Why get a headless iMac? they're more than powerful enough for everything but hard core gaming (they Play WoW in very nice resolutions and great framerates on those 20 and 24" screens). You can upgrade the RAM and HDD easy enough, and you can get an external Blu-ray player later this summer (when Apple finally announces OS X bul-ray support).
If you need more power, the Mac Pro is only a couple of hundred bucks more... A $1000-$1600 mac mini-tower line would not significantly add to their options. You can get a system at any price from $599 to $3500 in $200-300 bumps. Sure, you can't just swap out the CPU or mainboard, but if you want to do that, you're doing it to play video games and improve graphic performance, in which case OS X is not for you.
In another year or so when Apple restakes a claim in the games market, with help from EA and others, then i might concede your point, but I have a feeling OS X will be sold on a shelf for PC hardware anyway before that time happens.
Reme,mber, part of Apple's package is a simple model line-up. If they start complicating that with customizable machine at a mid-market price poiint, their costs will spiral internally, and drive up the cost of all their other systems.
For video editing, photo work, music, and 95% of the tasks that people buying a mac want one for, over 3-5 years software requirements don't change much. They might need some ram, and some extra HDD space, but everything else besides high level 3D horsepower can be added externally for cheap. If you WANT high end graphics, try comparing a Mac Pro to a high end Dell or Alienware desktop and guess what you'll find: The apple is cheaper and more configurable anyway...
They did negotiate it with you. It's posted on their web site for all to view, and the package mentions the address on the outside of the box. Inside the box, you have a seal to break confirming your acceptance of the EULA and again a reference for where to read it before you break the seal. If you buy it, open it, but DON'T break the seal, it can be returned to the vendor (but not the retailer typically) for a full refund. this return right is guaranteed by law. Once you break the EULA seal on the CD/DVD case inside the box, you've by the letter of the law agreed to it.
Did you not notice the big red STOP sign saying "By opening this package you are agreeing the the..."
Apple's EULA, other than being required to use Apple hardware, is one of the most generous in the industry. They'll even ALLOW you to install it on more than 1 system, up to 5, if you promise not to use more than 1 at a time. I took good advantage of this at my father's house since he has a mini in the living room, an iMac on his desk, and a MacBook for travel, yet he's the only one who would be using them, and would not do so all at once, so he got 1 copy of 10.5, 1 copy of iLife 08, and apple support HELPED HIM install it on each machine....
$400 laptop? bukllshit... I can't get by on a $400 desktop, not even including a monitor.
"Most People" buying a machine today work with digital photos, have a camcorder, want to be able to burn DVDs, want to play music while working, want to keep a web browser, e-mail, and at least 1 other application running. ANYONE buying a machine today that doesn't have dedicated graphics at some level (even if soldered onboard) is buying a throw-away machine. Anything with Vista and less than 2GB or RAM is also pretty useless once you add the overhead of security software to your load.
I have a Core 2 HP Notebook, 5400RMP 120GB drive, 965 chipset graphics, 1GB of Ram, and Vista Home Prem on a machine i use for work. It was a 4900 machine. My wife's 2.5 year old gateWay AMD 64 notebook runs CIRCLES around it. I've optimized every setting in vista that's available to tweak, I've gone through every one of the 140 services, performance settings, background tasks, and more, and it still takes longer to do anything on this PoS than any older machine I have running.
A $400 notebook? for anything beyond runnign XP home, cheap antivirus, and e-mail, there's no way. A Celeron notebook in that price range can barely handle Java apps without stuttering, faulters on You Tube, and runs out of resources scanning documents. I can't even imaging trying to open 8MP images and try even simple editing tasks on one, even under XP...
Apple doesn't sell machines in that price range for a reason. Their machines are designed to be home entertainment and personal systems for photo, movie, and music use. If they made anything less powerful than the Mini, half their own software would exceed the hardware capabilities. Same goes for a PC.
Apple is basically Vista ultimate, with a few other bells and whistles on top. Can you imagine running ultimate on anythingless than a $1000 notebook or $800 desktop? Microsoft won't even allow ultimate to be pre-installed on a system that doesn't have dedicated graphics and 2GB or RAM... The cheapest Dell with Ultimate as a configurable option is over $800...
Closest Dell i can build to a Mac mini ($799 version with DVD burner) includes a 2.4GHz processor, compared to Apple's 2.0, and a 500GB drive to apple's 160 (the Dell HDD is slower though, but either could be easily replaced cheap). The Dell is $759 + $149 for OS X, + $79 for iLife. ie, the Dell costs WAY more. This is a part for part match, as close as can be done. (Inspiron 530s). It's nowhere near as small and doesn't include a wireless remote or media sharing support. If I drop to a lower end Dell unit. the only way to go cheaper is to go to a Celeron, which would NOT compete at all.
As for a iMac, Looking at the 20" $1499 model, and comparing it's base config to a Dell XPS One, in a 20", the processor in the Dell is only an E6550 (2.33GHz), and doesn't compare to Apple's 2.66, the dell uses the slower and less powerful G33 chipset, and even with the best video card it can get (Radeon 2400) it can't compete with Apple's 2600 Pro graphics. Same RAM, Same HDD, and all configured, the Dell is MORE THAN $600 HIGHER IN PRICE, and that's before adding OS X and iLife to it's config! Even the lower end model Dell running on a 2.2GHz processor with no dedicated graphics is STILL more expensive, even before adding OS X.
A desktop compared to the iMac 20" you say? - Best I can configure is a Dell 420 desktop. including the graphic upgrade to the 8800GT (slightly better than the 2600Pro from Apple, but not a lot) and it comes with 3GB of RAM, but guess what, it's $1499 configured that way. It's the same price as the Apple, until you considder it's still missing a remote, uses more power, makes more noise, is not an all-in-one, and add OS X and iLife to it and you're over the mac's price by more than $200 again. Oh, no firewire either...
Every Dell to Mac comparrison I've made in nearly a year, the Dell costs more when you factor in Wireless N, Bluetooth, hard disk performance and size, video performance,screen resolution, and software equivolents. I did 2 others yesterday for the MacBook pro 17" and 15" compared to 3 different Dell machines, Apple was cheaper and had more components, and was lighter and had 2-4 times the battery life in all cases.
Power of the CPU is not a comparrison at all. The CPU and mainboard can easily be compared between 2 models and could very well be faster on Dell's side, since THEY USE THE SAME PARTS. However, add HDD performance, 3D rendering capability, and connectivity options, and Dell falls apart on price. Try editing a video, or running a lenghty photoshop render on a Dell and on a Mac. At the same price point, Adobe states clearly, you can NOT beat Apple's price/performance figures.
With Apple buying Intel and common name brand parts now, but having FAR lower support costs (fewer helpdesk calls vs microsoft OS by FAR!), simpler service logistics, a simplified model line-up, the other guys can't compete on price.
Dell outsold Apple last year nearly 4:1 on hardware. Apple's PC division had higher profits than Dell. If Apple ever really feels threatend on price, they can sell systems at BELOW Dell's cost and still make proffit.
Oh, and a word about support. Even if you can find a mcahine from Dell, HP, gateway, etc, that can compete with a mac on performance, including the cost of OS and typical application software, who supports it? Some friggin guy in India?...and he's not going to know shit about OS X and Apple won;t help you either since it's not licensed legally. Apples' support is not only US based, but you also have walk-in access to Apple Stores, where most systems can be repaired right on their bench with in-stock parts, including Apple notebooks. (they might have to order a part, but 1 way shipping and on-site repair is a LOT faster than getting Dell to come to your house 2 days from now, find out your notebook really is broken, then tell you it has to be shipped to Dell and Back and it will take 6-8 days. A 2 week turnaround on repair is not acceptable. 3 days is bad enough on Apple's side of the fence, and I don't have to learn a foreign accent to get help!
by the By, Apple's macBook Pro is still the fastest machine running Vista on the market under $3500... and thats for their $2700 machine.
Easily run as non-admin??? Every XP machine I have in my house, and nearly every corportate PC installed in America runs as a non-admin user. It may not be obvious to the idiots who buy some cheap ass PoS underpowered hunk at Circuit City that they're supposed to create a non-admin user and use that for daily tasks, but it's by no means difficult!
Sure, local policy will prevent you from doing a lot of things an admin could, like editing the registry, accessing some admin only control panels (unless you happen to know the comand line for them), changing critical system setting, etc. But you can allways make a shortcut to whatever app you want to run, even a control panel icon, right click it, set the "run as" flag, and it will politely promt you for an account name and password and allow you to work as that user for that 1 application. You can even make a shortcut that does that automatically, without the prompt, by adding a few strings to it;s comand line execute. This is even better than running "su -" since it only applies to that 1 application, not the entire session, and I don't have to remember to un-assume root.
In Vista, I may not be running as "admin", but I can do anyting an admin can do by simply clicking "allow" I don't even need a password! That's not running as a user with restrictions and accounting for manual override, that's an admin account with pop-up warnings that most users will become accustomed to and just click allow without reading anyway...
Although 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels are very similar on the surface, the underlying code has advanced continually. But let;s have a real comparrison, because 2.6 is like XP SP2 compared to 2.4, it's an enhancement, not a new OS... Lets look at 1.6 compared to 2.4, or KDE 4 compared to Gnome 3. THAT's an OS upgrade... Keep in mind, Apple's Aqua runs on top of a BSD kernel that's more than 12 years old, but if you look at their opern source kernel code under the darwin project, it looks NOTHING like it used to. Also keep in mind that although a LOT of core code changes from kernel to kernel, it has to remain compatible with the hundreds of protocols and cross OS communcation standards set forth by OSI, TIA, IEEE, and a dozen other agencies. Where would Windows be without the TCP/IP stack, Kerberos, SSH, Radius, HTTP? Not a single one of these is a microsoft protocol. Even USB was INVENTED BY APPLE!
