Bombcar - Slashdot User

Submission + - Microsoft's WGA servers dead, fix days away

Submitted by Downgrade on Saturday August 25, 2007 @02:21PM

Downgrade writes: Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage system is offline, so users who are attempting to validate their installs are getting notices that their copies of Windows are not legit. The company is now saying that it is working to have a fix not later today, not tomorrow, but on Tuesday! Ars says that users who are hit by the outage should avoid rebooting their computers, because WGA failures will result in Aero being disabled. Way to punish your customers, Microsoft!

Submission + - Microsoft WGA servers down (boingboing.net)

Submitted by

MarkByers

on Saturday August 25, 2007 @02:06PM

MarkByers writes: "DRM bites again: the Microsoft Windows Genuine Advantage servers (which every XP and Vista install phones home to) all failed sometime earlier today.

The result? Every single Windows XP and Vista installation — except possibly those with volume license keys — is being marked as counterfeit when it tries to check in. Installations which are flagged as counterfeit switch to a "reduced functionality mode" which results in features like Aero and DirectX being disabled."

Submission + - Microsoft activation servers are down

Submitted by anders on Saturday August 25, 2007 @01:50PM

anders writes: On Thursday I decided to rebuild my laptop and (re-)install Vista. I activated and everything was fine until sometime yesterday, when Aero stopped working and dialogs started popping up telling me I am the victim of counterfeiting. Since my copy of Vista if perfectly legit, I did a bit of googling and it turns out that Microsoft is the victim of server downtime: the WGA/activation servers are down: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/25/microsoft_wga _server.html

Submission + - WorldWideWGA Outage - Got Advantage?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 25, 2007 @01:45PM

An anonymous reader writes: The spy software designed to intrude, monitor, disable, and nag continues the tradition, now with legitimate users!

Submission + - AllOfMP3 responds to $1.65 trillion dollar lawsuit

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 31, 2006 @12:59PM

An anonymous reader writes: As listed previously on Slashdot, the RIAA has filed suit in New York demanding $1.65 trillion dollars from AllOfMp3 for damages (thats 150k per download). AllOfMp3 has responded to this with following:

An attempt by the major record labels to use a U.S. court to as part of its campaign against AllofMP3.com is imprudent. AllofMP3 understands that several US record label companies filed a lawsuit against Mediaservices in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3.com does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3.com operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3.com plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.

Submission + - The Insatiable Power Hunger of Home Electronics

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 28, 2006 @03:05AM

An anonymous reader writes: A Wall Street Journal columnist recently got his hand on a power meter and decided to write about his findings, the resulting article being discussed here on Slashdot. That author concluded that gadgets are getting a bad rap, and are relatively insignificant power consumers in the grand scheme of things. A rebuttal has appeared, arguing that not only are modern electronics significant power consumers already, while everything else is becoming more efficient, home electronics seem to be getting worse. This echoes the Department of Energy's prediction that "Electricity consumption for home electronics, particularly for color TVs and computer equipment, is also forecast to grow significantly over the next two decades." Are gadgets unfairly maligned, or getting an unearned pardon?

Submission + - Xbox Live Matchmaking Down

Submitted by

Pilgrim Pain

on Thursday December 28, 2006 @02:43AM

Pilgrim Pain writes: "The matchmaking abilities in Xbox live went down at approximately 8:30pm EST on Wednesday, December 27. As of this writing at 01:33am on Thursday, December 28 these abilities are still down. The support section under http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/?WT.svl=nav stated, "Status: Up and running. Xbox Live is currently experiencing issues with Matchmaking. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and Thank You for your patience." Why bother having Xbox Live active at all if this feature isn't working? Isn't this the main purpose of Xbox Live? Just what exactly is Microsoft's definition of "Up and running"? Is there more going on here than Microsoft cares to admit (seems like a long time for the problem to be rectified)?"

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray AACS DRM Cracked 432

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 28, 2006 @01:45AM from the that-didn't-take-long dept.

EGSonikku writes "According to this article on Endgadget, the AACS DRM used in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray has been cracked. The program allows one to decrypt and dump the video for play on a users hard drive, or it can be burned to a blank HD-DVD and played on a stand-alone player. According to the accompanying video, a source release for the program will be made available in January. Time to get that $200 Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive?" Warning: this link contains video.

Will Apple Follow Microsoft's Lead to Restrictive DRM? 326

Posted by Cliff on Thursday December 28, 2006 @01:10AM from the inevitable-or-avoidable dept.

Steve Ryan asks: "The direction Microsoft are taking with Windows (for example, the DRM issues in Vista) have led me to believe Windows will soon be an OS which controls the user, rather than the other way round. I like XP, and I find it stable, but I do not want to upgrade to an OS (Vista) which is restrictive. This leaves me with either Linux or Mac OS X. I like Linux, but it may not work with my laptop, so I don't really want to risk it. OS X seems nice. I spend most of my time writing documents and surfing the web, so it should handle everything I want, and I would be happy to buy a lovely MacBook Pro. This leaves me with my question: Will Apple follow Microsoft's lead and implement a DRM loving policy?"

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