I can't really say the same thing for drums or singing. On a side note, has anyone actually used the microphone yet, and is it really lame? I've never sang in a band before, but I did years of choral and musial theater singing, and I sing for our band (though I sub in on drums - poorly - when our female drummer wants to do the female-voiced songs). The included microphone is fairly heavy, and I'd much prefer a headset or stick mic, but it is shaped appropriately for the "tamborine/cowbell" tapping sections of songs. It does pick up my vocals very well.
The real problem I have with the vocal portion of Rock Band is that the engine deducts points for natural tremolo. I've had to consciously be careful when holding notes to not produce any tremolo that's not displayed on the track, even when the original singer sings with tremolo. I understand how bloody hard it would be to compensate for it (when is it tremolo, and when is it someone flatting/sharping/flat out missing the pitch?), but it still is a PITA. Once you get that down though, it's great fun.
It's not a Firefox problem inasmuchas a fix to Firefox itself will fix the problem. However, it's a reasonable idea to provide a heads-up to Firefox users (savvy and not-so-savvy) that a popular associated app it interacts with contains a flaw that appears to be unique to said pairing.
Besides, this is Slashdot. Since when did the headlines make sense?
Yep, I opted out as well. While opt-in as the default is a horrific policy, they at least did offer the opt out option very easily and obviously in the letter.
What really needed to be added to Vista is a concept of the "source" of code execution. In the case of UAC there should be the notion of not only the code execution but of the source, such as a keyboard, mouse or other input device. These sources identify execution requests as coming from a HUMAN, and not some nasty zombie pc making virus
IANAP (I Am Not A Programmer), but this concept dinged a little lightbulb over my head with the commonly-used Windows and Mac application known as World of Warcraft.:)
For those unfamiliar, their LUA-based UI system is built around giving users capability to script functions. These can be short macros of native commands and LUA language, or full-fledged addons, made up of 3rd-party LUA code + XML executed by the client and interpreted by the server to run complex functions. The idea is that these macros and addons can lessen the burden of repetitive tasks and make the game more fun. Build your addon, assign it to a key or mouse button, and when that key is pressed or click is registered, the code is run and interpreted. The setup also allows Blizzard to alter the available libraries or functions too, to extend capabilities or limit them from version to version. If they don't like how your addon impacts gameplay, they can (and have, especially with their recent 2.0 release) disable the functions it uses.
Are their hacks that can change how WoW.exe works? Sure, there've been lots of them, and I'm sure there's lots more, but I wouldn't know because I don't seek out or use the hacks (IANALACE - I Am Not A Lame-Ass Cheater Either:) ). Basically though, all legit actions in game are driven by hardware events. You can't run a bot script to run around, follow players and help them while you go eat a sandwich. You need to be there, pressing buttons and clicking the mouse. Thus, there's nothing there that Microsoft couldn't have borrowed from Blizzard functionally. Hardware clicks are client-space, or userland. Anything important is on the server, or kernel space. MS could've used this, but instead, now they check to see if you really meant to do that. Awful design, and something they could've learned to avoid by stealing from one of the most popular applications run on their platform.
Well, this is going to take a long time, so you may want to get some snacks.
The marketing campaign is not a crime, nor a "hoax", nor anything to get indignant about. Installation-based ads have been around for years. What may be a crime though is the apparent "4 simultaneous calls reporting strange devices" to the Boston police. If it was done to prompt all this, the caller deserves a decent amount of time in PMITA.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I definitely thought about the Mini, but since my main system has long since basically become a WoW platform, I want serious video power behind it, overall expandability and the capability to move to next-gen video cards. The Mini doesn't offer that, so I didn't Switch.
For the AC/troll that mentioned "I assume you'll be dual-booting into a pirated copy of windows. Otherwise, you would have bought a ppc mac years ago", I own Windows 2000 on CD. I bought it from a legitimate distributor. My money paid for it. Don't be an ass. As for the reason I didn't buy a PPC Mac years ago, it took this defrag event to really make me consider Switching, so in looking at the aging G5 line, I knew I should wait til August. I'm not an x86 bigot, just want the system for which I plunk down cash to not be long in the tooth at time of purchase.
I had backups, but couldn't restore files to a system I could no longer log into. No data was lost, just time spent researching what went wrong, enough time that I'm ready to make the move.