The kernel is about internal process tracking, thread management, memory management, Security audits, window management, basic GUI and OSI layer interactions. That was almost completely re-written for Vista. Sure, they called it NT 6, but that's just habbit. Are you perhaps indicating on ANY level that NT 3.12 has ANY similarity to NT 4.0???? How many drivers for XP work in NT 4.0?...only the ones that are actually NT native and use calls also supported in XP, but if they use hardware level support not available to NT (USB 2.0, Bluetooth), it can't be made to work. The Kernel (NTOSkrnl) doesn't support it...
If vista was so much the same, why do virtually NONE of the XP drivers work with it? Why can't DX 10 be back ported to XP, it's only software afterall, right? Why can't Aero be added to XP? Why can't HDCP and Blue-Ray BD+ be added to XP? Well, it can, but it would require a MAJOR kernel rewrite, and break 10s of thousands of applications and drivers. Yes, the day to day functionality is much the same, to the end user. Look at your OSI model again and see how much that actually doesn't matter a lick to the application code, kernel, hardware and transport layers beneath it. You can run different GUIs with the same kernel (Aqua, KDE, Gnome, etc) but you can't run different kernels necessarily with the same GUI. Windows stays the same becuase people won't buy it if they have to learn it all over again. That doesn't mean it's not an all new engine in the same 4 wheeled vehicle. Ask a Mopar guy to fix your hybrid and see how far he gets... It's a car, right?
OS X 10.1 added a ton of new feature (149 of them to be exact, to OS 10.0. It was billed as an incremental upgrade, not as a new OS.
10.5 added over 350 new features to OS 10.4, and over 100 of the features were evident to users and added new, never before available, functionality.
XP's list of new features beyond Windows 2K was in fact extensive, but more than 80% of those featuered had been retroactively added to 2K with it's own SP3, or were features like Windows Medial PLayer or other bundled software packages that since they were "included" with XP, they were listed as features, but every one of them could be installed, ofr free, under Win 2K.
XP SP2 was more of an OS upgrade than XP itself was over 2K. There were actually more features realeased in SP2 for XP that could not be added to 2K than XP released on day 1 over 2K. Check your release notes more carefully instead of reading the headlines...
Oh, btw, on the 1750, the Sound Blaster Sound card 1) has no native vista driver set, and 2, unless you add a device to your ONLY Expresscard expansion slot, the sound card is actually a SOFTWARE engine, using the CPU instead of dedicated hardware... Read the fine print!
As for the 56 watt battery, you can "upgrade" to a 89 watt 9 cell unit for $189 extra... You're required to do so to support "some hardware features" (namely 3D graphics and the DVD burner, neither of which operate on the 56 watt battery)
Adding Adobe and Pinacle software and the battery alone, and your Dell costs more than a better equipped Mac Pro.
Oh, there is no 2.5 GHz option on that machine, the 2.4 is it's pinacle, and it also tops out at 4MB cache on that chip. The 2.4 used in the Apple is the 6MB cache version... The 2.4/4MB does not support Intel VT technology. Vista Ultimate is available on it, but at FULL RETAIL UPGRADE COST, since the machine does not oficially support Ultimate. The SATA subsystem is SATA I, not SATA II, and doesn't support Native Comand Queing, so none of the 200GB or larger 7200GB drives (from any of the common manufacturers) are compatible with it, even as an after market upgrade. The Wireless N mini card is N-Only, and does not support A/B/G/N. It's a single chip radio. Good luck using it in an airport or Starbucks... It's not even listed by Dell as being a gamin notebook. The ONLY reason the video card option is available in that 17" model is it's Dell's only 17" model that has enough horsepower to support a Blue-Ray player... (btw, estimated battery life on Blu-ray even with the enhanced battery, 28 minutes...
OK, same vid card, but half the vid RAM and a slower clock speed, 1/2 the processor cache, only a 5400RPM drive (the 7200rpm 200GB is $50 more), no dual layer DVD support, No media center software, no photo editing suite, no DVD authoring software, no video editing software, no remote control for when you connect it to a TV or projector, no DVI to VGA adapter, No firewire, no backlit keyboard, it's 3 lbs heavier, thicker, and 1/2" wider....and exactly how long DO you think it will run on a 56 watt hour battery, since the tech specs indicate that it consumes 120 watts!?!?!
Yea, real great that it comes (not even) close to the package the Mac has, but at 25-40 minutes of power, it's FUCKING USELESS unless plugged in. Oh yea, the Vid card requires a minimum of 60 watts, so you can't use any 3D features on battery (including Aero). Read the fine print sometime...
As for the warranty, sure, they'll dispatch someone to you ASAP. 1st, if it's not a hardware issue, you get a bill for the visit. 2nd, it;s not a Dell employee, but a local sub-contractor lackey. 3rd, THEY DON'T STOCK PARTS! If your laptop needs anything but a HDD (which is USER REPLACEABLE so they DON'T come to you to replace it), then they have to take it with them anyway, or tell you to ship it yourself to Dell. Trust me on this, I'm in consulting IT services... All Dell's warranty does is waste 2 days of your time getting an appointment, for which you'll certainly have to skip work to accomodate, and in the end, you have to ship it across the country and be without the machine for 4-8 business days on top of that. With Apple, I go to the store, they fix it in 24-48 hours, and they'll even back up my data for free (if they can) to replace my HDD (Dell charges extra for that, over $100).
A fully loaded Alienware coats about 5K, not slightly over 3K. For the same price as a fully loaded mac book (besides the fact you never would order it that way since the RAM, HDD, and other upgrades can all be had cheaper aftermarket) Dell's similar config, part for part for a fully loaded MacBook actualy costs $600 more...
I can get the 2.4GHz 17" online for $2200 since it's a discontinued model. Not looking too shabby, since this Dell, with a couple of software packages to be fair (Pinacle studio, Adobe Expression, etc) plus a few other missing components, AV software, Spyware Software, Backup software, now costs more than the Apple.
Apple systems ARE priced competitively. If you actually look at the system's REAL specs, instead of just processor tpye and speed, RAM size, HDD size, and screen size, you'll see the Apple machine is faster, more configurable, more feature loaded, and on top weighs less, looks better, makes a public statement, runs more than just Windows, and oh yea, you can actually run it for 3-4 hours on battery alone, even while playing WoW under Mac OS X.
First of all, the 2.4 GHz 17" macbook pro is not available, 2.5 is the current model at the same price, so comparing a 2.4 dell to the $2799 Macbook, of course it's going to be comperable or cheaper in price.
OK, compare this instead:
Apple 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo 17" system: - 2.5GHz core 2 duo w/ 6MB L2 cache, 800MHz front side bus - 2GB 677MHz DDR2 Ram (support 4GB) - 250GB 5400RPM drive standard ($50 more for a 200GB 7200 which would be prefered by me and is included in below price point) - 1680x1050 display (or for $100 a 1900X1280 LED backlit display, included in below price point) - DVI and VGA (with "included" adapter) external display support - nVidia GeForece 8600M GT 512MB GDDR3 graphics - gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless - iSight web cam integrated (2MP resolution?) - integrated high def audio, including microphone, and both optical and traditional outputs - 3 USB, and both firewire (400/800) inputs, plus ExpressCard/34 expansion - 4.5 hour battery life while using wireless! (assumes LED screen) - backlit keyboard - near-professional grade DVD authoring and video editing software - Mag safe, light weight modular power adapter - other random software (garage band etc we really don't care about unless we're in that industry)
As built, with the better HDD and display, less than $2900 from MacMall
Closest comperable Dell system: Dell XPS M1730. The ONLY Dell offering a Core 2 Duo, dedicated graphics, and 17" w/ 2GB or more of Ram and a 200GB or larger HDD. - Same exact processor, 2.5 w/ 6MB 800 front side - XP Pro OS standard, vista is actually $40 more, FUCK that! - win for Apple OS X - 2GB 677MHz DDR2 (also upgradebale to 4GB) - same specs - CD/DVD burner (note it's NOT dual layer) - Win for Apple MacBook pro - wireless 802.11n (They claim Bluetooth is an OPTION, but I couldn't figure out how to add it except an EXTERNAL USB adapter...) - Win for Macbook pro - 85watthr battery 9 cells. (estimated life, less than 2 hours, Dell suggest a 2nd one for $189 more) - Win for MacBook pro - Adobe elements and Pinacle Studio added (to compete with iLife) - Win could go either way, user preference, i prefer iLife 08... (I use Pinacle and adobe on a PC, so I HAVE compared them directly) - 1900x1280 WUXGA screen standard, but not LED based... - Win for Macbook pro - 5.1 digital audio out - same standard - 200GB 7200RPM drive (a 320 4200 was standard, that's crap slow...) - 200GB drives are same - DVI out (adapters for other connections not included, but available) - win for Apple, they included the adapter for free - 2MP web cam and microphone included - basically same specs - 4USB and 1 400mhz firewire, but no 800 firewire, did have expresscard though - Apple wins if you actually have an 800MHz firewire device, 99% of us do not so we'll call it a tie here - Gigabit ethernet - same spec - had to upgrade to 8700M nvidia graphics as 512MB 8600 wasn't available, - slight win in Dells' favor - 1 year warranty - Dell claims "on site" but in 14 years in IT I have NEVER ONCE seen Dell actually FIX a notebook onsite, they allways take it away for repairs. Apple machines can be repaired at apple stores - Win for Apple
As built, $2838 from Dell
In the end, the Dell has "slightly" better video card (about 1 FPS, if that, better), but the other core specs (RAM, HDD, Proc) are the same. However, being ugly, 4 lbs heavier, larger in every single dimension, having half the battery life, it can't run OS X (Apple will run Windows just fine, either native or virtual), no internal bluetooth, no backlit kbd, no media center functionality (unless you add Vista Ultimate), no wireless remote, no VGA or SVGA (gotta buy after market adapter), No LED option, and it comes with a load of bloatware, and Antvirus and AntiSpyware (which the Mac doesn't really need) are extra. All those missed points, and if you're licky, you saved $50 doing with Dell. And oh yea, your helpdesk is in india, Apple has
It doesn't hurt that Apple's file backup is easy easy now, but more important is the core machine OS can be re-installed from what's basically an image DVD in less than 30 minuutes. Even if you upgraded from OS 10.3 or 10.4, you can use the 10.5 DVD to completely reset your machine. With XP or Vista, this is a minimum 1 hour process, if not 2 or 3 if you didn't have a slipstreamed OS disk. Also, since most Microsoft apps require a reboot after being installed, even in Vista, you've got several more hours of work to do. Apple doesn't have registry and permissions roadblocks, so once the machine is images from disk, TimeMachine completely restores the machine, pathces applications and all, all by itself... That's not possible In Microsoft's world without regular BareMetal or Ghost imaging seperate from the backups.
