Thanks for that. I just opted out of citizenship in Comcastia, in preference for my own country's legal system, as opposed to their "neutral," action limiting, convenient corporate arbitration.
This kind of arbitration is supposed to be a bilateral agreement in the best interests of both parties, not some private kangaroo court.
This is clearly just a unilaterally declared "Comcast court." In my mind, it borders on treason to unilaterally declare that a citizen may not take any issue he wishes to his government. I don't think there's a judge in the country that would accept such a presumptive waiver without so much as a signature, but I think it's best to affirm rejection of such authority, especially when there's a convenient web form.
I already linked that and did it as a top thread, in my own name (to get the karma bonus), before you even posted this as an AC. The difference: I attempted to be helpful.
And that "solution" is not. It's a workaround. You have to navigate to an emergency site with your web browser, as WGA still doesn't work.
As an unhelpful fan of MS, I guess you're used to thinking of workarounds as fixes, though.
Phil Liu details a workaround here, third post down.
Please go to www.microsoft.com/genuine and click VALIDATE WINDOWS to resolve this issue immediately.
Additionally, I know you all are looking for an explanation/root-cause. I will get that ASAP. We are aware it is a server-side issue - the cause is unknown at this current time. Best of luck to all you Vista users.
To all those people who say "Nothing can go wrong with the system" and "I've never had a problem with activation."
This (redundant link) is what can go wrong, and it was only a matter of time. There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship. I believe in Murphy's Law, so long as you add the word "eventually" to the end of it.
From there, the cry will become "Boycott DRM!" From there, the cry will be "There should be a law against that!"
Personally, I can't wait until the day when some enterprising politician makes crapping all over my machine without my permission, or even my knowledge, illegal activity. Then these arrogant jerks, the one's who think their $50 game software is more valuable than my $1500 machine, will stop the nonsense or find themselves liable for damages or even face a criminal court.
-- Toro
(P.S.: It is not a rootkit. That's sensationalist hype. It is undeleteable crap corrupting your user account.)
Type "at/next 9:02pm c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe/interactive" after looking at the clock and seeing it's 9:01am. Wait until 9:02 and you'll get a dos prompt running as the machine account. Go delete your files. Cool, but the correct syntax is:
at 9:02pm/interactive %systemroot%\system32\cmd.exe
If running as SYSTEM will delete these files, it is a lot easier than mounting with NTFS-3g. I couldn't test this method because the files are already gone. Thanks for the tip!
The reason for the !CAUTION! key is to keep an ignorant user from wiping out his key tokens in the SecuROM subkey. That's why there's an "!" at the beginning; it sorts first in the subkey. So if a user stupidly tries to delete the entire SecuROM key (not realizing that it's his DRM) while his game is installed, or even after he's uninstalled, the first attempted deleted subkey will be the !CAUTION! key and Windows will abort.
Thus it is a poor way to keep stupid users from trashing their DRM, not a rootkit.
The reason it shows up in "Rootkit Revealer" is because true rootkits use the embedded null tactic to keep users from deleting keys registering malware dll's, startup settings, etc. That way, the user has no way to deregister the malware or stop its launch.
However, the Rootkit Revealer does not simply point out rootkits. It's not that simple. RR points out suspicious methods and/or hidden files, and requires the user to analyze whether those methods and files indicate an actual piece of malware.
Clearly, a key that simply warns you not to delete other keys is not malware.
It is annoying, however, and the only way to get rid of a key with embedded nulls is with DelRegNull. I didn't like that one bit.
My key was added with the install of Neverwinter Nights 2, however, which also uses SecuROM. This key has been around for a while, folks. Someone is crying "rootkit," when really all it is is a sloppy hack to keep users from eliminating their SecuROM keys.
What's really annoying about this method is that the malformed key is not removed when you uninstall the software that requires it. SecuROM also drops a few malformed files in the directory %userprofile%\Application Data\SecuROM\UserData. They won't delete either, because they are key files which the folks at Sony have deemed MUST NEVER be deleted. Great. The only way I could manage to clean out those was by mounting the partition with NTFS-3g and issuing an rm *.*. Otherwise, another hack keeps Windows from moving the key files, probably because if you could copy them, you could run a game on any machine with the keys.