That's exactly why I'm Switching. The only game I play nowadays is World of Warcraft, and it has native Mac support, so no problem there. I've tried various Linux desktops, and while they certainly don't suck, WoW's unsupported, Codeweavers be damned:/
Nope, Western Digital drive. I've had good and bad drives from all the major manufacturers, so I don't tend to consider one much better than the others. Following the reinstall, that exact same drive has functioned without issue.
No FUD whatsoever. This happened to me 2 months ago. Running Win2K with the latest service pack, I found my system was draggy as hell. I virus-scanned and ad-aware'd to assure I had nothing stealing resources, and yup, no such problem. I used Microsoft's included Disk Defrag utility, and found the C partition (4 GB in size) was 90% fragmented. Assuming this was the culprit, I ran the utility, and went to bed.
When I came down in the morning. The defrag had apparently failed to complete, and the system was frozen. I powercycled it, and when it came back up, I was no longer able to log in (I'll look up the specific error code from my notes and reply with it). Throwing the disk into another workstation, I was able to mount the partition, and found dozens of DLL files had mysteriously disappeared from my system32 folder, including some of the important ones used to process a login.
Not knowing what exactly was missing and needed replacing, I bit the bullet and bought a Windows 2K OEM CD, as I'd misplaced my own (yes, I really did misplace it - I've certainly pirated Windows before, but not in this case). I ran through a reinstall, and Win2K was back to normal, minus the dragginess I'd seen prior. Bit Rot Happens, we all know that, but this was a direct correlation to running a defrag and watching system files disappear into the ether.
I'm waiting with baited breath for the release of the Intel PowerMac. I've never, ever, ever owned a Mac in any form. I've got a ton of Windows workstations and Linux servers, but never a Mac. This will change in August. I'm tired of ridiculous Windows behaviors (disk defrag inadvertantly deletes required system DLLs...nice), and ready for new ridiculous Mac behaviors, knowing I'm not giving dollars direct to Microsoft ever again.
Time shifting for home use is perfectly legal under the Betamax ruling. Hollywood can legally go screw. This ruling is designed strictly to stop non-copyright holders from adjusting content and reselling it without the agreement of the copyright holders. If a studio wants to partner with a censoring company, or do the censoring of the films themselves (which I'm fairly certain they do), they may do so.
One more vote for the Timex Sinclair 1000. It had 8K RAM, with a 16K RAM addon. I fooled around with BASIC on it for a few months, but really, that was a tough one for a kid with a low attention span (and friends with Atari 2600s) to swallow:) Over the years, I ended up with other hand-me-down systems from a family friend, including a Tandy machine and eventually, an IBM XT with a gigantic letter quality printer. It took hours to print, but in an era where slacker kids handed in papers written in 20 pt. font, 2.5-inch line spaces and 1.5-inch margins, my teachers found my papers a breath of fresh air. They appeared to be perfectly typewritten, a happy medium between dot matrix and Helvetica. I guarantee that got me an extra half-letter grade on some of the more middling essays I turned in over the years.
Silly child. Don't you realize we're living in a post-9/11 world, and your viewpoint is that of a pre-9/11 Democrat? You will be assimilated.
To be fair, I give GWB a bit of credit as to why he's doing what he's doing. It's my considered opinion that he's mortified that 9/11 happened on his watch, and so now he's lashing out to prevent a recurrance, using any means (illegal or not) at his disposal. I don't think he intends to abuse the power, but that's not the question. The reality is that he is abusing a power that he has not been delegated, and he needs to pay the price.
Some good points about WoW have been made already. But, there is one reason and one reason only that WoW is huge: no pre-released, rush-to-meet-it launch deadline. And as far as I know, Blizzard has never done this. What do they do instead? They say "It'll be out when it is done. Not a day before." This attitude is what makes their games so fun. They actually make it good before they release it.
Welllll, I wouldn't say never:) WoW itself had good base mechanics upon release, but only a small number of classes (rogues, shamen, mages) were polished enough to make it through the first year without a significant revamp of their spell lineup and mechanics. Warriors, priests, paladins, hunters, warlocks and druids all had their talents and/or spells heavily reworked over the last year. Priests are due for a full reworking with the next patch, though they received new spells (per race) that were significant enough for me to consider them a reworked class (I have two level 60 priests, so I know of what I speak:) ).
