out there now. When you were playing Kirk, kids could get a real chemistry set, for example. Now it's a lot different, and that desire to "boldly go where no man has gone before" seems blunted, constrained and discouraged. Much better to play in the sand box with the other kids.

When you were playing Kirk, I was a free range kid doing all manner of things, and yes that includes blowing stuff up. Now free range kids are increasingly rare as we consider that bad parenting, or they are "at risk", or some other fear based thing.

Have you noticed these changes? What do you think about them?

***And you kick a lot of ass Mr Shatner. I enjoy watching your antics. When I see or hear about you, I generally associate that with good times.

Thanks for a lot of great tunes, and a minor-sub culture I enjoy very much.

it's not equatable to the torts on health care.

I agree increasing the liability would seriously impact cost. We might try and actually get them to fully disclose all known risks, or something like that as a nice split the middle. I personally hate it when I get snagged on software that doesn't do what it says it does, or worse, does something it does not say it does.

The torts on health care are a entirely different animal, and equating those is trolling in my book.

You can make the case for software liability being bad, without trying to make the case that we need to reform torts in health care. And you should, because torts in health care are not the cost driver. private insurers operating on VERY THICK operating costs, and poor distribution of risk / poor management of resources is what drives our costs up so high.

We pay twice what France does per person, and we don't cover everybody, and we don't use our resources wisely. Torts are a minor league part of that.

Outcomes in France are better, and in fact outcomes in most modern nations doing either regulated private insurance, or nationalized programs are better, and their costs are significantly lower than ours are too.

We can put that money into much needed infrastructure, alternative energy build outs and conversions, and small business.

After a time, that pays off nicely, at which point, the wealthy people have something to buy with the money they have, getting a return on the tax just like they did last time.

Remember kids, "your money" is only worth what "your nation" is.

I work with the producer of this software in a close enough capacity that I would know otherwise.

There is somebody right now doing expensive battle in court, currently headed toward a loss. The data is factored, and matched against the user-base, which is known, and under signed contract. Quite simply, a false positive is damn near impossible, because the data exists to know who is authorized and who isn't. Every single seat is known globally. Not hard to sort out the false positives, and if it's a marginal case, I'll bet they don't bother because there are plenty of solid ones.

There is a slip of paper shipped with each box, and that is presented in binary form with original distributions of the software informing people of the system, and the basics of how it works. Authorized use sends NO data. It's authorized use. Wouldn't want the people who paid and are using things properly dealt a bad hand, now would we?

It's really a nice piece of work. If you are authorized, you've read and signed a real contract, not some EULA, so the terms are clear, limiting the kinds of legal you mention. Having done that, your software won't be sending anything as it's operating on a known license authorization. Those are actually quite difficult to get wrong and have the software function. Somebody has to modify the software to execute a unauthorized use, and that's the trigger right there. And since there is no signed contract in place, there can be no expectation of fit, form and function can there? See how that works? Brilliant, if you ask me.

And this isn't DRM. The subtle bit here is simply detecting and communicating unauthorized use. The user will experience no difference in functionality, the cracks out there will still work, etc... Nothing prevents the unauthorized use. Said use is simply communicated with enough data to make the case cut 'n dried.

Been through a few of these now, and it's quite potent.

Oh, and as for your threats of dumping the software? This stuff costs some significant money. Nobody using it would even think twice about the authors dealing with piracy. Nobody cares, because they being the users who are authorized and such, have exactly zero worries. Again, no data is communicated. Non issue.

So far, the few who have had serious firewall setups, and who are pissed about it, appear to not have serious enough firewall setups, which is why they are pissed, with most of their effort fixated on how the data got out in the first place, and not on the unauthorized use part of things.

The way I see it, if you go and grab some binary, particularly a complex and expensive one, crack it, or get a crack from somebody, you pretty much are asking for it, right? I know I would be, and frankly, have never let anything out on the net like that, early adopter of VM technology for a lot of reasons, that being one of them, as this kind of thing has been out there now for a number of years. Data gets tagged too, just so you know, but only when it's unauthorized data, generated on a unauthorized use session. When that data gets communicated, well you get the idea.

All that said, there are still outs. Just keep it a learning experience, off the net for good, data isolated, maybe moved into neutral formats when desired, and the piracy can happen as it always has, leaving the door open for people who learn that way to do so. Hell, I did in the early 80's, and a lot of people I know did. Still can happen.

But, what isn't going to be practical is business use for profit under that scheme.

Your rant is a lot like the guy with the "secure" system, finding out it isn't, caught with pants down, running software unauthorized, more than it does anything else, because again, the authorized users are known, all of them, accounted for, under contract, with no worries at all, actually experiencing a easier get up and running experience than the pirates and their cracks and keygens are.

The twist is the phone home only happens on unauthorized uses, and it does so by vetting both the license and the software instance running.

Compliant users, authorized to use, have nothing phoned home, ever. Non-compliant, unauthorized users do get the phone home, and it's been quite effective.

They get a letter stating the use, user name, place, time, number of instances and a lot of other stuff. That same letter lets them know they can buy a license and how to do so.

We've seen everything from a quick, "oh shit" and a license purchase, to raving mad letters demanding to know exactly how that info got out of their network! Hilarious actually.

Going forward, the only way to realistically pirate is to do it off line, in a VM.

Rob,

Thanks. That's it really. I've read and contributed since near the beginning, and I wish you good things to come, and lots of family time. Only comes once you know.

atariREALLYSUCKS.com

Ford missed it.

...or hate them. Depends right?

Seriously, haven't you ever had a bad week? I have. Haven't you ever gathered with friends, looking for a evening of social antics? I have.

One of the basic, simple pleasures in this world is a nice buzz, and there are many different kinds, some good eats, entertainment, and friends. Have a nice long chat, tickle the senses, and just wash away lots of painful things for a while, happy to just be, love, do, share.

Anything good can be abused. That goes with simple food.

I like a nice high once in a while. Lots of ways to get it too. Write some brilliant code, skydive, pot, opiates (poppy tea is particularly nice), booze (hate it generally), etc...

Before you expound on "those illegal drugs", maybe you should consider more fully why some are illegal and some are not, plug that into your AM radio morals, and get back to me.

Yep. Where I live, these things are legal.

Half life of a smoked dose is on the order of 1/2 to 1 hour. Half life of a extract or tincture is on the order of 4 hours. SImple oral ingestion of cured cannibis is somewhere in that range too. 4 hours.

The most effective treatments I've seen so far are chronic pain, insomnia, various eating disorders. Cheap, simple, effective, robust.

Just a bit too early...

Done (try to be more original)

and participate in political censoring.

anyway!

So then, why not use the cheaper / open DB, and build out the thing with that room full of people?

Fair question, particularly given the extreme size in this case.

way more to prevent crime than investment in these kinds of things will.

Tax the fuck out of the regressives, like we used to do, so they keep their wealth in motion, in business, instead of gambling and big boats. take those dollars, and start another national build out, like we did last time, launch a mission to Mars, and pay for solid education (again), putting a lot of people to work, and presenting them with opportunity.

Excessive crime is what we get for failing to value people properly. It's a priority problem, not a technical one.

And, with that kind of policy in place, hiring a few more officers would be a no brainer too. Keep the fancy code, it might do some good, but it will do one hell of a lot more good coupled with more appropriate trade and tax policy than it will otherwise.