I suppose it's a case of if you want to use it enough, you'll allow it. I don't personally care if they know when I'm using it - and in the most part these places tend to be controlled by a third party intermediary (such as WON, Bit-Arts, and some others whose name escapes me). I suppose it also depends on the context and the nature of the information gathering.
It's all well and good a company saying you are entitled to one instance of an installation, but how does physical copy protection ensure this happens? It doesn't - you can take that CD and install it on as many PCs as you so wish, you just need the CD "key" to be able to play it on that machine. Per-seat licensing using this method rarely works. Plus, if I pay x amount of dollars for a piece of software, I want to be able to use that software wherever I am, whether it be on my laptop, or on my home desktop PC.
I have no qualms with companies protecting their intellectual rights, but I do think they go about it in the entirely wrong way. They effectively force people to obtain software they wanted legally through less-than-legal means.
Exactly, the key to copy-protection (if copy protection is a must) is to use logical protection (unique keys that are server verified) rather than physical "protection" which, in the most part, is quite easy to overcome.
I'm actually sick of copy protection full-stop. A couple of examples that wind me up (and ensure I make a point of circumventing them):
Copy-controlled music CDs - I travel A LOT, and don't want to have to lug my entire CD collection with me everywhere I go, when I have a hard drive big enough to have it ripped and stored. I legitimitely own each and every one of them, but I have to go through hoops to get this stuff onto my machine. This doesn't target the professional hacker, who'll get past all measures anyway, but targets the consumer, and makes it more likely that they'll just download the sodding thing in the first place.
Secondly - in terms of games, most copy protection can be put into the same category. A typical games pirate will get the software anyway (through the vast array of P2P, FTP, and IRC clients available to all but the most novice of users), but I, as a consumer, am forced to either cart the CDs everywhere if I want to enjoy a game (legally), or get round it all by downloading a "patch" from somewhere like GameCopyWorld (note, I patch legally bought software).
In terms of piracy, I think they are tackling the wrong end of the situation: the problem, rather than the cause.
Re:Caught up with the speed, but still the ugliest
on
Java Faster Than C++?
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· Score: 1
I agree. Although I have never programmed in Assembler, I can understand it when the need to debug through it arises. However, more importantly to the needs of a typical business, I would suggest investing the time in improving the current programming skills of the developers (whether it be Java or C++) and get them to be able to code effectively, rather than shoe-horn them down the route of an 'elite' language such as assembler, just because, at the end, that coder will be somehow deemed more worhtwhile.
It matters little in the majority of applications what language they use as long as it gets the job done within acceptable metrics. Most of the time, it's not the code that is at fault, but the usage of the DB (in my experience).
My personal preference, knowing both Java and C++, is C++. Yeah, C++ is a monolith of a language, and the mass of different ways to do the same thing can be a detrement (especially to novice coders), but when you learn the better ways of achieving particular things is becomes a joy to use, while still being maintainable. However, I can see the advantages of using Java, and it's basically a case of using the tools that match the needs of the organisation.
Oh god, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I absolutely detest vi. The amount of times I've had to start all over again because I just happen to have pressed the wrong, obscure, key sequence.
I'm not a UNIX buff, but I did find EMACS quite pleasant to use (in a Wordperfect 5.2 kind of way), once the billions of key sequences had been learnt, but vi is unbearable and unforgiving.
Now give me DevStudio any day of the week... (waits for backlash...)
Exactly, the idea of patenting an idea is nonsensical. Why software cannot be covered by anything over and above copyright law is beyond me. Look at Amazon, and the "One-Click Shopping" debaucle - how is the idea of a company storing credit card information patentable? Why is this something that other companies would not want to do anyway?
At the moment none of this applies to Europe, but this will soon change for the worse.
Now, where did I put my "Non-face-to-face communications" patent application?
I hope by complex and a little ingenious you were being ironic... this is hardly the most complicated of tasks to achieve, and certainly doesn't warrant anything near the extremity of a patent.
I agree. I doubt he would have wanted to become a martyr to the "Gay Cause", rather than be remembered for the work he did, and the impact it had on the world today (along with his colleagues at Station X, who also become overshadowed by it all). However, of all the people who have impacted modern history, I would have to say it is Turing who I look up to the most.
Does anyone remember when one of the Enigma machines was stolen from Bletchley Park? Well, it is quite an amusing story (Aging BBC Link), about how it ended up in the hands of Jeremy Paxman after a nationwide manhunt. I just think it goes to show (and also perhaps defies one of the "why bother remembering Turing" posts from above) that Station X, Turing and Bletchley Park are still very much at the forefront of the British psyche.
However, on the other side of the coin, and I think others may have posted something to the same effect, but the Government has little or no interest in the history surrounding Bletchley Park (Bletchley Park Official Website - Fund Request), and so this place is a dilapidated mess. Such a terrible, terrible shame.
