It seems to me we are heading to a future where there will be very locked down systems for general use, and open systems that will allow user hacking (such as Linux). Perhaps that is not so bad.
Except that you're missing the socio-political angle.
Sadly, 90% of users won't care, and will continue on without the slightest awareness that control of their computers is being stolen from them. As long as NetFlix and their pr0n still works, they won't care.
Once a certain point is crossed, open-access systems will be painted as the outlier -- the "suspicious" system that could be running anything, including viruses from TERRERISTZ!!!1!! "These rogue systems need to be brought under control!" will scream the digital demagogues (all fully funded and coached by Microsoft). And just like that, Linux, FreeBSD, and every other Open Source system will be extinguished either by fiat, or under the asphyxiating blubber of regulation -- think DMCA, but without the pretense of Fair Use exceptions.
So, no. This is nothing to be sanguine about. You need to start helping your friends to migrate away from Windows. Microsoft needs to lose money and market share over this.
"But I need Windows for..." *SMACK!* NO! You don't!
Short summary: If the license says something that is enforceable in court, odds are super good that you can't get it removed with anything short of an activist campaign. [... ] If the license says something that is not enforceable in court, why should you care at the outset?
And just how the fsck am I supposed to know which is which? Is litigation of every $(GOD)-damned term necessary to determine validity? And why is the onus on me to prove the term is bullshit? It seems to me that a "contract" that purports to absolve the vendor of any and all responsibility for defects in their product, and then further forces the consumer to give up their right to file suit in a state or Federal court, or be a member of a class action, and instead be compelled into neutral (ha ha) arbitration, would be unenforceable. But, lo and behold, they've been deemed valid. And all this comes into existence by merely clicking an on-screen button.
In other words, a vendor can impose an onerous, heavy-handed, one-sided contract on someone via little more than merest assertion.
...And you, as a professional working in this space, haven't got the slightest problem with this?
...about a hundred years ago when people switched from pocket watches to wrist watches, [... ]
That reminds me: Why is no one offering a smart watch in a pocket watch form factor? You'd lose pulse rate measurement, but you'd still get the rest of the fitness tracking movements. You'd also get a larger case -- allowing for larger displays and batteries -- and placing a pocket watch on a charging cradle at night wouldn't seem quite as odd as a wristwatch.
Using a smart pocket watch would also obviate the described attack.
DI.fm is still the first thing I think of for streaming music, since it's been around for nearly 20 years.
However, you must admit the service has become much more hostile lately. Once upon a time, Ari had a Web page with a handful of URLs. Copy-paste them in to your streaming app -- any streaming app, not just DI's proprietary one -- and start enjoying music. Then they started demanding you create an account if you wanted to use their proprietary Android app. Then the streaming URLs started getting rotated for no reason; you had to go back to the Web site to get the latest ones. Then the streaming URLs disappeared off their page entirely, replaced with a (crap) in-browser Flash-based player -- you had to practically Wireshark the site to get the streaming URLs out so you could listen with your preferred player.
Now, they've broken the open streaming URLs entirely, and have imposed a limit of 30 minutes listening time for non-registered listeners. And they still spray ads at you.
It was much more fun when Ari was running the whole thing himself. Every so often in the early days, the playlist would stop (!?), and cut over to an open mic -- you could hear Ari working on something in the background. One time, I sent him an email telling him the stream had died. A few seconds later, I heard the Outlook Bell, then a few keystrokes, a couple of mouse clicks, and the stream started up again.
Microsoft is trying to position itself at the chokepoints of primary office/corporate functions. They already own the document preparation space in the form of Office, and have a huge chunk of the messaging and calendaring space through Outlook/Exchange.
Despite the fact that GMail is vastly superior to Outlook365 -- hell, mutt is better than Outlook -- there's always some so-and-so in the C-suite who's familiar with Outlook and refuses to learn or use anything else. Eventually the impedance mismatch between Outlook/Exchange and the rest of the entire fscking universe forces the company to adopt Office/Outlook/Exchange.
By acquiring LinkedIn, Microsoft can now attempt domination of the HR/recruiting functions as well. Want to apply for a job? Sorry, you'll have to apply through LinkedIn; it's inextricably integrated with the rest of our software. Want to communicate with a candidate? IMAP clients don't preserve the metadata tracking the recruiting process; please use an Outlook client. Want to submit a resume? It better be in.DOC format. Oh, and they'll probably throw in a gratuitous Silverlight dependency just for shits and giggles...
Personally, I can't see how people keep falling for the same sack of crap over and over and over again.
Not strictly correct. The amount of time it would take to read the T&C for F-Droid apps is zero, because the GPL is not an end-user license. It's a distribution license, and only comes in to play if you plan on making and distributing copies of the software.
