I clicked on the article thinking I'd see something about a couple guys who were modding consoles as a service to those who brought them in, but then I read:
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
$500 modded Xboxes on open display with warezed games? Open and shut case, these guys deserved to be pinched.
Any chance that this is just a clever Photoshop hoax? It looks from the picture like a street light blew up. Why didn't this dude run down to the pier and take a picture of the damage?
You can take your flash media into just about any place these days and have the pictures on it produced with the same machines they use to print negatives. And the cost is about $0.20 per print. At those prices, why mess with lousy inkjets?
It might be a good idea to wait until we are able to colonize other planets before we start extending life spans to 1000 years. With the overcrowding that would ensue, it would be become necessary to cull the herd anyway. Then what's the point?
And other thing is, is stopping cellular damage as time goes on going to translate into longer lifespans? The body might be able to repair itself more effectively, but what would a person look like after 1,000 years of life? Would the quality of life even make it worth living? Who would want to live to be 1,000, anyway?
Yes, they can, but one with a sense of false security may not bother to change it. After all I'm sure a lot of people try to break into systems without even bothering to proxy up.
That's why unprotected WiFi points are so useful. There is no way in heaven or hell to trace the connection back to the source.
I wouldn't say it's impossible. If I had the investigative resources of the FBI the first thing I would do when I found out an attack happened from a "borrowed" WiFi point is get the MAC addresses of recently connected cards. Then all you have to do is go back to the manufacturers and find out who the cards were sold to and what their serial numbers are, and follow the trail of vendors all the way to the person who originally bought the card. Even if that person sold it on eBay or something, just keep following the trail.
Of course, the AP has to log the MAC addresses, and not have been reset since the attack, but I wouldn't say it's IMPOSSIBLE to be nabbed if you take over a wifi point. If what you did was bad enough, they'll find you. That is, unless perhaps you went through enough cascaded anonymous proxies:)
I haven't been able to get through to any of the Steam forum postings so to me, this is still just innuendo to some degree.
You are correct. I have not actually seen anyone say they got banned for running a No-CD crack. I've seen some guys saying they bought the game but couldn't get the code that came with the CD to work, so they used a cracked one. Ha, a questionable scenario at best. Yes, they had it coming. But all the same, I don't think I'll take the chance in running any sort of crack. Who knows if Steam does file verification?
The problem I have is that Valve can pretty much decide arbitrarily who they want to whack. Maybe someone didn't like what you had to say in a forum and you were "accidentally" added to the hit list of license violators. You will have no recourse.
I doubt that will be a problem, honestly. My past experience with competitive gaming suggests that bans for cheating will be much more controversial and error prone. The whole topic is worrying, yes.
Well, I admit the example was a little extreme, but my point is where there is power there is people who will abuse it. Ordinarily it wouldn't concern me. But Steam raises the stakes...Every game you have ever bought on Steam could be taken away like that. I'm not just talking about banning from multiplay, but even single play. Regardless of how large of a problem we think abuse of the system would be, I think we both agree that it's something to think about.
I think Valve has made a big mistake trying to shift this much power to themselves. But that's me. I, for one, will not continue to be their customer.
I'm not happy about it, but I'll probably keep buying their stuff. I'm suspending judgement until it's clear how they handle the reaction to this latest controversy. I think Steam is a great idea in general.
I can see the benefits Steam might have. Online software distribution has the potential of being very convenient, but it doesn't sit well with me because it gives the software publisher too much say in when you can run your software. Things like right of first sale are pretty much gone. How can you sell your game? Some bobos on Steam's forums say "Just give the person your selling the game to the account", but what if you purchased other games on Steam you don't want to give up?
Privacy is compromised as well...Even when you run the game in single player mode, Valve knows where and when it's happening, and for how long. It's only a matter of time before this data could be used to placeadvertisments to sweeten the pot for publishers.
As far as a peition goes, I doubt Valve will change their business practices based on such a thing. As for me, I'm voting with my wallet.
So, I suppose you'll be avoiding every multiplayer game in the world as well, since they almost all use authenticating master servers? This is the status quo now, Steam isn't the first.
