XP Product Activation

Check out this link folks.
It details the technology behind Microsoft’s new excessive greed tool.

http://newdata.box.sk/2001/jul/xp/ [...] ed-wpa.txt


- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi [...] nboard.cgi

I think they just put that statement in the end of the document so that Microsoft wouldn’t call in a hit on them for cracking their code!

This is an act of monumental greed on the part of M$.
I hear that the next version of Windows will require that you install a digital camera on you PC so that Bill can watch you an make sure no one else uses your computer ; ) The camera uses up all your bandwidth and will crash your system if you remove it. Oh, and you can only use the over prices M$ camera!


- I got a board too: http://www.impactsites2000.com/cgi [...] nboard.cgi

Ick, wouldn't it be horrible to have them do imaging recognition for liscensing purposes? If you don't shave for a day, the computer locks you out, not recognizing you, and won't respond until you pay another 20 bucks, lol. Ok, government, you might think about stopping M$ sometime soon, he he. Actually i'm sure the gov loves microsoft for the simple reason of taxes. I wonder how much the corp pays per year...

Althons and Pentiums are just melted rock. Who’s rock is better? Who cares, let’s play some games

Re >>it wouldn't be too hard to develop a "crack"
It already done! But users/buisneses that buy windows legally will have a problem .

-Beer! Good!
-James Hetfield

Looks like Microsoft can effectively scare anyone into not criticizing them, actually. Tom Pabst recently threw down a guantlet, asking us, his readers, to come up with interesting ideas for him to do a column on. The request is still the top-right link on the main site. To paraphrase:

<i>"Why don't I ask you guys what you would like me to write about? ..... Send your suggestion to tom@tomshardware.com and the article will be up within the next 24 hours. Ehrenwort!"</i>

Well, so much for word of honor. That very day I sent in a request to the email link provided, and I asked Tom to come out in public with an opinion on the whole XP mess. Here's what I sent (23 July, 10:30MDT):

<i>"Dr. Pabst, I would really like to hear your opinions about Microsoft's upcoming Windows XP release, especially the built-in requirement that sends so much of your own system's information to Microsoft. I'm really disturbed by this 'feature', and wonder why I haven't heard more public outrage about it. This ought to be a sufficiently controversial topic that it will get lots of tempers running hot!

There was recently a review of the actual mechanics behind the licensing, done by a group you should appreciate, the German site called Tecchannel. The actual review is here:

http://www.tecchannel.de/betriebss [...] index.html

However, I get the feeling that the reviewer, a fellow named Von Lopatic, was being leaned on quite a bit either by his editors or by Microsoft. After proving in his article how invasive the procedure is, he felt the need at the end of the review to post the following Microsoft love note:

<b>'In contrast to many critics of Windows Product Activation, we think that WPA does not prevent typical hardware modifications and, moreover, respects the user's right to privacy.'</b>

This seemed very much out of character for the tone of the rest of the review. If there's one thing we, your readers can count on from you, Dr. Pabst, it's an honest, in-your-face opinion on topics in the computer world. So I would like to request your take on Windows XP and Microsoft's new 'feature' of product activation."</i>

It's 10 August now, not even a whisper of a reply, let alone any new opinion pieces. So I wonder what has really happened? Has the man who was brave enough to take on Intel finally bowed his head under pressure from Microsoft?

--Oz

Yeah. I haven't heard a peep from Dr. Pabst either and I sent in a reasonable request for a comparison of sound cards. (Including to actually run the gaming benchmarks with sound turned on for a change, since no one with a GeForce3 is going to be playing a game without sound.)

Ah well. He seemed to be completely fed up with computers, which I can respect because I've been there. So I don't have any problems letting him find something else to occupy himself with for a while.

As for the crack stuff, that was the impression that I got too. That for all that M$ is going to prevent illegal copying and use of their precious new OS, it sounded awfully esay to crack.

Not that I really care though since my best system right now only has 96MB anyway, which makes it impossible for me to use XP even if I wanted to, which I don't. [ROFL]

<pre>(Change sig of week!)
<b><font color=orange>AROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!</font color=orange></b></pre><p>

I can understand busy, but it's been almost three weeks now. No posts on any topic from anyone at all! Seemed weird to me that he'd go gangbusters asking for topics, then drop off the 'Net for so long.

--Oz

Forget downloading patches, make your own!!!!!

<font color=blue>Your mouse moved. WINDOWS NT must restart for changes to take affect. Restart Now?[OK]</font color=blue>

Yes, I'll be looking for a simple program whereby I can put my number in and get the verification code out. Me, contact MS with a number that represents my system configuration? NEVER!

Video killed my Radio Card!

So did I, but if you can figure out how XP verifies the number, you can figure out what kind of number it will accept. I'll leave that to our fine crackers.

Video killed my Radio Card!