... to avoid making a demo version of the software?
I understand that they want to profit from piracy. Not against that. But problem 1 is that it's a challenge that will encourage crackers and problem 2 is that as long as they use the same generic program to protect it, there'll always be a quick crack. Meanwhile, they potentially step on the toes of those who have scratched media. You know, the legitimate customer?
If I thought I was going to be eaten alive by pirates, I'd consider a different approach. Maybe include something cool with the game, like a small pewter statue or something like C&C came with. Or, bundle some artwork with the game. I dunno. Here's the thing, as long as a game company produces a demo, I don't care about downloading a cracked version. I'll either buy it or I won't. But if their copy restriction is going to make my game self destruct, then who is to say I won't go find a cracked copy?
"What's going to stop someone then cracking the main executable to bypass the degradation?"
Time. By the time they get all of it cracked, the game will have been on shelves a while.
Spyro the Dragon had protection sort of like this in the late 90's. If it detected one of the protection schemes was broken, it'd make something in the later level disappear. The cracker had to play through the entire game to check that the crack worked. They kept a fully cracked copy off the streets for roughly a month, after that, it wasn't so important that it be protected anymore.
So that means you can thank Slashdot for being here. Not just by providing a scapegoat for the world's problems, but also for paying Slashdot to stay alive!
"Our computers are binary, so the hard drives that we put in them should be measured using the binary (Base-2) representation."
Eh, no. Binary is interesting to computers, not to humans. Humans care about numbers multipliable by 10.
A human can understand the concept of a byte, a single letter. However, a human, unless he's really into computers, doesn't care much about how many bits are in a byte. It may be 8-bits per byte, but what about error correction etc?
A human can easily multiply 1000 by 1000 and know what the answer is, but ask him to do 1024 by 1024 and he's going to scratch his head. But if he knows that he's got 1,000 useful bytes/characters, then he doesn't need to know about how many bits are in a byte, and the powers of 2, etc.
So no, I don't agree with you. Human readability is at issue here. If somebody really wants to know how many bits are on an HD, they're wanting to know more than most people who'll plunk down money for a drive.
(note: I realize you didn't necessarily mean bits, but I did kind of need to make that point so the rest of my statement made more sense. Hope I didn't sound like I was misrepresenting what you said.)
"With storage prices falling through the floor, does it matter to anyone except whiny nerds whether the byte counts are done in base 10 or base 2?"
I agree with your point, in spirit. However, some of us have bought hard drives with specific capacities in mind. I've never been burned by this, so I understand and agree with your view. However, I do recall a recent article on Slashdot about how 54mbs 802.11 cards can practically only do like a quarter of that. That's an exetreme, but the bigger a HD gets, the bigger that difference makes. I'm not all that surprised the pitchforks are out.
Slashdot Mirror
... to avoid making a demo version of the software?
I understand that they want to profit from piracy. Not against that. But problem 1 is that it's a challenge that will encourage crackers and problem 2 is that as long as they use the same generic program to protect it, there'll always be a quick crack. Meanwhile, they potentially step on the toes of those who have scratched media. You know, the legitimate customer?
If I thought I was going to be eaten alive by pirates, I'd consider a different approach. Maybe include something cool with the game, like a small pewter statue or something like C&C came with. Or, bundle some artwork with the game. I dunno. Here's the thing, as long as a game company produces a demo, I don't care about downloading a cracked version. I'll either buy it or I won't. But if their copy restriction is going to make my game self destruct, then who is to say I won't go find a cracked copy?
"What's going to stop someone then cracking the main executable to bypass the degradation?"
Time. By the time they get all of it cracked, the game will have been on shelves a while.
Spyro the Dragon had protection sort of like this in the late 90's. If it detected one of the protection schemes was broken, it'd make something in the later level disappear. The cracker had to play through the entire game to check that the crack worked. They kept a fully cracked copy off the streets for roughly a month, after that, it wasn't so important that it be protected anymore.
Juicy stories like this should be saved for Friday nights. ;)
My girlfriend thinks Nasa's going to arrive there and find the origins of my gender.