Also, don't forget how righteously unplayable WoW was due to server and network problems in the first 2 months' of release. In that time, Blizzard issued nearly a month's worth of game credit due to lag and crash problems. I'd venture to say that a good deal of this would have been avoided with a longer beta test cycle involving much more stress testing. As it was, the Stress Test Beta (STB) only illuminated that there were significant problems with play server to item DB server transactions and with lag in heavily populated areas. They may have done some tweaking between STB and release, but those problems continued to plague the game past release, and still crop up in numbers today (witness the instability on Medivh during the AQ event - 7 crashes, 5 of them due strictly to players mobbing a single zone, not due to new mob interaction).
In short, while Blizz does tend to take their time, they released WoW in late Nov. '04 to meet the Xmas '04 rush, and it caused problems.
I should have clarified - they have "run into more delays and outright refusal"...compared to previous administrations. Presumably, they're overreaching on some suspects. I assure you that I'm not blaming the FISA court and its oversight role. The administration has directly broken the law, and while not admitting wrongdoing, administration officials and apologists are trying to claim that the President has the authority to break that law. Why? Because Congress declared war on Afghanistan, and gave the President authority to use force in Iraq. Bush has turned those specific declarations into giving himself the capability to ignore the FISA law and not seek warrants.
The real question, as others have posed, is why not seek the warrants? After all, they aren't getting stopped. Clearly, they're doing something that the court would not permit (like, say, tapping all international communications, and sifting through at will). If the President wanted that capability, he could ask Congress to enact a law to make it so. With GOP control of Congress, he'd likely be able to get it (especially if he'd bothered to put it in the original PATRIOT Act that our reps in Congress so blithely voted for without reading). So what's he up to? Just trust him that he has the country's best interests in mind? Somehow, I doubt that's gonna happen any time soon.
This is exactly the point. FISA gives the feds clearance to intercept communications (mail, landline phone, wireless phone, Internet) where one party is international, and the other is domestic. They can apply for a warrant retroactively up to 72 hours after beginning interception. These warrants are basically never turned down, but that's only because the users (NSA, DOJ, DOD) are used to the evidentiary requirements of the FISA court. Anything that is person-to-person in the US has to be done by the FBI and through the regular courts, which really aren't any more onerous.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has run into far more delays and outright refusal to grant warrants from the FISA court, though not because of "red tape" or political fallout (or because the FISA court hates America). It's because the evidence isn't there to justify them. This is why Bush directed the NSA to go around FISA and just wiretap whenever they felt they needed to, oversight (and evidence) be damned. This is black-letter violation of the law, and Bush (and the lawyers and staff that told him it was justifiable) needs to be held accountable.
Consoles and PCs are entirely different media setups, and generally encourage different types of gaming.
In my experience, the vast majority of consoles in family homes are hooked up to the biggest TV set in the household, be it in the living room or family room/den. These are generally shared, communal spaces, with competition for screen time an issue (whether it be for watching cable TV, a Tivo'ed program, or console playing). The joysticks are the input devices that games are built around, which allow for local one-on-one play alongside networked play.
The PC, on the other hand, is often in a bedroom or office, tucked away in a more private location. The monitor is far smaller, lending itself to more intimate experiences (no, not pr0n...well, not all the time:) ). The single keyboard and mouse set are the primary input devices, used by a single user at a time, no extras. The games they encourage revolve around longer play sessions, with more private communication.
In short, Microsoft's attempts to bring the intimacy of the PC setting, and the monthly fees intimate games can bring (MMOs and gambling games, for example) to the console setting is a prima facie failure. You simply cannot reliably get enough eyes to sit in front of the (shared) TV to play an online game and make it worthwhile.
It's a beta, sure, but unless users expressly complain about the business security implications of this issue, it's unlikely MS will do anything to fix it. Remember, they've shown time and time again that ease of use and functionality trump security. To cite some examples, remember single-user of the Win9x days, ActiveX defaulting to "on", Universal Plug-and-Play, file sharing defaulting to "on" for all files, and the built-in passwordless "guest" user access to all of these features. We should thank Gartner for publishing this, as hopefully it will get some IT execs thinking about the security implications for not just this, but other functions.
This 128 reusable drive contains 29 songs, including the band's 2004 "Barenaked for the Holidays" album, in MP3 format along with live tracks, in-concert spoken quips, album art, photos, videos and more.
