Looks like this 'digital music' thing is starting to catch on with the bigwigs. Finally.
I think this is stupid. First we have no digital music, then Apple starts a site that sells millions of songs in the States alone, and now everyone wants to do it.
It's not like we've been saying: "Give us a legal alternative" for like what, three years?
If I was to buy music online (still no resonable legal alternatives in Europe), I would NEVER buy it from some stupid company who's doing it just cause other people are making money off it, and they want some of that money.
I'm also wondering how they are going to enforce agerestrictions. I believe that in some English speaking countries (correct me if I'm wrong here) they won't sell music containing vulgar language to kids? Most kids don't own creditcards, so most probably the songs are being bought using their parents creditcards. The parents most probably have no clue what type of music the kid is DLing, so how will the age be checked.
It isn't so bad with music, but once we get legal movie downloading (yeah yeah, I know, it'll take another 100 years), how will age restrictions be enforced?
The xbox, or rather most versions of it, cannot read CD-Rs, but CD-RWs and DVD-R(W) are fine.
There are three drives I know of being used in xboxes, and they are Toshiba, Thompson and Samsung. It's the samsung that reads everything you throw at it, and the others have problems with CD-R's (RW's work fine). If I'm not mistaken, most new xboxes are using samsung drives now (atleast all v1,1 - v1,3 I opened up were using samsung).
The copy protection is akin to PC-based ones (faulty sectors or uncopiable faults on the disk surface that is checked by the OS/BIOS).
... as well as the entire disc being written "backwards" (hence the xiso format).
One part says:
Nintendo intends to launch a new machine in Japan next year
Then the next part says:
So it's pretty clear this is not just a mix-up regarding the new, China-only system.
It's both. iQue is currently China only (may be released in europe too, uncertain right now), and the nex-gen console (let's call it "gamecube2") is Japan first release.
The confustion is due to the story covering two consoles.
iQue seems cool, but IMHO you can get an N64 cheaper these days from places like eBay, and the iQue is more or less the N64.
Some cut/paste from the maxconsole story:
Nintendo 64 Nano-Technology inside
It is now confirmed that the iQue player is a Nintendo 64 console that makes use of similar Nano-Technolgy that is used in Sony's PSX: the technology used will allow the unit to have a single chip solution containing CPU, Graphic Engine, GPU etc. Positive side-effects are a doubled operating speed, reduced electronic noises and very low power consumption. Regarding Nintendo/iQue spokespersons in China, the iQue will be the first gaming device on the market that makes use of that technology, followed by Sony's PSX which is due to release in December. This statement at least gives us hope that the unit might still be released before Christmas;-)
...
What's in the box, including games
The unit released first contains a 64MBytes Flash Card, the AV cable, a power supply (220V), the power cord and 5 games pre-recorded on the card. Included are 5 games, while only Doctor Mario is a full version. Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time (10 hours), Mario 64 (7 hours), Wave Race (1 hour) and Star Fox (1 hour) are time limited demo versions. It's a "very new" distribution system, indeed.
No other titles have been officially confirmed to us as of yet, but the N64 has got lots of great titles. Full versions of games cost 48 Yuan, that's approx US$ 6. In-game text and manuals are in simplified Chinese language, in-game voices are in mandarin.
The box also contains a serial number and password that allow you to download new titles to your system at Nintendo partners throughout Shanghai, and possible also through the Internet. The card maintains a download log, so users can regain the previous game titles again free of charge if they want to play them again.
Quicker than I though, but who didn't see this one coming?
I was actually surprised when I saw N-Gage games on some ftp's starting three days back. I don't have the N-Gage myself, but I saw like 5 games and an installer...
The cool thing with the N-Gage is the homebrew stuff. It'll be cool if someone can write an app so you can stream shoutcast to the phone... then I'll get one for sure:)
Not sure why I though it was the amazon guy who was doing bountyquest too, I though I'd read it somewhere a while back, but guess I was wrong...
Thanks for the clarification.
You are part of the AV industry? And you think you're facing a bunch of teenage script kiddies? God help us all, we're in for real trouble then.
1, I said I work for an AV company. For all you know, I could be in the finance department.
2, What difference does it make what I think? Even if I was a developer, would I deal with things differently because I believe it was written by a scripkiddie, when it was infact written by an organized crime unit? Wouldn't the end result be the same in both cases, regardless of what I believe?
