It is not legal to bypass Microsoft's security; the legality of the software you wish to run on the system is irrelevant. Like it or not, you're stuck (legally) with running Microsoft-approved software.
There are three ways around the Microsoft signing that I have heard about. One is the mod chip approach, where you put a chip you buy into a box you buy. A second approach is the solder blob, which allows you to reflash the BIOS of the Xbox, allowing you to run it as a normal computer. A third approach involves only the use of a save game file from a certain game. Any of these approaches will allow you to run unsigned software which you have legal rights to run.
You are not bypassing Microsoft's security unless you try to run their signed software illegally. I'm not advocating that at all. Any of these methods (as I understand it) mean you will lose the technical ability to run signed software, which is the tradeoff that you, as the owner of an Xbox, would have to make. However, since you can get a much better Linux preloaded computer for only a few more dollars, it really seems like an intellectual or legal excersize.
I'd make sure MS EULA for the software on the XBox doesn't prevent you from modifying it. That's a contract...
EULA stands for "End User License Agreement." When you install Microsoft software, you are often forced to click on "Ok". Some people claim that this is entering into an agreement.
However, when you buy an Xbox, you do not sign anything, click anything, or interact with Microsoft in any way whatsoever. You put your money down on the counter, and the nice clerk at the store sells you an Xbox from the store's inventory. The store bought the Xbox from Microsoft, or some other intermediate dealer. Your transaction with the store is complete when the salesperson closes the cash drawer.
... to allow people who bought VIDEO GAME systems to use things other than the game software they are entitled to...
I don't think you understand what it means to own something. If I were to buy an Xbox, I could legally use it as a boat anchor, a footwarmer, or to run any software I wish to run on that computer. It's only a video game system if you choose to use it to play video games.
...and hoping to recoup some of their money on expensive software.
Microsoft can hope all they like, but buying an Xbox doesn't legally compel the buyer to get even one game. You can buy it and smash it just to admire the the pieces if you want. That's your right as the owner.
The hacker types want them to do this in order to run an operating system that's not only free, but is in direct competition
Yes. Why shouldn't they be able to run their legal software on hardware they own? You don't have to sign a EULA to buy an Xbox.
... if they don't provide a free bootloader, the hackers will release a mod that allows you to (presumably) boot unsigned programs...
That's the deal they are offering. They are saying "Let us run legal software that we have a fair use right to run on our own hardware, without compromising your security system *or* we will allow any software to be run whether it is signed by MS or not."
LOGO is certainly a much better first language to learn than VB! It is available for the Palm computers, a $100 Ziare and this make a nice setup for a kid to use. (there's even a keyboard if needed.) There is open source for LOGO too.
where you get off telling me that there should be a hard cap on the limit of my copyright?
The fact that you can enjoy any copyright privileges at all is a gift from the nation to you. This is exclusive right is given to you in consideration for your agreement to place that work into the public domain at a later date.
If you wish to truly protect your work, the answer is easy: never show it to anyone.
SCO said it will reveal in June the Unix code has been copied into Linux, but only to select people, such as independent analysts who have signed nondisclosure agreements. It won't share that code publicly, saying the Unix code is proprietary.
If the code is in Linux, as they claim, then the code is available to the public, and they no reason I can think of to share the infomation about what code they are disputing.
Microsoft never expected to make a profit off the first generation of their console.
That's true. However, just because you expect to get a beat down doesn't make it any less of a beat down when you get it. I'm sure that if they succeed in killing off all the other console makers that their profitability in this market will improve considerably.:-)
I'm curious as to how you consider going from 0% market share to 20% market share, beating out the formerly #2 player (Nintendo) to be "utterly beaten" in the console market?
Compare either Nintendo's or Sony's profits to MS's loss of $300M (claimed by MS in the article for division) or loss of $1B (as claimed in PC World article). The other two companies made more than infinitely more than MS. That's a pretty good beat down.
Since the Earth appears like a disk to the Sun, if you block 1sq mile in space, it will block 1sq mile of the apparent disk. So, at the equator, about one square mile would be inline (although not dark, as the angle covered by the Sun would be much bigger than the 1sq mile sheet.) Near the poles, the area covered would be much larger, as it slopes away.
To counteract a 0.05% increase in solar output, you only need to block 0.05% of the sunlight from hitting the earth. This is not as much as you might think, since the earth presents a face of 4000^2 * Pi square miles. This is about 50M sq miles, so 0.05% of that would be 25K sq miles. Mylar today is commonaly available in 1mill (0.001") thickness.
