Post AwjOyAxGQppJ7Zv9XM by russss@chaos.social
 (DIR) More posts by russss@chaos.social
 (DIR) Post #AwjOyAxGQppJ7Zv9XM by russss@chaos.social
       2025-07-31T21:30:35Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       Ah Germany, where you can pay in cash and the 90s-looking till will somehow spit out a ECDSA/SHA384 signature. Love some base64 on my receipts.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwjOyBlFQzoDcbJ4Rk by argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-08-01T16:00:51Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @russss Shouldn't that be a QR code? The only way to do anything with this signature is to enter it into a computer and trying to OCR it or type it in by hand is going to introduce errors.
       
 (DIR) Post #AwjOyCR4vTGliKsTeC by m0xEE@nosh0b10.m0xee.net
       2025-08-01T16:26:08Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org @russss@chaos.socialRemember those Windows software installers that had cut and paste disabled for serial number field? Because reading it from the cardboard box and entering it digit by digit is the only way you're allowed to do this were you naive enough to obtain your copy legitimately 😈
       
 (DIR) Post #AwjOyJaYKe0VtkMdt2 by russss@chaos.social
       2025-07-31T21:42:19Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       (KassenSichV is very weird to me. Surely the implementation costs of upgrading all these PoS systems were massive? Do the tax inspectors ever have to key in the base64 manually? Has it been worth all the hassle?)
       
 (DIR) Post #Awl5GzY9Ry3MU4mzjc by argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-08-01T17:53:19Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @m0xEE Yep, I remember. Most Microsoft software came with a slip of paper with the license key printed on it.But that was only 25 uppercase alphanumeric characters (which encodes exactly 128 bits). Not nearly as hard as typing in this pile of Base64.I've also seen a variation: you get *emailed* the license key. In that case, you are allowed and expected to paste it into the software installer.@russss
       
 (DIR) Post #Awl5H0YBjJg1aToXQm by argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org
       2025-08-01T17:56:22Z
       
       1 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @m0xEE That uppercase-alphanumeric-character encoding Microsoft used is called Base36, by the way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base36@russss
       
 (DIR) Post #Awl6Pe84YpJ2brHWoy by m0xEE@nosh0b10.m0xee.net
       2025-08-02T12:07:38Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org @russss@chaos.socialI'm fine with keys being emailed — I think I have quite a few in my inbox, and despite my mutt archive spanning well over a decade, somehow I've never had a problem finding a key from years ago 😅As much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft isn't the worst offender here — even the phone activation, which is hell to go through, I think they did the best they could to make it bearable. What I used to hate is Autodesk, I don't remember what product it was in particular, probably AutoCAD 2000 — working as system administrator in my uni, I had to install it pretty often, the number of licenses for it was few, so I couldn't put it in filesystem image, there were no good automation tools, so restoration of machines which had this… thing on them involved reinstalling it manually. My memory of it is hazy, but I think this serial number was longer, it also had an additional product number string, albeit a shorter one. Not only there was no way to paste it, but it had number groups split into separate fields and you had to switch between them using Tab — utter hell! 😡