EA “Spore” forum mod confirms Spore kill switch?

An Electronic Arts “Spore” forum moderator threatens to disable the entire game for a user’s simply having asked about SecuROM in EA’s forums. This would seem to confirm that Spore does in fact have a kill switch built in, which is something that the EA apologists have continually dismissed.
“SecuROM as [sic] been discussed and discussed [...]

Next Generation SSDs Delayed Due to Vista

Vista is the gift that just keeps on giving …
Speaking during SanDisk’s second-quarter earnings conference call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid state drive makers. “As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding [...]

Zhelatin Worm; Botnet Spread to 10 Million PCs, Now Via Automated Blog Postings

ARS Technica tells us that the Zhelatin gang’s “Storm Worm” has now evolved way beyond spam and infected e-card greetings.
The “Zhelatin gang”—named after the trojan it installed—was responsible for what started out as the “storm worm.” First spotted earlier this year, the spread of the “storm worm” started via e-mails purporting to provide [...]

Vista Beta Service Pack 1 “Upgradeable Version” Now Leaked

According to eWeek a new Vista beta service pack is now available. One which can be used as an “Upgradeable Version” for existing Vista installations. eWeek article here:
(yea I know there is one of those “Flash Annoyance” things, just click passed it)

Vista Beta SP1 Leaked

Over the Aug. 24 weekend, a new Vista beta [...]

Reviving Old PC800 RDRAM PCs

I recently came across an old Gateway Performance 1400 that needed fixing. Generally a PC this old is to be considered “Scrap” and usually I advise the client that it’s time for the dreaded replacement. Then comes the painful process of moving of data, apps, and all of the other nightmarish stuff that comes to [...]

iPhone Magic

Via: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs

DesktopStandard Software Mismanaged by Microsoft

There is an email floating around from Microsoft asking DesktopStandard Software Customers to participate in a survey regarding Desktop Standard products, such as PolicyMaker, ProfileMaker, and GPO Vault. They want to know what the current Desktop Standard customers think of the Microsoft aquisition. Someone I know had this to say:
Yes PoliTech, I took the survey, [...]

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs “ineffective”

Via Oikeuden edessä and slashdot:

Finnish court rules CSS protection used in DVDs “ineffective”
In an unanimous decision released today, Helsinki District Court ruled that Content Scrambling System (CSS) used in DVD movies is “ineffective”. The decision is the first in Europe to interpret new copyright law amendments that ban the circumvention of “effective technological measures”. [...]

09 f9: A Legal Primer … or … What is the AACS-LA’s Legal argument?

The AACS-LA made some news yesterday. Read about some of it here, here, and here, as well as the following from the EFF Deep Links section:
What is the AACS-LA’s argument? In its takedown letters, the AACS-LA claims that hosting the key violates the DMCA’s ban on trafficking in circumvention devices. The DMCA provides that:
No person [...]

FTC official: Let’s imprison spyware distributors

FTC official (William Kovacic) says “Let’s imprison spyware distributors”
Steep fines are nice, but one of the best weapons against spyware purveyors is locking them up, a federal regulator told senators on Tuesday.
At a morning Senate Commerce Committee hearing here, Federal Trade Commissioner William Kovacic said most wrongdoers [...]

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License Launched

The latest version of the Creative Commons licenses — Version 3.0 — are now available. Read more here. Via: /. & BoingBoing.

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

Professor Lawrence “RW” Lessig’s “The Withering of the Net”

On June 16, 2006, Professor Lawrence Lessig gave a talk at the Center for American Progress entitled “The Withering of the Net: How DC Pathologies are Undermining the Growth and Wealth of the Net.” This talk was the second in a series of three. The first talk [...]

Vista Not Playing Nice With FPS Games

Via SlashDot

Vista not playing nice with gamers

Some XP favorites crashing or crawling; fix wait could be lengthy

Windows Vista’s powerful new graphics engine may be one of its hallmark features, but it’s engendering complaints from a key segment of potential early adopters: hardcore gamers.

A small but significant number of games written for Windows XP either crash [...]

China Announces Massive Online ID Database

Via SlashDot:

China provides access to ID database to curb fraud

Anyone can now send a text message or visit the country’s population information center’s website, to check if the name and the ID number of a person’s identity card match. If they do match the ID cardholder’s picture also appears, said the Ministry, adding [...]

Cancel or Allow?

This is the first MAC vs. PC advert that is actually pretty funny.

The PC Guy is just more likeable than the MAC Guy.
Hattip: YaBlog!

Web 2.0: Explained in just under 5 minutes

Web 2.0 Explained … in just under 5 minutes.