Actually, my firm's consulting contract explicitly states that is a problem can not be identified, including a resolution process, in less than 30 minutes, then we automatically re-image the customer's box. Any resolution that would involve more than 3 hours to fix also gets automatically reformatted. The only exception is resolutions specific to 3rd party applications (aka, when we're instructed to do a specific process by 3rd party support for some non-Microsoft App).
Even a single virus or spyware identified on a machine results in an immegiate reformat. You can remove the virus, but what files it may or may not have modified, leaving future security holes, or some user action that created the hole? Who's to know...
If you have proper images for your machines, a reformat should take about an hour, maybe 2 on a slower network. Adding a few missing apps via server rollout can be done as a background task.
Small offices? No images? No standardization? as we format systems perioducally we use a common image design, and ghost (or BareMetal Backup) the system.
I use Vista on ONE machine, my latest gaming rig build, and for ONE reason: I'm beta testing a couple of games only available in DX 10, and DX 10 has not (yet) been back ported to XP.
I don't run my XP machines as admin anyway, so little of Vista's new security features really matter to me. Up to date AV, ASW, and a good firewall does well enough to add the protections that XP lacked. My wife is properly trained at this point not to screw with the machine without my permission, and knows not to open web pages and e-mails she's not certain are safe. I double filter all e-mail by bouncing through different services, so anything coming in should be clean anyway, but the links inside are not allways safe, so I use phishing and blacklisting software on top of everything else.
We have not had a virus, malware, or spyware infection on any of my 7 total machines (and others I've rotated through over the years) since 2001 when I started tracking spyware. I've never had a virus, of any kind, not in any OS, and I've been a consultant for 14 years and had PCs since IBM's PS2 and the Apple IIgs.
It's not hard to remain clean. Use a small amount of common sense, and don't just renew your virus defs each year, but actually buy the latest ang greatest engine. It costs about $80 a year to stay completely protected, AND backed up for good measure, less if you have more than 1 PC and buy bundle or family versions of software.
If people running as admin was the only real achilleas heal of XP, why didn't someone just release a simple batch product to create a non-admin user and migrate the admin's files and settings. Simple, done. I've done it manually a few times, and used the user migration wiz once (it sucks).
XP was a "service pack" for 2000, for lack of a better term. It added some new graphics, and some extra support for home users, but XP is so much like 2000 it's hardly a unique OS. Saying it's better is like saying OS X 10.3 was better than 10.1. Of course it is, and 10.3 was a fair overhaul of OS X, but a whole new OS? no, it was about as new as ME was compared to 98SE.
Vista is a whole new, from the ground up OS. We generally stay away from any new MS product for 3-6 months, and new OS mor that long PAST SP1. It's only real adoption rate is because people buying retail don't have a choice. Eventually (like mine) IT departments start being forced to deal with it.
There's still NOTHING in XP I can't also do in Visa, and typically faster on older hardware, except I can't play DX 10 games (yet) on XP and it doesn't support HDCP for HDTV output. Maybe Vista is a bit more secure (in and of itself) but with proper security software I've found XP to actually be more secure, more responsive, easier to use and manage, require less resources, and last longer between reformats (Vista machines in our environment are typically lasing 6-10 months between imaging cycles, but a lot of that is due to software flux, not really M$'s fault)
Fact is, my wife's notebook, a 2.5 year old AMD64 based Gateway with an ATI X700 GPU and 1GB of Ram run CIRCLES around my vista based HP machine with a core 2 Duo, 2GB, and a newer generation GPU. Our hard drives have the same specs, as do our screen resolutions and game settings. The HP should BLOW AWAY the older Gateway machine, but it's NOTICABLY slower! (and it does now that I found chipset drivers that allowed XP to be installed on it)
It sounds simpler than they make it out to be. In this case, It would likely be cracked quick. To make such a fuss about something not genuinely new, all they seem to have done is advertise a new method for hackers to spread around, and exposed that fact to others who would not have otherwise paid attention.
I'm dissapointed in them more so now than before.
I thought this was finally a good answer to DRM. Guess not.
Yes, you could loose your job. Yes you could need to cut off some services to get by.
1st, if you didn't have 2 months spare (emergency) money in the bank before you got fired, then you honestly can't afford the game in the first place.
2nd, If you are newly unemployed, and you're sitting at home bitching about not being able to play a game because you can't afford the internet, GET OFF YOUR ASS, HIT THE STREETS, AND FIND A JOB!!! You don't have TIME to play games!
I got moved from one city to another by my company in October 2007. While trying to sell a house I was stil paying for, and living in an apartment I was also paying for, with a baby due in December, the company got word just 7 days after I moved that they had to cut staff and I got canned. It went 6 weeks without a paycheck, then just after starting work again (2 days after!) my wife has the baby 3 weeks early, and she's out of work (no maternity leave either) for 6 weeks. We paid every bill on time and turned nothing off, because we had a fallback plan. My savings is finally recovering now, and I've been overpaying bills again for about 4 weeks (plus we added daycare to our pile of bills). If I lived like I did when I was in college, we'd have lost the house to the bank, and likely one of our 2 cars as well.
If you don't have a fallback plan, one that can let you survive for at least 2 months with no income, then you can't afford to buy ANYTHING that's not a strict necessity until you have this plan. It sucks for about a year building that nestegg, scrimping, saving, and forgoing everything you want to buy, but in the end you realize you've changed your habits, you eat out less, are a better spender, and sleep knowing that's one less thing to worry about.
I'm speaking from experience. Not because I had a plan, but because 10 years ago I didn't, and I ended up a month behind in rent, had no services except electricity, and was borrowing money to eat Ramen noodles and get bus fare to work. I almost ended up homeless, and had my car repossessed by the bank. It shattered my credit.
Living for 1 year with just basic cable, slow internet, and a cell phone for emergency and work use only; not seeing movies, not buying games and DVDs, all that is easy compared to what you have to go through otherwise. Living a lesser class of life for a year isn't really that bad. Trading in a life of affording PS3s, concerts, and fancy dinners for quite time at home, honestly it sounds like a good vacation... (and a good diet plan)
As Americans we think we all have the right to big screen TVs, fat wallets, shiny cars, and quality entertainment. Fact is, we all have the right to bust our asses, to scrimp and save if we want those things. Reward is not without effort.
Your budget isn't tight now, but it might be tight later. I've considered cutting out my cable-tv and extraneous phone bills as a way to redirect funds to other more important projects.
That was my point. I've saccrificed bills, but NEVER internet. It's too important. It's in this order, if things get really bad: Mortgage, Heat, Food, Electricity, Car Payment, local phone, Internet, Other bills, other everything...
My gaming rig... is nothing more than leftover hardware that I threw a $100 video card into. I also don't purchase a new computer every time I buy a new game. Yea, and that plays games from 2 years ago in fair resolution, and brand new games at frame rates barely tolerable... I'd sooner but a console.
Like the song, you'd better shop around. Many of us have no contracts, or did, but had any early termination clauses expire years ago.
Actually, since I do shop around, I keep signing new contracts. I also tend to move a lot (I'm in IT, I go where work is). There are a few companies that will sign no-contract internet, but it's either very poor quality connection, or comes with a premium price.
The concept is what you view is an acceptable tradeoff when times get tight. I cook my dinner with fresh ingredients from the local farmer's market every day, that runs me about $2/day more than Ramen would. For me, healthy food is the last thing that is going to be cut from my budget. Good for you! I was refering to the idiots who eat nothing but takeout and would sooner saccrifice TV rather than eat cheaper, healthier alternatives. If I skipped 3 fast food meals, I could pay for internet. Ramen tastes a bit better than plain white rice... Fatty food generally costs more, not less. Fresh veggies cost more than frozen or canned, same goes for the meat, but cooking it yourself if definetly cheaper and healthier. If more kids understood this, they'd buy more games and movies and not steal so much.
For many of us, there is no low cost alternative. It is either all or nothing. I'm glad that you have that option, but $35/month is the minimum in my area. Thanks to a court case, any area served by AT&T, Bellsouth, Verizon, or any other provider offering services in more than one state, they MUST by law offer a $9.99 per month broadband option. They don't have to advertise it, but they DO offer it. 256 up, 768 down in most markets. Slow, but cheap. The only ones who can't get that are those served by a local monopoly, or those outside of any broadband range (sattelite).
