS sells surprisingly well - the fact that most don't have access to the 'proper' warez version without the activation already foils some of them. The rest are usually driven to purchase of the OEM copy due to the blocking of the first old non-SP1 corporate versions from Windows Update based on the widely distributed CD-key.
The masses have learned that 'you cannot update the warez WinXP, and without updates your computer is insecure'. Everyone knows a friend who had the good old Devils0wn XP without SP1 or any other critical updates, and usually without any AV or firewall software - a friend who then promptly got hosed by the Blaster worm & endless reboots. This sells lots of operating systems, and I bet MS is happy. Heck, I'd say latest round of worms and viruses together with the common 'knowledge' that you 'cannot' patch warez XP is the best advertising campaing MS could have had for their product. Which is kinda funny...
""This is obviously an abusive use of the DMCA as that 'special' cd-key check only takes place on battle.net. It doesn't happen on single player, LAN, or TCP/IP games.""
It's kinda hard to perform the check in singleplayer and LAN games, as you could either circumvent it by unplugging your network connection to the world, or losing sales to every user who do not (gasp) have Internet connection.
No keycheck for direct TCP/IP games is bit more gray area, but basically they are 'LAN games' as well, and requiring a check would require an internet connection for a game which does not require it to function. How do you differentiate TCP/IP gaming over a 'private' WAN and a game over the Internet?
The other way to do it is Valve's 'Steam' system. Look how many 'fans' they got from the LAN party community when their new system basically disallowed LAN gaming without a connection to the internet!
Blizzard is still the bad guy, as 'server emulation' for a game that does not require a paid subscription is fair game to reverse-engineer. What happens in five or ten years when Blizzard runs down battle.net and you can no longer use it? Yeah, it has a secondary issue of 'disabling' the antipiracy check, but I recall bnetd devs offered to include the keycheck to their code, but blizzard refused to provide a way to include it.
In any case, complaining that they are 'abusing' the DMCA by requiring an online CD-check only on battle.net is moronic to say the least.
Hmm. I had zero issues in europe with PNY.
:)
I had to pay the shipping to France(!), but otherwise they replaced GF4ti4600 with a dead fan with about two weeks turnaround time. And since Ti4600 was EOLd, they replaced it with a FX5600 Ultra.
Which was nice, since I bought a new Radeon 9800 pro anyway, and the FX5600 ultra, being brand new, was easy enough to sell
KT400 and KT400A were pretty indifferent about memory, but the new KT600 chipset is showing some odd behaviour with some modules that work just fine on KT400/400A. And then there is nForce2, which should probably come with it's own 'nVidia' branded RAM that is tested to work :p
:)
Penny pinchers go for AsRock K7S8X 3.0E. Something like 40 euros... For normal setups we currently recommend A7V8X-X (as long as they are still made), or A7V600-X (the new replacement). Sadly A7V8X-X has about 3-5% 'dud rate' out of the box, and A7V600-X has the KT600 memory iffyness problem with multiple sticks.
The new A7N8X Deluxe-E is pretty spiffy and seems to have something 'cured' in the memory timings dept, but I didn't expect anything less from a 'late revision' board.
But all this is pretty poor when you can pick almost any 865 or 875-based intel board, and you can throw almost any memory (preferrably branded) at it, and It Just Works(tm). I do admit intel has had it's own share of mobo/chipset issues back in the early days of P4, but the platform has matured a lot, while AthlonXP platform *still* has some issues, and it's almost end-of-life!
Thankfully, like I said, Athlon64 looks like it's 'born mature' due to the lateness of the CPU. At least once the chipset/mobo makers had plenty of time to finish their products
We junked the ECS from our lineup over an year ago. FIC and Gigabyte were dropped in testing before even taken into selection due to total suckage. Currently our lineup is MSI, Asus and AsRock for the penny pinchers. Abit and Epox are provided as options via special order to end users that know what they are doing (or at least claim so) - we usually don't recommend them due to variety of 'funny' probs here and there...
The problem is with the chipsets. Even the 'best' Asus boards (A7V600, A7N8X Deluxe) have their share of problems with *Brand name* modules. Kingston, for example has several different DDR400 modules. Some work, some don't. You need to pick the right ones. Funnily HyperX uber-RAMs are ones that most often have timing issues when running more than one stick.
And note that lots of these memory problems are *not* an issue with 1x512MB. Put that 2nd one in, and you may find out that in order to reach stability, you get to replace even the first one. HAPPY JOY JOY for the end user that bought his setup with one module, and plans to add 2nd later when he finds out he needs 1GB. Those boxes will come and haunt you in about an year when 'normal users' go beyond 512MB...
Due to finnish consumer protection laws, at that point the store I work in would be in deep doodoo. If customer can prove the initial module and/or the motherboard does not work as advertised when he sticks in 2nd module, we get to replace the first module (or the motherboard) for free. So we have to go and test this stuff. Some lowend systems we sell *telling the customer* that due to the (cheaper) parts used, upgrading to 1GB won't probably work. Some agree that it's a fair tradeoff. Most don't.
It's also funny how just about ever Athlon motherboard has 3 ram module connectors. Once you go thru the 'fine print', you find out that the chipset won't work with 3x DDR400 module at full speed. And this is with single-channel VIA chipsets. Guess what a customer *expects* from a motherboard with 3 memory module slots...
Just pure chipset crappiness. AMD should get into chipset business and make a good one at a premium.