This is definitely more arrogance, and completely annoying, but certainly not a rootkit. I would love to hear what the suits at Sony have to say about their crapware. I expect nothing less than a true SecuROM removal kit, since it doesn't get removed on uninstall.
To everyone who says that this is jackbooted Oppressiveness, what exactly do you propose should we do to make sure that hijackers can't get on a plane? Nothing at all. They get on the plane.
However, we must make sure the hijackers don't get control of that plane. If, by some miracle, they do get control, there must be little payoff and control must be difficult to maintain, and those facts should be publicized.
As a corollary, if getting control of a plane remains easy and the payoff is large (or perceived to be large), there is nothing you can do to keep the hijackers out. All you can do is put everyone in a TSA-approved, pocketless, uniform flight suit and disallow all carry-ons without medical certification (pre-certified, doctor authorized medicine/equipment, positive ID).
All you can do is to deny them weapons.
We are headed in this direction because of the hysterical intent to keep all undesirables off an insecure plane. If this is truly our intent, status quo in-flight security to protect the airline industry from having to spend money (or brook government influence in their business practices if the government were in charge of in-flight security), then let's forget the patronizing baby steps and go there already. Bring out the jumpsuits already!
That's the consequence of not securing the plane.
Personally, I say put sane security measures in place on the plane and let them try. We need to spend the appropriate money on in-flight security, and we need to stop hemming and hawing about how it's going to be done. If we can spend this much money trying to sponsor a failing democracy in Iraq, we can find the money for in-flight security.
Well, if there was any sign that the "golden age" of PC gaming was over, presaged by events like the exclusive EA/NFL football deal and the whole "Games For Windows" (Vista/DX10) campaign, now we have MTV as a major player... in video games. The same people who "killed the radio star," then murdered the rock video in their next stroke.
Where there is big money, there is assuredly crummy lowest common denominator content. MTV has proven that. Next stop: "Robot Chicken the game.";^)
In other words, it's a backdoor in the URI handler for Windows, and Microsoft is "educating" everybody to scrub inputs before passing things off to the backdoored handler.
Great. MS became the "gatekeeper" to all networking security bugs in their OS when they integrated IE into the operating system back in 1997. This is easily fixed by not allowing the URI handler in the OS to behave strangely when given specific inputs (such as %00 and " ).
In short, Microsoft should remove the backdoor. 'Nuff said.
Exactly. iPhone customers should be concerned (not alarmed, IMHO) that this level of detail exists in the first place, and should demand that such information is not kept beyond a reasonable term to deal with billing issues. It certainly is a privacy concern, especially if there's long-term retention.
In the case of an unlimited plan, I'd like to see the justification for any such data retention. If AT&T doesn't need it to generate a bill, or satisfy a financial audit, then it should be shredded. How you use the iPhone is your business, and only their business insofar as it takes to determine your monthly charge.
It's all about data mining. You used to have to do something wrong to wind with a "permanent record." No longer. We all are going to have a very large "permanent record" if we don't demand data destruction and limitations on what and how long personal information may be retained.
But it's just a bunch of marketing and lip service at this point. There are no major open source products at MS, MS's pundits are still ridiculing FOSS as "open sourcery," and you can bet Microsoft's intent is to produce yet more restricted license software. You'll notice that they've concentrated exclusively on the "openness" of the source code, yet ignore the entire concept of GPL and free software in their stance on intellectual property. It's playing both ends against the middle right now, largely through innuendo, something MS is very good at.
In fact, Microsoft has killed entire markets by simply pretending to have a product. It's something to watch out for, as this is a bread-and-butter tactic in Redmond.
I too would respect the 400 lb. gorilla, though mostly by keeping my distance.
He's absolutely right on other points as well. If Linux rises to desktop prominence, against a competitor that has a 95% market share on the desktop (a practical monopoly), then the next logical step must be a duopoly, and it is doubtful that Microsoft will ever "go away." They will likely change the way they do business, like IBM did. Perhaps they will produce their own "open source" products, and then the Linux/FOSS community had better be ready for it, because they certainly won't be free software.