Of course, I don't know why I tried to refute this post for so long. The point is, turning off the internet connection to our homes is a valid way to save some money, and it would suck to have your games stop working for no other reason than the company implemented a failed anti-piracy measure.
It may be a valid way, but it's nearly last on my list... Saving $20 per month? I can come up with 50 different ways to do that and keep the internet on. Heck, just drop from Digital cable to basic cable... Turn off HD (you'll still get the same programs, just in lower resolution). Cut back your cell phone bill (and make more calls from home). Switch to VoIP. Turn off and unplug anything not being used. Thow out all your plug-in scent warmers. Make fewer trips to the store (aka drive less). Get permission to work from home and save gas. Bring lunch to work (leftovers). Stop buying name brands. Cancel magazine subscriptions and the newspaper (almost all of them are free online anyway). Pay off some high interest debt (including using low interest credit to pay it off)
Of course, there's allways: get a 2nd job, or a better first one. Do favors for money. Mow some lawns. e-Bay some old crap. Borrow from a friend. Send you wife back to work. Get your kids working.
People make hard decisions about money every day. The easy one really boils down to: If all your bills are not paid current, and there's not at l
If you read about this technology, the game is integrated in part into the chekcing engine, ehich is sperate. It check more often them Steam, and there IS a central management server for the algorithm in this case. It's not a download system, it's an authentication system... The folks from Spore will not host their own login server, they're relying on the 3rd party system, so it DOES all have to go through them, unlike Steam and others. At least, that's how the article lais it out.
In this case, it's not the game you're cracking, it't the 3rd party engine. unfortunately, all the game has to do is code validate (MD5 or similar) the engine itself, then make the appropriate request. The game update and content files you download can easily do the same. dual version matching. For one game it's easy, but for a dozen, especially if even ONE of them is played online? You can't crack all of them, not without continual and daily effort to keep all your cracks on the same version (or just give up on online play entirely and never patch your games. That may work for you, but not for anyone else I know).
I don't know if this solution works this way or not, but there was a proposed central solution like this where a critical file the game needed dto launch had to be downloaded on demand in order to play. You can crack the exe, but you can't crack a file that's non-local. Maybe the engine simply deletes that file every 10 days... That would easily prevent a simple crack from getting past them.
If my budget is so thight that I can't afford my internet (which is also my TV and phone bill by the way) then i can't afford the game, let alone the $1400 rig to play it on...
Not to mention, your internet is likely under contract. Wether you pay your bill or not, you STILL HAVE TO PAY THEM. Skipping that bill? Eat Ramen Noodles for a few days insteak of BK burgers and you'll make the difference up.
I have had internet non-stop since 1994. I've had the TV turned off (9 months straight at one point, but I was playing so many games I didn't need beyond what rabbit ears could catch), my cell phones turned off, even rode the bus to avoid buying gas for a few weeks, and NEVER ONCE have I let my internet connection lapse. You can get DSL for $9.99 per month, by court action they're required to offer that if you ask for it. $19.99 is the going rate for basic internet. The speed is very low, but more than fast enough to stream music, play an MMO, or activate a game....
Also, there WILL be an override. You have been able to activate Windows by phone since windows 2000 came out. Why not a game? All it needs is a text message option or a 1-800 number and an IVR plug-in for their phone system and database. Cheap. Cheaper than helpdesk people... Cheaper than loss revenue from DRM cracks.
Your just pissed because you won't be able to steal games anymore. WAAAH! Boo fucking hoo. If you can't afford to buy a game that you want, then you should have gone to college like your mommy told you, sucked it up, worked hard, and got a good job. I have no sympathy for the lazy or the weak minded. Natural Selection is a law that should be protected at all costs.
Well, if the process is asd non-invasive as a dial back, that only happens once every 10 days, combined with the fact that less than 1% of laptops sold even meet the games requirements (not going to be a lot of mobile players here buddy...), you're not really inconveniencing anyone.
yes, nearly every CD and DRM encryption is hacked. With this, you can't hack the game client becuase it's relying on a seperate engine that self updates. You MIGHT be able to fol the system into getting valid responses, but if it's centrally controlled, it would be just as hard to hack as WoW's login servers are. Yes it can be done, but no, few will do it....and every time you update any ONE of the games that uses the system, you'll have to re-crack every game that got an update. if this same system is used for MMOs and Miltiplayer games, then you can crack it, but then you can't play those other games online...
This system is hard for hackers, easy for people. It's not perfect, but all it needs is a 1-800 IVR based override system (like registering Windows without an internet connection) and it's solved. Done.
If it was one game, it would be easy to crack. because it;s a common platform, the more games that join it, the harder it is to bypass.
It will be done, but I don;t have the time to waste on it. If the game is good, buy it. If it's not that good, wait intil it drops to 10 or 20 bucks. If you refuse to buy games, people will stop making quality ones to play. If piracy is too easy, more people do it.
Music and movies have an issue with piracy, but fact is they still have a solid base of people spending the money, plus alternate income methods, like ticket sales, TV appearances, posters, etc. Games don't have that. if people don't buy them, they go bankrupt.
It won't be too long before EVERY game is an online game or subscription game. It won't be long either unitl wifi and internet access are universal, and you'll be able to be online anywhere your cell phone also works... this is a start. in 3 years noone will care.
Um, look on the botton of any game box. "An internet connection is required to play this game" appears on 8 of the top 10 games moving off shelves today.
I'm thinking you'll find MUCH more often that people buy games that simply are not compatible with their PCs... (usually because they bought cheap POS Dell systems that not only don't have video cards, but don't even have an x16 slot FOR one)
I have friends working for big-box retailers and game shops alike. About 6 or 8 times a week some kid or parent tries to return an open game that their computer won't play without either being replaced or having $200-300 in upgrades, just because someone didn't read what was clearly printed on the box (or after reading it, didn't ask for help if they didn't understand it). In that case, not our fault. The stupid and their money MUST be parted.
Agreed. not only that, but once they're no longer actually sellign the game (who's gonna buy a 5 year old game that likely won't have been patched to run on your current version of your OS anyway), then all they need to do is offer a patch for manual download that removes the phone home software. Likely they'll just replace phone home with another system in the meantime anyway since with their own internal engines they can add/change/remove whatever feature of the game they want anyway. If you instal, you'll have to (want to) like most other games today to download and install a "rollup" patch to get you on the current version anyway, so it;s easy to work around.
It's not perfect, but it's a good, non-invasive system with few drawbakcs and it will work better than DRM.
One simple addition makes it truly work: a 1-800 number you can call to type in an override code on your screen and a readback code from a server, just in case you are not near the net...
A CD in a drive is an annoyance, and I avoid games that require it. On the other hand, an internet connection is ubiquitous. To play most of my games on the run would mean an Alienware laptop, or other rediculous piece of hardware. If I had that much cash, I'd have a modem enabled smartphone so I could access the net anywhere anyway...
People are rarely going to play Mass Effect on the run, and those that do will likely be hitting an internet connection once every few days at worst anyway. As long as there's a way to override the online requirement, this is FAR less invasive to 99% of their user base than a CD lock, and more secuirty than a DRM that would be cracked in days if not hours.
If you travel a lot AND play games, make sure you either play where there's wi-fi, have a cell phone that can be used as a modem (or a 3G card for the PC), or make sure you check for patches and updates before flying out the door...
A lot of games are starting to use central monitoring systems (Steam, PlayNC Launcher, etc) It't not unreasonable to have a dozen games all keep themselves up to date and validated through a single interface. I'd be OK if it checked daily, and simple yelled at me if it hand't checked in over 10 days. that will likely never happen with me...
As long as the process is non-invasive, and no personal information is transmitted, that's fine by me. If piracy can be reduced even 10%, it's worth it. DRM does not work.
Even with this, it's likely someone will find a way around the checking process, but FAR fewer people will be able to do that than can currently get a no-cd crack...
With Windows, if you don't have a network connect, theres a screen that will display a one-time-code for you to type into a phone and activate via IVR system. No reason the game can't do that too, and it would only do it if you happened to have not either played in 10 or more days and were not on the internet at that moment.
As a simple bypass, if you net connection is down, simply insert the originall install CD, as long as you've registered it online once already, that should be all the override it needs...
or perhaps you could use your cell phone to go online, type in your account info and some on-screen code, and get an override via text messaging or mobile e-mail, like activating Windows without a netowrk connection... Heck, you could even call a 1-800 number and type in the code using your telephone and get that response...
Personally, I could care less that the game is checking for activation and updates once every 10 days. As long as I can play it where there's no internet connection, and I don't need a CD (or a crack I have to replace every time it updates the game) I'm happy.
I don't use illegal or pirated games, so this law really has no impact on me. As long as the connection to the home server is secure, I have no issue with it.
I actually APROVE of a similar system for Blu Ray. If each disk were to have a unique code ID embedded in it, and inserting it for the first time in a player registered the disk as owned by you in a database somewhere in the cloud, then inserting that disk in another player would cross reference that database and see the disk was already registered to somewone else. As long as the disk wasn't detected to be in 2 places at once, you considder it to be "loaned" and let it play. If the disk does appear to be in more places than 1 (like hundreds) you refuse to play the disk. Simple, non-invasive, and lets fair use assumption remain fair.
If i want to install the game on a dzon PCs, but only bought one copy, I should be able to, as long as I'm using MY account login to play, and as long as on my home installation I can play without logging in to the net to do so first (AKA switching users would require an internet check). Perhaps the "bypass" or "play without connection" would simply require the disk to be in the drive...
