Costs $0.41 Per Minute To Watch
on
$90,000 103in HDTV
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Plasma screens are only rated for 3600 hours of viewing time before they deteriorate below spec and the manufacture won't replace the glass. Based on this, we computed that you loose $0.41 a minute watching this set.
Well, this is scary, especially since I just renewed my maintanence. My real concern is about the USB dongle that protects the Winternals programs. I know they are fairly durable, but they are hardware and hardware always breaks at some point. If I can't get a replacement dongle from Microsoft, then my expensive tools become expensive coasters.
But there is even something more interesting to consider. (Hey Pamala at Groklaw, are you listening?) I remember reading some time back that Copyright Office has issued exceptions to the DCMA for software protected by dongles where the company is either no longer in business or no longer making dongles. If Microsoft kills off the Winternals tools and stops selling replacement dongles, efforts by them to prevent users from haking the program to eliminate the dongle could be illegal. (Standard IANL disclaimer applies.) Thoughts?
Yes, because it was published by Microsoft Press and is included as one of the books in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. Microsoft (especially within the last few years) has been much willing to tell people how things work (at least in general terms). There will be a Vista version of this book.
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Nope. 41 cents per minute.
Plasma screens are only rated for 3600 hours of viewing time before they deteriorate below spec and the manufacture won't replace the glass. Based on this, we computed that you loose $0.41 a minute watching this set.
Well, this is scary, especially since I just renewed my maintanence. My real concern is about the USB dongle that protects the Winternals programs. I know they are fairly durable, but they are hardware and hardware always breaks at some point. If I can't get a replacement dongle from Microsoft, then my expensive tools become expensive coasters. But there is even something more interesting to consider. (Hey Pamala at Groklaw, are you listening?) I remember reading some time back that Copyright Office has issued exceptions to the DCMA for software protected by dongles where the company is either no longer in business or no longer making dongles. If Microsoft kills off the Winternals tools and stops selling replacement dongles, efforts by them to prevent users from haking the program to eliminate the dongle could be illegal. (Standard IANL disclaimer applies.) Thoughts?
Yes, because it was published by Microsoft Press and is included as one of the books in the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. Microsoft (especially within the last few years) has been much willing to tell people how things work (at least in general terms). There will be a Vista version of this book.