Favorite Files

No favorite files added yet

Recent Posts

1. Comment - Microsoft Admits WGA Phones Home

   (Jun 12, 2006 - 10:21 PM)

   Yep (blush) srry.
   Started in the morning...went out..came back did some more etc.
   
   I did not know I had written a book till I hit the send button! :-)

2. Comment - Microsoft Responds to WGA Concerns

   (Jun 11, 2006 - 5:23 PM)

   Hmmmmm.....
   I am new to this board, but after reading a few threads notice a quite clear trend. Apparently anyone having anything negative to say about MS can be attacked and called any sort of name whatsoever (along with rude comments)
   
   A quick scan shows that the posters Unhappy about Ms policies (even those making unsubstantiated claims) for the most part are staying polite.
   
   Watching the flow of the discourse and the angry/protective and generally rude/hotile reactions of the "MS guardians" is much more informative of thier characters than of those they disagree with.
   
   Very interesting.

3. Comment - Microsoft Admits WGA Phones Home

   (Jun 11, 2006 - 4:11 PM)

   Is anyone really surprised? Really?
   
   I was aware of this almost from the moment WGA went onto my machine, but choose to ignore it for now as an example of more corporate spyware. I was also amused about how all the big firewalls I tested against it over the next few days instantly made way and opened a path for it unless told explicitly not to!)
   
   Microsoft (and other companys) have steadily been sliding down the Drm/Spyware-its not your computer-its our plaything-slope for years now.
   To the point where I no longer have any confidance at all in thier motives and intentions.
   
   (Or of our well-lobbied governments ability/willingness to perform its duty to protect us from excess)
   
   I now view my computer as a bastion under seige by powerful outside forces determined to usurp it for thier own profit and purposes.
   
   And they will probably win, eventually..... The politicians are well greased, and laws hidden and obscure (and often almost directly written by the software companys) are on the table that pretty much completely take control of your machine away....for thier profit, of course.
   
   I can see myself eventually abandoning the Pc (like I have mostly abandoned network television) for anything but light web-surfing. It just wont be fun for anything else with you having to get permission from Redmond and others to even fart. (shrugs)
   
   The stupid part is I DO have legal copies of XP for all of my 4 home machines.... (at last count, I have about 10 legal copies of various forms of windows 6 of them windows XP!) But having to call big brother everytime I wanted to make a change on MY machine(s) (MINE DAMMIT!) Was absolutly rage-inducing!
   
   I am (was) since my early teens an early adaptor; first to buy and try almost every new consumer electronic hardware and (usefull) software product. It was an expensive but fun hobby, but now I buy almost nothing (Bye bye HDTV & Blueray!) because its all spy-ridden cripple-ware.
   
   (Same with music!) :-( I once had an ENORMOUS collection of cd's, all purchased. But all the eventual spying and Drm and God knows what else just tuned me off till I lost interest.
   
   Not to mention hearing about the lawsuits! I have not bought a Cd in years because of that, and dont even download music even though I easily could. (and my cds are mostly in poor shape now from being stored and forgotton in the basement for years. Its all just to much BS for a bunch of increasingly Mediocre crap.. (sighs)
   
   I dont watch MTV anymore, and Dont often listen to music on the car radio. (I like NPR, and I DONT like big corporations sueing and bullying people left and right)
   
   well, when a friend offered me corporate version of XP to play with one year, BOOM! I became a convert/pirate! Not because I did not want to pay, but because I am a grown man who does not want to call Mommy to use my own dang computers whenever I changed anything (which was VERY VERY often!)
   
   Activation frustration left me primed to jump at this opportunity! And led directly to my falling off of the "Legal" bandwagon.
   
   Now this Wga stuff comes along to FORCE us to bend over and take it, and my response is NOT to go back to my licensed copies.... Its to duck and dodge and to explore Linux (and other options) seriously for the first time ever.
   
   I have in the last 2 months switched all of my machines to open office, and am encouraging friends to do the same. I am useing firefox and Videolan rather than Explorer and Windows Mediaplayer, and I am Slowly (carefully) dipping my foot into the deep waters of linux.
   (All in response to WGA!)
   
   Not because I want to; (all this stuff is hard!) but because I feel microsoft is literally giving me no choice if I intend to keep some control over my own machine(s)!
   