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Why get a headless iMac? they're more than powerful enough for everything but hard core gaming (they Play WoW in very nice resolutions and great framerates on those 20 and 24" screens). You can upgrade the RAM and HDD easy enough, and you can get an external Blu-ray player later this summer (when Apple finally announces OS X bul-ray support).
If you need more power, the Mac Pro is only a couple of hundred bucks more... A $1000-$1600 mac mini-tower line would not significantly add to their options. You can get a system at any price from $599 to $3500 in $200-300 bumps. Sure, you can't just swap out the CPU or mainboard, but if you want to do that, you're doing it to play video games and improve graphic performance, in which case OS X is not for you.
In another year or so when Apple restakes a claim in the games market, with help from EA and others, then i might concede your point, but I have a feeling OS X will be sold on a shelf for PC hardware anyway before that time happens.
Reme,mber, part of Apple's package is a simple model line-up. If they start complicating that with customizable machine at a mid-market price poiint, their costs will spiral internally, and drive up the cost of all their other systems.
For video editing, photo work, music, and 95% of the tasks that people buying a mac want one for, over 3-5 years software requirements don't change much. They might need some ram, and some extra HDD space, but everything else besides high level 3D horsepower can be added externally for cheap. If you WANT high end graphics, try comparing a Mac Pro to a high end Dell or Alienware desktop and guess what you'll find: The apple is cheaper and more configurable anyway...
They did negotiate it with you. It's posted on their web site for all to view, and the package mentions the address on the outside of the box. Inside the box, you have a seal to break confirming your acceptance of the EULA and again a reference for where to read it before you break the seal. If you buy it, open it, but DON'T break the seal, it can be returned to the vendor (but not the retailer typically) for a full refund. this return right is guaranteed by law. Once you break the EULA seal on the CD/DVD case inside the box, you've by the letter of the law agreed to it.
..."
Did you not notice the big red STOP sign saying "By opening this package you are agreeing the the
Apple's EULA, other than being required to use Apple hardware, is one of the most generous in the industry. They'll even ALLOW you to install it on more than 1 system, up to 5, if you promise not to use more than 1 at a time. I took good advantage of this at my father's house since he has a mini in the living room, an iMac on his desk, and a MacBook for travel, yet he's the only one who would be using them, and would not do so all at once, so he got 1 copy of 10.5, 1 copy of iLife 08, and apple support HELPED HIM install it on each machine....
$400 laptop? bukllshit... I can't get by on a $400 desktop, not even including a monitor.
"Most People" buying a machine today work with digital photos, have a camcorder, want to be able to burn DVDs, want to play music while working, want to keep a web browser, e-mail, and at least 1 other application running. ANYONE buying a machine today that doesn't have dedicated graphics at some level (even if soldered onboard) is buying a throw-away machine. Anything with Vista and less than 2GB or RAM is also pretty useless once you add the overhead of security software to your load.
I have a Core 2 HP Notebook, 5400RMP 120GB drive, 965 chipset graphics, 1GB of Ram, and Vista Home Prem on a machine i use for work. It was a 4900 machine. My wife's 2.5 year old gateWay AMD 64 notebook runs CIRCLES around it. I've optimized every setting in vista that's available to tweak, I've gone through every one of the 140 services, performance settings, background tasks, and more, and it still takes longer to do anything on this PoS than any older machine I have running.
A $400 notebook? for anything beyond runnign XP home, cheap antivirus, and e-mail, there's no way. A Celeron notebook in that price range can barely handle Java apps without stuttering, faulters on You Tube, and runs out of resources scanning documents. I can't even imaging trying to open 8MP images and try even simple editing tasks on one, even under XP...
Apple doesn't sell machines in that price range for a reason. Their machines are designed to be home entertainment and personal systems for photo, movie, and music use. If they made anything less powerful than the Mini, half their own software would exceed the hardware capabilities. Same goes for a PC.
Apple is basically Vista ultimate, with a few other bells and whistles on top. Can you imagine running ultimate on anythingless than a $1000 notebook or $800 desktop? Microsoft won't even allow ultimate to be pre-installed on a system that doesn't have dedicated graphics and 2GB or RAM... The cheapest Dell with Ultimate as a configurable option is over $800...
Closest Dell i can build to a Mac mini ($799 version with DVD burner) includes a 2.4GHz processor, compared to Apple's 2.0, and a 500GB drive to apple's 160 (the Dell HDD is slower though, but either could be easily replaced cheap). The Dell is $759 + $149 for OS X, + $79 for iLife. ie, the Dell costs WAY more. This is a part for part match, as close as can be done. (Inspiron 530s). It's nowhere near as small and doesn't include a wireless remote or media sharing support. If I drop to a lower end Dell unit. the only way to go cheaper is to go to a Celeron, which would NOT compete at all.
...and he's not going to know shit about OS X and Apple won;t help you either since it's not licensed legally. Apples' support is not only US based, but you also have walk-in access to Apple Stores, where most systems can be repaired right on their bench with in-stock parts, including Apple notebooks. (they might have to order a part, but 1 way shipping and on-site repair is a LOT faster than getting Dell to come to your house 2 days from now, find out your notebook really is broken, then tell you it has to be shipped to Dell and Back and it will take 6-8 days. A 2 week turnaround on repair is not acceptable. 3 days is bad enough on Apple's side of the fence, and I don't have to learn a foreign accent to get help!
As for a iMac, Looking at the 20" $1499 model, and comparing it's base config to a Dell XPS One, in a 20", the processor in the Dell is only an E6550 (2.33GHz), and doesn't compare to Apple's 2.66, the dell uses the slower and less powerful G33 chipset, and even with the best video card it can get (Radeon 2400) it can't compete with Apple's 2600 Pro graphics. Same RAM, Same HDD, and all configured, the Dell is MORE THAN $600 HIGHER IN PRICE, and that's before adding OS X and iLife to it's config! Even the lower end model Dell running on a 2.2GHz processor with no dedicated graphics is STILL more expensive, even before adding OS X.
A desktop compared to the iMac 20" you say? - Best I can configure is a Dell 420 desktop. including the graphic upgrade to the 8800GT (slightly better than the 2600Pro from Apple, but not a lot) and it comes with 3GB of RAM, but guess what, it's $1499 configured that way. It's the same price as the Apple, until you considder it's still missing a remote, uses more power, makes more noise, is not an all-in-one, and add OS X and iLife to it and you're over the mac's price by more than $200 again. Oh, no firewire either...
Every Dell to Mac comparrison I've made in nearly a year, the Dell costs more when you factor in Wireless N, Bluetooth, hard disk performance and size, video performance,screen resolution, and software equivolents. I did 2 others yesterday for the MacBook pro 17" and 15" compared to 3 different Dell machines, Apple was cheaper and had more components, and was lighter and had 2-4 times the battery life in all cases.
Power of the CPU is not a comparrison at all. The CPU and mainboard can easily be compared between 2 models and could very well be faster on Dell's side, since THEY USE THE SAME PARTS. However, add HDD performance, 3D rendering capability, and connectivity options, and Dell falls apart on price. Try editing a video, or running a lenghty photoshop render on a Dell and on a Mac. At the same price point, Adobe states clearly, you can NOT beat Apple's price/performance figures.
With Apple buying Intel and common name brand parts now, but having FAR lower support costs (fewer helpdesk calls vs microsoft OS by FAR!), simpler service logistics, a simplified model line-up, the other guys can't compete on price.
Dell outsold Apple last year nearly 4:1 on hardware. Apple's PC division had higher profits than Dell. If Apple ever really feels threatend on price, they can sell systems at BELOW Dell's cost and still make proffit.
Oh, and a word about support. Even if you can find a mcahine from Dell, HP, gateway, etc, that can compete with a mac on performance, including the cost of OS and typical application software, who supports it? Some friggin guy in India?
by the By, Apple's macBook Pro is still the fastest machine running Vista on the market under $3500... and thats for their $2700 machine.
Easily run as non-admin??? Every XP machine I have in my house, and nearly every corportate PC installed in America runs as a non-admin user. It may not be obvious to the idiots who buy some cheap ass PoS underpowered hunk at Circuit City that they're supposed to create a non-admin user and use that for daily tasks, but it's by no means difficult!
...only the ones that are actually NT native and use calls also supported in XP, but if they use hardware level support not available to NT (USB 2.0, Bluetooth), it can't be made to work. The Kernel (NTOSkrnl) doesn't support it...
Sure, local policy will prevent you from doing a lot of things an admin could, like editing the registry, accessing some admin only control panels (unless you happen to know the comand line for them), changing critical system setting, etc. But you can allways make a shortcut to whatever app you want to run, even a control panel icon, right click it, set the "run as" flag, and it will politely promt you for an account name and password and allow you to work as that user for that 1 application. You can even make a shortcut that does that automatically, without the prompt, by adding a few strings to it;s comand line execute. This is even better than running "su -" since it only applies to that 1 application, not the entire session, and I don't have to remember to un-assume root.
In Vista, I may not be running as "admin", but I can do anyting an admin can do by simply clicking "allow" I don't even need a password! That's not running as a user with restrictions and accounting for manual override, that's an admin account with pop-up warnings that most users will become accustomed to and just click allow without reading anyway...
Although 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernels are very similar on the surface, the underlying code has advanced continually. But let;s have a real comparrison, because 2.6 is like XP SP2 compared to 2.4, it's an enhancement, not a new OS... Lets look at 1.6 compared to 2.4, or KDE 4 compared to Gnome 3. THAT's an OS upgrade... Keep in mind, Apple's Aqua runs on top of a BSD kernel that's more than 12 years old, but if you look at their opern source kernel code under the darwin project, it looks NOTHING like it used to. Also keep in mind that although a LOT of core code changes from kernel to kernel, it has to remain compatible with the hundreds of protocols and cross OS communcation standards set forth by OSI, TIA, IEEE, and a dozen other agencies. Where would Windows be without the TCP/IP stack, Kerberos, SSH, Radius, HTTP? Not a single one of these is a microsoft protocol. Even USB was INVENTED BY APPLE!
