My preference would be that Valve release a patch that makes the game playable without activation and/or steam upon release.
At this point, though, Valve can go one of two paths:
1. The "Duke Nukem, meet WinXP" path that will kill their sales (and mods) upon termination of their studio
or
2. The patch way. Sadly enough, releasing a patch that disables activation is in their best interests - alternatively someone else will release one that disables activation, along with minor features like CD-Key protection.
This is correct. When Joe and Jane Average go to buy their 13-year old a Playstation Portable, they're likely not to give it to him with an SDK, if you know what I mean. They'll want to make sure it has that Gran Turismo 3 Johnny's been wanting.
Regardless of what us techies think, the PSP is a platform. What matters is content.
To put it in perspective, if Sony were to release a player that played BluRay discs tomorrow, we'd be psyched. But how many of us would actually BUY it for $500+ when there were no commercially available discs yet, and no publically available recorders yet? I think few, if any. This is the same story.
The article was talking about normal people. A normal person is one who spends sunday afternoons watching football, and has never had to go to rehab for caffeine addiction.
Example: The DMCA and PATRIOT act authorized the use of some pretty brutal tactics, technologies for which were also developed without foresight of this possibility. How do we know there won't be a PATRIOT 2 act, just as gullibly let through the Legislative branch of our government that will authorize, say, tracking down all 'suspicious with reasonable doubt' messages using this. Your private e-mail, or anything you may have printed, including private information, could be traced to you on basis of "It smelled bad" a la' current Stop-And-Frisk laws of the NYPD.
In case you are about to call me paranoid, the people that thought the PATRIOT would pass through congress were considered the same.
and I'm sure a good rubber fake printed by any decent 3d printer would defeat it. And given it's a laptop we're talking about, a good rubber fake is easy to obtain. Just about the only decent solution I can think of is using your thumb for the ID - most people don't use thumbs to type, except space... end even then it's sideways, so the face of the thumb should be difficult if not impossible to obtain from the surface.
And it won't stop until I pay $5 per CD. Artists get only $2, either way. If we cut the middle man and let the distribution networks choke, but instead created a network where artists set prices for their music ($0.25 a song, let's say), and the network got their cash for bandwidth and server space (total $0.30 per song), I'd buy. Until then, I'm not buying squat.
"The scanner only stores a tiny amount of data for each fingerprint, just enough to ensure an accurate match"
Unless I'm an idiot, this means that the amount of data the scanner stores is inversely proportional to its accuracy. For example, if one were to store a critical 20% of the data neccessary to recreate a fingerprint, with use of the partials on the keyboard and the top of the laptop, one should be able to recreate the print accurately enough using means like a laser (3d) printer, a bit of spare rubber, and anything with a curved surface. Since the scanner is not 100% accurate, it would confirm, anyway.
Besides, this laptop defeats its own purpose. How difficuilt would it be for someone to make a 1:1 image of the hard drive and decrypt it. Or, if you were pressed on time for the encryption, simply to pop the hood,remove the box, and emulate a 'success' signal with use of a relatively simple circuit, something one could construct in an hour with a soldering iron and proper documentation.
I used to drink quite a bit of caffeine (Bawls and Starbucks coffee, mostly), and it did get me quite hyper. My father once tried a red bull and almost went nuts.
Green tea, though... that stuff keeps you going well enough to recover from a Sunday Night CS tournament into a Moday Morning Test, and has yet to make me jittery... or insane.
Alternatively, it seems like a decent idea to take a similar approach to this as Creative's new Zen PMP: use a MiniDisc-like format (cheap, easily accessible, ample storage), and include software that would allow users to re-encrypt their PSX CD's onto the media. Given that they'd write secure software for the purpose, I see no reason for them not to do this.
Slashdot Mirror
My preference would be that Valve release a patch that makes the game playable without activation and/or steam upon release.
At this point, though, Valve can go one of two paths:
1. The "Duke Nukem, meet WinXP" path that will kill their sales (and mods) upon termination of their studio
or
2. The patch way. Sadly enough, releasing a patch that disables activation is in their best interests - alternatively someone else will release one that disables activation, along with minor features like CD-Key protection.
400% increase in multi-cultural trolling
Hmm...
If I know anything about jet turbines, we're all going to need a LOT bigger headphones.
what kernel?
"the Kama Sutra"
OK, count me in...
I disagree.
Does McDonalds really need a generation of people that can sue it for obscure reasons AND make valid arguments?
It won't get scary until computers can code better than people...
This is correct.
When Joe and Jane Average go to buy their 13-year old a Playstation Portable, they're likely not to give it to him with an SDK, if you know what I mean. They'll want to make sure it has that Gran Turismo 3 Johnny's been wanting.
