Comment It isn't broke, so lets fix it! (Score 0) 170
Why do we need an alternative?
Submission + - Scientists offer new way to read online text
An anonymous reader writes: Scientists at a small startup called Walker Reading Technologies in Minnesota have determined that the human brain is not wired properly to read block text. They have found that our eyes view text as if they're peering through a straw. Not only does your brain see the text on the line you're reading, but it's also uploading superfluous information from the two lines above and the two lines below. This causes your brain to engage in a tug of war as it fights to filter and ignore the noise. The result is slower reading speeds and decreased comprehension. The company has developed a product that automatically re-formats text in a way that your brain can more easily comprehend. This article in VentureBeat — http://venturebeat.com/2007/05/10/live-ink-offers- better-way-to-read-text-online/#more-10459 — explains.
Submission + - Vista activation cracked by brute force
Bengt writes: The Inquirer has a story about a brute force Vista key activation crack.
From TFA: The crack is a glorified guesser, and with the speed of modern PCs and the number of outstanding keys, the 25-digit serials are within range. The biggest problem for MS? If this gets widespread, and I hope it will, people will start activating legit keys that are owned by other people.
There is really no differentiating between a legit copy with a manually typed in wrong key and a hack attempt. Sure MS can throttle this by limiting key attempts to one a minute or so on new software, but the older variants are already burnt to disk. The cat is out of the bag. The crack was first mentioned on the Keznews forums, a step by step How-to can be found HERE
From TFA: The crack is a glorified guesser, and with the speed of modern PCs and the number of outstanding keys, the 25-digit serials are within range. The biggest problem for MS? If this gets widespread, and I hope it will, people will start activating legit keys that are owned by other people.
There is really no differentiating between a legit copy with a manually typed in wrong key and a hack attempt. Sure MS can throttle this by limiting key attempts to one a minute or so on new software, but the older variants are already burnt to disk. The cat is out of the bag. The crack was first mentioned on the Keznews forums, a step by step How-to can be found HERE
Submission + - Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy
teamhasnoi writes: "Back in 2004, Slashdot discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the dev's own words, "There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop." Is deleting user data ever acceptable, even when defending one's software from piracy?"