The kernel is about internal process tracking, thread management, memory management, Security audits, window management, basic GUI and OSI layer interactions. That was almost completely re-written for Vista. Sure, they called it NT 6, but that's just habbit. Are you perhaps indicating on ANY level that NT 3.12 has ANY similarity to NT 4.0???? How many drivers for XP work in NT 4.0?
If vista was so much the same, why do virtually NONE of the XP drivers work with it? Why can't DX 10 be back ported to XP, it's only software afterall, right? Why can't Aero be added to XP? Why can't HDCP and Blue-Ray BD+ be added to XP? Well, it can, but it would require a MAJOR kernel rewrite, and break 10s of thousands of applications and drivers. Yes, the day to day functionality is much the same, to the end user. Look at your OSI model again and see how much that actually doesn't matter a lick to the application code, kernel, hardware and transport layers beneath it. You can run different GUIs with the same kernel (Aqua, KDE, Gnome, etc) but you can't run different kernels necessarily with the same GUI. Windows stays the same becuase people won't buy it if they have to learn it all over again. That doesn't mean it's not an all new engine in the same 4 wheeled vehicle. Ask a Mopar guy to fix your hybrid and see how far he gets... It's a car, right?
OS X 10.1 added a ton of new feature (149 of them to be exact, to OS 10.0. It was billed as an incremental upgrade, not as a new OS.
10.5 added over 350 new features to OS 10.4, and over 100 of the features were evident to users and added new, never before available, functionality.
XP's list of new features beyond Windows 2K was in fact extensive, but more than 80% of those featuered had been retroactively added to 2K with it's own SP3, or were features like Windows Medial PLayer or other bundled software packages that since they were "included" with XP, they were listed as features, but every one of them could be installed, ofr free, under Win 2K.
XP SP2 was more of an OS upgrade than XP itself was over 2K. There were actually more features realeased in SP2 for XP that could not be added to 2K than XP released on day 1 over 2K. Check your release notes more carefully instead of reading the headlines...
Oh, btw, on the 1750, the Sound Blaster Sound card 1) has no native vista driver set, and 2, unless you add a device to your ONLY Expresscard expansion slot, the sound card is actually a SOFTWARE engine, using the CPU instead of dedicated hardware... Read the fine print!
As for the 56 watt battery, you can "upgrade" to a 89 watt 9 cell unit for $189 extra... You're required to do so to support "some hardware features" (namely 3D graphics and the DVD burner, neither of which operate on the 56 watt battery)
Adding Adobe and Pinacle software and the battery alone, and your Dell costs more than a better equipped Mac Pro.
Oh, there is no 2.5 GHz option on that machine, the 2.4 is it's pinacle, and it also tops out at 4MB cache on that chip. The 2.4 used in the Apple is the 6MB cache version... The 2.4/4MB does not support Intel VT technology. Vista Ultimate is available on it, but at FULL RETAIL UPGRADE COST, since the machine does not oficially support Ultimate. The SATA subsystem is SATA I, not SATA II, and doesn't support Native Comand Queing, so none of the 200GB or larger 7200GB drives (from any of the common manufacturers) are compatible with it, even as an after market upgrade. The Wireless N mini card is N-Only, and does not support A/B/G/N. It's a single chip radio. Good luck using it in an airport or Starbucks... It's not even listed by Dell as being a gamin notebook. The ONLY reason the video card option is available in that 17" model is it's Dell's only 17" model that has enough horsepower to support a Blue-Ray player... (btw, estimated battery life on Blu-ray even with the enhanced battery, 28 minutes...
OK, same vid card, but half the vid RAM and a slower clock speed, 1/2 the processor cache, only a 5400RPM drive (the 7200rpm 200GB is $50 more), no dual layer DVD support, No media center software, no photo editing suite, no DVD authoring software, no video editing software, no remote control for when you connect it to a TV or projector, no DVI to VGA adapter, No firewire, no backlit keyboard, it's 3 lbs heavier, thicker, and 1/2" wider. ...and exactly how long DO you think it will run on a 56 watt hour battery, since the tech specs indicate that it consumes 120 watts!?!?!
Yea, real great that it comes (not even) close to the package the Mac has, but at 25-40 minutes of power, it's FUCKING USELESS unless plugged in. Oh yea, the Vid card requires a minimum of 60 watts, so you can't use any 3D features on battery (including Aero). Read the fine print sometime...
As for the warranty, sure, they'll dispatch someone to you ASAP. 1st, if it's not a hardware issue, you get a bill for the visit. 2nd, it;s not a Dell employee, but a local sub-contractor lackey. 3rd, THEY DON'T STOCK PARTS! If your laptop needs anything but a HDD (which is USER REPLACEABLE so they DON'T come to you to replace it), then they have to take it with them anyway, or tell you to ship it yourself to Dell. Trust me on this, I'm in consulting IT services... All Dell's warranty does is waste 2 days of your time getting an appointment, for which you'll certainly have to skip work to accomodate, and in the end, you have to ship it across the country and be without the machine for 4-8 business days on top of that. With Apple, I go to the store, they fix it in 24-48 hours, and they'll even back up my data for free (if they can) to replace my HDD (Dell charges extra for that, over $100).
A fully loaded Alienware coats about 5K, not slightly over 3K. For the same price as a fully loaded mac book (besides the fact you never would order it that way since the RAM, HDD, and other upgrades can all be had cheaper aftermarket) Dell's similar config, part for part for a fully loaded MacBook actualy costs $600 more...
I can get the 2.4GHz 17" online for $2200 since it's a discontinued model. Not looking too shabby, since this Dell, with a couple of software packages to be fair (Pinacle studio, Adobe Expression, etc) plus a few other missing components, AV software, Spyware Software, Backup software, now costs more than the Apple.
Apple systems ARE priced competitively. If you actually look at the system's REAL specs, instead of just processor tpye and speed, RAM size, HDD size, and screen size, you'll see the Apple machine is faster, more configurable, more feature loaded, and on top weighs less, looks better, makes a public statement, runs more than just Windows, and oh yea, you can actually run it for 3-4 hours on battery alone, even while playing WoW under Mac OS X.
First of all, the 2.4 GHz 17" macbook pro is not available, 2.5 is the current model at the same price, so comparing a 2.4 dell to the $2799 Macbook, of course it's going to be comperable or cheaper in price.
OK, compare this instead:
Apple 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo 17" system:
- 2.5GHz core 2 duo w/ 6MB L2 cache, 800MHz front side bus
- 2GB 677MHz DDR2 Ram (support 4GB)
- 250GB 5400RPM drive standard ($50 more for a 200GB 7200 which would be prefered by me and is included in below price point)
- 1680x1050 display (or for $100 a 1900X1280 LED backlit display, included in below price point)
- DVI and VGA (with "included" adapter) external display support
- nVidia GeForece 8600M GT 512MB GDDR3 graphics
- gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and 802.11n wireless
- iSight web cam integrated (2MP resolution?)
- integrated high def audio, including microphone, and both optical and traditional outputs
- 3 USB, and both firewire (400/800) inputs, plus ExpressCard/34 expansion
- 4.5 hour battery life while using wireless! (assumes LED screen)
- backlit keyboard
- near-professional grade DVD authoring and video editing software
- Mag safe, light weight modular power adapter
- other random software (garage band etc we really don't care about unless we're in that industry)
As built, with the better HDD and display, less than $2900 from MacMall
Closest comperable Dell system:
Dell XPS M1730. The ONLY Dell offering a Core 2 Duo, dedicated graphics, and 17" w/ 2GB or more of Ram and a 200GB or larger HDD.
- Same exact processor, 2.5 w/ 6MB 800 front side
- XP Pro OS standard, vista is actually $40 more, FUCK that! - win for Apple OS X
- 2GB 677MHz DDR2 (also upgradebale to 4GB) - same specs
- CD/DVD burner (note it's NOT dual layer) - Win for Apple MacBook pro
- wireless 802.11n (They claim Bluetooth is an OPTION, but I couldn't figure out how to add it except an EXTERNAL USB adapter...) - Win for Macbook pro
- 85watthr battery 9 cells. (estimated life, less than 2 hours, Dell suggest a 2nd one for $189 more) - Win for MacBook pro
- Adobe elements and Pinacle Studio added (to compete with iLife) - Win could go either way, user preference, i prefer iLife 08... (I use Pinacle and adobe on a PC, so I HAVE compared them directly)
- 1900x1280 WUXGA screen standard, but not LED based... - Win for Macbook pro
- 5.1 digital audio out - same standard
- 200GB 7200RPM drive (a 320 4200 was standard, that's crap slow...) - 200GB drives are same
- DVI out (adapters for other connections not included, but available) - win for Apple, they included the adapter for free
- 2MP web cam and microphone included - basically same specs
- 4USB and 1 400mhz firewire, but no 800 firewire, did have expresscard though - Apple wins if you actually have an 800MHz firewire device, 99% of us do not so we'll call it a tie here
- Gigabit ethernet - same spec
- had to upgrade to 8700M nvidia graphics as 512MB 8600 wasn't available, - slight win in Dells' favor
- 1 year warranty - Dell claims "on site" but in 14 years in IT I have NEVER ONCE seen Dell actually FIX a notebook onsite, they allways take it away for repairs. Apple machines can be repaired at apple stores - Win for Apple
As built, $2838 from Dell
In the end, the Dell has "slightly" better video card (about 1 FPS, if that, better), but the other core specs (RAM, HDD, Proc) are the same. However, being ugly, 4 lbs heavier, larger in every single dimension, having half the battery life, it can't run OS X (Apple will run Windows just fine, either native or virtual), no internal bluetooth, no backlit kbd, no media center functionality (unless you add Vista Ultimate), no wireless remote, no VGA or SVGA (gotta buy after market adapter), No LED option, and it comes with a load of bloatware, and Antvirus and AntiSpyware (which the Mac doesn't really need) are extra. All those missed points, and if you're licky, you saved $50 doing with Dell. And oh yea, your helpdesk is in india, Apple has
It doesn't hurt that Apple's file backup is easy easy now, but more important is the core machine OS can be re-installed from what's basically an image DVD in less than 30 minuutes. Even if you upgraded from OS 10.3 or 10.4, you can use the 10.5 DVD to completely reset your machine. With XP or Vista, this is a minimum 1 hour process, if not 2 or 3 if you didn't have a slipstreamed OS disk. Also, since most Microsoft apps require a reboot after being installed, even in Vista, you've got several more hours of work to do. Apple doesn't have registry and permissions roadblocks, so once the machine is images from disk, TimeMachine completely restores the machine, pathces applications and all, all by itself... That's not possible In Microsoft's world without regular BareMetal or Ghost imaging seperate from the backups.