Expect it.
They've already proven the first axiom of business. Courts are the slowest moving thing on the planet. Business decisions will always outpace court decisions. That's how they got away with their illegal actions to slaughter STAC and Netscape. It didn't matter by the time the courts had decided. That's how Microsoft managed to pen a patent agreement with Novell, who won the MS-funded patent case against SCO, before the SCO case was even over. Did anyone notice that?
They're moving faster than anyone can litigate. Being right is not good enough here. You have to be right, clever, and decisive. If you can be ethical too, good for you, but ethical doesn't tend to work against an unethical opponent. Try winning a fair fight against a guy who is willing to kick you in the crotch and throw sand in your face some time.
Developers had better keep a careful eye on this gorilla, or you're going to end up working for him. Respect the gorilla.
remember to *pay the artists* I believe that was the primary argument against AoMP3.com. They paid too little in royalties. That's one of the ways they kept their prices low.
Guess who didn't get paid? The artists.
I'm not saying that the RIAA and the current U.S. labels are the good guys. They tend not to pay their artists too. But clearly, AoMP3 simply didn't pay enough in royalties to support the artists who were responsible for their catalogue.
That's why you got such great prices from them. They were the RIAA's cut-rate cousin. It was the difference between trying to make a killing dishonestly and trying to make a decent living dishonestly.
The mainstream isn't willing to pay over $300 for a game system. There's a price point at which people will consider buying, and Nintendo has set it. It is $250.
Add to that that the Wii has a novel set of controls to generate buzz, and you've got a runaway success.
That's why the 360 "core system" is coming down to $300. Microsoft finally gets it. They're serious about competing.
We hard-core gamers are a minority niche market. We're the only ones who care about all these "cool features." That shouldn't blind us to the fact that including all these features has been a marketing mistake. When the masses go to buy junior a 2nd-1/2 generation system for Christmas, it's going to be the Wii. It doesn't matter that the other two are 3rd gen. The Wii is cheap, it's small, and it lets poppa practice his golf swing.
The mass market is where consoles make money, not the niche. Installed base is everything. MS just figured this out when they set their new prices. We'll see how long it takes Sony.
There is no cause for snobbery towards those who don't know all the features of their Frankenstein box when all they wanted to buy was a game console. What we should be ridiculing them for is overpaying for what they believe is "just a game console."
The RIAA might find it particularly troubling that the students are coming in armed with substantial expert witness declarations attacking the entire underpinning of the RIAA's case, that the students are finding each other and banding together Which is exactly what happens when you attack a group of people who are in the 80th percentile for both wealth and brains. They're also likely to have friends in pre-law/law curricula and/or easy access to their law school's free on-campus legal clinic.
Has anyone at the RIAA been to a University? LOL.
They should have stuck to twelve-year-old girls and their terrified parents. They're going to get their asses handed to them on any campus, especially private schools. Anyone who can afford a private school education is likely to be able to afford one hell of a defense.
Yup. That's a staple of the criminal defense lawyer:
"How did the fish get caught? By opening its mouth."
As soon as there's a law officer involved, keep your answers short and admit nothing. If you are in bad enough trouble, and you won't know if this is the case until it is too late, let your lawyer handle it. If you aren't (and you won't know this...) nothing you can say to an officer can help. Admit nothing, ask what the charge is, and ask for a lawyer if you are charged.
As soon as you are a "suspect," anyone with a badge is your enemy. Plain and simple. Even if he's a friend of yours. Even if he is a nice guy. His duty is to incarcerate suspects and the criminal justice system is mostly designed to nail the "guilty" efficiently, and sometimes, indiscriminately. It simply doesn't have the time to get at the truth or dispense actual justice, so don't expect it.
Slashdot Mirror
Windows has a similar pre-release name structure:
Comely Cairo
Mighty Memphis
Nervous Neptune
Warty Whistler
See?
Thanks for that. I just opted out of citizenship in Comcastia, in preference for my own country's legal system, as opposed to their "neutral," action limiting, convenient corporate arbitration.
