I managed to save up enough dough at the start of this year to get myself a fairly decent box, but after only 3 days of use, it stopped detecting the boot sector. I also noticied that rather than being detected as a 'maxtor' by the BIOS, it was detected as a 'laxtnr' (notice an ascii shift here?).
After checking all the cables were plugged in fully and the right way around, I tried booting again to no avail, so I took it back to the shop. Where I was branded a liar! It booted fine. So I took the box back home, and had the same problem again!
After a couple of months of my machine not working for days, I finally worked out what it was, intereference between IDE cables, caused by them running at different speeds (ATA133, and ATA100)!!!
You'd think the harddrive manufacturers would be aware of this and produce better cables!
I had just downloaded the software in question (named COGS) when I decided to check up on the/. headlines.
Reading thru the EULA there is no clause about attempting to circumvent the software (however from memory when I created the mandatory account there were clauses about acceptable use). Therefore changing the MAC address shouldn't be an issue (legally) at all (in case Telstra, the evil sons of bitches that they are, decide to try and ban sites that explain how to change your MAC for this particular purpose).
I could imagine that under some draconian DMCA clause this would be illegal, but then so is just about everything you can do with an electrical device. Luckily, this is in Australia and we don't have a DMCA (yet), although I'm waiting for it any day now, our IT & Comms minister is as clueless as our PM, and I'm sure those of you not from Australia have figured out how much of a moron he is.
Heres the EULA for ppl who are interested:
End User Licence Agreement
1. We will grant you a revocable non-exclusive Licence of one copy of the Software for Use by one user on any one Access Device at any one time only in conjunction with the GameArena services provided by Telstra, in accordance with these terms and conditions ("Licence").
2. Your Licence does not include the right to updates, upgrades or other enhancements.
3. You must not sub-license, assign, share, sell, rent, lease or otherwise transfer your right to use the Software.
4. You must not copy, translate, adapt, modify, alter, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reverse engineer or create any derivative work of the Software, merge the Software or any part thereof with any other Software, or change any Software in whole or in part, nor allow any other party to do so.
5. You must not alter or remove any copyright or other intellectual property notifications applied to the Software.
6. You acknowledge that the Software and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software are not your property and contain valuable proprietary information and trade secrets and that this Licence confers no title of ownership in the Software and no rights in any associated source code, and is not to be construed as a sale of any rights in Software.
7. We may terminate Your Licence in the Software upon notice, including for failure to comply with any applicable Licence terms. In the event of termination of this Licence for any reason, You must destroy or return to us the Software and all copies of the Software immediately on termination.
8. Use of the Software other than in accordance with these terms and conditions is prohibited.
9. To the maximum extent permitted by law, any liability arising out of your Use of the Software, including any liability of a third party developer or supplier of Software which we supply to you, is excluded. Where such liability may not be excluded, it is limited, if permitted by law, and at the option of Telstra or the relevant developer of supplier of software, to the resupply or the cost of resupply of the Software.
10. These terms and conditions govern all Software provided to you by Telstra. These terms and conditions have effect in addition to the Telstra Service Terms and Conditions. In the event of any inconsistency between these terms and conditions and the Telstra Service Terms and Conditions, these terms and conditions prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
11. The following words have certain meanings in these terms and conditions:
"Telstra Service Terms and Conditions" means the terms and conditions of the agreement between you and Telstra under which Telstra provides the GameArena services to You.
"Access Device" means your personal computer or other appliance used to access the Telstra Service.
"Software" means any software we supply to you for use with the Service and any upgrades we provide to you, together with accompanying manuals (if applicable).
bribing congressmen with donations to create oppressive laws in there interests of rich, fat, old bastards!
Hmm, now to get my lawyers to send mail to Microsoft, Disney, the Banks, and other rich, fat, old bastards!
Its situations like this that make me glad I live in Australia, but then I remember the way John Howard works (when not kissing Bush's ass that is). Its a simple tactic but works, Monkey See, Monkey Do!
And on that note perhaps I should claim a patent on avoiding political questions by re-phrasing the question in a manner that suggests that as much as you'd really like to answer, you just arn't able.