European network operators require you to register before you can start placing calls with prepaid cards.
Not true at all. I have used prepaid mobile cards in four european countries (Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands and the UK) without registering at all. When I left the country, I threw the card in the bin, and thats that.
If I felt like it, I could pick up a prepaid card each day without any hassle. Hence, this is exactly the same as the disposable mobile phones in regards to criminals using them.
I have a friend who did something bad once and ended up in court. In court (this was in Sweden, and for those of you that want to know, he was using comviq prepaid mobilecards), they actually played recorded phone-conversations, and this guy was getting a new prepaid card each day or two. They even had ICQ logs as proof.
If I was a criminal who needed to speak anonymously, I would certanly not be using prepaid mobile phones. With computers, there are many more secure ways of communicating.
This may or may not help criminals, and I am guessing not, as any criminal with anything in his/her head, will already be using more secure communication.
Personally, I think this is a useless invention that does more harm than good, due to the increase in dangerous waste (batteries are bad). Why can't they just rent out the phones instead??
There was the same fear here in europe when the prepaid mobile phonecards came into use. As it turns out, they are able to track people even if they use prepaid mobile phones.
Therefore, I don't think it'll be that bad.
Actually, I think these things may give people a false sence of security, and it may well turn out to work against the criminals, not for them.
It's actually kinda amusing reading the comments from that last article about disposable cellphones. Many people though it'd never happen, and now, here it is:)
Because it's good business, when you're being paid by spammers to create huge networks of compliant computers.
Viruses are not used by spammers. Worms and trojans may be used by them, but NOT viruses!!!
Now, looking at worms and trojans, how many are used by spammers? I work for an AV company, and I know of about 10 worms and less than 20 trojans that are obviously written for spamming purposes.
The kids who learnt how to do this 5-10 years ago are now living off it.
And exactly HOW would you make money of a trojan and/or worm?? You mean to say that spammers make so much money, that they can pay some kid to create a network of computers they can use as relays?
For the really good virus writers, it's become a career.
... and whats a good viruswriter?
A person who can write a worm that spreads around the world three times in an hour?
Loveletter did that, and loveletter is a crappy VBS script.
Do you think a good viruswriter is someone who can write a really complex virus?
The most complex viruses I know of will never ever spread.
So, what is a good viruswriter, and how do you think you make money out of writing viruses (and don't say by selling the viruses to AV companies or something retarded like that)?
The bounty is offered for information that leads to the arrest of the people who released the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus.
They are both worms, not viruses (alright, technically, worms are a subclass of viruses, but its still incorrect to call them viruses when they are worms).
Virus = code that replicates to files without user authorization.
Worm = code that replicates to other computers without user authorization.
They only offer the money if the person who wrote it is arrested. If these worms originated from China, Brazil or Indonesia, I'm pretty certain no-one is getting arrested. There are still more countries that doesn't have a law against writing viruses/worms, than countries that do. Hence, if you're turning in the author(s), make sure they are in a country where its illegal to write worms, or you're just setting yourself up for some asswhopping:)
At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2.
Not the same at all, for the following reasons.
1, Games are different between consoles and a PC.
2, Some games are console games, other are PC games. PC games means games that are better played with keyboard/mouse/monitor, not joypad and TV, games such as Quake, UT, Warlords etc. Console games are games such as Tony Hawk, SSX, Fifa, Tiger Woods etc, they are more fun playing with your friends with a joypad.
3, Most probably you aren't spending 1000 dollars on a PC ONLY because you want to play games. You prolly listen to mp3s, browse the web, watch pr0n in your newsreader, illegally download music etc etc (but no worries, the RIAA will get you... eventually).:)
Anyways, point being, a console is not comparable to a PC in the same way as a PDA is comparable to a GBA. I got a PDA at work, I used it for about 2 months, but then that chessgame got really boring.
Hmm... I like them being fined, and california needs the money, that's for sure.
However, I wouldn't jump too high right now. I think we are just changing the game, not winning it. Here's an example of what spammers are doing now.
I believe whitelisting is one of the only way to go about stopping spam, but it has obvious problems associated.
Ah well, atleast the government is doing something... 5 years too late.
How can we finally kill this thing? I'm getting so sick of all this!
