So it is as you said, as long as the exe hears what it wants to hear from what sounds like the DRM it will run.
The “exe” doesn’t hear anything. It’s just a list of commands. You can change it. You can tell the CPU to execute the commands... in whatever way you like. Don’t execute this, but do this, etc.
It’s obvious that you would just put a JMP at the beginning of every DRM check routine, and then tell the CPU to have a go.
You can even have a debugger like IDA Pro run in the background, and in case of a DRM error, you pause the program, walk back the disassembled code to the last CMP that checked of DRM is available, change it to a NOP or a JMP in live memory, depending on which way is the “DRM OK” way, and continue the game like normal.
Back when this was simpler, I did it like this myself. Nowadays they create a convoluted system of obfuscations to make it very hard to find the right CMP. But crackers have just as complex de-obfuscation scripts and much better skills than I had back then. Especially virus (toolkit) writers. Since viruses and DRMed executables are very similar in many aspects. (E.g. Steinberg Cubase’s UI code is decrypted right before execution, by a special processor on a USB dongle. Which is why the cracked version, without the encryption, runs much faster. ^^)
Encrypted? And who would have to have a key for that, in order to run the game?
You fell for the same error that DRM is based on.
Essentially, “encrypted” means, you give a user the encrypted data, the decryption code (a list of commands) and the key (unencrypted), and expect him to not figure out that his CPU puts them all together by executing the list of commands on your behalf... or do somethign completely different with it. ^^
You know that “red mass” from the Star Trek movie? That’s actually ground ninja slurry.
At least that’s the only explanation for why a tiny drop can destroy an entire planet, but young Spock flies a ship with a huge ball of it right into a transdimensional spaceship stuck in a wormhole.
Otherwise that action would have nuked at least two universes and would have been an incredibly retarded plot error.;)
Yes, but unfortunately, they chose to take tons of horribly bad concepts from Windows. Down to little things. It’s only a surprise that there is no Clippy in KOffice (but there is something like it in OpenOffice).
Don’t get me wrong, I really like KDE. And I am not only saying this for KDE, but for Gnome and XFCE too. Examples where it’s like windows (XP mostly):
Task bar
Start menu
Little things like search in the start menu
Clock on the right.
Little icons next to the clock
HAL
HAL-Icons next to the little icons next to the clock
Windows (instead of the better tiling system)
Window borders
The position, function and even the symbol of the buttons in the window border.
All the UI elements widgets are practically the same.
Icons on the desktop.
Recycle bin on the desktop, down to how it works.
Worst of all: The file manager is a window with massive HUGE icons showing a thumbnail of the content.
The file tree that you manually have to toggle does by default not resemble the actual structure on the disk, but has imaginary components like the “computer” etc. as the root.
etc, etc, etc.
Now of course OS X and others have those things too. But that’s the point!. Everybody is imitating everybody else. (Back then it was Xerox -> MacOS -> Windows -> others.)
And nobody is actually thinking if this is really the best solution we can come up with after all these years. (In is not. Not even remotely. Actually it’s really slowing us down and an annoying convoluted mess. I know because I’m working on it right now.)
That’s why I really applaud the KDE team, for finally working on the semantic desktop, and a general concept for desktop modules. Of course it’s what I thought up years ago, and I’m way beyond it. (No, I’m not special. I just took the time and thought outside the box. A job that anyone of us can do.) But at least it’s way better than any idea we had before.
Only a Windows (or OS X?) user, or someone who uses Linux but still thinks in Windows logic, could make such a fuss around a color scheme. Linux is not Windows. In Linux, you got a choice. And you usually use it. While in Windows, you have to install a crack to get other color schemes, and they are very limited, under Linux you can freely choose from whatever you like. And so the style/theme/scheme that comes with the installer, is just a mere default setting, that you’re going to change anyway.
A list of things you can change in X Window environments:
Window...
manager
decorator
style
color scheme
Widget...
renderer
style
color scheme
Task bar (with style)
Program launcher (with style)
Widgets (clock, mount status, weather, etc)
So there really is no point in making a fuss about the default style. Nobody cares. Because nobody is nearly forced to use it. It’s changed with a click.
It’s not really a rebranding. Orange is basically bright brown. And yellow and red are just right and left of the orange scale. To me it’s still pretty much the same. Just in a more beautiful way, because it “glows” more. Like a happy version of the old Ubuntu.:) Which I consider a good thing.