Regardless of what us techies think, the PSP is a platform. What matters is content.
To put it in perspective, if Sony were to release a player that played BluRay discs tomorrow, we'd be psyched. But how many of us would actually BUY it for $500+ when there were no commercially available discs yet, and no publically available recorders yet? I think few, if any. This is the same story.
Not exactly. Intelligent people read slashdot.
The article was talking about normal people.
A normal person is one who spends sunday afternoons watching football, and has never had to go to rehab for caffeine addiction.
an industry association of record labels?
does mentioning the RIAA automatically get a -1(Redindant) ?
Key words there: as long as.
Example: The DMCA and PATRIOT act authorized the use of some pretty brutal tactics, technologies for which were also developed without foresight of this possibility.
How do we know there won't be a PATRIOT 2 act, just as gullibly let through the Legislative branch of our government that will authorize, say, tracking down all 'suspicious with reasonable doubt' messages using this. Your private e-mail, or anything you may have printed, including private information, could be traced to you on basis of "It smelled bad" a la' current Stop-And-Frisk laws of the NYPD.
In case you are about to call me paranoid, the people that thought the PATRIOT would pass through congress were considered the same.
Nay. High-end games should feature the most carefully planned gameplay AND the most carefully rendered blood splatters.
and I'm sure a good rubber fake printed by any decent 3d printer would defeat it. And given it's a laptop we're talking about, a good rubber fake is easy to obtain. Just about the only decent solution I can think of is using your thumb for the ID - most people don't use thumbs to type, except space... end even then it's sideways, so the face of the thumb should be difficult if not impossible to obtain from the surface.
The PSP will still get the high end of the market, and the Nintendo the low end. As usual.
1. 100%
2. 0%
3. 0%
4. 0%
5. 0%
anything you're missing: 0%
And it won't stop until I pay $5 per CD. Artists get only $2, either way. If we cut the middle man and let the distribution networks choke,
but instead created a network where artists set prices for their music ($0.25 a song, let's say), and the network got their cash for bandwidth and server space (total $0.30 per song), I'd buy. Until then, I'm not buying squat.
"The scanner only stores a tiny amount of data for each fingerprint, just enough to ensure an accurate match"
Unless I'm an idiot, this means that the amount of data the scanner stores is inversely proportional to its accuracy. For example, if one were to store a critical 20% of the data neccessary to recreate a fingerprint, with use of the partials on the keyboard and the top of the laptop, one should be able to recreate the print accurately enough using means like a laser (3d) printer, a bit of spare rubber, and anything with a curved surface. Since the scanner is not 100% accurate, it would confirm, anyway.
Besides, this laptop defeats its own purpose. How difficuilt would it be for someone to make a 1:1 image of the hard drive and decrypt it. Or, if you were pressed on time for the encryption, simply to pop the hood,remove the box, and emulate a 'success' signal with use of a relatively simple circuit, something one could construct in an hour with a soldering iron and proper documentation.
All in all, this is a fun toy, but oh so useless.
"I'm not suggesting that caffiene is about to be classified"
If caffeine were classified, 90% of the world's geek population would go on strike.
Government officials beware: it's caffeine or y2k.
I used to drink quite a bit of caffeine (Bawls and Starbucks coffee, mostly), and it did get me quite hyper. My father once tried a red bull and almost went nuts.
Green tea, though... that stuff keeps you going well enough to recover from a Sunday Night CS tournament into a Moday Morning Test, and has yet to make me jittery... or insane.
there will be in twenty years...
yes. You do it by pouring Belgian chocolate on the Swedish women.
it's not the chocolate that matters, man... IT'S THE CHICKS!
CD1 - Engine + Content
CD2 - Copyright Protection Mechanisms
CD3 - Copyright Protection Mechanisms
CD4 - Copyright Protection Mechanisms
CD5 - Copyright Protection Mechanisms
CD6 - Copyright Protection Mechanisms
Size on Hard Drive:
Legitimate: 4,512 MB
Hacked: 623.5 MB
God bless copyright protection.
Alternatively, it seems like a decent idea to take a similar approach to this as Creative's new Zen PMP: use a MiniDisc-like format (cheap, easily accessible, ample storage), and include software that would allow users to re-encrypt their PSX CD's onto the media. Given that they'd write secure software for the purpose, I see no reason for them not to do this.
For $350 it'd better come with a writer for the discs, 10 empty re-writables, a complimentary T1 hookup, and a decent BitTorrent client to boot.
Metal Gear gone Pokey'Oh?
God save us.