I've stopped buying music for the same reason. If the music industry wants to sell more music, they could start by making their wares at least as desirable as those that are illicitly traded. But instead, they'll sell you music that is shackled to one computer, artificially incompatible with your MP3 player, and likely to disappear entirely when you upgrade your computer. For old-school people like me who prefer to have a physical backup in the form of a plastic disc, they'll try to sneak spyware onto your PC. Faced with this nonsense, is it any wonder people are pirating music? Why does the music industry think they can improve sales by selling an inferior product?
In a Microsoft world, you just make sure to look for the Plays for Sure logo on everything you buy! Then you can sleep safe and sound at night knowing that your music can be played anywhere and anytime.
I realize you're being facetious here, but for the benefit of the uninformed: "Plays for Sure" would be better entitled "Plays for Now", since you'll lose your music when you upgrade your computer or reinstall the operating system more than twice:
You can restore your licenses on a maximum of two unique computers. If you replace hardware components in your computer or reinstall the operating system, Microsoft considers the changed computer to be a new unique computer.
Not really. The presence of the rootkit has a measureable effect. They just have to have Warden create a file with a name starting with $sys$ and then test to see if it is still there. If it has disappeared, it has detected the presence of the rootkit.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean the user is cheating. It just means the user bought a Sony/BMG CD.
I'd go with recall of the CDs. Only that would demonstrate their commitment to remediating this problem.
I agree with you, but Sony still insists that the rootkit "is not malicious" and "does not compromise security". I'm sure they posted the "service pack" to try and ease tensions with the tech media before the story hits the 10 o'clock news, and they have no intention of recalling their malware-installing CDs.
Maybe it'll take a virus that exploits their rootkit to convince them otherwise. THAT will be the real PR nightmare for Sony.
Any malware whose filename/registry keys start with $sys$ will be shielded from antivirus and antispyware software by XCP. This gaping security hole represents a great opportunity for script kiddies. Sony should do the responsible thing and immediately recall all rootkit-infested CDs.
damn light pollution! Looks like a good excuse for a road trip.
I agree with your sentiments on light pollution, but this is a bright planet we're talking about. Venus and Mars are extremely easy to pick out in a light polluted sky because they're the only "stars" you can easily see.
As far as I'm aware, there is nothing out there which can create (Bochs and Qemu can read) VMWare disk images, and they're more advanced than simple raw or dd-created files with filesystems slapped onto them.
Actually, if you create a "pre-allocated" virtual disk (as opposed to dynamically growing), you'll end up with a text file "something.vmdk" that provides disk geometry and points at a raw bit dump "something-flat.vmdk". VMware (Workstation 5.0, anyway) can use an existing dd dump if you create a.vmdk file that refers to it. I've done this several times.
Come on... this is ridiculous, MS would never support something that destroys lockin.
No, but they'll pretend to support OpenDocument so that they can continue to sell MS Office to Massachusetts. But they'll write a buggy implementation to try and lock out conformant word processors.
Why do benchmarks at all? The 6600 and 6600GT have been benchmarked to death already. Unless this 6600GT performs substantially differently from standard ones, there's no reason to benchmark anything at all....Except maybe some temperature measurements to see how effective that radiator thingy is at keeping the GPU cool. What was the article about again?
Given the fact that they applied for the "Carmack Reverse" patent years before he even thought of it means that they probably had some talented guys working on it.
Can you provide documentation for that? I had read that the technique was actually invented by an NVIDIA employee who presented it a few months before the patent was filed... at Creative Labs' developer forum. So Creative stole the idea, patented it, and used it to blackmail id into adding special support for Creative's has-been EAX technology.
The fact that someone can patent an idea in the first place is an indication of how broken the US patent system has become. And the Patent "Reform" Act of 2005 is set to change to a first-to-file system, so someone can legally patent your invention and then force you to stop selling it. The "Progress of Science and the Useful Arts" would be best served by abolishing patents altogether.
First the fiasco over Carmack's Reverse, and now this. "Creative" is not a fitting name for this once great company that has now become a patent troll.
In a quixotic attempt to prevent high def content from being pirated, the content cartel has decided to eliminate the market for it entirely. Ingenious!