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I suppose it's a case of if you want to use it enough, you'll allow it. I don't personally care if they know when I'm using it - and in the most part these places tend to be controlled by a third party intermediary (such as WON, Bit-Arts, and some others whose name escapes me). I suppose it also depends on the context and the nature of the information gathering.
It's all well and good a company saying you are entitled to one instance of an installation, but how does physical copy protection ensure this happens? It doesn't - you can take that CD and install it on as many PCs as you so wish, you just need the CD "key" to be able to play it on that machine. Per-seat licensing using this method rarely works. Plus, if I pay x amount of dollars for a piece of software, I want to be able to use that software wherever I am, whether it be on my laptop, or on my home desktop PC.
I have no qualms with companies protecting their intellectual rights, but I do think they go about it in the entirely wrong way. They effectively force people to obtain software they wanted legally through less-than-legal means.
Exactly, the key to copy-protection (if copy protection is a must) is to use logical protection (unique keys that are server verified) rather than physical "protection" which, in the most part, is quite easy to overcome.
I'm actually sick of copy protection full-stop. A couple of examples that wind me up (and ensure I make a point of circumventing them):
Copy-controlled music CDs - I travel A LOT, and don't want to have to lug my entire CD collection with me everywhere I go, when I have a hard drive big enough to have it ripped and stored. I legitimitely own each and every one of them, but I have to go through hoops to get this stuff onto my machine. This doesn't target the professional hacker, who'll get past all measures anyway, but targets the consumer, and makes it more likely that they'll just download the sodding thing in the first place.
Secondly - in terms of games, most copy protection can be put into the same category. A typical games pirate will get the software anyway (through the vast array of P2P, FTP, and IRC clients available to all but the most novice of users), but I, as a consumer, am forced to either cart the CDs everywhere if I want to enjoy a game (legally), or get round it all by downloading a "patch" from somewhere like GameCopyWorld (note, I patch legally bought software).
In terms of piracy, I think they are tackling the wrong end of the situation: the problem, rather than the cause.
I agree. Although I have never programmed in Assembler, I can understand it when the need to debug through it arises. However, more importantly to the needs of a typical business, I would suggest investing the time in improving the current programming skills of the developers (whether it be Java or C++) and get them to be able to code effectively, rather than shoe-horn them down the route of an 'elite' language such as assembler, just because, at the end, that coder will be somehow deemed more worhtwhile.
It matters little in the majority of applications what language they use as long as it gets the job done within acceptable metrics. Most of the time, it's not the code that is at fault, but the usage of the DB (in my experience).
My personal preference, knowing both Java and C++, is C++. Yeah, C++ is a monolith of a language, and the mass of different ways to do the same thing can be a detrement (especially to novice coders), but when you learn the better ways of achieving particular things is becomes a joy to use, while still being maintainable. However, I can see the advantages of using Java, and it's basically a case of using the tools that match the needs of the organisation.
Oh god, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but I absolutely detest vi. The amount of times I've had to start all over again because I just happen to have pressed the wrong, obscure, key sequence.
I'm not a UNIX buff, but I did find EMACS quite pleasant to use (in a Wordperfect 5.2 kind of way), once the billions of key sequences had been learnt, but vi is unbearable and unforgiving.
Now give me DevStudio any day of the week... (waits for backlash...)
Exactly, the idea of patenting an idea is nonsensical. Why software cannot be covered by anything over and above copyright law is beyond me. Look at Amazon, and the "One-Click Shopping" debaucle - how is the idea of a company storing credit card information patentable? Why is this something that other companies would not want to do anyway?
At the moment none of this applies to Europe, but this will soon change for the worse.
Now, where did I put my "Non-face-to-face communications" patent application?
I hope by complex and a little ingenious you were being ironic... this is hardly the most complicated of tasks to achieve, and certainly doesn't warrant anything near the extremity of a patent.
I agree. I doubt he would have wanted to become a martyr to the "Gay Cause", rather than be remembered for the work he did, and the impact it had on the world today (along with his colleagues at Station X, who also become overshadowed by it all). However, of all the people who have impacted modern history, I would have to say it is Turing who I look up to the most.
This one seems to be popular on Amazon - Amazon Link
Does anyone remember when one of the Enigma machines was stolen from Bletchley Park? Well, it is quite an amusing story (Aging BBC Link), about how it ended up in the hands of Jeremy Paxman after a nationwide manhunt. I just think it goes to show (and also perhaps defies one of the "why bother remembering Turing" posts from above) that Station X, Turing and Bletchley Park are still very much at the forefront of the British psyche. However, on the other side of the coin, and I think others may have posted something to the same effect, but the Government has little or no interest in the history surrounding Bletchley Park (Bletchley Park Official Website - Fund Request), and so this place is a dilapidated mess. Such a terrible, terrible shame.
Makes you wonder exactly what the hell had been stolen, to make him inclinded to say anything...