This kind of arbitration is supposed to be a bilateral agreement in the best interests of both parties, not some private kangaroo court.
This is clearly just a unilaterally declared "Comcast court." In my mind, it borders on treason to unilaterally declare that a citizen may not take any issue he wishes to his government. I don't think there's a judge in the country that would accept such a presumptive waiver without so much as a signature, but I think it's best to affirm rejection of such authority, especially when there's a convenient web form.
Thanks again.
--
Toro
I already linked that and did it as a top thread, in my own name (to get the karma bonus), before you even posted this as an AC. The difference: I attempted to be helpful.
:^)
And that "solution" is not. It's a workaround. You have to navigate to an emergency site with your web browser, as WGA still doesn't work.
As an unhelpful fan of MS, I guess you're used to thinking of workarounds as fixes, though.
Have a nice day.
--
Toro
Additionally, I know you all are looking for an explanation/root-cause. I will get that ASAP. We are aware it is a server-side issue - the cause is unknown at this current time. Best of luck to all you Vista users.
--
Toro
To all those people who say "Nothing can go wrong with the system" and "I've never had a problem with activation."
This (redundant link) is what can go wrong, and it was only a matter of time. There is no such thing as an unsinkable ship. I believe in Murphy's Law, so long as you add the word "eventually" to the end of it.
--
Toro
Aw gee, we've abolished the "death penalty" for these monkeys? Fine. Do what women should always do to human men when they make nasty gestures...
;^P
;^) )
KICK THEM IN THE NUTS
Believe me, launch a few of these puppies 20 feet skyward with a punt to the beanbag, and at least you'll only have the females coming after you.
--
Toro
(thanks for the laugh...
It's boycott Starforce II: Boycott SecuROM.
From there, the cry will become "Boycott DRM!" From there, the cry will be "There should be a law against that!"
Personally, I can't wait until the day when some enterprising politician makes crapping all over my machine without my permission, or even my knowledge, illegal activity. Then these arrogant jerks, the one's who think their $50 game software is more valuable than my $1500 machine, will stop the nonsense or find themselves liable for damages or even face a criminal court.
--
Toro
(P.S.: It is not a rootkit. That's sensationalist hype. It is undeleteable crap corrupting your user account.)
Sony DADC produces the SecuROM content protection system. That's why Sony gets mentioned. They produced the DRM software.
Shame on 2k for using it in their release, for sure, but shame on Sony for a very sloppy DRM product.
Remember boycott Starforce? BOYCOTT SECUROM.
--
Toro
I think there's plenty of blame to go 'round and Sony and 2k are both covered in ..it. ;^)
--
Toro
--
Toro
The reason for the !CAUTION! key is to keep an ignorant user from wiping out his key tokens in the SecuROM subkey. That's why there's an "!" at the beginning; it sorts first in the subkey. So if a user stupidly tries to delete the entire SecuROM key (not realizing that it's his DRM) while his game is installed, or even after he's uninstalled, the first attempted deleted subkey will be the !CAUTION! key and Windows will abort.
Thus it is a poor way to keep stupid users from trashing their DRM, not a rootkit.
The reason it shows up in "Rootkit Revealer" is because true rootkits use the embedded null tactic to keep users from deleting keys registering malware dll's, startup settings, etc. That way, the user has no way to deregister the malware or stop its launch.
However, the Rootkit Revealer does not simply point out rootkits. It's not that simple. RR points out suspicious methods and/or hidden files, and requires the user to analyze whether those methods and files indicate an actual piece of malware.
Clearly, a key that simply warns you not to delete other keys is not malware.
It is annoying, however, and the only way to get rid of a key with embedded nulls is with DelRegNull. I didn't like that one bit.
My key was added with the install of Neverwinter Nights 2, however, which also uses SecuROM. This key has been around for a while, folks. Someone is crying "rootkit," when really all it is is a sloppy hack to keep users from eliminating their SecuROM keys.