   In a move I NEVER thought would happen, I can now see myself being totally LINUX within the year, and all of the machines I build for family and friends (literally dozens) will then go that way as well. (The good side to that is that the expense (which I ALWAYS hated, of buying windows for them goes away as well)
   
   (Even some local mom and pop computer stores I deal with are disgusted enough that they are now going linux and installing open source software on the machines they sell!)
   
   I am sorry. :-( There are MANY MS products I like.... but not enough to give up my free use of my computer. My whole reluctant but increasing conversion to open source began with WGA "Advantage"
   
   (Are you listening, US Congress? No? I thought not. Enjoy your money.)
   
   Anyway.... I LIKE my computer.... but in the end it has to be MY computer... not thiers, or I simply wont use it, and I certainly wont upgrade it or buy new ones that are even more compromised. I need more sun, anyway!
   
   Not surprisingly, the very thought of VISTA now leaves this former early adaptor cold. Totally completely subzero cold. Its just a continuation of this current trend, with me stamping out/disabling and otherwise terminating tendrils of trojan horse corporate spyware with ever increasing annoyance and iritation.
   
   Its to the point now that I am beggining to think of the software companys, the MPA/RIIA and hackers/virus writers as being functionally equivalent!
   
   How do I "KNOW" WGA info is all thats being taken, or that some hacker wont use this conection as an avenue into millions of machines, to install viruses or steal information? (Golly THATS never happened before.....Rolls eyes)
   
   What I DO know is that if that were to happen, we would find that MS is completely covered from any damages, and that our greased politicians will hum and look the other way, like they have (mostly) done with the Sony rootkit case.
   
   Oh, and on a slightly related note, I recently tried Media Player 11, (That old early adaptor itch) and the URGE Eula was one of the scariest things I have ever read. Talk about phoning home!! (Is this America?!)
   
   How did I get mediaplayer 11 when you need Genuine advantage? I converted one machine back to a "Legal" Version to get updates. (Or I could have just gone totally evil and squashed genuine advantage like a bug... it can be done, and after months of research (Again brought on by WGA! I am now more than techy enough to know how!)
   
   :-( :-( :-( But I dont WANT to do that! Cant MS please, please, please offer us other options!? (and stop invading our homes, uninvited?)
   
   Anyway, The player was, after testing, deleted with extreme malice, and my possibly DRM Infected Windows was, after some thought, deleted and reinstalled as well without whatever POO WMP11 probably left behind. :-(
   (Yuck!)
   
   And now I dont like/trust MTV, either!
   
   At this point I'm thinking I would sooner just go back to reading more and hanging out with my S/O. (But I am converting thier machine, too!)
   
   In the aftermath of this rude wake up call, I am now becomeing politically active for the first time in my life. I have written to my congressman, (and will be doing so again) and am now registered to vote for the first time ever. Yes, shame on me!
   
   I am VERY troubled by the things I am reading, and VERY unconvinced by the paid corporate types burbling about how cool it will all be, just go back to sleep and trust us.
   
   The fact that most of the politicians pushing this the hardest turn out to be known corparate hand-puppets for the most part is disturbing too.
   
   Yep, spurred by this, I am examining many politicians records..... and coming away shaken. It seems I was living in a dream world where politicains PROTECTED the people and the interests of the MAJORITY, not just of the rich and powerfull. :-(
   
   It seems that what these companies are doing is gaining priviledges we would NEVER (I Hope) allow our government to have, but which we are in a sense giving them anyway... by allowing them to slide in on the coat-tails of the big companies.
   
   And the more I read, and the more websites I encounter(Like this one) while researching whats going on (Again, spurred into action by WGA) the more concerned and even frightened I become about what is slowly happening to the free country I was raised in.
   
   Enough is enough. There has to be a BALANCE between Microsofts (and others) rights and those of the public. I stayed asleep and fat and happy because I stupidly trusted our politicians to find and implement that balance. Instead, our well greased leaders have sold us out completely and attempted to slam and lock the door! (DMCA, anyone?)
   
   Its probably too late, but I am "awake" now, and will do all I can to vote some corrupted "Servants of the People" out of office. Its the only power I have remaining, it seems.
   
   Bleah!!!!
   BLEAH!!!
   
   Its all so sad..........