So, assuming we put this into the space between us and the Sun, you would need a packet of mylar sheets 1 mile square by 2' thick.
Putting aluminized mylar into space was tried for a different purpose by the Echo satellite. Some nice people have already calculated that a single shuttle flight could carry a 700 meter balloon up. Some more efficient lifting technology would be very welcome for this project. Thinner Mylar would also be a great help.
Um, my physics bells are sounding off on this one.
Time to get those physics bells retuned. A changing magnetic field does generate an electric field, as a changing electric field generates a magnetic field. In fact, that how light goes through a vacuum. At least according to Maxwell.
Especially low frequncy magnetic fields (say 60Hz)
have no trouble going through 1/8" aluminum sheets. An iron sheet will really attenuate those kinds of fields. You can test this if you like (as I have) with a 1' sq of iron and aluminum sheet metal. The iron stopped my monitor from doing the hula, the aluminum did not.
You may not have this problem from a new computer, though. Most modern power supplies use switching transformers that operate at 100KHz even up to 1MHz. This makes a lot less of a magnetic field to start with, and it is easier to shield at the higher frequency, even with just aluminum.
Electro-magnetic interference has two parts, an electric field and a magnetic field. Aluminum blocks the electric part just fine, but has very little effect on the magnetic field. Iron conducts magnetic fields much, much better than air or aluminum, and so the magnetic fields "prefer" to say in the iron and out of the air. Of course iron conducts electicity as well, so it shields both. If you have a choice, choose iron.
t's not that product activation is bad all of the time...
If I've bought a product, I don't want to have to activate it. I don't even want to type in any lame 20 character alpha-numeric serial numbers. I want the old Borland Turbo Pascal license, which went something like this: "You are expect to treat this product like a book. You can run it on as many machines as you like, as long as you only use one copy at a time. You can give it to somebody else, but only if you destroy your copies."
There is randomness in the CNN site contents, and randomness there can be multiplied to useful levels by many methods, one of which must be agreed upon in advance. There are so many easy ways that you can get useable random numbers out of the daily content of cnn.com that it boggles my mind.
Here's one for starters. Take the content, and divide it into four quarters. XOR the first byte of each quarter to get your first random byte. Keep only the LS nibble. Repeat for the rest of the bytes.
Or perhaps just ZIP encode the whole site, and use that bitstream (after the header stuff) as the random number stream
Or XOR the site contents with a weak PN generator, such as a 32 bit CRC function with an intitial seed from the page.
Slashdot Mirror
There are three ways around the Microsoft signing that I have heard about. One is the mod chip approach, where you put a chip you buy into a box you buy. A second approach is the solder blob, which allows you to reflash the BIOS of the Xbox, allowing you to run it as a normal computer. A third approach involves only the use of a save game file from a certain game. Any of these approaches will allow you to run unsigned software which you have legal rights to run.
You are not bypassing Microsoft's security unless you try to run their signed software illegally. I'm not advocating that at all. Any of these methods (as I understand it) mean you will lose the technical ability to run signed software, which is the tradeoff that you, as the owner of an Xbox, would have to make. However, since you can get a much better Linux preloaded computer for only a few more dollars, it really seems like an intellectual or legal excersize.
EULA stands for "End User License Agreement." When you install Microsoft software, you are often forced to click on "Ok". Some people claim that this is entering into an agreement.
However, when you buy an Xbox, you do not sign anything, click anything, or interact with Microsoft in any way whatsoever. You put your money down on the counter, and the nice clerk at the store sells you an Xbox from the store's inventory. The store bought the Xbox from Microsoft, or some other intermediate dealer. Your transaction with the store is complete when the salesperson closes the cash drawer.
Hey, if misspelling in a Slashdot post were a crime, only criminals would, er, um, post on Slashdot with mispelling?
I don't think you understand what it means to own something. If I were to buy an Xbox, I could legally use it as a boat anchor, a footwarmer, or to run any software I wish to run on that computer. It's only a video game system if you choose to use it to play video games.
Microsoft can hope all they like, but buying an Xbox doesn't legally compel the buyer to get even one game. You can buy it and smash it just to admire the the pieces if you want. That's your right as the owner.
Yes. Why shouldn't they be able to run their legal software on hardware they own? You don't have to sign a EULA to buy an Xbox.
That's the deal they are offering. They are saying "Let us run legal software that we have a fair use right to run on our own hardware, without compromising your security system *or* we will allow any software to be run whether it is signed by MS or not."
If Neil Armstrong happen to have feet that are 400 ft across, that is.