MP3 format == non-DRM'd format. Now, the article could be wrong, but that's what it says. I have no reason to doubt that it will be MP3 format though, as BNL has been making MP3s of their concerts available for years now. Say what you will about their music (though I happen to really like them), but they've stayed true to keeping their music unfettered with DRM crud.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't really say the same thing for drums or singing. On a side note, has anyone actually used the microphone yet, and is it really lame? I've never sang in a band before, but I did years of choral and musial theater singing, and I sing for our band (though I sub in on drums - poorly - when our female drummer wants to do the female-voiced songs). The included microphone is fairly heavy, and I'd much prefer a headset or stick mic, but it is shaped appropriately for the "tamborine/cowbell" tapping sections of songs. It does pick up my vocals very well.
The real problem I have with the vocal portion of Rock Band is that the engine deducts points for natural tremolo. I've had to consciously be careful when holding notes to not produce any tremolo that's not displayed on the track, even when the original singer sings with tremolo. I understand how bloody hard it would be to compensate for it (when is it tremolo, and when is it someone flatting/sharping/flat out missing the pitch?), but it still is a PITA. Once you get that down though, it's great fun.
It's not a Firefox problem inasmuchas a fix to Firefox itself will fix the problem. However, it's a reasonable idea to provide a heads-up to Firefox users (savvy and not-so-savvy) that a popular associated app it interacts with contains a flaw that appears to be unique to said pairing.
Besides, this is Slashdot. Since when did the headlines make sense?
Yep, I opted out as well. While opt-in as the default is a horrific policy, they at least did offer the opt out option very easily and obviously in the letter.
IANAP (I Am Not A Programmer), but this concept dinged a little lightbulb over my head with the commonly-used Windows and Mac application known as World of Warcraft.
For those unfamiliar, their LUA-based UI system is built around giving users capability to script functions. These can be short macros of native commands and LUA language, or full-fledged addons, made up of 3rd-party LUA code + XML executed by the client and interpreted by the server to run complex functions. The idea is that these macros and addons can lessen the burden of repetitive tasks and make the game more fun. Build your addon, assign it to a key or mouse button, and when that key is pressed or click is registered, the code is run and interpreted. The setup also allows Blizzard to alter the available libraries or functions too, to extend capabilities or limit them from version to version. If they don't like how your addon impacts gameplay, they can (and have, especially with their recent 2.0 release) disable the functions it uses.
Are their hacks that can change how WoW.exe works? Sure, there've been lots of them, and I'm sure there's lots more, but I wouldn't know because I don't seek out or use the hacks (IANALACE - I Am Not A Lame-Ass Cheater Either
Well, this is going to take a long time, so you may want to get some snacks.
The marketing campaign is not a crime, nor a "hoax", nor anything to get indignant about. Installation-based ads have been around for years. What may be a crime though is the apparent "4 simultaneous calls reporting strange devices" to the Boston police. If it was done to prompt all this, the caller deserves a decent amount of time in PMITA.
...but I'm sure we can think of some additional interesting uses for such a technology
For porn!
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I definitely thought about the Mini, but since my main system has long since basically become a WoW platform, I want serious video power behind it, overall expandability and the capability to move to next-gen video cards. The Mini doesn't offer that, so I didn't Switch.
For the AC/troll that mentioned "I assume you'll be dual-booting into a pirated copy of windows. Otherwise, you would have bought a ppc mac years ago", I own Windows 2000 on CD. I bought it from a legitimate distributor. My money paid for it. Don't be an ass. As for the reason I didn't buy a PPC Mac years ago, it took this defrag event to really make me consider Switching, so in looking at the aging G5 line, I knew I should wait til August. I'm not an x86 bigot, just want the system for which I plunk down cash to not be long in the tooth at time of purchase.
That's why I said "direct". I'm aware of Microsoft's stake in Apple.
I don't blame you. It's the shortest distance between two points - who could resist?
I had backups, but couldn't restore files to a system I could no longer log into. No data was lost, just time spent researching what went wrong, enough time that I'm ready to make the move.
That's exactly why I'm Switching. The only game I play nowadays is World of Warcraft, and it has native Mac support, so no problem there. I've tried various Linux desktops, and while they certainly don't suck, WoW's unsupported, Codeweavers be damned :/
I'm generally a grammar and spelling Nazi. Please accept my humble apologies for the error.
Nope, Western Digital drive. I've had good and bad drives from all the major manufacturers, so I don't tend to consider one much better than the others. Following the reinstall, that exact same drive has functioned without issue.