"Unfortunately, there was no information about protocols, encoding, or error correction schemes.."
They're going to use 802.11g with the Hubble Scope in place of the Pringles can.
"You think you're 20 dollar "water resistant" timex can survive a trip to the red planet?"
Whatcha think the first man to step on Mars will be wearing?
"How's that? What did I miss? "
The punchline.
"wow, a blow job while watching LOTR ... what could be more perfect? "
A blow job without sitting through 10 hours of LOTR.
"We got it for LOTR TTT. Tried to get it 3 weeks before Matrix2 and it had been booked for months. We went ahead an booked LOTR ROTK back in June."
Gonna pop for another $200 so you can bring a girl along?
"After all, while a software patent victory might hurt Micro$oft and IE."
If that behaviour is taken against any other browser, they will equally be hurt.
"I don't know which side to be with, the evil Eolas, or the equally evil Microsoft... HELP!! :)"
Seeing as how there's nothing preventing this action from being taken against Mozilla or Opera, I'd side with MS on this one.
"idiot idiot idiot idiot idiot!!!!" ... and for attracting stalkers.
:)
Hello Chickenhawk.
... when you're done war-driving?
"Slashdot runs MS ads."
So that means you can thank Slashdot for being here. Not just by providing a scapegoat for the world's problems, but also for paying Slashdot to stay alive!
"If I power it off, I get to play games again trying to power it up."
Sounds like Apple's game library noticably expanded!
" God Bless America , and thank God I don't have to live there."
God Bless America, we're full, go home."
Off-topic? Bummer, I found it amusing. Oh well, guess it was off-topic.
"Accept when you put in your brand new drive and find.."
Except, not accept. I wouldn't normally correct somebody, but in an earlier post in this thread you said I didn't have an education.
"so you can't download all your porn."
Even if the drive is full, you can still download porn. You just cannot save it.
"I take it you work for a harddrive manufacturer yes?"
I've never seen anybody use the "the only way you can possibly disagree with me is if you're making money from it" argument and win.
"Its called an education something you may want to try getting."
Piece of advice: Don't use a run-on sentence when telling somebody they don't have an education.
Now I can't wait to find out how good I am at LoViN!
"Our computers are binary, so the hard drives that we put in them should be measured using the binary (Base-2) representation."
Eh, no. Binary is interesting to computers, not to humans. Humans care about numbers multipliable by 10.
A human can understand the concept of a byte, a single letter. However, a human, unless he's really into computers, doesn't care much about how many bits are in a byte. It may be 8-bits per byte, but what about error correction etc?
A human can easily multiply 1000 by 1000 and know what the answer is, but ask him to do 1024 by 1024 and he's going to scratch his head. But if he knows that he's got 1,000 useful bytes/characters, then he doesn't need to know about how many bits are in a byte, and the powers of 2, etc.
So no, I don't agree with you. Human readability is at issue here. If somebody really wants to know how many bits are on an HD, they're wanting to know more than most people who'll plunk down money for a drive.
(note: I realize you didn't necessarily mean bits, but I did kind of need to make that point so the rest of my statement made more sense. Hope I didn't sound like I was misrepresenting what you said.)
Man, I got tired just reading that.
Why not just use a standard based on how many Mp3s or DVD rips you can store on a device?
"With storage prices falling through the floor, does it matter to anyone except whiny nerds whether the byte counts are done in base 10 or base 2?"
I agree with your point, in spirit. However, some of us have bought hard drives with specific capacities in mind. I've never been burned by this, so I understand and agree with your view. However, I do recall a recent article on Slashdot about how 54mbs 802.11 cards can practically only do like a quarter of that. That's an exetreme, but the bigger a HD gets, the bigger that difference makes. I'm not all that surprised the pitchforks are out.
Aww did you finally get tired of trying to troll? C'mon Chickenhawk! You can do better than that!
"It's a video game console, of a generation that is in its decline"
Who cares? It still has a good library of games.
Me personally, I have sticker shock. Get the price down to like $400 and it's a cool deal.