...you can boot/install windows in legacy bios mode which doesn't require those fancy keys.
Not with a GUID partition table (GPT), you can't; legacy BIOS only understands MBR. And GPT is the default partition table format you get when installing Win7 and 8.
The MS lawyers would have tried to stop this. This will absolutely lead to a class action lawsuit [... ]
Uh, no. Microsoft's lawyers already have this base covered:
10. Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver if You Live in (or if a Business Your Principal Place of Business is in) the United States.
We hope we never have a dispute, but if we do, you and we agree to try for 60 days to resolve it informally. If we can't, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration before the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), and not to sue in court in front of a judge or jury. Instead, a neutral arbitrator will decide and the arbitrator's decision will be final except for a limited right of appeal under the FAA. Class action lawsuits, class-wide arbitrations, private attorney-general actions, and any other proceeding where someone acts in a representative capacity aren't allowed. Nor is combining individual proceedings without the consent of all parties. "We," "our," and "us" includes Microsoft, the device manufacturer, and software installer. [emphasis in original]
According tomy readings, it can be done, and it doesn't necessarily involve the use of revocation lists; you simply delete the key/cert that authenticates Windows from the DB. You can modify the DB/DBX key store at run time all you want, provided your mods can be authenticated with one of the Key Exchange Keys. Microsoft's key is pre-loaded on to every PC out there, so they could trivially modify the DB and DBX stores to remove the entries for Win 7 and 8.
Even if they can't directly modify the DB/DBX directly from Windows, they could easily drop a new executable in the UEFI boot sequence -- authenticated by their Secure Boot cert -- which would do it for them.
So, yes, based on those readings, I regard this as technically feasible.
My friends: So convinced am I of Microsoft's perfidy that, some time in the next 6-24 months, Microsoft will attempt to revoke the Secure Boot keys for Windows 7 and 8, and every machine with a UEFI BIOS still running 7 and 8 will refuse to boot. The government will do nothing. The industry press, though publicly wringing its hands in consternation, will do nothing. The only proffered "fix" will be a Windows 10 install.
Sorry, I'm not taking any article that says this seriously:
The video-gaming business was a bastion of old-fashioned sexism long before Gjoni came along. [... ]
Um, sorry, but I was there, and yes it was. It wasn't rampagingly misogynistic, but it was definitely a male-dominated industry, market, and culture. The number of well-known female game designers could be counted on your fingers. And while there's no intrinsic reason why a woman can't enjoy a game about blasting the crap out of aliens/demons/terrorists, as a group, that's not a genre they have tended to gravitate toward.
Not to mention that the article only focuses on Gjoni and Quinn's relationship and doesn't really go into GamerGate at all.
Why would it? Gjoni made up the whole thing as part of a vicious character assassination. Yes, there's quid-pro-quo corruption in games journalism, but that happens at the managerial level, as Jeff Gerstmann will readily attest, long before Gjoni oozed on to the scene.
Yeah, guy was pissed his girlfriend was fucking around, [... ]
So you're just taking Gjoni's word for it? A man with several court-imposed restraining orders against him for willfully spreading falsehoods against Quinn?
The reason why it ended up being a big thing is because of the exposed corruption in gaming journalism, [... ]
The statistics conclude otherwise. Sorry, but that fig leaf of plausible deniability dried up and crumbled to dust ages ago: http://www.dailydot.com/opinio...
GamerGate is the result of one Eron Gjoni getting irrationally bent out of shape when his girlfriend of the time -- Zoe Quinn -- broke up with him. So he decided to get revenge by meticulously crafting a blog post containing wild, paranoid, unfounded accusations to trash her reputation. And the underbelly of the Internet fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. We're still sorting through the fallout.
Not so greatest then, considering that people get tired of adjusting their code to new APIs which inevitably leads to even more regressions.
...Said the troll who has six or seven different versions of MSVC++ Runtime installed alongside one another. And apparently twelve different versions of Not-OpenGL over the last 20 years is perfectly okay.
It seems like it's not _quite_ there, but the era of SD supporting devices is fading away.
Do you not own a camera? You know, something from Pentax/Olympus/Sony/Nikon/Kodak/Canon or some such? While a few models use CompactFlash cards, SD cards are pretty much the only game in town.
...despite a "cease and desist" order issued by the law firm.
There is no such thing as a cease and desist order, except when it comes from a competent court of appropriate jurisdiction. A C&D letter from a law firm is nothing more than a formal request to stop doing something -- granted, a sharply worded, hostile, threatening request, but a request nonetheless.
