Pardon the off topic post, but when I followed the link to the BBC's website and watched the video of the pigs being used for....er....science, I noticed this: http://imgur.com/bdeKx
Rock on BBC!
This is precisely why I stopped playing WOW. At the end of the day, all you've done is move some bits around on a server somewhere. If you're building a ship in a bottle, at least you have a ship in a bottle.
I do miss the people I used to play with, (we had a lot of fun together) but you can never, "beat," or "win," WOW. WOW is like the proverbial carrot on a stick, you can get the best armor/weapons there are, but periodically Blizzard just moves the carrot a bit further away.
I think you're absolutely right. Cory Doctorow (of EFF fame) gave a great talk at microsoft about why this kind of hardware dongle CAN'T work. It's the best explanation I've heard yet.
To paraphrase, (poorly) your client and your attacker are the same person. The client needs the key to view the information. Therefore, the client has the key (even if try to hide it in hardware) needed to break your encryption. CSS is a perfect example of this.
Here's a link to Cory's talk. Excellent reading.
http://www.craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
Like everything else, some kid will crack this scheme in no time. It will only be effective against those without the savvy to get around it. For the rest of us, it'll just be another Microsoft annoyance.
Actually, Microsoft had a hand in it too. In the mid '90's Microsoft bought a little company/software package called Softimage. At the time, Softimage was arguably the most popular software package available (exclusively) on the SGI platform.
They (MS) spend a year or something porting Softimage to the PC. When Softimage became available on the PC at a lower price point on much cheaper hardware (Intel Xeon mostly), folks started dropping SGI in droves.
Once Microsoft was satisfied that SGI was doomed, they promptly sold Softimage.
I'm a long-time 3D animator. In college I learned about 3D animation on Commodore Amiga's. I started my professional career working on a $100k SGI 4D70G. As time went by, it became a $10k Indigo. Now, a $2k Windows machine many times more powerful than those old SGI's (or Amiga for that matter).
It seems like there's always a few die hards out there who just won't move on when its time. I used to have an old CP/M machine too!
I'm all for nostalgia, but I like my computers fast. I recently bought an old Indigo (ironically from my alma matter). I plan to rip out the guts and mod it with a modern motherboard, etc.
How's that for nostalgia?
Slashdot Mirror
Pardon the off topic post, but when I followed the link to the BBC's website and watched the video of the pigs being used for....er....science, I noticed this: http://imgur.com/bdeKx Rock on BBC!
It's an interesting idea, but if you're serious about automating Windows, I heartily recommend AutoIT3. http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/
This is precisely why I stopped playing WOW. At the end of the day, all you've done is move some bits around on a server somewhere. If you're building a ship in a bottle, at least you have a ship in a bottle. I do miss the people I used to play with, (we had a lot of fun together) but you can never, "beat," or "win," WOW. WOW is like the proverbial carrot on a stick, you can get the best armor/weapons there are, but periodically Blizzard just moves the carrot a bit further away.
I think you're absolutely right. Cory Doctorow (of EFF fame) gave a great talk at microsoft about why this kind of hardware dongle CAN'T work. It's the best explanation I've heard yet. To paraphrase, (poorly) your client and your attacker are the same person. The client needs the key to view the information. Therefore, the client has the key (even if try to hide it in hardware) needed to break your encryption. CSS is a perfect example of this. Here's a link to Cory's talk. Excellent reading. http://www.craphound.com/msftdrm.txt
Like everything else, some kid will crack this scheme in no time. It will only be effective against those without the savvy to get around it. For the rest of us, it'll just be another Microsoft annoyance.
Actually, Microsoft had a hand in it too. In the mid '90's Microsoft bought a little company/software package called Softimage. At the time, Softimage was arguably the most popular software package available (exclusively) on the SGI platform.
They (MS) spend a year or something porting Softimage to the PC. When Softimage became available on the PC at a lower price point on much cheaper hardware (Intel Xeon mostly), folks started dropping SGI in droves.
Once Microsoft was satisfied that SGI was doomed, they promptly sold Softimage.
Thanks Bill.
I'm a long-time 3D animator. In college I learned about 3D animation on Commodore Amiga's. I started my professional career working on a $100k SGI 4D70G. As time went by, it became a $10k Indigo. Now, a $2k Windows machine many times more powerful than those old SGI's (or Amiga for that matter). It seems like there's always a few die hards out there who just won't move on when its time. I used to have an old CP/M machine too! I'm all for nostalgia, but I like my computers fast. I recently bought an old Indigo (ironically from my alma matter). I plan to rip out the guts and mod it with a modern motherboard, etc. How's that for nostalgia?