I hear you. But Steam goes far beyond CD key authorization. It works like this - Steam acts as a repository for all of your games. When you buy a game from Valve, you put in the key, and that key is associated with your Steam account. This is done for every game, so you could potentially have hundreds of dollars invested in games you bought from Steam. But let's say you do something like run a No-CD fix on one of them. Guess what happens? Your Steam account gets disabled and you lose access to ALL of them. This does not just affect the multiplay aspect of these games - HL2 wants a Steam connection even when you play in single mode. In fact, you need a valid Steam account to install the game in the first place.
The problem I have is that Valve can pretty much decide arbitrarily who they want to whack. Maybe someone didn't like what you had to say in a forum and you were "accidentally" added to the hit list of license violators. You will have no recourse. 20,000 people were kicked off of Steam today, but let's say 500 of those people were really legit users. Their complaints will never make it through the noise. I saw the Steam forums and they are lit up like a Christmas tree. I can only imagine what Valve's support mailboxes look like now. Affected legit users will probably a) Buy the game again, b) Fume to everyone they know about how they were screwed over by Valve, c) warez the game, d) a then b, e) b then c
I think no matter how you slice it, it will amount to bad PR for Valve.
I think Valve has made a big mistake trying to shift this much power to themselves. But that's me. I, for one, will not continue to be their customer.
Valve are making money because hl2 is a great game. They might be making more money because of their copy protection, but I suspect they might make less.
If the debacle with TurboTax sets any precedent, you could be right.
It's very different. The entire game is on my hard disk, and only works after I authenticate a valid key with Steam. Why the hell should I have to dig out the CD? People who bought the game directly on Steam don't have to deal with that.
And suppose you could take all of your carts and load them into memory on your GB. How would you feel about still needing to haul the carts all over the place when the data already exists in the box?
Precisely. I would like to know exactly what criteria Valve used to figure out who to ban. I bought the retail version and was considering installing a No-CD crack to avoid having to put the disc in when I want to play...I guess not anymore!
Assuming I did and I got banned...I paid $60 for the game after tax, and just like that Vavle decides they can pull the rug out from under me because I don't want to have to find the damned CD when I want to play? That is utter BS. And let's remember this is the software industry, things can change overnight. Valve could close down one day (anyone remember Sierra?) and what happens then? I'm not allowed to play the game anymore? What happens if Steam gets hacked and my key gets stolen? Is their bot going to auto disable me? I respect that Valve is trying to limit piracy, as is the right of any software publisher, but Steam is going overboard. I feel I haven't paid for jack, and that Valve controls when I can play the game which I shelled out this money for.
I had no idea how evil Steam was before I bought HL2, but you had better believe it will be the last game I buy or play that uses it or a similar activation scheme. The sad thing is I'm willing to bet that other software manufacturers will see how much money Valve is raking in because of it and adopt a similar scheme, or maybe even license Steam itself. Oh well, I've given up TV and movies, how much harder can video games be?
At least I'll have the time to do more Linux hacking or go back to the occasional classic with DOSBox:)
Even so, there should be a way to override it and run the extension anyway. Put up the "run at your own risk, blah blah blah", but at least make it so someone isn't dead in the water when they upgrade.
Personally, I use Firefox and love it, but I have this one pet peeve about it - Every time a new version comes out it breaks a lot of my extentions. If Mozilla wants to pursue plugin scalability, they're going to have to put an end to this problem.
Anyone who would pay for this would have to be an absolute idiot. First of all there is no guarantee the source code even the real thing. If it isn't as advertised, what are you going to do? Take an anonymous Russian hacking group that you knowingly bought stoken IP from to court? It's like the guy who calls the police and files a report about his pot stash being stolen.
All major financial institutions use HTTPS to log in to their online banking systems. Wouldn't a redirected HOSTS file set off some alarm bells when a user tries to access a fake site?
Or maybe it's just that nobody will think to look for the little lock on the bottom of their browser...
It's not about the shocks and jolts, it's about the quality of the manufacturing. If you put a drive in an item excepted to get roughhoused a bit, you make the drive more shock-resistant.