Actually, my firm's consulting contract explicitly states that is a problem can not be identified, including a resolution process, in less than 30 minutes, then we automatically re-image the customer's box. Any resolution that would involve more than 3 hours to fix also gets automatically reformatted. The only exception is resolutions specific to 3rd party applications (aka, when we're instructed to do a specific process by 3rd party support for some non-Microsoft App).
Even a single virus or spyware identified on a machine results in an immegiate reformat. You can remove the virus, but what files it may or may not have modified, leaving future security holes, or some user action that created the hole? Who's to know...
If you have proper images for your machines, a reformat should take about an hour, maybe 2 on a slower network. Adding a few missing apps via server rollout can be done as a background task.
Small offices? No images? No standardization? as we format systems perioducally we use a common image design, and ghost (or BareMetal Backup) the system.
I use Vista on ONE machine, my latest gaming rig build, and for ONE reason: I'm beta testing a couple of games only available in DX 10, and DX 10 has not (yet) been back ported to XP.
I don't run my XP machines as admin anyway, so little of Vista's new security features really matter to me. Up to date AV, ASW, and a good firewall does well enough to add the protections that XP lacked. My wife is properly trained at this point not to screw with the machine without my permission, and knows not to open web pages and e-mails she's not certain are safe. I double filter all e-mail by bouncing through different services, so anything coming in should be clean anyway, but the links inside are not allways safe, so I use phishing and blacklisting software on top of everything else.
We have not had a virus, malware, or spyware infection on any of my 7 total machines (and others I've rotated through over the years) since 2001 when I started tracking spyware. I've never had a virus, of any kind, not in any OS, and I've been a consultant for 14 years and had PCs since IBM's PS2 and the Apple IIgs.
It's not hard to remain clean. Use a small amount of common sense, and don't just renew your virus defs each year, but actually buy the latest ang greatest engine. It costs about $80 a year to stay completely protected, AND backed up for good measure, less if you have more than 1 PC and buy bundle or family versions of software.
If people running as admin was the only real achilleas heal of XP, why didn't someone just release a simple batch product to create a non-admin user and migrate the admin's files and settings. Simple, done. I've done it manually a few times, and used the user migration wiz once (it sucks).
XP was a "service pack" for 2000, for lack of a better term. It added some new graphics, and some extra support for home users, but XP is so much like 2000 it's hardly a unique OS. Saying it's better is like saying OS X 10.3 was better than 10.1. Of course it is, and 10.3 was a fair overhaul of OS X, but a whole new OS? no, it was about as new as ME was compared to 98SE.
Vista is a whole new, from the ground up OS. We generally stay away from any new MS product for 3-6 months, and new OS mor that long PAST SP1. It's only real adoption rate is because people buying retail don't have a choice. Eventually (like mine) IT departments start being forced to deal with it.
There's still NOTHING in XP I can't also do in Visa, and typically faster on older hardware, except I can't play DX 10 games (yet) on XP and it doesn't support HDCP for HDTV output. Maybe Vista is a bit more secure (in and of itself) but with proper security software I've found XP to actually be more secure, more responsive, easier to use and manage, require less resources, and last longer between reformats (Vista machines in our environment are typically lasing 6-10 months between imaging cycles, but a lot of that is due to software flux, not really M$'s fault)
Fact is, my wife's notebook, a 2.5 year old AMD64 based Gateway with an ATI X700 GPU and 1GB of Ram run CIRCLES around my vista based HP machine with a core 2 Duo, 2GB, and a newer generation GPU. Our hard drives have the same specs, as do our screen resolutions and game settings. The HP should BLOW AWAY the older Gateway machine, but it's NOTICABLY slower! (and it does now that I found chipset drivers that allowed XP to be installed on it)
It sounds simpler than they make it out to be. In this case, It would likely be cracked quick. To make such a fuss about something not genuinely new, all they seem to have done is advertise a new method for hackers to spread around, and exposed that fact to others who would not have otherwise paid attention.
I'm dissapointed in them more so now than before.
I thought this was finally a good answer to DRM. Guess not.
Yes, you could loose your job. Yes you could need to cut off some services to get by.
1st, if you didn't have 2 months spare (emergency) money in the bank before you got fired, then you honestly can't afford the game in the first place.
2nd, If you are newly unemployed, and you're sitting at home bitching about not being able to play a game because you can't afford the internet, GET OFF YOUR ASS, HIT THE STREETS, AND FIND A JOB!!! You don't have TIME to play games!
I got moved from one city to another by my company in October 2007. While trying to sell a house I was stil paying for, and living in an apartment I was also paying for, with a baby due in December, the company got word just 7 days after I moved that they had to cut staff and I got canned. It went 6 weeks without a paycheck, then just after starting work again (2 days after!) my wife has the baby 3 weeks early, and she's out of work (no maternity leave either) for 6 weeks. We paid every bill on time and turned nothing off, because we had a fallback plan. My savings is finally recovering now, and I've been overpaying bills again for about 4 weeks (plus we added daycare to our pile of bills). If I lived like I did when I was in college, we'd have lost the house to the bank, and likely one of our 2 cars as well.
If you don't have a fallback plan, one that can let you survive for at least 2 months with no income, then you can't afford to buy ANYTHING that's not a strict necessity until you have this plan. It sucks for about a year building that nestegg, scrimping, saving, and forgoing everything you want to buy, but in the end you realize you've changed your habits, you eat out less, are a better spender, and sleep knowing that's one less thing to worry about.
I'm speaking from experience. Not because I had a plan, but because 10 years ago I didn't, and I ended up a month behind in rent, had no services except electricity, and was borrowing money to eat Ramen noodles and get bus fare to work. I almost ended up homeless, and had my car repossessed by the bank. It shattered my credit.
Living for 1 year with just basic cable, slow internet, and a cell phone for emergency and work use only; not seeing movies, not buying games and DVDs, all that is easy compared to what you have to go through otherwise. Living a lesser class of life for a year isn't really that bad. Trading in a life of affording PS3s, concerts, and fancy dinners for quite time at home, honestly it sounds like a good vacation... (and a good diet plan)
As Americans we think we all have the right to big screen TVs, fat wallets, shiny cars, and quality entertainment. Fact is, we all have the right to bust our asses, to scrimp and save if we want those things. Reward is not without effort.
Your budget isn't tight now, but it might be tight later. I've considered cutting out my cable-tv and extraneous phone bills as a way to redirect funds to other more important projects.
That was my point. I've saccrificed bills, but NEVER internet. It's too important. It's in this order, if things get really bad: Mortgage, Heat, Food, Electricity, Car Payment, local phone, Internet, Other bills, other everything...
My gaming rig... is nothing more than leftover hardware that I threw a $100 video card into. I also don't purchase a new computer every time I buy a new game.
Yea, and that plays games from 2 years ago in fair resolution, and brand new games at frame rates barely tolerable... I'd sooner but a console.
Like the song, you'd better shop around. Many of us have no contracts, or did, but had any early termination clauses expire years ago.
Actually, since I do shop around, I keep signing new contracts. I also tend to move a lot (I'm in IT, I go where work is). There are a few companies that will sign no-contract internet, but it's either very poor quality connection, or comes with a premium price.
The concept is what you view is an acceptable tradeoff when times get tight. I cook my dinner with fresh ingredients from the local farmer's market every day, that runs me about $2/day more than Ramen would. For me, healthy food is the last thing that is going to be cut from my budget.
Good for you! I was refering to the idiots who eat nothing but takeout and would sooner saccrifice TV rather than eat cheaper, healthier alternatives. If I skipped 3 fast food meals, I could pay for internet. Ramen tastes a bit better than plain white rice... Fatty food generally costs more, not less. Fresh veggies cost more than frozen or canned, same goes for the meat, but cooking it yourself if definetly cheaper and healthier. If more kids understood this, they'd buy more games and movies and not steal so much.
For many of us, there is no low cost alternative. It is either all or nothing. I'm glad that you have that option, but $35/month is the minimum in my area.
Thanks to a court case, any area served by AT&T, Bellsouth, Verizon, or any other provider offering services in more than one state, they MUST by law offer a $9.99 per month broadband option. They don't have to advertise it, but they DO offer it. 256 up, 768 down in most markets. Slow, but cheap. The only ones who can't get that are those served by a local monopoly, or those outside of any broadband range (sattelite).