Step 1: Get better, you can't destroy things while being sick. Good physical condition is a must!
Step 2: Get a computer. Throw the computer repeatedly at the SCO headquarters, until the building finally collapses.
Step 3: Profit!
. Can you imagine however, the chaos if the author of the worm also put nasty bios flashing code into it... Millions of PC would be heading for the dumpsta!
Virtually every BIOS has protection against this since the CIH days (doesn't mean people enable it, but its there). Furthermore, instead of throwing away a PC with a flashed BIOS, you can give it to me. It won't cost me more than $5 to get it fixed!
I agree that these flaws are bad, but no need to make it worse than it already is.
So I installed W2k for a friend a few days ago - Connected to the internet to get the RPC patch, and got infected with this work in under a minute - Not even time to get the update!...
All you have to do is change one registrykey (enableDCOM) from YES to NO. That way, you're "protected" without having the patch.
My PC is running with just over 10 services enabled. After all these flaws, I realized it was safer to simply disable anything non-critical. I don't like Windows anyways, just have to use it for work:/
And if you use their toolbar (an extremely useful tool), you sent them info on every single website you visit, not just the intentional searches.
This is exacly why you should use Mozilla Phoenix/FireBird as your browser (kicks Opera and IE's ass for sure), and install the google toolbar extension from the extensions page. You'd get the best of both worlds this way, get the google toolbar, send them nothing:)
Slashdot Mirror
Looks like this 'digital music' thing is starting to catch on with the bigwigs. Finally.
I think this is stupid. First we have no digital music, then Apple starts a site that sells millions of songs in the States alone, and now everyone wants to do it.
It's not like we've been saying: "Give us a legal alternative" for like what, three years?
If I was to buy music online (still no resonable legal alternatives in Europe), I would NEVER buy it from some stupid company who's doing it just cause other people are making money off it, and they want some of that money.
I'm also wondering how they are going to enforce agerestrictions. I believe that in some English speaking countries (correct me if I'm wrong here) they won't sell music containing vulgar language to kids? Most kids don't own creditcards, so most probably the songs are being bought using their parents creditcards. The parents most probably have no clue what type of music the kid is DLing, so how will the age be checked.
It isn't so bad with music, but once we get legal movie downloading (yeah yeah, I know, it'll take another 100 years), how will age restrictions be enforced?
sometimes I don't get moderators... this post was funny.. NO WAY does it deserve -1, even if it was posted AC. +3 Funny is more like it!
The xbox, or rather most versions of it, cannot read CD-Rs, but CD-RWs and DVD-R(W) are fine.
... as well as the entire disc being written "backwards" (hence the xiso format).
There are three drives I know of being used in xboxes, and they are Toshiba, Thompson and Samsung. It's the samsung that reads everything you throw at it, and the others have problems with CD-R's (RW's work fine). If I'm not mistaken, most new xboxes are using samsung drives now (atleast all v1,1 - v1,3 I opened up were using samsung).
The copy protection is akin to PC-based ones (faulty sectors or uncopiable faults on the disk surface that is checked by the OS/BIOS).
One part says: Nintendo intends to launch a new machine in Japan next year Then the next part says: So it's pretty clear this is not just a mix-up regarding the new, China-only system.
It's both. iQue is currently China only (may be released in europe too, uncertain right now), and the nex-gen console (let's call it "gamecube2") is Japan first release.
The confustion is due to the story covering two consoles.
Read this story on maxconsole earlier today.
;-)
...
iQue seems cool, but IMHO you can get an N64 cheaper these days from places like eBay, and the iQue is more or less the N64.
