"Computer Associates, maker of eTrust PestPatrol anti-spyware software, says that the technological protection measure (TPM) uninstall routine itself can be classified as spyware."
And
"Sony issued a "patch," a 3MB download that contains a large amount of new software. That patch removes the rootkit, but also installs itself without notice to the user and without user permission. Moreover it cannot be removed either. The uninstall routine is so poorly made that the act of removing the rootkit can cause Windows to crash."
Lovely. I guess it's format reinstall time for those affected users.
"Steve Jobs might not approve, but Apple's latest operating system can be installed on any x86 hardware."
That will last as long as it takes Apple to DRM the hell out of it. Or worse, dispatch it's army of lawyers armed with cease and desist orders to anyone who dares to suggest a method to install on a non Apple box.
..... Ballmer throw a chair across the room. After all, much of the revenue stream of M$ is based their ability to sell new and renewal licenses. I wonder how long it will take M$ to try and kill this idea off?
"Also on this topic, Matt Nikki in the comments section discovered that the DRM can be bypassed simply by renaming your favourite ripping program with "$sys$" at the start of the filename and ripping the CD using this file, which is now undetectable even by the Sony DRM. You can use the Sony rootkit itself to bypass their own DRM!"
This of course brought to you by the same people who brought out copy protection that was defeated by a magic marker.
"I wonder if this will have any impact on the no smoking bans we have seen in recent years?"
Zero chance of it having any impact. From the article:
"John Britton, professor of epidemiology at Nottingham University, said: "Anything involving inhaling smoke is unsafe. These new cigarettes could be more like jumping from the 15th floor instead of the 20th: theoretically the risk is less but you still die."
To me it sounds like those "light" smokes that floating around. Safer in theory, but in reality they're still dangerous. So don't expect smoking bans to end anytime soon.
1. What LINUX flavor will it use? 2. What CPU will it use (Intel, AMD, other)? 3. How does the sourcing of compnents influence the $100 cost of the laptop? For example, could they get Intel to hand over a bunch of of CPU's cheaply? Can they get Samsung to do the same with RAM?
..... Is this safe enough to deploy or should it be dropped into a test environment of some sort before deploying into a production environment? That assumes of course that admins have the luxury of delaying the deployment of this.
.... That SGI could survive by being bought in whole or in part by someone else? I'm assuming that there are some technologies that would be of interest to some company out there.
"Could it be that the "official" media, including Forbes, is simply afraid of becoming less relevant?"
I think blogging and other forms of "alternative" media has already made the "official" media less relevant. That's why TV news shows (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Blogs/ is an example), newspapers (http://thestar.blogs.com/ for example) and the like are all jumping on the bandwagon. They're afraid of becoming extinct.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't that what /.'ers are already doing?
According to this Globe & Mail Article:
M .20051111.gtsony1111/BNStory/Technology/
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGA
"Computer Associates, maker of eTrust PestPatrol anti-spyware software, says that the technological protection measure (TPM) uninstall routine itself can be classified as spyware."
And
"Sony issued a "patch," a 3MB download that contains a large amount of new software. That patch removes the rootkit, but also installs itself without notice to the user and without user permission. Moreover it cannot be removed either. The uninstall routine is so poorly made that the act of removing the rootkit can cause Windows to crash."
Lovely. I guess it's format reinstall time for those affected users.
....... /.'ers have seen Sony use copy protection with a Celine Dion CD only to have it blow up in their faces publicly?
"Steve Jobs might not approve, but Apple's latest operating system can be installed on any x86 hardware."
That will last as long as it takes Apple to DRM the hell out of it. Or worse, dispatch it's army of lawyers armed with cease and desist orders to anyone who dares to suggest a method to install on a non Apple box.
..... Ballmer throw a chair across the room. After all, much of the revenue stream of M$ is based their ability to sell new and renewal licenses. I wonder how long it will take M$ to try and kill this idea off?
.... to pass the time between Google posts.
...... knew that the tin hats controlled you all along.
Surf to http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM .20051110.gtsonynov10/BNStory/Technology
It's a moderately interesting read.
....Bruce Willis happy.
..... Some company will buy this software to help it hunt down blogs made by employees like Mini Microsoft for example.
"Also on this topic, Matt Nikki in the comments section discovered that the DRM can be bypassed simply by renaming your favourite ripping program with "$sys$" at the start of the filename and ripping the CD using this file, which is now undetectable even by the Sony DRM. You can use the Sony rootkit itself to bypass their own DRM!"
This of course brought to you by the same people who brought out copy protection that was defeated by a magic marker.
"I wonder if this will have any impact on the no smoking bans we have seen in recent years?"
Zero chance of it having any impact. From the article:
"John Britton, professor of epidemiology at Nottingham University, said: "Anything involving inhaling smoke is unsafe. These new cigarettes could be more like jumping from the 15th floor instead of the 20th: theoretically the risk is less but you still die."
To me it sounds like those "light" smokes that floating around. Safer in theory, but in reality they're still dangerous. So don't expect smoking bans to end anytime soon.
......That Bush doesn't have a brain. I think this proves all of the naysayers wrong. Cheney must have had to stay up all night to come up with this.
.... Who's your daddy?
1. What LINUX flavor will it use?
2. What CPU will it use (Intel, AMD, other)?
3. How does the sourcing of compnents influence the $100 cost of the laptop? For example, could they get Intel to hand over a bunch of of CPU's cheaply? Can they get Samsung to do the same with RAM?
"The UK police may need 90 days to hold terrorist suspects because it takes that long to crack a suspect's PC hard drive."
/.'ers can help to speed that up.
Do they have a help wanted section? I think some
"what do they gain at the moment by doing this?"
Potential profits. They sell hardware after all.
".....designed new from the ground up, built on a new language and designed with emphasis on dependability instead of performance."
How about security? God knows their OS'es need some.
..... Is this safe enough to deploy or should it be dropped into a test environment of some sort before deploying into a production environment? That assumes of course that admins have the luxury of delaying the deployment of this.
.....sound like Microsoft! Sorry Washington Times, but They don't rule the universe (yet).
.... That SGI could survive by being bought in whole or in part by someone else? I'm assuming that there are some technologies that would be of interest to some company out there.
It would be a shame to simply see them disappear.
We Got Root
First they come out with copy protection that's easily defeated by a magic marker. Then they they come out with a rootkit as part of DRM.
No wonder they're losing piles of money. They're wasting it all on stupid stuff like this!
.... in an America dominated the religious right.
I wonder if there's a scientific reason for that?
"Could it be that the "official" media, including Forbes, is simply afraid of becoming less relevant?"
I think blogging and other forms of "alternative" media has already made the "official" media less relevant. That's why TV news shows (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Blogs/ is an example), newspapers (http://thestar.blogs.com/ for example) and the like are all jumping on the bandwagon. They're afraid of becoming extinct.