This is very true, but the Xbox does not use a custom manufactured drive - mine has a stock WD with modified firmware. It's also true that modern drives can take a beating even during operation, but no matter what kind of HD it is, it's unlikely that it would survive a fall from a shelf on a TV media center when it's turned on. The use of a hard disk simply adds another point of failure. I think Microsoft agrees, since I've been hearing that the Xbox 2 will not longer have an HD.
The warranty is crap - Only 90 days. Obviously, the two biggest weak points on that thing are the HD and the DVD reader. I never understood why the decision was made to install a hard disk. I mean, it's a console - Kids play with it, and the thing is subject to a few bumps and drops. Not good for an HD. If you don't have the thing chipped and your HD fails you are basically screwed, unless you want to pay blood money for repair. If you're chipped you can just take that 10GB junker out and put in a $50 40GB drive.
I think the angle that Ballmer is going for here is that he thinks there is a set price at which people will no longer pay for a computer, and wants to put the burden of lowering the price on hardware manufacturers instead of themselves.
Let's say $500 for the PC plus $100 for Windows plus $300 for Office = $900. But if they can pirate the software they just pay $500, so they buy it. Steve seems to think that if you make the hardware cheaper (instead of the software, Go Microsoft!) that people will be more inclined to buy the software. Of course what will happen is that people will take their really cheap hardware and continue to warez the OS and apps. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft is really that out of touch...Oh wait, no I don't.
I thought that HP laser printers used Canon engines. If that's the case, how would one be able to tell the difference between an HP laser printer and another printer that used an identical engine?
The article also mentioned being able to fingerprint the document based on the drum, but most lasers I have seen integrate the drum with the toner cartridge. So does this mean every time you change your toner, you are changing your fingerprint?
What if you replaced the scanner? The formatter? The fuser? These replacement items are all readily available to anyone. All of these could serve to completely alter the minute characteristics these guys are looking for. This whole thing might look cool in a lab, but I seriously doubt its practicality.
Slashdot Mirror
I clicked on the article thinking I'd see something about a couple guys who were modding consoles as a service to those who brought them in, but then I read:
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
$500 modded Xboxes on open display with warezed games? Open and shut case, these guys deserved to be pinched.
Any chance that this is just a clever Photoshop hoax? It looks from the picture like a street light blew up. Why didn't this dude run down to the pier and take a picture of the damage?
You can take your flash media into just about any place these days and have the pictures on it produced with the same machines they use to print negatives. And the cost is about $0.20 per print. At those prices, why mess with lousy inkjets?
http://tinyurl.com/58g98
It might be a good idea to wait until we are able to colonize other planets before we start extending life spans to 1000 years. With the overcrowding that would ensue, it would be become necessary to cull the herd anyway. Then what's the point?
And other thing is, is stopping cellular damage as time goes on going to translate into longer lifespans? The body might be able to repair itself more effectively, but what would a person look like after 1,000 years of life? Would the quality of life even make it worth living? Who would want to live to be 1,000, anyway?
Of course he missed the answer. With 2.5 million in winnings, the last thing he'd want to think about is H&R Block.
Yes, they can, but one with a sense of false security may not bother to change it. After all I'm sure a lot of people try to break into systems without even bothering to proxy up.
That's why unprotected WiFi points are so useful. There is no way in heaven or hell to trace the connection back to the source.
:)
I wouldn't say it's impossible. If I had the investigative resources of the FBI the first thing I would do when I found out an attack happened from a "borrowed" WiFi point is get the MAC addresses of recently connected cards. Then all you have to do is go back to the manufacturers and find out who the cards were sold to and what their serial numbers are, and follow the trail of vendors all the way to the person who originally bought the card. Even if that person sold it on eBay or something, just keep following the trail.
Of course, the AP has to log the MAC addresses, and not have been reset since the attack, but I wouldn't say it's IMPOSSIBLE to be nabbed if you take over a wifi point. If what you did was bad enough, they'll find you. That is, unless perhaps you went through enough cascaded anonymous proxies
You are correct. I have not actually seen anyone say they got banned for running a No-CD crack. I've seen some guys saying they bought the game but couldn't get the code that came with the CD to work, so they used a cracked one. Ha, a questionable scenario at best. Yes, they had it coming. But all the same, I don't think I'll take the chance in running any sort of crack. Who knows if Steam does file verification?