Some cut/paste from the maxconsole story:
Nintendo 64 Nano-Technology inside It is now confirmed that the iQue player is a Nintendo 64 console that makes use of similar Nano-Technolgy that is used in Sony's PSX: the technology used will allow the unit to have a single chip solution containing CPU, Graphic Engine, GPU etc. Positive side-effects are a doubled operating speed, reduced electronic noises and very low power consumption. Regarding Nintendo/iQue spokespersons in China, the iQue will be the first gaming device on the market that makes use of that technology, followed by Sony's PSX which is due to release in December. This statement at least gives us hope that the unit might still be released before Christmas
What's in the box, including games The unit released first contains a 64MBytes Flash Card, the AV cable, a power supply (220V), the power cord and 5 games pre-recorded on the card. Included are 5 games, while only Doctor Mario is a full version. Zelda 64: Ocarina of Time (10 hours), Mario 64 (7 hours), Wave Race (1 hour) and Star Fox (1 hour) are time limited demo versions. It's a "very new" distribution system, indeed. No other titles have been officially confirmed to us as of yet, but the N64 has got lots of great titles. Full versions of games cost 48 Yuan, that's approx US$ 6. In-game text and manuals are in simplified Chinese language, in-game voices are in mandarin. The box also contains a serial number and password that allow you to download new titles to your system at Nintendo partners throughout Shanghai, and possible also through the Internet. The card maintains a download log, so users can regain the previous game titles again free of charge if they want to play them again.
Try to work "fuckity" in: "What the fucking fuckity fuck fuck..."
:)
Kinda funny, SCO are so stupid we're running out of swearwords to describe it
As its slashdotted, heres a link to the "actual story". It's up right now :)
http://www.spong.com/index.asp?art=5781
Quicker than I though, but who didn't see this one coming?
:)
I was actually surprised when I saw N-Gage games on some ftp's starting three days back. I don't have the N-Gage myself, but I saw like 5 games and an installer...
The cool thing with the N-Gage is the homebrew stuff. It'll be cool if someone can write an app so you can stream shoutcast to the phone... then I'll get one for sure
Thanks :)
Not sure why I though it was the amazon guy who was doing bountyquest too, I though I'd read it somewhere a while back, but guess I was wrong...
Thanks for the clarification.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I always thought that the dude that started amazon is the same dude that started BountyQuest.
:)
If so, it kinda explains... well.. everything
You are part of the AV industry? And you think you're facing a bunch of teenage script kiddies? God help us all, we're in for real trouble then.
1, I said I work for an AV company. For all you know, I could be in the finance department.
2, What difference does it make what I think? Even if I was a developer, would I deal with things differently because I believe it was written by a scripkiddie, when it was infact written by an organized crime unit? Wouldn't the end result be the same in both cases, regardless of what I believe?
European network operators require you to register before you can start placing calls with prepaid cards.
Not true at all. I have used prepaid mobile cards in four european countries (Sweden, Ireland, Netherlands and the UK) without registering at all. When I left the country, I threw the card in the bin, and thats that.
If I felt like it, I could pick up a prepaid card each day without any hassle. Hence, this is exactly the same as the disposable mobile phones in regards to criminals using them.
I have a friend who did something bad once and ended up in court. In court (this was in Sweden, and for those of you that want to know, he was using comviq prepaid mobilecards), they actually played recorded phone-conversations, and this guy was getting a new prepaid card each day or two. They even had ICQ logs as proof.
If I was a criminal who needed to speak anonymously, I would certanly not be using prepaid mobile phones. With computers, there are many more secure ways of communicating.
This may or may not help criminals, and I am guessing not, as any criminal with anything in his/her head, will already be using more secure communication.
Personally, I think this is a useless invention that does more harm than good, due to the increase in dangerous waste (batteries are bad). Why can't they just rent out the phones instead??
I can see this as a boon for an illicit dealer.
There was the same fear here in europe when the prepaid mobile phonecards came into use. As it turns out, they are able to track people even if they use prepaid mobile phones.
Therefore, I don't think it'll be that bad.
Actually, I think these things may give people a false sence of security, and it may well turn out to work against the criminals, not for them.
...on Slashdot
:)
It's actually kinda amusing reading the comments from that last article about disposable cellphones. Many people though it'd never happen, and now, here it is
Seriously, +4 insightful modding on that post??
... and whats a good viruswriter?
Because it's good business, when you're being paid by spammers to create huge networks of compliant computers.
Viruses are not used by spammers. Worms and trojans may be used by them, but NOT viruses!!! Now, looking at worms and trojans, how many are used by spammers? I work for an AV company, and I know of about 10 worms and less than 20 trojans that are obviously written for spamming purposes.
The kids who learnt how to do this 5-10 years ago are now living off it.
And exactly HOW would you make money of a trojan and/or worm?? You mean to say that spammers make so much money, that they can pay some kid to create a network of computers they can use as relays?
For the really good virus writers, it's become a career.
