The record label claims they knew of this exploit. Now, did they say that just to save face, or did they really know it? And if they did know it, why on earth would they give SunComm money for it?

The method of copy protection is about as strong as attaching a label that says "please don't copy this cd" to the CD, so I find it difficult to believe that the record label didn't know about the "exploit". I think the real purpose behind the technology wasn't to prevent copying, though, but instead it was to try the other methods of Digital Rights Management that are packed into SunComm's software. I could see the record companies petitioning Microsoft to incorporate DRM drivers out of the box in the future (which still wouldn't accomplish anything, but the scheme wouldn't rely on autorun and a license agreement).

None of these backwards-compatible schemes will ever work as long as there's not hardware support for this kind of stuff, though. It's all pretty futile anyway, considering that it takes one person to rip the CD, and then everyone else can download it and spread it without worrying about copy protection.

(What kind of software does nvidia have for dual monitors, name it's features, like the multiple desktops up to 9 that ATI has, the right click and save icon positions and such, I just want to know)

NView. Here's the features:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_8400.html

And NView supports 16 desktops.

I remember way back when the movie first came out hearing the special effects dude saying how they had to cut all the "cool" realistic effects they had for the chainsaw scene (to keep the movie from being rated X).

I watched the Scarface special that was on Spike TV a couple weeks ago, and the director said that they actually ended up not cutting anything from the movie. From what I understand, they submitted 3 versions of the movie, but each one got an 'X' rating because they didn't tone it down quite enough. But then they won some legal battle to get an 'R' rating on the film, and ended up using the first cut of the film.

Although maybe the first cut they submitted to the MPAA just didn't include all they originally wanted to put in the film. Either way, now I don't know what to believe! Someone with the DVD help us out.

Sorry to hear the news, Ray. Like Bronco said, you truly do make these boards a better place with your posts, and I do wish more people these days would have your positive attitude. I know you only through posts about games on a simple gaming forum, but your quality personality shows through even in our simple conversations about games. Just keep the positive view of life no matter what has happened, or what may happen. The world needs more people like you.

I'm not talking about the kiddies that put "U R Teh Suxx0R!1!!!!!!11!! P2P FOREVAAHH!!!!!!11!!!!!!1" on the RIAA's website. I'm talking about the kind of hackers that infiltrate the power grid computer system and just zoom around to see what all they can do, or those guys that hack credit card companies and the only thing you ever hear about it is when the companies fess up the breach several months later.

Well, there aren't many people who have the self control to hack into a system just to prove to themselves what they can do, and then never speak of it to anyone. The whole point is to gain notoriety in the social circles that thrive on this sort of thing. The people who do this kind of stuff can cover their tracks, but these people also cannot keep their mouths shut about it--I mean, why else steal the Half-Life 2 code except for bragging rights?

Here's a good message about the thing, and it basically parallels the view I have about it:
http://lists.insecure.org/lists/isn/2001/Dec/0113.html

Although, if things really did happen as simply as Gabe said they did, it doesn't look like it needed the kind of hacker that gives the Mossad fits.

Haha! I tend to agree. I doubt a simple script kiddie was responsible, but from the news we've received it sounds like a script kiddie could have done it without much problem. Sounds like Valve wasn't even logging their network activity, which makes it pretty damn easy for a hacker to cover his tracks.

Unless he's expecting the perp to be bragging about it (or will be, or has been bragging about it, take your pick), which seems unlikely, given the fact he / she / they seemed to know what they were doing.

A hacker bragging about what he did? That's unheard of!!!

(bahahahhahahahahahahahhaha!)

Sucks to be Valve right about now. I can't believe that something like this could happen--I'm pretty much speechless.

That's crazy.

You're probably right. Though I have a hard time believing he's gone.

Only 2 left now. Dumbass Dantastic and Stupidshit Soupkin.

Soupkin was definately the person responsible for the resurgence of fredrickson yesterday, and he's probably been fredrickson all along. Dantastic's show of "oh stop it fred or i'll give out your e-mail" was retarded and I hope nobody bought it. He was in on the whole thing and probably came up with the whole idea.

I wish Blue didn't give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes... but then, I guess that's one thing that what makes Blue so cool.

I'm sorry to hear that, Blue.

$150,000 settlement over bad haircut.

You didn't post the correct link for that one.

I hope everything turns out ok, Blue.

How many dupes are there here now?

There's Rolphus/Ralphus, which isn't an exact match, but the intention is clear. Otherwise, I think you got them all.

But he is *not* the world's most EFFICIENT programmer; code from the Q1/Q2 tools prove it.

Tools are tools, and they're not real time. Pretty dumb to cite tools as examples that Carmack is not an efficient programmer, considering his claim to fame is blazing-fast real-time graphics.

I don't see why they're limiting the players to one Arnold model per map. Arnold's character was a mass-produced terminator, wasn't he? There should be thousands of them out there.

Although on thinking about it some more, Arnold is supposed to be an infiltrator, so if Skynet used the same mold, that'd kind of defeat the purpose. People would know he was an infiltrator on sight after a while.

But anyway, I still don't see the point of limiting the Arnold model in multiplayer.

badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom!

You are missing his point. He has taken anonymous posting as his own personal weapon of mass destruction. Look back through his posts and you will see he beats on this horse periodically.

Yeah, I know, I fell for it this time. I generally ignore the guy just like everyone else, but I'm just a bit bored today.

We all know you aren't a troll because we got rid of anonymous posting on the forums, which everyone including Blue said gets rid of trolls.

Frederickson was a registered user more than a year before anonymous posts were banned. Fredrickson is the same person.

thanks blue for making me look like a moron

I don't think Blue has anything to do with it.

"I've been helping my neighbor's sister treat his cat"
Whats wrong with this sentance?

Well, "neightbor" is the first antecedent to which "his" can apply, so I don't think anything is wrong with the sentence. Although I'd rewrite it to avoid the ambiguity.

I could be wrong... my grammar skills aren't what they used to be.

how not having Punkbuster / a GUID all of a sudden means that "you cannot ban anybody" and "you can't protect your server from meany h@xx0rs and ch3aturz!!" (according to that thread that's been linked).

I wonder how we all managed to do exactly that BEFORE there was punkbuster.

You sound like a crotchety old man. "Back in my day, we banned people by IP, and that's the way we liked it!" Sure, it's easy to ban people without some kind of GUID system (doesn't have to be punkbuster). As an example,

A rampant cheater joins and ruins the game for everyone. Server admin enters console command to ban the IP.

Cheater rejoins with a new IP. The match is ruined until admin enters console command to ban the IP.

Cheater rejoins with a new IP. The match is ruined until admin enters console command to ban the IP.

Cheater rejoins with a new IP...

And so on. You can replace "Cheater" with "TKer" for the same effect. Banning ranges of IP addresses ends up banning people you may not want to. A good solution is to use a GUID system, so you can ban a person regardless of the person's player name or IP address.

Yeah, there have always been other ways to control access to a server, but why take a step backwards?