What's really annoying about this method is that the malformed key is not removed when you uninstall the software that requires it. SecuROM also drops a few malformed files in the directory %userprofile%\Application Data\SecuROM\UserData. They won't delete either, because they are key files which the folks at Sony have deemed MUST NEVER be deleted. Great. The only way I could manage to clean out those was by mounting the partition with NTFS-3g and issuing an rm *.*. Otherwise, another hack keeps Windows from moving the key files, probably because if you could copy them, you could run a game on any machine with the keys.
This is definitely more arrogance, and completely annoying, but certainly not a rootkit. I would love to hear what the suits at Sony have to say about their crapware. I expect nothing less than a true SecuROM removal kit, since it doesn't get removed on uninstall.
--
Toro
Is this a dupe of that article about those people who got their arms broken by a Japanese arcade machine? ;^)
--
Toro
"Linux: The only operating system the NSA doesn't 0wn."
--
Toro
However, we must make sure the hijackers don't get control of that plane. If, by some miracle, they do get control, there must be little payoff and control must be difficult to maintain, and those facts should be publicized.
As a corollary, if getting control of a plane remains easy and the payoff is large (or perceived to be large), there is nothing you can do to keep the hijackers out. All you can do is put everyone in a TSA-approved, pocketless, uniform flight suit and disallow all carry-ons without medical certification (pre-certified, doctor authorized medicine/equipment, positive ID).
All you can do is to deny them weapons.
We are headed in this direction because of the hysterical intent to keep all undesirables off an insecure plane. If this is truly our intent, status quo in-flight security to protect the airline industry from having to spend money (or brook government influence in their business practices if the government were in charge of in-flight security), then let's forget the patronizing baby steps and go there already. Bring out the jumpsuits already!
That's the consequence of not securing the plane.
Personally, I say put sane security measures in place on the plane and let them try. We need to spend the appropriate money on in-flight security, and we need to stop hemming and hawing about how it's going to be done. If we can spend this much money trying to sponsor a failing democracy in Iraq, we can find the money for in-flight security.
--
Toro
Well, if there was any sign that the "golden age" of PC gaming was over, presaged by events like the exclusive EA/NFL football deal and the whole "Games For Windows" (Vista/DX10) campaign, now we have MTV as a major player... in video games. The same people who "killed the radio star," then murdered the rock video in their next stroke.
;^)
Where there is big money, there is assuredly crummy lowest common denominator content. MTV has proven that. Next stop: "Robot Chicken the game."
--
Toro
In other words, it's a backdoor in the URI handler for Windows, and Microsoft is "educating" everybody to scrub inputs before passing things off to the backdoored handler.
Great. MS became the "gatekeeper" to all networking security bugs in their OS when they integrated IE into the operating system back in 1997. This is easily fixed by not allowing the URI handler in the OS to behave strangely when given specific inputs (such as %00 and " ).
In short, Microsoft should remove the backdoor. 'Nuff said.
--
Toro
Exactly. iPhone customers should be concerned (not alarmed, IMHO) that this level of detail exists in the first place, and should demand that such information is not kept beyond a reasonable term to deal with billing issues. It certainly is a privacy concern, especially if there's long-term retention.
In the case of an unlimited plan, I'd like to see the justification for any such data retention. If AT&T doesn't need it to generate a bill, or satisfy a financial audit, then it should be shredded. How you use the iPhone is your business, and only their business insofar as it takes to determine your monthly charge.
It's all about data mining. You used to have to do something wrong to wind with a "permanent record." No longer. We all are going to have a very large "permanent record" if we don't demand data destruction and limitations on what and how long personal information may be retained.
--
Toro
Well, more importantly, like this...
Open Source At Microsoft
But it's just a bunch of marketing and lip service at this point. There are no major open source products at MS, MS's pundits are still ridiculing FOSS as "open sourcery," and you can bet Microsoft's intent is to produce yet more restricted license software. You'll notice that they've concentrated exclusively on the "openness" of the source code, yet ignore the entire concept of GPL and free software in their stance on intellectual property. It's playing both ends against the middle right now, largely through innuendo, something MS is very good at.
In fact, Microsoft has killed entire markets by simply pretending to have a product. It's something to watch out for, as this is a bread-and-butter tactic in Redmond.