A person who can write a worm that spreads around the world three times in an hour? Loveletter did that, and loveletter is a crappy VBS script.
Do you think a good viruswriter is someone who can write a really complex virus? The most complex viruses I know of will never ever spread.
So, what is a good viruswriter, and how do you think you make money out of writing viruses (and don't say by selling the viruses to AV companies or something retarded like that)?
The bounty is offered for information that leads to the arrest of the people who released the MSBlast worm and the SoBig virus.
:)
They are both worms, not viruses (alright, technically, worms are a subclass of viruses, but its still incorrect to call them viruses when they are worms).
Virus = code that replicates to files without user authorization.
Worm = code that replicates to other computers without user authorization.
They only offer the money if the person who wrote it is arrested. If these worms originated from China, Brazil or Indonesia, I'm pretty certain no-one is getting arrested. There are still more countries that doesn't have a law against writing viruses/worms, than countries that do. Hence, if you're turning in the author(s), make sure they are in a country where its illegal to write worms, or you're just setting yourself up for some asswhopping
At the same time, no one says that it's silly to spend $1000+ on a PC to play games, when you can do the same thing with a $199 PlayStation 2.
... eventually). :)
Not the same at all, for the following reasons.
1, Games are different between consoles and a PC.
2, Some games are console games, other are PC games. PC games means games that are better played with keyboard/mouse/monitor, not joypad and TV, games such as Quake, UT, Warlords etc. Console games are games such as Tony Hawk, SSX, Fifa, Tiger Woods etc, they are more fun playing with your friends with a joypad.
3, Most probably you aren't spending 1000 dollars on a PC ONLY because you want to play games. You prolly listen to mp3s, browse the web, watch pr0n in your newsreader, illegally download music etc etc (but no worries, the RIAA will get you
Anyways, point being, a console is not comparable to a PC in the same way as a PDA is comparable to a GBA. I got a PDA at work, I used it for about 2 months, but then that chessgame got really boring.
Is there a reason why DRM shouldn't be labeled "real technology" besides the fact that you don't like it?
:)
Nope
...to do DDoS attacks on filesharing computers
We should DDoS them back. Let's post a story about it on slashdot, so they get slashdotted.
We're getting closer...
Hmm... I like them being fined, and california needs the money, that's for sure.
However, I wouldn't jump too high right now. I think we are just changing the game, not winning it. Here's an example of what spammers are doing now.
I believe whitelisting is one of the only way to go about stopping spam, but it has obvious problems associated.
Ah well, atleast the government is doing something... 5 years too late.
How can we finally kill this thing? I'm getting so sick of all this!
Step 1: Get better, you can't destroy things while being sick. Good physical condition is a must!
Step 2: Get a computer. Throw the computer repeatedly at the SCO headquarters, until the building finally collapses.
Step 3: Profit!
WHEN are these media people going to finally realise that if you can see it or hear it you can snag it ?
:)
:)
On the 14th may, 2014, at 7.15AM
I'm sure it wasn't a retorical question
Anyways, they should call it the Evil Bit, not broadcast bit
. Can you imagine however, the chaos if the author of the worm also put nasty bios flashing code into it... Millions of PC would be heading for the dumpsta!
:/
Virtually every BIOS has protection against this since the CIH days (doesn't mean people enable it, but its there). Furthermore, instead of throwing away a PC with a flashed BIOS, you can give it to me. It won't cost me more than $5 to get it fixed!
I agree that these flaws are bad, but no need to make it worse than it already is.
So I installed W2k for a friend a few days ago - Connected to the internet to get the RPC patch, and got infected with this work in under a minute - Not even time to get the update!...
All you have to do is change one registrykey (enableDCOM) from YES to NO. That way, you're "protected" without having the patch.
My PC is running with just over 10 services enabled. After all these flaws, I realized it was safer to simply disable anything non-critical. I don't like Windows anyways, just have to use it for work
Can Skynet be far behind...
:)
I play UT on skynet all the time. Finally I understand why I never win!
And if you use their toolbar (an extremely useful tool), you sent them info on every single website you visit, not just the intentional searches.
:)
This is exacly why you should use Mozilla Phoenix/FireBird as your browser (kicks Opera and IE's ass for sure), and install the google toolbar extension from the extensions page. You'd get the best of both worlds this way, get the google toolbar, send them nothing