Hattip: BoingBoing by way of Wonderland

Bill Gates is going to regret saying this

Bill Gates throws down the gauntlet!

Bill Gates Attacks Mac Security, Apple Ads

“We made it way harder for guys to do exploits,” said Mr. Gates. “The number [of exploits] will be way less because we’ve done some dramatic things [to improve security] in the code base. Apple hasn’t done any of those things.”

In another portion of [...]

RIAA Lawsuits: Boy Bites Dog

New York teen sues record industry

A New York teen, dubbed a pirate by the Record Industry, is counter suing them for defamation, violating anti-trust laws, conspiring to defraud the courts and making extortionate threats.

Robert Santangelo, who was 11 when he is supposed to have downloaded music, has come out fighting. He denies sharing music using [...]

Vista DRM Already Cracked?

Alex Ionescu claims to have successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called ‘Protected Media Path’ (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft. The bypass of the DRM protection was in turn performed [...]

Microsoft Cripples Vista Upgrade

The Inquirer calls this policy “Preinstall to Reinstall”. Microsoft calls it “Closing a Loophole”. Ars Technica says that it’s indicative of Microsoft’s ‘per device’ obsession.
PoliTech calls it one more reason to consider moving to Open Source alltogether.

Vista “upgrade” drops compliance checking, requires old OS to install

Microsoft’s quest to closely control the way Windows Vista [...]

Microsoft Confirms DRM Driver Crippling in VISTA

I got some feedback from some DRM doubters at the beginning of the year when I talked about The Perils of Windows Vista and Built-in DRM. I wish that I was wrong, but no such luck. From the horses mouth comes confirmation of every horrible charge leveled at Vista by Gutmann

Windows Vista Content Protection – [...]

Music companies consider ditching DRM

Interesting article in on the International Herald Tribune website…

Record labels rethink digital rights management at Midem

Now that even digital music revenue growth is faltering amid rampant file-sharing by consumers, the major record labels are closer than ever to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to [...]

Turn your blog into a book, part II

Gina Trapani has posted Pat II of her Geek to Live instructional series:

Geek to Live: Turn your blog into a book, part II

Part I of How to turn your blog into a book covered the basics for blogging your book idea, getting an agent, and drafting your book proposal. Now you’ve got 300 pages due [...]

HD-DVD copy protection defeated … for now

BoingBoing reader Gunther says,
On the doom9 forums there is news of a new tool to decrypt HDDVD’s. How you get the key is not yet clear but there is a promise to have a tool to get the needed key later. (check the #9 post in the thread): Link, and related coverage at the [...]

The Year in Review; 2006 Top Ten Lists

It’s almost 2007, and who doesn’t like looking back at the previous year by perusing the various Top Ten lists? Here are some of my favorites…
From Wired.com we have the 9th annual presentation of the Wired News Vaporware Awards, their ode to the year’s top technology products promised, hyped and scheduled, but not delivered. Click: [...]

Microsoft CEO says Linux “uses our intellectual property”

Ballmer: Linux users owe Microsoft

In comments confirming the open-source community’s suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft’s intellectual property.

Microsoft officials, including Ballmer, were mum on whether the Linux kernel, which is governed by the General Public License and takes contributions from programmers all around the [...]

Vista and Office 2007 about to reach the end of the beginning

It’s official: Vista and Office 2007 to launch November 30

The Windows Vista journey is about to reach the end of the beginning, with the official launch date of November 30 announced for the simultaneous launch of Office 2007 and the business version of Windows Vista.

That said, the general consumer versions of Vista are still planned [...]

Turing Test Proves 2-Year-Olds Not Human

Turing Test Proves 2-Year-Olds Not Human

Mason said, “This began as a study in human communication, but one of our Computer Science friends mentioned the whole concept of the Turing Test to us, and we decided to give it a go. Little did we know that we’d reach such an astounding result.”
The “Parenting Test” proves that [...]

And so it begins: YouTube nukes 30,000 videos

YouTube has removed nearly 30,000 videos after being contacted by the Japan Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers.

And so it begins: YouTube nukes 30,000 videos
Long before Google swooped in to buy up YouTube there were questions about the video sharing site’s future. In particular, concerns relating to copyright infringement have persisted: can YouTube [...]

Free Appz: Free Software Magazine

Added to the PoliTech Reading List:

Free Software Magazine
Free Software Magazine is the free online magazine about free software. It is free to subscribe, free to download and free to read online. Please, feel free to read all of the issues, book reviews, newsletters, and blog entries. There are hundreds of articles online, so you are [...]