Surprise! We unilaterally changed the EULA terms (paragraph 69 lets us do that). Because of reports of loading issues, running our software on 1 gigabit or faster networks requires a mandatory subscription to our Premier-III support tier. Also, an Intel "hyperthread" now counts as a full core. You can still run on a virtualized host, but only using virtualization software we've vetted and approved for use (surprise! There's only one, and it's our own).
Are you clean now? Didn't think so. Enjoy the shakedo^H^H^H^H^H^H^Haudit.
IIRC, The Mythbusters a couple years ago tested the efficacy of air hand dryers versus paper towels, and found that paper towels were more effective and more hygienic.
Slashdot Mirror
Except that you're missing the socio-political angle.
Sadly, 90% of users won't care, and will continue on without the slightest awareness that control of their computers is being stolen from them. As long as NetFlix and their pr0n still works, they won't care.
Once a certain point is crossed, open-access systems will be painted as the outlier -- the "suspicious" system that could be running anything, including viruses from TERRERISTZ!!!1!! "These rogue systems need to be brought under control!" will scream the digital demagogues (all fully funded and coached by Microsoft). And just like that, Linux, FreeBSD, and every other Open Source system will be extinguished either by fiat, or under the asphyxiating blubber of regulation -- think DMCA, but without the pretense of Fair Use exceptions.
So, no. This is nothing to be sanguine about. You need to start helping your friends to migrate away from Windows. Microsoft needs to lose money and market share over this.
"But I need Windows for..." *SMACK!* NO! You don't!
Depends on which of the 69 bazillion versions you're referring to, and where you got it from, but overall the answer appears to be Yes.
The "winning" language was going to be Python, but a buffer overflow error caused C to be output at the top of the list.
And just how the fsck am I supposed to know which is which? Is litigation of every $(GOD)-damned term necessary to determine validity? And why is the onus on me to prove the term is bullshit? It seems to me that a "contract" that purports to absolve the vendor of any and all responsibility for defects in their product, and then further forces the consumer to give up their right to file suit in a state or Federal court, or be a member of a class action, and instead be compelled into neutral (ha ha) arbitration, would be unenforceable. But, lo and behold, they've been deemed valid. And all this comes into existence by merely clicking an on-screen button.
In other words, a vendor can impose an onerous, heavy-handed, one-sided contract on someone via little more than merest assertion.
...And you, as a professional working in this space, haven't got the slightest problem with this?
That reminds me: Why is no one offering a smart watch in a pocket watch form factor? You'd lose pulse rate measurement, but you'd still get the rest of the fitness tracking movements. You'd also get a larger case -- allowing for larger displays and batteries -- and placing a pocket watch on a charging cradle at night wouldn't seem quite as odd as a wristwatch.
Using a smart pocket watch would also obviate the described attack.
Stealing? How dare you impugn our character with such malign slander. We bought and paid for them!
I'm still not installing KB3035583.
DI.fm is still the first thing I think of for streaming music, since it's been around for nearly 20 years.
However, you must admit the service has become much more hostile lately. Once upon a time, Ari had a Web page with a handful of URLs. Copy-paste them in to your streaming app -- any streaming app, not just DI's proprietary one -- and start enjoying music. Then they started demanding you create an account if you wanted to use their proprietary Android app. Then the streaming URLs started getting rotated for no reason; you had to go back to the Web site to get the latest ones. Then the streaming URLs disappeared off their page entirely, replaced with a ( crap ) in-browser Flash-based player -- you had to practically Wireshark the site to get the streaming URLs out so you could listen with your preferred player.
Now, they've broken the open streaming URLs entirely, and have imposed a limit of 30 minutes listening time for non-registered listeners. And they still spray ads at you.
It was much more fun when Ari was running the whole thing himself. Every so often in the early days, the playlist would stop (!?), and cut over to an open mic -- you could hear Ari working on something in the background. One time, I sent him an email telling him the stream had died. A few seconds later, I heard the Outlook Bell, then a few keystrokes, a couple of mouse clicks, and the stream started up again.
My armchair analysis is rather more cynical.
Microsoft is trying to position itself at the chokepoints of primary office/corporate functions. They already own the document preparation space in the form of Office, and have a huge chunk of the messaging and calendaring space through Outlook/Exchange.
Despite the fact that GMail is vastly superior to Outlook365 -- hell, mutt is better than Outlook -- there's always some so-and-so in the C-suite who's familiar with Outlook and refuses to learn or use anything else. Eventually the impedance mismatch between Outlook/Exchange and the rest of the entire fscking universe forces the company to adopt Office/Outlook/Exchange.