Of course, I don't know why I tried to refute this post for so long. The point is, turning off the internet connection to our homes is a valid way to save some money, and it would suck to have your games stop working for no other reason than the company implemented a failed anti-piracy measure.
It may be a valid way, but it's nearly last on my list... Saving $20 per month? I can come up with 50 different ways to do that and keep the internet on. Heck, just drop from Digital cable to basic cable... Turn off HD (you'll still get the same programs, just in lower resolution). Cut back your cell phone bill (and make more calls from home). Switch to VoIP. Turn off and unplug anything not being used. Thow out all your plug-in scent warmers. Make fewer trips to the store (aka drive less). Get permission to work from home and save gas. Bring lunch to work (leftovers). Stop buying name brands. Cancel magazine subscriptions and the newspaper (almost all of them are free online anyway). Pay off some high interest debt (including using low interest credit to pay it off)
Of course, there's allways: get a 2nd job, or a better first one. Do favors for money. Mow some lawns. e-Bay some old crap. Borrow from a friend. Send you wife back to work. Get your kids working.
People make hard decisions about money every day. The easy one really boils down to: If all your bills are not paid current, and there's not at l
If you read about this technology, the game is integrated in part into the chekcing engine, ehich is sperate. It check more often them Steam, and there IS a central management server for the algorithm in this case. It's not a download system, it's an authentication system... The folks from Spore will not host their own login server, they're relying on the 3rd party system, so it DOES all have to go through them, unlike Steam and others. At least, that's how the article lais it out.
In this case, it's not the game you're cracking, it't the 3rd party engine. unfortunately, all the game has to do is code validate (MD5 or similar) the engine itself, then make the appropriate request. The game update and content files you download can easily do the same. dual version matching. For one game it's easy, but for a dozen, especially if even ONE of them is played online? You can't crack all of them, not without continual and daily effort to keep all your cracks on the same version (or just give up on online play entirely and never patch your games. That may work for you, but not for anyone else I know).
I don't know if this solution works this way or not, but there was a proposed central solution like this where a critical file the game needed dto launch had to be downloaded on demand in order to play. You can crack the exe, but you can't crack a file that's non-local. Maybe the engine simply deletes that file every 10 days... That would easily prevent a simple crack from getting past them.
If my budget is so thight that I can't afford my internet (which is also my TV and phone bill by the way) then i can't afford the game, let alone the $1400 rig to play it on...
Not to mention, your internet is likely under contract. Wether you pay your bill or not, you STILL HAVE TO PAY THEM. Skipping that bill? Eat Ramen Noodles for a few days insteak of BK burgers and you'll make the difference up.
I have had internet non-stop since 1994. I've had the TV turned off (9 months straight at one point, but I was playing so many games I didn't need beyond what rabbit ears could catch), my cell phones turned off, even rode the bus to avoid buying gas for a few weeks, and NEVER ONCE have I let my internet connection lapse. You can get DSL for $9.99 per month, by court action they're required to offer that if you ask for it. $19.99 is the going rate for basic internet. The speed is very low, but more than fast enough to stream music, play an MMO, or activate a game....
Also, there WILL be an override. You have been able to activate Windows by phone since windows 2000 came out. Why not a game? All it needs is a text message option or a 1-800 number and an IVR plug-in for their phone system and database. Cheap. Cheaper than helpdesk people... Cheaper than loss revenue from DRM cracks.
Your just pissed because you won't be able to steal games anymore. WAAAH! Boo fucking hoo. If you can't afford to buy a game that you want, then you should have gone to college like your mommy told you, sucked it up, worked hard, and got a good job. I have no sympathy for the lazy or the weak minded. Natural Selection is a law that should be protected at all costs.
Well, if the process is asd non-invasive as a dial back, that only happens once every 10 days, combined with the fact that less than 1% of laptops sold even meet the games requirements (not going to be a lot of mobile players here buddy...), you're not really inconveniencing anyone.
...and every time you update any ONE of the games that uses the system, you'll have to re-crack every game that got an update. if this same system is used for MMOs and Miltiplayer games, then you can crack it, but then you can't play those other games online...
yes, nearly every CD and DRM encryption is hacked. With this, you can't hack the game client becuase it's relying on a seperate engine that self updates. You MIGHT be able to fol the system into getting valid responses, but if it's centrally controlled, it would be just as hard to hack as WoW's login servers are. Yes it can be done, but no, few will do it.
This system is hard for hackers, easy for people. It's not perfect, but all it needs is a 1-800 IVR based override system (like registering Windows without an internet connection) and it's solved. Done.
If it was one game, it would be easy to crack. because it;s a common platform, the more games that join it, the harder it is to bypass.
It will be done, but I don;t have the time to waste on it. If the game is good, buy it. If it's not that good, wait intil it drops to 10 or 20 bucks. If you refuse to buy games, people will stop making quality ones to play. If piracy is too easy, more people do it.
Music and movies have an issue with piracy, but fact is they still have a solid base of people spending the money, plus alternate income methods, like ticket sales, TV appearances, posters, etc. Games don't have that. if people don't buy them, they go bankrupt.
It won't be too long before EVERY game is an online game or subscription game. It won't be long either unitl wifi and internet access are universal, and you'll be able to be online anywhere your cell phone also works... this is a start. in 3 years noone will care.
Um, look on the botton of any game box. "An internet connection is required to play this game" appears on 8 of the top 10 games moving off shelves today.
I'm thinking you'll find MUCH more often that people buy games that simply are not compatible with their PCs... (usually because they bought cheap POS Dell systems that not only don't have video cards, but don't even have an x16 slot FOR one)
I have friends working for big-box retailers and game shops alike. About 6 or 8 times a week some kid or parent tries to return an open game that their computer won't play without either being replaced or having $200-300 in upgrades, just because someone didn't read what was clearly printed on the box (or after reading it, didn't ask for help if they didn't understand it). In that case, not our fault. The stupid and their money MUST be parted.
Agreed. not only that, but once they're no longer actually sellign the game (who's gonna buy a 5 year old game that likely won't have been patched to run on your current version of your OS anyway), then all they need to do is offer a patch for manual download that removes the phone home software. Likely they'll just replace phone home with another system in the meantime anyway since with their own internal engines they can add/change/remove whatever feature of the game they want anyway. If you instal, you'll have to (want to) like most other games today to download and install a "rollup" patch to get you on the current version anyway, so it;s easy to work around.
It's not perfect, but it's a good, non-invasive system with few drawbakcs and it will work better than DRM.
One simple addition makes it truly work: a 1-800 number you can call to type in an override code on your screen and a readback code from a server, just in case you are not near the net...
A CD in a drive is an annoyance, and I avoid games that require it. On the other hand, an internet connection is ubiquitous. To play most of my games on the run would mean an Alienware laptop, or other rediculous piece of hardware. If I had that much cash, I'd have a modem enabled smartphone so I could access the net anywhere anyway...
People are rarely going to play Mass Effect on the run, and those that do will likely be hitting an internet connection once every few days at worst anyway. As long as there's a way to override the online requirement, this is FAR less invasive to 99% of their user base than a CD lock, and more secuirty than a DRM that would be cracked in days if not hours.
If you travel a lot AND play games, make sure you either play where there's wi-fi, have a cell phone that can be used as a modem (or a 3G card for the PC), or make sure you check for patches and updates before flying out the door...
A lot of games are starting to use central monitoring systems (Steam, PlayNC Launcher, etc) It't not unreasonable to have a dozen games all keep themselves up to date and validated through a single interface. I'd be OK if it checked daily, and simple yelled at me if it hand't checked in over 10 days. that will likely never happen with me...
As long as the process is non-invasive, and no personal information is transmitted, that's fine by me. If piracy can be reduced even 10%, it's worth it. DRM does not work.
Even with this, it's likely someone will find a way around the checking process, but FAR fewer people will be able to do that than can currently get a no-cd crack...
With Windows, if you don't have a network connect, theres a screen that will display a one-time-code for you to type into a phone and activate via IVR system. No reason the game can't do that too, and it would only do it if you happened to have not either played in 10 or more days and were not on the internet at that moment.
As a simple bypass, if you net connection is down, simply insert the originall install CD, as long as you've registered it online once already, that should be all the override it needs...
or perhaps you could use your cell phone to go online, type in your account info and some on-screen code, and get an override via text messaging or mobile e-mail, like activating Windows without a netowrk connection... Heck, you could even call a 1-800 number and type in the code using your telephone and get that response...
Personally, I could care less that the game is checking for activation and updates once every 10 days. As long as I can play it where there's no internet connection, and I don't need a CD (or a crack I have to replace every time it updates the game) I'm happy.
I don't use illegal or pirated games, so this law really has no impact on me. As long as the connection to the home server is secure, I have no issue with it.
I actually APROVE of a similar system for Blu Ray. If each disk were to have a unique code ID embedded in it, and inserting it for the first time in a player registered the disk as owned by you in a database somewhere in the cloud, then inserting that disk in another player would cross reference that database and see the disk was already registered to somewone else. As long as the disk wasn't detected to be in 2 places at once, you considder it to be "loaned" and let it play. If the disk does appear to be in more places than 1 (like hundreds) you refuse to play the disk. Simple, non-invasive, and lets fair use assumption remain fair.
If i want to install the game on a dzon PCs, but only bought one copy, I should be able to, as long as I'm using MY account login to play, and as long as on my home installation I can play without logging in to the net to do so first (AKA switching users would require an internet check). Perhaps the "bypass" or "play without connection" would simply require the disk to be in the drive...