No FUD whatsoever. This happened to me 2 months ago. Running Win2K with the latest service pack, I found my system was draggy as hell. I virus-scanned and ad-aware'd to assure I had nothing stealing resources, and yup, no such problem. I used Microsoft's included Disk Defrag utility, and found the C partition (4 GB in size) was 90% fragmented. Assuming this was the culprit, I ran the utility, and went to bed.
When I came down in the morning. The defrag had apparently failed to complete, and the system was frozen. I powercycled it, and when it came back up, I was no longer able to log in (I'll look up the specific error code from my notes and reply with it). Throwing the disk into another workstation, I was able to mount the partition, and found dozens of DLL files had mysteriously disappeared from my system32 folder, including some of the important ones used to process a login.
Not knowing what exactly was missing and needed replacing, I bit the bullet and bought a Windows 2K OEM CD, as I'd misplaced my own (yes, I really did misplace it - I've certainly pirated Windows before, but not in this case). I ran through a reinstall, and Win2K was back to normal, minus the dragginess I'd seen prior. Bit Rot Happens, we all know that, but this was a direct correlation to running a defrag and watching system files disappear into the ether.
I'm waiting with baited breath for the release of the Intel PowerMac. I've never, ever, ever owned a Mac in any form. I've got a ton of Windows workstations and Linux servers, but never a Mac. This will change in August. I'm tired of ridiculous Windows behaviors (disk defrag inadvertantly deletes required system DLLs...nice), and ready for new ridiculous Mac behaviors, knowing I'm not giving dollars direct to Microsoft ever again.
Time shifting for home use is perfectly legal under the Betamax ruling. Hollywood can legally go screw. This ruling is designed strictly to stop non-copyright holders from adjusting content and reselling it without the agreement of the copyright holders. If a studio wants to partner with a censoring company, or do the censoring of the films themselves (which I'm fairly certain they do), they may do so.
One more vote for the Timex Sinclair 1000. It had 8K RAM, with a 16K RAM addon. I fooled around with BASIC on it for a few months, but really, that was a tough one for a kid with a low attention span (and friends with Atari 2600s) to swallow :) Over the years, I ended up with other hand-me-down systems from a family friend, including a Tandy machine and eventually, an IBM XT with a gigantic letter quality printer. It took hours to print, but in an era where slacker kids handed in papers written in 20 pt. font, 2.5-inch line spaces and 1.5-inch margins, my teachers found my papers a breath of fresh air. They appeared to be perfectly typewritten, a happy medium between dot matrix and Helvetica. I guarantee that got me an extra half-letter grade on some of the more middling essays I turned in over the years.
What bizzaro world am I living in?
Silly child. Don't you realize we're living in a post-9/11 world, and your viewpoint is that of a pre-9/11 Democrat? You will be assimilated.
To be fair, I give GWB a bit of credit as to why he's doing what he's doing. It's my considered opinion that he's mortified that 9/11 happened on his watch, and so now he's lashing out to prevent a recurrance, using any means (illegal or not) at his disposal. I don't think he intends to abuse the power, but that's not the question. The reality is that he is abusing a power that he has not been delegated, and he needs to pay the price.
Some good points about WoW have been made already. But, there is one reason and one reason only that WoW is huge: no pre-released, rush-to-meet-it launch deadline. And as far as I know, Blizzard has never done this. What do they do instead? They say "It'll be out when it is done. Not a day before." This attitude is what makes their games so fun. They actually make it good before they release it.
:) WoW itself had good base mechanics upon release, but only a small number of classes (rogues, shamen, mages) were polished enough to make it through the first year without a significant revamp of their spell lineup and mechanics. Warriors, priests, paladins, hunters, warlocks and druids all had their talents and/or spells heavily reworked over the last year. Priests are due for a full reworking with the next patch, though they received new spells (per race) that were significant enough for me to consider them a reworked class (I have two level 60 priests, so I know of what I speak :) ).
Welllll, I wouldn't say never
Also, don't forget how righteously unplayable WoW was due to server and network problems in the first 2 months' of release. In that time, Blizzard issued nearly a month's worth of game credit due to lag and crash problems. I'd venture to say that a good deal of this would have been avoided with a longer beta test cycle involving much more stress testing. As it was, the Stress Test Beta (STB) only illuminated that there were significant problems with play server to item DB server transactions and with lag in heavily populated areas. They may have done some tweaking between STB and release, but those problems continued to plague the game past release, and still crop up in numbers today (witness the instability on Medivh during the AQ event - 7 crashes, 5 of them due strictly to players mobbing a single zone, not due to new mob interaction).