LOGO is certainly a much better first language to learn than VB! It is available for the Palm computers, a $100 Ziare and this make a nice setup for a kid to use. (there's even a keyboard if needed.) There is open source for LOGO too.
The fact that you can enjoy any copyright privileges at all is a gift from the nation to you. This is exclusive right is given to you in consideration for your agreement to place that work into the public domain at a later date.
If you wish to truly protect your work, the answer is easy: never show it to anyone.
If the code is in Linux, as they claim, then the code is available to the public, and they no reason I can think of to share the infomation about what code they are disputing.
I recommend his book "Cyberiad" in particular...
Oh, that would have been funny!
That's true. However, just because you expect to get a beat down doesn't make it any less of a beat down when you get it. I'm sure that if they succeed in killing off all the other console makers that their profitability in this market will improve considerably. :-)
Compare either Nintendo's or Sony's profits to MS's loss of $300M (claimed by MS in the article for division) or loss of $1B (as claimed in PC World article). The other two companies made more than infinitely more than MS. That's a pretty good beat down.
I think you meant to say 536.870912 million votes.
You are posting on Slashdot. You will be insulted. It's just part of the turf. Get used to it.
Magic 8-ball says: "Outlook is bad"
Since the Earth appears like a disk to the Sun, if you block 1sq mile in space, it will block 1sq mile of the apparent disk. So, at the equator, about one square mile would be inline (although not dark, as the angle covered by the Sun would be much bigger than the 1sq mile sheet.) Near the poles, the area covered would be much larger, as it slopes away.
To counteract a 0.05% increase in solar output, you only need to block 0.05% of the sunlight from hitting the earth. This is not as much as you might think, since the earth presents a face of 4000^2 * Pi square miles. This is about 50M sq miles, so 0.05% of that would be 25K sq miles. Mylar today is commonaly available in 1mill (0.001") thickness. So, assuming we put this into the space between us and the Sun, you would need a packet of mylar sheets 1 mile square by 2' thick.
Putting aluminized mylar into space was tried for a different purpose by the Echo satellite. Some nice people have already calculated that a single shuttle flight could carry a 700 meter balloon up. Some more efficient lifting technology would be very welcome for this project. Thinner Mylar would also be a great help.
Try out the 232DRIO RS-232 Digital Relay I/O Module. It worked ok for me, easy to use. They have some other models as well.
Time to get those physics bells retuned. A changing magnetic field does generate an electric field, as a changing electric field generates a magnetic field. In fact, that how light goes through a vacuum. At least according to Maxwell.
Especially low frequncy magnetic fields (say 60Hz) have no trouble going through 1/8" aluminum sheets. An iron sheet will really attenuate those kinds of fields. You can test this if you like (as I have) with a 1' sq of iron and aluminum sheet metal. The iron stopped my monitor from doing the hula, the aluminum did not.
You may not have this problem from a new computer, though. Most modern power supplies use switching transformers that operate at 100KHz even up to 1MHz. This makes a lot less of a magnetic field to start with, and it is easier to shield at the higher frequency, even with just aluminum.
Electro-magnetic interference has two parts, an electric field and a magnetic field. Aluminum blocks the electric part just fine, but has very little effect on the magnetic field. Iron conducts magnetic fields much, much better than air or aluminum, and so the magnetic fields "prefer" to say in the iron and out of the air. Of course iron conducts electicity as well, so it shields both. If you have a choice, choose iron.
If I've bought a product, I don't want to have to activate it. I don't even want to type in any lame 20 character alpha-numeric serial numbers. I want the old Borland Turbo Pascal license, which went something like this: "You are expect to treat this product like a book. You can run it on as many machines as you like, as long as you only use one copy at a time. You can give it to somebody else, but only if you destroy your copies."
Right, scurvy is out. So what is the cause? Maybe it's the pickled eels?
Really? I thought some of them were supposed to be Inalienable Rights.
What if you ran a program that pressed the button? (Send wm_mousedown to the control?)
There is randomness in the CNN site contents, and randomness there can be multiplied to useful levels by many methods, one of which must be agreed upon in advance. There are so many easy ways that you can get useable random numbers out of the daily content of cnn.com that it boggles my mind.
Here's one for starters. Take the content, and divide it into four quarters. XOR the first byte of each quarter to get your first random byte. Keep only the LS nibble. Repeat for the rest of the bytes.
Or perhaps just ZIP encode the whole site, and use that bitstream (after the header stuff) as the random number stream
Or XOR the site contents with a weak PN generator, such as a 32 bit CRC function with an intitial seed from the page.