Subj : Re: Reg methods To : Robin Sheppard From : Scott Adams Date : Sun Oct 14 2001 05:17 pm -=> Quoting Robin Sheppard to Scott Adams <=- JB> You can fit quite a bit on one of those credit-card cd-roms, and JB> they'll go in a standard envelope. they don't fit trayless cd-rom JB> drives though, and can be hard to load into some tray ones too. SA> Credit-card cd-roms? Maybe I'm missing something. SA> You mean the scheme like Microsoft uses? RS> Nope, he means the smaller (physically so) compact discs. While a RS> normal CD is roughly 12cm (a little under 5 inches), these ones are RS> about 8cm (just over 3 inches). They basically are to CDs what 45s RS> were to LPs (if you remember vinyl). Yeah I remeber LPs :). I figured out what he was talking about after a short time. :) RS> I have no idea if you can buy "blanks" as you can for regular RS> burnable CD media, or if you'd have to have them specially made by a RS> company that does that sort of thing. If you can buy blank media in RS> that size, I haven't seen it. I've dealt with them at work but so briefly not really paid attention to them myself. Why I had to rejob my memory of the discs. RS> As for them not fitting certain drives, I seem to recall seeing some RS> plastic gadget for an old audio CD player that was the size of a RS> regular CD, and would hold the smaller one in the center, much as a RS> CD-ROM tray holds the disc itself. Don't know if this would help with RS> a trayless drive though, which is a definite issue. You don't want RS> your users to have to duplicate your program _because_ of your copy RS> protection method, do you? :) Yeah I had one of those gadgets but never linked the 2 uses together. That problem and it not being as wide use as it is now is a big problem for probably not going that route :) SA> There is another method some have tried over the eyars SA> but it never caught on. Hardware configs where they SA> uses serial numbers and such to config the reg key SA> based on that. The exe would have to be sent SA> with some data file that held this info for the SA> creator of the reg. Today it'd be using the Windows SA> registry stuff. RS> Actually, apparently MS is going to do something similar with RS> WindowsXP and some of their new applications with their "Product RS> Activation". Basically, you install the software, and it scans your RS> hardware, and creates a numeric value based on this (via some hash RS> algorithm or something). You then get regularly pestered to contact RS> MS (online, or by phone) at which point you submit the number the RS> software generated, and the site/tech support guy gives you another RS> value, and you plunk that into the software, at which point it stops RS> hounding you to "activate" it. Of course, in order to get the RS> site/tech support guy to validate you, you need to have the requisite RS> registration number and all the usual stuff that you needed for RS> previous versions of Windows. Yeah which is why I hate the way M$ is going for years. We should have a right to our own software but this method pretty much keeps a record of what's on your computer for their purposes. I can understand piracy but is it that much out of hand they have to do stupid things like this? Then the fact that new versions will not come on CDs anymore but only downloadable. Folks still use modems! Geesh.. RS> The disadvantage to this is that if your hardware changes too much, RS> you need to re-activate the software. Supposedly, they've given RS> people a bit of leeway (getting only a new video card, for example, is RS> unlikely to require re-activation), but the changes are also RS> cumulative over time. In other other words, even if you gradually RS> upgrade your machine in pieces, sooner or later you'll need to get a RS> new PA number from Microsoft. Yeah sucks. I'll probably be using win98 still in 2028 :) RS> Needless to say, this scheme (while effective) has generated a pretty RS> negative response from those that know about it. I'm not sure if MS RS> will indeed go ahead with it, or if public opinion will sway them away RS> from it, but it'll probably be the former. The really funny thing is RS> that some time ago (long before I'd heard of WinXP), a friend and I RS> were discussing possible methods of stopping unauthorized duplication RS> of software, and this is one of the methods we came up with. We're RS> both firmly against such a tactic now, of course. :) Same here on against it. There is still that rumor that tehy or the norton folks when you did stuff online got a full template of your computer so things like that will continue. .... Now I know how Pontius Pilate must have felt. - Sinclair --- Fringe BBS * Origin: EWOG II - The Fringe - 904-733-1721 (1:112/91) .