Software

Awful Anti-Piracy DRM System

DarkAstraea — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:41:58 GMT

"Much virtual ink has been spilled over Ubisoft's new, harsh DRM system for Assassin's Creed 2. You must have a constant internet connection, and, if your connection breaks, the game exits. While this has angered many (and justifiably so), most writers on the topic have made an error. They think that this system, like all DRM systems in the past, will be easily broken. This article explains why, as dreadful as the system is, it does have a chance of holding hackers off long enough for the game to make its money. As such it is, if nothing else, a fascinating experiment. From the article: 'Assassin's Creed 2 is different in a key way. Remember, all of its code for saving and loading games (a significant feature, I'm sure you would agree) is tied into logging into a distant server and sending data back and forth. This vital and complex bit of code has been written from the ground up to require having the saved games live on a machine far away, with said machine being programmed to accept, save, and return the game data. This is a far more difficult problem for a hacker to circumvent.'"

(Clicky)

This is probably the worst way to try to prevent piracy, although it does work to an extent. Really does destroy the gaming environment for people who have really really really crappy internet connections.

And recently, UbiSoft's DRM Authentication Server went down causing major havoc for players all over the world cause they could not connect. Good going UbiSoft, thumbs up to the epic phail DRM system you created. There was also a thread made on the UbiSoft forums about the major downtime (lots of angry customers), but UbiSoft forum moderators cleared all the rage posts and closed the thread. (Teehee, censorship much? xD)

(Eww DRM?) (Phail System!!)

In the piracy world, cracks are already in the works and it shouldn't be long before a full crack loop around against this horrific DRM is released.

All in Windows 7

Cash — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:12:34 GMT

My desktop and now my laptop are now on Windows 7! WOOHOO! And I realized how easy it is to upgrade my laptop (RAM and an additional internal harddrive is really easy). Now to figure out if i can upgrade anything else :-D

Microsoft Leaks New Windows Details

DarkAstraea — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:28:04 GMT

"Microsoft is planning to make Windows 8 a 128-bit operating system, according to details leaked from the software giant's Research department. The discovery came to light after Microsoft Research employee Robert Morgan carelessly left details of his work on the social-networking site LinkedIn. His page read: 'Working in high-security department for research and development involving strategic planning for medium and long-term projects. Research & Development projects including 128-bit architecture compatibility with the Windows 8 kernel and Windows 9 project plan. Forming relationships with major partners: Intel, AMD, HP and IBM.' It has since been removed."

(Clicky Meh)

128-bit =O operating system development sure is coming along quickly >.<

Microsoft Says Chrome Plugin Makes IE Less Secure

DarkAstraea — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:30:48 GMT

"The release of Google Chrome Frame, a new open source plugin that injects Chrome's renderer and JavaScript engine into Microsoft's browser, earlier this week had many web developers happily dancing long through the night. Finally, someone had found a way to get Internet Explorer users up to speed on the Web. Microsoft, on the other hand, is warning IE users that it does not recommend installing the plugin. What does the company have against the plugin? It makes Internet Explorer less secure. 'With Internet Explorer 8, we made significant advancements and updates to make the browser safer for our customers,' a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars. 'Given the security issues with plugins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plugin has doubled the attack area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.'"

(Click Meh!)

>.> Google planned this!!

Big MMORPG Companies Sued by Paltalk

DarkAstraea — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:10:26 GMT

"The Boston Globe reports that major MMO publishers (Blizzard, Turbine, SOE, NCSoft, and Jagex) are being sued by Paltalk, which holds a patent on 'sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment' — a patent that would seem to apply to any multiplayer game played between multiple systems, at the very least. Paltalk has already received an out-of-court settlement from Microsoft earlier this year in relation to a lawsuit over the Halo games. If Microsoft can't fend off Paltalk's legal attacks, the odds don't look good for their latest group of targets."

This really is concerning in the world of gaming, it would mean that any programmers that attempt to make a game with a digital online sync'd environment will have to pay a hefty sum to use or even create their own. It really is all about the money to these people...."we already forced Microsoft to pay, so let's try everyone else." Not saying that getting money is a bad thing, but it's like declaring war on the entire online gaming industry.

(Clicks Me!) (Clix Meh!)

Latest Browser Speed Tests

DarkAstraea — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:06:47 GMT

"In a three-way cage match, LifeHacker threw Chrome 4, Firefox 3.5, and Opera 10 into the ring and let the three browsers duke it out to see which would emerge as the fastest app for surfing the web. Quoting: 'Like all our previous speed tests, this one is unscientific, but thorough. We install the most current versions of each browser being tested — in this case, Opera 10, Chrome's development channel 4.0 version, and the final Firefox 3.5 with security fixes — in a system with a 2.0 GHz Intel Centrino Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, running Windows XP.'"

(Click Meaz!)

A very nice read, Chrome has all the power I'd expect from it, but still has memory usage issues. O well still sticking with FireFox, Chrome just isn't for me.

"Mozilla Jetpack and the battle for the web"

DarkAstraea — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:37:09 GMT

Now I know most of you will probably "QewQew" about Firefox and saying it's terrible and such, frankly I don't really care. What I do care about is how this new software will impact the interwebs in the future. So here we go....

"Mozilla Jetpack makes it so easy to filter, modify, and mash up pages that it might end up pitting developers and users against content producers in a battle for the Web, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister. By allowing users to modify the behavior, presentation, and output of Web apps and pages to their liking, Jetpack gives users the ability to 'patch the server, in a sense,' McAllister writes, bringing us one step closer to a more democratic Web. Good news for developers and users; not so good for SaaS providers and media companies that have a vested interest in controlling the function, presentation, and distribution of Web-based content and apps. In other words, as Jetpack produces fruit, expect more producers to call for 'guardrails for the Internet.'"

(Link 1) (Link 2)

I am very much looking forward to this program coming out and hopefully so will some of you.

malwarebytes

jedi knight — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:39:27 GMT

Malwarebytes is an anit malware/ virus scanner. This program has worked wonders for me plenty of times.

If you have a virus, use it.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

and it's free.

FREE