Slashdot Mirror
I managed to save up enough dough at the start of this year to get myself a fairly decent box, but after only 3 days of use, it stopped detecting the boot sector. I also noticied that rather than being detected as a 'maxtor' by the BIOS, it was detected as a 'laxtnr' (notice an ascii shift here?).
After checking all the cables were plugged in fully and the right way around, I tried booting again to no avail, so I took it back to the shop. Where I was branded a liar! It booted fine. So I took the box back home, and had the same problem again!
After a couple of months of my machine not working for days, I finally worked out what it was, intereference between IDE cables, caused by them running at different speeds (ATA133, and ATA100)!!!
You'd think the harddrive manufacturers would be aware of this and produce better cables!
I had just downloaded the software in question (named COGS) when I decided to check up on the /. headlines.
Reading thru the EULA there is no clause about attempting to circumvent the software (however from memory when I created the mandatory account there were clauses about acceptable use). Therefore changing the MAC address shouldn't be an issue (legally) at all (in case Telstra, the evil sons of bitches that they are, decide to try and ban sites that explain how to change your MAC for this particular purpose).
I could imagine that under some draconian DMCA clause this would be illegal, but then so is just about everything you can do with an electrical device. Luckily, this is in Australia and we don't have a DMCA (yet), although I'm waiting for it any day now, our IT & Comms minister is as clueless as our PM, and I'm sure those of you not from Australia have figured out how much of a moron he is.
Heres the EULA for ppl who are interested:
End User Licence Agreement
1. We will grant you a revocable non-exclusive Licence of one copy of the Software for Use by one user on any one Access Device at any one time only in conjunction with the GameArena services provided by Telstra, in accordance with these terms and conditions ("Licence").
2. Your Licence does not include the right to updates, upgrades or other enhancements.
3. You must not sub-license, assign, share, sell, rent, lease or otherwise transfer your right to use the Software.
4. You must not copy, translate, adapt, modify, alter, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reverse engineer or create any derivative work of the Software, merge the Software or any part thereof with any other Software, or change any Software in whole or in part, nor allow any other party to do so.
5. You must not alter or remove any copyright or other intellectual property notifications applied to the Software.
6. You acknowledge that the Software and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software are not your property and contain valuable proprietary information and trade secrets and that this Licence confers no title of ownership in the Software and no rights in any associated source code, and is not to be construed as a sale of any rights in Software.
7. We may terminate Your Licence in the Software upon notice, including for failure to comply with any applicable Licence terms. In the event of termination of this Licence for any reason, You must destroy or return to us the Software and all copies of the Software immediately on termination.
8. Use of the Software other than in accordance with these terms and conditions is prohibited.
9. To the maximum extent permitted by law, any liability arising out of your Use of the Software, including any liability of a third party developer or supplier of Software which we supply to you, is excluded. Where such liability may not be excluded, it is limited, if permitted by law, and at the option of Telstra or the relevant developer of supplier of software, to the resupply or the cost of resupply of the Software.
10. These terms and conditions govern all Software provided to you by Telstra. These terms and conditions have effect in addition to the Telstra Service Terms and Conditions. In the event of any inconsistency between these terms and conditions and the Telstra Service Terms and Conditions, these terms and conditions prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.
11. The following words have certain meanings in these terms and conditions:
"Telstra Service Terms and Conditions" means the terms and conditions of the agreement between you and Telstra under which Telstra provides the GameArena services to You.
"Access Device" means your personal computer or other appliance used to access the Telstra Service.
"Software" means any software we supply to you for use with the Service and any upgrades we provide to you, together with accompanying manuals (if applicable).
bribing congressmen with donations to create oppressive laws in there interests of rich, fat, old bastards! Hmm, now to get my lawyers to send mail to Microsoft, Disney, the Banks, and other rich, fat, old bastards! Its situations like this that make me glad I live in Australia, but then I remember the way John Howard works (when not kissing Bush's ass that is). Its a simple tactic but works, Monkey See, Monkey Do! And on that note perhaps I should claim a patent on avoiding political questions by re-phrasing the question in a manner that suggests that as much as you'd really like to answer, you just arn't able.