In short, while Blizz does tend to take their time, they released WoW in late Nov. '04 to meet the Xmas '04 rush, and it caused problems.
I should have clarified - they have "run into more delays and outright refusal"...compared to previous administrations. Presumably, they're overreaching on some suspects. I assure you that I'm not blaming the FISA court and its oversight role. The administration has directly broken the law, and while not admitting wrongdoing, administration officials and apologists are trying to claim that the President has the authority to break that law. Why? Because Congress declared war on Afghanistan, and gave the President authority to use force in Iraq. Bush has turned those specific declarations into giving himself the capability to ignore the FISA law and not seek warrants.
The real question, as others have posed, is why not seek the warrants? After all, they aren't getting stopped. Clearly, they're doing something that the court would not permit (like, say, tapping all international communications, and sifting through at will). If the President wanted that capability, he could ask Congress to enact a law to make it so. With GOP control of Congress, he'd likely be able to get it (especially if he'd bothered to put it in the original PATRIOT Act that our reps in Congress so blithely voted for without reading). So what's he up to? Just trust him that he has the country's best interests in mind? Somehow, I doubt that's gonna happen any time soon.
This is exactly the point. FISA gives the feds clearance to intercept communications (mail, landline phone, wireless phone, Internet) where one party is international, and the other is domestic. They can apply for a warrant retroactively up to 72 hours after beginning interception. These warrants are basically never turned down, but that's only because the users (NSA, DOJ, DOD) are used to the evidentiary requirements of the FISA court. Anything that is person-to-person in the US has to be done by the FBI and through the regular courts, which really aren't any more onerous.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has run into far more delays and outright refusal to grant warrants from the FISA court, though not because of "red tape" or political fallout (or because the FISA court hates America). It's because the evidence isn't there to justify them. This is why Bush directed the NSA to go around FISA and just wiretap whenever they felt they needed to, oversight (and evidence) be damned. This is black-letter violation of the law, and Bush (and the lawyers and staff that told him it was justifiable) needs to be held accountable.
Consoles and PCs are entirely different media setups, and generally encourage different types of gaming.
:) ). The single keyboard and mouse set are the primary input devices, used by a single user at a time, no extras. The games they encourage revolve around longer play sessions, with more private communication.
In my experience, the vast majority of consoles in family homes are hooked up to the biggest TV set in the household, be it in the living room or family room/den. These are generally shared, communal spaces, with competition for screen time an issue (whether it be for watching cable TV, a Tivo'ed program, or console playing). The joysticks are the input devices that games are built around, which allow for local one-on-one play alongside networked play.
The PC, on the other hand, is often in a bedroom or office, tucked away in a more private location. The monitor is far smaller, lending itself to more intimate experiences (no, not pr0n...well, not all the time
In short, Microsoft's attempts to bring the intimacy of the PC setting, and the monthly fees intimate games can bring (MMOs and gambling games, for example) to the console setting is a prima facie failure. You simply cannot reliably get enough eyes to sit in front of the (shared) TV to play an online game and make it worthwhile.
This immediately requires linkage: The Internet Is For Porn, WoW style.
It's a beta, sure, but unless users expressly complain about the business security implications of this issue, it's unlikely MS will do anything to fix it. Remember, they've shown time and time again that ease of use and functionality trump security. To cite some examples, remember single-user of the Win9x days, ActiveX defaulting to "on", Universal Plug-and-Play, file sharing defaulting to "on" for all files, and the built-in passwordless "guest" user access to all of these features. We should thank Gartner for publishing this, as hopefully it will get some IT execs thinking about the security implications for not just this, but other functions.
R. T. F. A.
This 128 reusable drive contains 29 songs, including the band's 2004 "Barenaked for the Holidays" album, in MP3 format along with live tracks, in-concert spoken quips, album art, photos, videos and more.
MP3 format == non-DRM'd format. Now, the article could be wrong, but that's what it says. I have no reason to doubt that it will be MP3 format though, as BNL has been making MP3s of their concerts available for years now. Say what you will about their music (though I happen to really like them), but they've stayed true to keeping their music unfettered with DRM crud.