That’s you. Consumerist of the finest grade. Buying and buying. Because old products break down after a ridiculous 5 years (make that 2, realistically). Because you buy them anyway.
I won’t be touching anything that even has something like thin kind of wear-out. Not with my data, which to me is more important than my life.
I have data losses. Even with backups, raids and all the fancy stuff. And I will never ever have a data loss again. Period.
What is the superset of OGG, XML, EBML, and every data structure (including values, lists, tables, tensors, trees, etc) ever created? The GRAPH.
That’s why I’m working on a general user and programming interface that combines ALL data into one graph. File systems, files, file formats (including XML and EBML), SQL, active data in memory, hardware enumeration, everything. I thought that was the obvious conclusion that everybody would arrive at, eventually.
And I am very specific of making the separation from the next step of generalization: Functions (algorithms). That way it stays just data, and will never become more.
Sure those machines exist. I’ve seen them myself. But they are of course custom made, since the market for them is tiny. Yes, it’s a last resort. But exactly because of that they are used. The clients using them have loads of cash.
Right after I submitted the above comment, I also thought that usually, just swapping the controller is easier. But my point still stands: It actually is a real solution. And my comment also does not contain the load of arrogant dickishness and lack of thinking outside the box, that pretty much every other comment showed.
Go on Trollerators! Mod me down. I got so much karma, I can play this all week long! While you get angrier, and angrier. And in the end, all you have gained, is an ulcer and lost hair. With all your mod points lost, I’ll still be laughing in your face!
Sorry, but those who moderated me Troll, are prejudiced ignorant assholes.
The study was presented in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German version of the Scientific American and perhaps the most respected German science magazine, a couple of years ago. It was concise and based on a lot of science. They have an archive online. Look it up.
Besides it being EBML (a binary and efficient kind of XML), I’ve yet to see a feature that it can’t do. Even a complete 3D TV series with multiple perspectives, languages, subtitles, additional content, hull cover... streamed over the net in one file? No problem.
Also, it’s already the format of choice for HD video and multichannel audio format rips on the net.
A competitor would be nice. Unfortunately, OGG can’t hold a candle to it. But if they manage to catch up, they will be very welcome.
All stock market prices are by their very definition imaginary and unrelated to the true value. That’s the reason that we have a bursting bubble every 30 years. Scientifically it’s even proven, that in a market that does not deal with physical goods, there must be a bursting bubble about every 30 years.
You are aware that Google makes its money by you providing you with your private information trough using their services, and then selling that to advertisers, are you?
You know what? for Top Gear, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, etc, and the musical modernness of BBC radio (compared to German state-owned radio) alone they are a justified and good thing.
In Germany I can’t even imagine the state-owned TV stations producing something as cool.
People pay for it trough their taxes. It’s the nation’s homegrown/self-owned news service. Murdoch is just a greedy dick who “invests” in political party sock puppets.
I provided a nice solution down there in the comments (= use the same equipment that data restoration companies use). You on the other hand are too dumb for it, but still arrogant enough to simply assume that everything you can’t imagine must be impossible or completely impractical.
Besides: You call that a troll?. I only tried trolling one in my life. Just to see how it is. And I did so in such an epic fashion, that I never felt the need to do it again. (Got on the front page with news that Duke Nukem Forever is released... if you remember.) THAT is a troll! ^^
Actually, if the “voxels” flow into each other enough, aliasing will never occur. Which is why some low-resolution professional prints look better than high-resolution printer ones. Or why on a CRT pixels are less distinguishable then on a LCD. (Which is a good thing.)
I disagree. The actual project is completely irrelevant. There is such a thing as a generic solution to a problem. Which usually is the best/most elegant one by definiton.
Your inability to think up generic solutions is rather your own shortcoming. I already provided a good genetic solution below. So as you see, it’s not that hard.
I bet you’re someone who doesn’t try to find a general algorithm, but will have a huge list of a thousand IF/ELSE statements with custom solutions.;)
You know how data restoration companies do it? They take out the spindle with the platters, and put it in their own reading device with its own controller. And with that you can read and write the exact bits (as long as quantum physics allow it). But the head has to be compatible (e.g. perpendicular recording needs entirely different heads).
I bet those devices can be bought, and I bet their controller is actually just software on the computer (for flexibility). I also bet they come with different head configurations. But they are definitely not going to be cheap.
Slashdot Mirror
So it is as you said, as long as the exe hears what it wants to hear from what sounds like the DRM it will run.
