At 10:29 PM 1/22/2003 -0500, Walt wrote that Marty Michener wrote:
> > Actually, it is a hoax; I just posted it so you could feel good
> publicly as
> > a Mac owner, Walt. ;^)
>
>You don't get away that easy, I'd already heard about it from some other
>sources.
>
>I was actually more amused about another "feature" of XP that recently
>got some notice. Apparently 6 months after install the OS it starts a
>counter on how many hardware changes you make to the machine. On the 7th
>change it assumes you are cheating and freezes everything up. You then
>have two choices, wipe the HD and start over, or pay for some software
>from Microsoft that allows you to unlock it. I believe the price I saw
>was $90. I only saw that one reported in one place, so consider it
>unconfirmed. Note that the report I saw also said a bug had turned up in
>this routine and it did not always wait for the 7th change...
They refer to it as the RegWorm, created by Big Mother MS, to prevent
unauthorized use of their over-priced flawed OS on more than one
machine. Actually this is not how it works, but the effect on the user
is correctly stated. It starts counting at every bootup from the time you=
activate the OS. It requires seven "yes" votes on every boot up to allow
you to use the system. As long as it gets the yes votes, the system keeps=
running. These votes come from matching SYSTEM information, not from every=
added or changed board. The questions asked are: "Is this device the same=
as it was at activation?" The devices screened on boot:
* Video adapter
* SCSI disk adapter
* IDE disk adapter
* Network Interface Card (NIC) MAC Address
* Amount of RAM
* Processor
* Processor Serial Number
* Hard drives
* Hard Drive volume serial number
* CD-ROM/CD-RW/ DVD-ROM
For example, you can change sound boards, or add a video capture card, etc.=
and it has no effect on the votes. Add a hard disk or an NIC and it will
change the voting. It really is only a pain if something goes bad, and you=
need to replace a part, then you have to call an 800 number and explain and=
MS gives you relief from the problem over the phone. What people really
don't like is the threat of not using what they paid for.
Home XP Service Pack 1 update gives you three days of usage after the
seven-yes rule is violated, so you can use THE COMPUTER to contact MS - I
guess even tax-collector-malignant-monopoly employees get tired of
answering the phones for all that money.
>Don't worry, I'd just about as happily join a mob attacking Apple. I
>thought I'd managed to avoid Unix. It needs no bugs to make your life bad.
Now that my wife's cousin has retired from MS for life at 38, I would
gladly join on a MS campus attack - name the day. Seven years ago we
visited him and got a tour of the MS campus; you should have heard _his_
thoughts about Mother MS! I think there is a general relation: the
closer you are to MS the more you hate them, so Mac people just hate them;=
PC people REALLY hate them; Programmers of PCs - - well, you get the
picture. ;^)
[Walt, we probably have to be careful about jokes like this, because
supposedly all this email is being filtered for you-know-what content daily=
by the other big brother. It has been my life-time finding that the more=
powerful someone is in the military-police-enforcement-security business,
the less sense of humor they have - but I love to be proven wrong, and
frequently am. I see no reason a priori to expect homeland security
personnel to grasp the difficult concepts of farce or irony.]
>And I bet you are not exploring to find out how long you need. For the
>sounds on my website that line contains the name of the frog, which is
>not all that long. Anyway no windows folks have complained yet. Of
>course if their system was wiped out they may not be able to complain...
You are right, I really don't care what the length is, and wouldn't have a=
clue as to how to "run code" having exceeded the buffer allocation. I have=
installed the patch so my "Windows Shell" buffer is no longer
"unchecked". It is most amusing to me, that the famous popular book, The
Cuckoo's Egg, described a way about ten years ago of hacking into the old
Berkeley Unix machine that worked similarly, by overrunning an unchecked
buffer. Nothing, as you said, Walt, is new, here.
>All I'm unhappy about is that files have become so big and complex the
>ultimate backup is no longer practical. Used to do that in my mainframe
>days, a printout of each file.
I know, somehow, by the time I have formed a full set of PC WAV files @
44,100 16 stereo from each Minidisc from the field, the files together take=
up more than one CD-ROM!
> > So, my advice to you, my friends, working on ONE computer every day,
> > (especially those of you who THINK you are NOT living dangerously):
> >
> > Backups, don't leave home without them.
>Ahmen!
>
>Walt
>
best to all,
Marty Michener
MIST Software Associates PO Box 269, Hollis, NH 03049 =
com
EnjoyBirds.com - Software that migrates with you. http://www.EnjoyBirds=
.com
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