Couldn't agree more. I've been through four upper-middle-range cards through the past several years (Voodoo3, GeForce3 Ti200, GeForce4 Ti4200, and now an FX5900XT). I get all caught up in memory bandwidth and pixel shaders and I end up with a card that works great during the three or four times a month I play games, but drives me insane with its fan noise the rest of the time.
Can anyone who is not a patent attorney or patent troll give a good reason why patents should continue to exist?
According to the contitution, patents are supposed to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts". But it seems like all they're used for these days is to take ownership of an obvious idea and use it as a weapon against competitors.
Patents are also supposed to help the little guy bring something to market by providing a barrier to entry for big players who could leverage their resources to push the inventor out of the market, but they don't seem to be serving this purpose in practice--the big players can just ignore the inventor's patent and then countersue with fifteen other patents if the inventor tries to assert it against them.
Is the industry really better off having this legalized extortion system in place? Or should patents be abolished altogether?
System crashes? Call up Microsoft and grovel for the right to use the OS or media files you paid for. Video card doesn't support Macrovision? Sorry, I'll turn of TV out if you play a DVD, because maybe you'll try and hook up a VCR. Want to play Half-Life 2? Okay, let me phone home and ask for permission. Monitor doesn't support HDCP? Okay, no HD content for you. Now... does Sony think your Blu-Ray disc is copied? Melt the player. It was bound to come to this some time or another.
Next on the list: Computers that automatically execute their users with 50,000-volt charges. That'll teach 'em to use P2P.
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I've stopped buying music for the same reason. If the music industry wants to sell more music, they could start by making their wares at least as desirable as those that are illicitly traded. But instead, they'll sell you music that is shackled to one computer, artificially incompatible with your MP3 player, and likely to disappear entirely when you upgrade your computer. For old-school people like me who prefer to have a physical backup in the form of a plastic disc, they'll try to sneak spyware onto your PC. Faced with this nonsense, is it any wonder people are pirating music? Why does the music industry think they can improve sales by selling an inferior product?
I realize you're being facetious here, but for the benefit of the uninformed: "Plays for Sure" would be better entitled "Plays for Now", since you'll lose your music when you upgrade your computer or reinstall the operating system more than twice:
Forget "fired". I want to see indicted.
Not really. The presence of the rootkit has a measureable effect. They just have to have Warden create a file with a name starting with $sys$ and then test to see if it is still there. If it has disappeared, it has detected the presence of the rootkit.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean the user is cheating. It just means the user bought a Sony/BMG CD.
I'd go with recall of the CDs. Only that would demonstrate their commitment to remediating this problem.
I agree with you, but Sony still insists that the rootkit "is not malicious" and "does not compromise security". I'm sure they posted the "service pack" to try and ease tensions with the tech media before the story hits the 10 o'clock news, and they have no intention of recalling their malware-installing CDs.
Maybe it'll take a virus that exploits their rootkit to convince them otherwise. THAT will be the real PR nightmare for Sony.
Malware Malware Malware
Virus Virus Virus
Rootkit Rootkit Rootkit
Spyware Spyware Spyware
Any malware whose filename/registry keys start with $sys$ will be shielded from antivirus and antispyware software by XCP. This gaping security hole represents a great opportunity for script kiddies. Sony should do the responsible thing and immediately recall all rootkit-infested CDs.
To be recoded in C/C++.
OOo is coded in C++, for the most part. A few plugins use Java. I don't know about 2.0, but 1.1 was perfectly usable without a JRE installed.
damn light pollution! Looks like a good excuse for a road trip.
I agree with your sentiments on light pollution, but this is a bright planet we're talking about. Venus and Mars are extremely easy to pick out in a light polluted sky because they're the only "stars" you can easily see.
As far as I'm aware, there is nothing out there which can create (Bochs and Qemu can read) VMWare disk images, and they're more advanced than simple raw or dd-created files with filesystems slapped onto them.
.vmdk file that refers to it. I've done this several times.