--
Toro
I too would respect the 400 lb. gorilla, though mostly by keeping my distance.
He's absolutely right on other points as well. If Linux rises to desktop prominence, against a competitor that has a 95% market share on the desktop (a practical monopoly), then the next logical step must be a duopoly, and it is doubtful that Microsoft will ever "go away." They will likely change the way they do business, like IBM did. Perhaps they will produce their own "open source" products, and then the Linux/FOSS community had better be ready for it, because they certainly won't be free software.
Expect it.
They've already proven the first axiom of business. Courts are the slowest moving thing on the planet. Business decisions will always outpace court decisions. That's how they got away with their illegal actions to slaughter STAC and Netscape. It didn't matter by the time the courts had decided. That's how Microsoft managed to pen a patent agreement with Novell, who won the MS-funded patent case against SCO, before the SCO case was even over. Did anyone notice that?
They're moving faster than anyone can litigate. Being right is not good enough here. You have to be right, clever, and decisive. If you can be ethical too, good for you, but ethical doesn't tend to work against an unethical opponent. Try winning a fair fight against a guy who is willing to kick you in the crotch and throw sand in your face some time.
Developers had better keep a careful eye on this gorilla, or you're going to end up working for him. Respect the gorilla.
--
Toro
You know, I was with you until you quoted "Luke Skywalker..." Then I couldn't stop giggling.
;^)
Should I get you a copy of Bartlett's for your birthday? I mean there's got to be someone else who said "pride goeth before a fall," right?
--
Toro
Guess who didn't get paid? The artists.
I'm not saying that the RIAA and the current U.S. labels are the good guys. They tend not to pay their artists too. But clearly, AoMP3 simply didn't pay enough in royalties to support the artists who were responsible for their catalogue.
That's why you got such great prices from them. They were the RIAA's cut-rate cousin. It was the difference between trying to make a killing dishonestly and trying to make a decent living dishonestly.
--
Toro
The mainstream isn't willing to pay over $300 for a game system. There's a price point at which people will consider buying, and Nintendo has set it. It is $250.
Add to that that the Wii has a novel set of controls to generate buzz, and you've got a runaway success.
That's why the 360 "core system" is coming down to $300. Microsoft finally gets it. They're serious about competing.
We hard-core gamers are a minority niche market. We're the only ones who care about all these "cool features." That shouldn't blind us to the fact that including all these features has been a marketing mistake. When the masses go to buy junior a 2nd-1/2 generation system for Christmas, it's going to be the Wii. It doesn't matter that the other two are 3rd gen. The Wii is cheap, it's small, and it lets poppa practice his golf swing.
The mass market is where consoles make money, not the niche. Installed base is everything. MS just figured this out when they set their new prices. We'll see how long it takes Sony.
There is no cause for snobbery towards those who don't know all the features of their Frankenstein box when all they wanted to buy was a game console. What we should be ridiculing them for is overpaying for what they believe is "just a game console."
--
Toro
Oooh. Touche.
;^)
You are, of course, completely correct.
--
Toro
Has anyone at the RIAA been to a University? LOL.
They should have stuck to twelve-year-old girls and their terrified parents. They're going to get their asses handed to them on any campus, especially private schools. Anyone who can afford a private school education is likely to be able to afford one hell of a defense.
--
Toro
Yup. That's a staple of the criminal defense lawyer:
"How did the fish get caught? By opening its mouth."
As soon as there's a law officer involved, keep your answers short and admit nothing. If you are in bad enough trouble, and you won't know if this is the case until it is too late, let your lawyer handle it. If you aren't (and you won't know this...) nothing you can say to an officer can help. Admit nothing, ask what the charge is, and ask for a lawyer if you are charged.
As soon as you are a "suspect," anyone with a badge is your enemy. Plain and simple. Even if he's a friend of yours. Even if he is a nice guy. His duty is to incarcerate suspects and the criminal justice system is mostly designed to nail the "guilty" efficiently, and sometimes, indiscriminately. It simply doesn't have the time to get at the truth or dispense actual justice, so don't expect it.
--
Toro