The “exe” doesn’t hear anything. It’s just a list of commands. You can change it. You can tell the CPU to execute the commands... in whatever way you like. Don’t execute this, but do this, etc.
It’s obvious that you would just put a JMP at the beginning of every DRM check routine, and then tell the CPU to have a go.
You can even have a debugger like IDA Pro run in the background, and in case of a DRM error, you pause the program, walk back the disassembled code to the last CMP that checked of DRM is available, change it to a NOP or a JMP in live memory, depending on which way is the “DRM OK” way, and continue the game like normal.
Back when this was simpler, I did it like this myself. Nowadays they create a convoluted system of obfuscations to make it very hard to find the right CMP. But crackers have just as complex de-obfuscation scripts and much better skills than I had back then. Especially virus (toolkit) writers. Since viruses and DRMed executables are very similar in many aspects. (E.g. Steinberg Cubase’s UI code is decrypted right before execution, by a special processor on a USB dongle. Which is why the cracked version, without the encryption, runs much faster. ^^)
Encrypted? And who would have to have a key for that, in order to run the game?
You fell for the same error that DRM is based on.
Essentially, “encrypted” means, you give a user the encrypted data, the decryption code (a list of commands) and the key (unencrypted), and expect him to not figure out that his CPU puts them all together by executing the list of commands on your behalf... or do somethign completely different with it. ^^
Are they playing “Highway to Hell”?
Because, frankly, I WILL dance on it’s grave... While pissing on it too.
And say thanks for five years of nightmares at my last job.
You know that “red mass” from the Star Trek movie?
That’s actually ground ninja slurry.
At least that’s the only explanation for why a tiny drop can destroy an entire planet, but young Spock flies a ship with a huge ball of it right into a transdimensional spaceship stuck in a wormhole.
Otherwise that action would have nuked at least two universes and would have been an incredibly retarded plot error. ;)
We should ask him what nobody ever attempted before: Running Crysis on HIGH.
KDE doesn't look/behave like Windows either.
Yes, but unfortunately, they chose to take tons of horribly bad concepts from Windows. Down to little things. It’s only a surprise that there is no Clippy in KOffice (but there is something like it in OpenOffice).
Don’t get me wrong, I really like KDE. And I am not only saying this for KDE, but for Gnome and XFCE too.
Examples where it’s like windows (XP mostly):
Now of course OS X and others have those things too. But that’s the point!. Everybody is imitating everybody else. (Back then it was Xerox -> MacOS -> Windows -> others.)
And nobody is actually thinking if this is really the best solution we can come up with after all these years. (In is not. Not even remotely. Actually it’s really slowing us down and an annoying convoluted mess. I know because I’m working on it right now.)
That’s why I really applaud the KDE team, for finally working on the semantic desktop, and a general concept for desktop modules. Of course it’s what I thought up years ago, and I’m way beyond it. (No, I’m not special. I just took the time and thought outside the box. A job that anyone of us can do.) But at least it’s way better than any idea we had before.
Only a Windows (or OS X?) user, or someone who uses Linux but still thinks in Windows logic, could make such a fuss around a color scheme.
Linux is not Windows. In Linux, you got a choice. And you usually use it.
While in Windows, you have to install a crack to get other color schemes, and they are very limited, under Linux you can freely choose from whatever you like. And so the style/theme/scheme that comes with the installer, is just a mere default setting, that you’re going to change anyway.
A list of things you can change in X Window environments:
So there really is no point in making a fuss about the default style. Nobody cares. Because nobody is nearly forced to use it. It’s changed with a click.
It’s not really a rebranding. Orange is basically bright brown. And yellow and red are just right and left of the orange scale. To me it’s still pretty much the same. Just in a more beautiful way, because it “glows” more. Like a happy version of the old Ubuntu. :)
Which I consider a good thing.
That’s you. Consumerist of the finest grade. Buying and buying. Because old products break down after a ridiculous 5 years (make that 2, realistically). Because you buy them anyway.
I won’t be touching anything that even has something like thin kind of wear-out. Not with my data, which to me is more important than my life.
I have data losses. Even with backups, raids and all the fancy stuff. And I will never ever have a data loss again. Period.
Man, why do people think so non-generalized?
What is the superset of OGG, XML, EBML, and every data structure (including values, lists, tables, tensors, trees, etc) ever created?
The GRAPH.