By acquiring LinkedIn, Microsoft can now attempt domination of the HR/recruiting functions as well. Want to apply for a job? Sorry, you'll have to apply through LinkedIn; it's inextricably integrated with the rest of our software. Want to communicate with a candidate? IMAP clients don't preserve the metadata tracking the recruiting process; please use an Outlook client. Want to submit a resume? It better be in .DOC format. Oh, and they'll probably throw in a gratuitous Silverlight dependency just for shits and giggles...
Personally, I can't see how people keep falling for the same sack of crap over and over and over again.
Not strictly correct. The amount of time it would take to read the T&C for F-Droid apps is zero, because the GPL is not an end-user license. It's a distribution license, and only comes in to play if you plan on making and distributing copies of the software.
Not with a GUID partition table (GPT), you can't; legacy BIOS only understands MBR. And GPT is the default partition table format you get when installing Win7 and 8.
"Damn! You need to watch what you agree to, 'cause that one almost took my head off!"
Uh, no. Microsoft's lawyers already have this base covered:
-- Windows 10 license "agreement"
Even if they can't directly modify the DB/DBX directly from Windows, they could easily drop a new executable in the UEFI boot sequence -- authenticated by their Secure Boot cert -- which would do it for them.
So, yes, based on those readings, I regard this as technically feasible.
You can't. You "agreed" not to in the EULA, which forces you in to individual neutral arbitration. The Supreme Court upheld this practice as lawful.
But do please tell me again how EULAs/shrinkwrap licenses are fair, equitable, and necessary...
My friends: So convinced am I of Microsoft's perfidy that, some time in the next 6-24 months, Microsoft will attempt to revoke the Secure Boot keys for Windows 7 and 8, and every machine with a UEFI BIOS still running 7 and 8 will refuse to boot. The government will do nothing. The industry press, though publicly wringing its hands in consternation, will do nothing. The only proffered "fix" will be a Windows 10 install.
"Can you prove it won't happen?"
Um, sorry, but I was there, and yes it was. It wasn't rampagingly misogynistic, but it was definitely a male-dominated industry, market, and culture. The number of well-known female game designers could be counted on your fingers. And while there's no intrinsic reason why a woman can't enjoy a game about blasting the crap out of aliens/demons/terrorists, as a group, that's not a genre they have tended to gravitate toward.
Why would it? Gjoni made up the whole thing as part of a vicious character assassination. Yes, there's quid-pro-quo corruption in games journalism, but that happens at the managerial level, as Jeff Gerstmann will readily attest, long before Gjoni oozed on to the scene.
So you're just taking Gjoni's word for it? A man with several court-imposed restraining orders against him for willfully spreading falsehoods against Quinn?
The statistics conclude otherwise. Sorry, but that fig leaf of plausible deniability dried up and crumbled to dust ages ago: http://www.dailydot.com/opinio...
Incorrect.
GamerGate is the result of one Eron Gjoni getting irrationally bent out of shape when his girlfriend of the time -- Zoe Quinn -- broke up with him. So he decided to get revenge by meticulously crafting a blog post containing wild, paranoid, unfounded accusations to trash her reputation. And the underbelly of the Internet fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. We're still sorting through the fallout.
Complete story here: http://www.bostonmagazine.com/...
...Said the troll who has six or seven different versions of MSVC++ Runtime installed alongside one another. And apparently twelve different versions of Not-OpenGL over the last 20 years is perfectly okay.
Do you not own a camera? You know, something from Pentax/Olympus/Sony/Nikon/Kodak/Canon or some such? While a few models use CompactFlash cards, SD cards are pretty much the only game in town.
There is no such thing as a cease and desist order, except when it comes from a competent court of appropriate jurisdiction. A C&D letter from a law firm is nothing more than a formal request to stop doing something -- granted, a sharply worded, hostile, threatening request, but a request nonetheless.
https://youtu.be/PJP-Ilw_xaY
It seems YouTube is intent on becoming Network 23.
Surprise! We unilaterally changed the EULA terms (paragraph 69 lets us do that). Because of reports of loading issues, running our software on 1 gigabit or faster networks requires a mandatory subscription to our Premier-III support tier. Also, an Intel "hyperthread" now counts as a full core. You can still run on a virtualized host, but only using virtualization software we've vetted and approved for use (surprise! There's only one, and it's our own).
Are you clean now? Didn't think so. Enjoy the shakedo^H^H^H^H^H^H^Haudit.
Dear Hollywood:
We have twice the number of subscribers as Comcast. Now shut the fuck up.
Cordially,
Netflix
IIRC, The Mythbusters a couple years ago tested the efficacy of air hand dryers versus paper towels, and found that paper towels were more effective and more hygienic.