I doubt that will be a problem, honestly. My past experience with competitive gaming suggests that bans for cheating will be much more controversial and error prone. The whole topic is worrying, yes.
Well, I admit the example was a little extreme, but my point is where there is power there is people who will abuse it. Ordinarily it wouldn't concern me. But Steam raises the stakes...Every game you have ever bought on Steam could be taken away like that. I'm not just talking about banning from multiplay, but even single play. Regardless of how large of a problem we think abuse of the system would be, I think we both agree that it's something to think about.
I'm not happy about it, but I'll probably keep buying their stuff. I'm suspending judgement until it's clear how they handle the reaction to this latest controversy. I think Steam is a great idea in general.
I can see the benefits Steam might have. Online software distribution has the potential of being very convenient, but it doesn't sit well with me because it gives the software publisher too much say in when you can run your software. Things like right of first sale are pretty much gone. How can you sell your game? Some bobos on Steam's forums say "Just give the person your selling the game to the account", but what if you purchased other games on Steam you don't want to give up?
Privacy is compromised as well...Even when you run the game in single player mode, Valve knows where and when it's happening, and for how long. It's only a matter of time before this data could be used to place advertisments to sweeten the pot for publishers.
As far as a peition goes, I doubt Valve will change their business practices based on such a thing. As for me, I'm voting with my wallet.
So, I suppose you'll be avoiding every multiplayer game in the world as well, since they almost all use authenticating master servers? This is the status quo now, Steam isn't the first.
I hear you. But Steam goes far beyond CD key authorization. It works like this - Steam acts as a repository for all of your games. When you buy a game from Valve, you put in the key, and that key is associated with your Steam account. This is done for every game, so you could potentially have hundreds of dollars invested in games you bought from Steam. But let's say you do something like run a No-CD fix on one of them. Guess what happens? Your Steam account gets disabled and you lose access to ALL of them. This does not just affect the multiplay aspect of these games - HL2 wants a Steam connection even when you play in single mode. In fact, you need a valid Steam account to install the game in the first place.
The problem I have is that Valve can pretty much decide arbitrarily who they want to whack. Maybe someone didn't like what you had to say in a forum and you were "accidentally" added to the hit list of license violators. You will have no recourse. 20,000 people were kicked off of Steam today, but let's say 500 of those people were really legit users. Their complaints will never make it through the noise. I saw the Steam forums and they are lit up like a Christmas tree. I can only imagine what Valve's support mailboxes look like now. Affected legit users will probably a) Buy the game again, b) Fume to everyone they know about how they were screwed over by Valve, c) warez the game, d) a then b, e) b then c
I think no matter how you slice it, it will amount to bad PR for Valve.
I think Valve has made a big mistake trying to shift this much power to themselves. But that's me. I, for one, will not continue to be their customer.
Valve are making money because hl2 is a great game. They might be making more money because of their copy protection, but I suspect they might make less.
If the debacle with TurboTax sets any precedent, you could be right.
It's very different. The entire game is on my hard disk, and only works after I authenticate a valid key with Steam. Why the hell should I have to dig out the CD? People who bought the game directly on Steam don't have to deal with that.
And suppose you could take all of your carts and load them into memory on your GB. How would you feel about still needing to haul the carts all over the place when the data already exists in the box?
Precisely. I would like to know exactly what criteria Valve used to figure out who to ban. I bought the retail version and was considering installing a No-CD crack to avoid having to put the disc in when I want to play...I guess not anymore!
:)
Assuming I did and I got banned...I paid $60 for the game after tax, and just like that Vavle decides they can pull the rug out from under me because I don't want to have to find the damned CD when I want to play? That is utter BS. And let's remember this is the software industry, things can change overnight. Valve could close down one day (anyone remember Sierra?) and what happens then? I'm not allowed to play the game anymore? What happens if Steam gets hacked and my key gets stolen? Is their bot going to auto disable me? I respect that Valve is trying to limit piracy, as is the right of any software publisher, but Steam is going overboard. I feel I haven't paid for jack, and that Valve controls when I can play the game which I shelled out this money for.