Actually, if you create a "pre-allocated" virtual disk (as opposed to dynamically growing), you'll end up with a text file "something.vmdk" that provides disk geometry and points at a raw bit dump "something-flat.vmdk". VMware (Workstation 5.0, anyway) can use an existing dd dump if you create a
No, but they'll pretend to support OpenDocument so that they can continue to sell MS Office to Massachusetts. But they'll write a buggy implementation to try and lock out conformant word processors.
Why do benchmarks at all? The 6600 and 6600GT have been benchmarked to death already. Unless this 6600GT performs substantially differently from standard ones, there's no reason to benchmark anything at all. ...Except maybe some temperature measurements to see how effective that radiator thingy is at keeping the GPU cool. What was the article about again?
Has SanDisk ever heard of Secure Digital? Sony MagicGate? They ought to have, since they manufacture both...
Or is Sandisk just giving a lot of fanfare and hoping their me-too solution will actually be used by someone?
I really can't see people rushing to buy an HDCP monitor just so they can watch hi-def content on their computer.
What Hollywood has really accomplished is twofold:
1. Eliminate the market for legitimate high-def content on the PC.
2. Encourage piracy of high-def content on the PC.
3. ???
4. Profit?
Given the fact that they applied for the "Carmack Reverse" patent years before he even thought of it means that they probably had some talented guys working on it.
Can you provide documentation for that? I had read that the technique was actually invented by an NVIDIA employee who presented it a few months before the patent was filed... at Creative Labs' developer forum. So Creative stole the idea, patented it, and used it to blackmail id into adding special support for Creative's has-been EAX technology.
The fact that someone can patent an idea in the first place is an indication of how broken the US patent system has become. And the Patent "Reform" Act of 2005 is set to change to a first-to-file system, so someone can legally patent your invention and then force you to stop selling it. The "Progress of Science and the Useful Arts" would be best served by abolishing patents altogether.
First the fiasco over Carmack's Reverse, and now this. "Creative" is not a fitting name for this once great company that has now become a patent troll.
Intel logo of DRM Forking plan emerges
Google says they're sending invitation codes by SMS to prevent spammers from obtaining Gmail accounts.
I call shenanigans. What good is a Gmail account in comparison to a zombie?
Or maybe our MPAA overlords will let us do it as long as the signal is encrypted with the player's public key.
Abolish the patent system altogether. The only ones that lose are lawyers and patent trolls.
In a quixotic attempt to prevent high def content from being pirated, the content cartel has decided to eliminate the market for it entirely. Ingenious!
Couldn't agree more. I've been through four upper-middle-range cards through the past several years (Voodoo3, GeForce3 Ti200, GeForce4 Ti4200, and now an FX5900XT). I get all caught up in memory bandwidth and pixel shaders and I end up with a card that works great during the three or four times a month I play games, but drives me insane with its fan noise the rest of the time.
'No fan' is #1 on my list for my next card.
Also, for OEM purchases, a disk manufacturer will make whatever the OEM wants (if it is technically feasible).
;)
Yup, and the 20GB drive will be an 80GB drive with three heads missing. Or perhaps just disabled in the firmware.
Can anyone who is not a patent attorney or patent troll give a good reason why patents should continue to exist?
According to the contitution, patents are supposed to "promote the progress of science and the useful arts". But it seems like all they're used for these days is to take ownership of an obvious idea and use it as a weapon against competitors.
Patents are also supposed to help the little guy bring something to market by providing a barrier to entry for big players who could leverage their resources to push the inventor out of the market, but they don't seem to be serving this purpose in practice--the big players can just ignore the inventor's patent and then countersue with fifteen other patents if the inventor tries to assert it against them.
Is the industry really better off having this legalized extortion system in place? Or should patents be abolished altogether?
System crashes? Call up Microsoft and grovel for the right to use the OS or media files you paid for. Video card doesn't support Macrovision? Sorry, I'll turn of TV out if you play a DVD, because maybe you'll try and hook up a VCR. Want to play Half-Life 2? Okay, let me phone home and ask for permission. Monitor doesn't support HDCP? Okay, no HD content for you. Now... does Sony think your Blu-Ray disc is copied? Melt the player. It was bound to come to this some time or another.
Next on the list: Computers that automatically execute their users with 50,000-volt charges. That'll teach 'em to use P2P.