That’s why I’m working on a general user and programming interface that combines ALL data into one graph. File systems, files, file formats (including XML and EBML), SQL, active data in memory, hardware enumeration, everything.
I thought that was the obvious conclusion that everybody would arrive at, eventually.
And I am very specific of making the separation from the next step of generalization: Functions (algorithms).
That way it stays just data, and will never become more.
Sure those machines exist. I’ve seen them myself. But they are of course custom made, since the market for them is tiny.
Yes, it’s a last resort. But exactly because of that they are used. The clients using them have loads of cash.
Right after I submitted the above comment, I also thought that usually, just swapping the controller is easier. But my point still stands: It actually is a real solution. And my comment also does not contain the load of arrogant dickishness and lack of thinking outside the box, that pretty much every other comment showed.
But hey... crab mentality... right?
Go on Trollerators! Mod me down. I got so much karma, I can play this all week long!
While you get angrier, and angrier. And in the end, all you have gained, is an ulcer and lost hair.
With all your mod points lost, I’ll still be laughing in your face!
BRING IT ON, FUCKERS! :D
Sorry, but those who moderated me Troll, are prejudiced ignorant assholes.
The study was presented in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German version of the Scientific American and perhaps the most respected German science magazine, a couple of years ago. It was concise and based on a lot of science. They have an archive online. Look it up.
Besides it being EBML (a binary and efficient kind of XML), I’ve yet to see a feature that it can’t do. Even a complete 3D TV series with multiple perspectives, languages, subtitles, additional content, hull cover... streamed over the net in one file? No problem.
Also, it’s already the format of choice for HD video and multichannel audio format rips on the net.
A competitor would be nice. Unfortunately, OGG can’t hold a candle to it. But if they manage to catch up, they will be very welcome.
All stock market prices are by their very definition imaginary and unrelated to the true value. That’s the reason that we have a bursting bubble every 30 years. Scientifically it’s even proven, that in a market that does not deal with physical goods, there must be a bursting bubble about every 30 years.
So the whole question is pointless.
You are aware that Google makes its money by you providing you with your private information trough using their services, and then selling that to advertisers, are you?
And in some non-US countries, that “reporter” would go to jail himself for that. (Slander)
You know what? for Top Gear, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, etc, and the musical modernness of BBC radio (compared to German state-owned radio) alone they are a justified and good thing.
In Germany I can’t even imagine the state-owned TV stations producing something as cool.
People pay for it trough their taxes. It’s the nation’s homegrown/self-owned news service.
Murdoch is just a greedy dick who “invests” in political party sock puppets.
Shit, some people are dumb dicks!
I provided a nice solution down there in the comments (= use the same equipment that data restoration companies use).
You on the other hand are too dumb for it, but still arrogant enough to simply assume that everything you can’t imagine must be impossible or completely impractical.
Besides: You call that a troll?. I only tried trolling one in my life. Just to see how it is. And I did so in such an epic fashion, that I never felt the need to do it again. (Got on the front page with news that Duke Nukem Forever is released... if you remember.) THAT is a troll! ^^
I didn‘t say they would be casted or grown anywhere near a human body. ;)
You are so 21st century with your computers.
Biotech bodymods is all the craze in the 22nd century.
You should come over and check it out! ;))
Oh, I forgot: You got no time machines. Booo-hooo...
Actually, if the “voxels” flow into each other enough, aliasing will never occur. Which is why some low-resolution professional prints look better than high-resolution printer ones. Or why on a CRT pixels are less distinguishable then on a LCD. (Which is a good thing.)
I disagree. The actual project is completely irrelevant. There is such a thing as a generic solution to a problem. Which usually is the best/most elegant one by definiton.
Your inability to think up generic solutions is rather your own shortcoming.
I already provided a good genetic solution below. So as you see, it’s not that hard.
I bet you’re someone who doesn’t try to find a general algorithm, but will have a huge list of a thousand IF/ELSE statements with custom solutions. ;)
You know how data restoration companies do it?
They take out the spindle with the platters, and put it in their own reading device with its own controller. And with that you can read and write the exact bits (as long as quantum physics allow it). But the head has to be compatible (e.g. perpendicular recording needs entirely different heads).
I bet those devices can be bought, and I bet their controller is actually just software on the computer (for flexibility). I also bet they come with different head configurations.
But they are definitely not going to be cheap.
Hey, at least it is a real solution. :)
Huh? Is today negation day? Ok, then.
My unfathomable mountains of madness. Let me not show you them.