I had no idea how evil Steam was before I bought HL2, but you had better believe it will be the last game I buy or play that uses it or a similar activation scheme. The sad thing is I'm willing to bet that other software manufacturers will see how much money Valve is raking in because of it and adopt a similar scheme, or maybe even license Steam itself. Oh well, I've given up TV and movies, how much harder can video games be?
At least I'll have the time to do more Linux hacking or go back to the occasional classic with DOSBox
Even so, there should be a way to override it and run the extension anyway. Put up the "run at your own risk, blah blah blah", but at least make it so someone isn't dead in the water when they upgrade.
Personally, I use Firefox and love it, but I have this one pet peeve about it - Every time a new version comes out it breaks a lot of my extentions. If Mozilla wants to pursue plugin scalability, they're going to have to put an end to this problem.
Anyone who would pay for this would have to be an absolute idiot. First of all there is no guarantee the source code even the real thing. If it isn't as advertised, what are you going to do? Take an anonymous Russian hacking group that you knowingly bought stoken IP from to court? It's like the guy who calls the police and files a report about his pot stash being stolen.
(please, please, please give them some jail time. Pretty please)
RTFA, submitter. The dude got 9 years.
Fear can make people do stupid things. W made sure that everyone knows there is a terrorist lurking around every corner ready to kill your family.
All major financial institutions use HTTPS to log in to their online banking systems. Wouldn't a redirected HOSTS file set off some alarm bells when a user tries to access a fake site?
Or maybe it's just that nobody will think to look for the little lock on the bottom of their browser...
picked up his Xbox and used it to beat an offending drunkard into submission.
;)
Thank God the Xbox is ok
It's not about the shocks and jolts, it's about the quality of the manufacturing. If you put a drive in an item excepted to get roughhoused a bit, you make the drive more shock-resistant.
This is very true, but the Xbox does not use a custom manufactured drive - mine has a stock WD with modified firmware. It's also true that modern drives can take a beating even during operation, but no matter what kind of HD it is, it's unlikely that it would survive a fall from a shelf on a TV media center when it's turned on. The use of a hard disk simply adds another point of failure. I think Microsoft agrees, since I've been hearing that the Xbox 2 will not longer have an HD.
The warranty is crap - Only 90 days. Obviously, the two biggest weak points on that thing are the HD and the DVD reader. I never understood why the decision was made to install a hard disk. I mean, it's a console - Kids play with it, and the thing is subject to a few bumps and drops. Not good for an HD. If you don't have the thing chipped and your HD fails you are basically screwed, unless you want to pay blood money for repair. If you're chipped you can just take that 10GB junker out and put in a $50 40GB drive.
As far as the DVD reader goes, there are sites on the net that sell replacement lasers for them and have tutorials for repairing the drive.
Obviously the Hobbits didn't finish off Mt. Doom as well as they thought they did.
I think the angle that Ballmer is going for here is that he thinks there is a set price at which people will no longer pay for a computer, and wants to put the burden of lowering the price on hardware manufacturers instead of themselves.
Let's say $500 for the PC plus $100 for Windows plus $300 for Office = $900. But if they can pirate the software they just pay $500, so they buy it. Steve seems to think that if you make the hardware cheaper (instead of the software, Go Microsoft!) that people will be more inclined to buy the software. Of course what will happen is that people will take their really cheap hardware and continue to warez the OS and apps. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft is really that out of touch...Oh wait, no I don't.
Maybe they figured they were looking for a REALLY bad mariner.
I thought that HP laser printers used Canon engines. If that's the case, how would one be able to tell the difference between an HP laser printer and another printer that used an identical engine?
The article also mentioned being able to fingerprint the document based on the drum, but most lasers I have seen integrate the drum with the toner cartridge. So does this mean every time you change your toner, you are changing your fingerprint?
What if you replaced the scanner? The formatter? The fuser? These replacement items are all readily available to anyone. All of these could serve to completely alter the minute characteristics these guys are looking for. This whole thing might look cool in a lab, but I seriously doubt its practicality.
That's the whole problem isn't it? Now I don't know if all the porn popups I'm getting are being caused by my new neural interface or spyware.