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1. Comment - Microsoft Axes Smart Tags

   (Jul 2, 2001 - 1:42 AM)

   Strapped for time, I'll make this short. By reading this you agree to be bound by this EULA. You will now kill yourself. Also, I need your kidneys; Mine are bad. Send them along with all your personal belongings.
   
   "All your computers are belong to us."
   
   "Because the license says so."
   
   Just because you write an EULA does not make it "The Law". It can be contested.

2. Comment - Appeals Court Reverses MS Breakup

   (Jul 1, 2001 - 12:05 PM)

   AOL was forced to use IE in the contract they signed, so they could get placed on the desktop and bundled with the OS. IE was a total rip-off of Netscape. Netscape was here first when M$ decided to "cut off their air supply". Netscape is, was a good browser. 90% of IE is loaded at windows startup... Opera Is better than both of them.
   
   Man! Where does M$ get all these card-carrying PR robot???

3. Comment - Microsoft Axes Smart Tags

   (Jul 1, 2001 - 11:31 AM)

   ....[Begin Quote]....
   
   I don't think you understand what a "hash" is. Hashes are like a checksum; you can't extract the original data from the hash, but you can use a hash to compare two things for equality.
   
   ....[End Quote]....
   
   Lets say for one moment that you're right, and M$ isn't doing anything sneaky behind our backs, in spite of the fact we don't know precisely how this algorithm is set up. And While Taking such a stance would be naive in light of their past lies and evasiveness, for those of you who don't already know, M$ took the hardware information and MAC address from our computers when we visited and/or updated windows from their web sites and added this to a large database; all under our noses. When someone pointed this out to them, they apologized and acted like it was some kind of accident. Well, I for one, am getting sick of their constant excuses, apologies, and "accidents" that are all too frequent.
   
   And while the "accidents" get more and more elaborate, aside from the fact that activation violates; Fair use Laws, and perhaps Lemon Laws, the privacy issues concerning activation do not lend them self only to Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD), but are rooted in the same visitations of Biometrics.
   
   The parallel to a "Biometric Fingerprint", while not an exact image of someone's "Fingerprint", but of a few selected geometric artifacts of the physiological traits unique to everyone (in this case, hardware); While it can not be converted back into its originating form per se, but rather a useless skeleton, ideally; still poses an enormous threat considering the sudden and unexpected s***s in information profiling, storage and processing technology, and information terrorism, where as of yet, there are no laws or regulations governing the sale or transfer of biometric information legally acquired.
   
   This apparently benign, yet very intrusive and invading procedure of OS "Product Activation", with the possibility to keep every person's unique computer characteristics on file (not to mention what else would be possible, such as giving this "Hash" to the NSA. Anyone remember the _NSAkey?) should not be tolerated by Anyone. Even residues of such technologies being present on an OS would be out of the question. I can't imagine any government security agency using XP anymore than the Chinese Government has used the Pentium Processor with its Processor-ID (they banned it).
   
   One has not to look far to see where people overstretch their authority. Every person who went to the Super Bowl was secretly photographed and placed into a Biometric database. The database was then compared against a database of felons and criminals. They found something like 18 people who were wanted for some crime or another. Thats 18 out of how many people? That is not a justification for this Unlawful Domestic Surveillance and Unlawful Search and Seizure, only to find a small handful of criminals?
   
   I can't see why anyone would stand for such fingerprinting when buying a computer or anything for that matter. And to the argument that everyone has a social security number, license plate, and has to validate that they are 21 years old by showing ID when purchasing alcohol or entering bars (in the US). These points are not valid. I Drive my car in public where one can crash into someone and then be apprehended, My Social Security Number is for "Social Security", and I flash my Photo ID to a person whereupon he immediately forgets this information after my age is validated. My Car, SSN, and ID don't automatically transmit information back to some centralized Database that will decide if I should be allowed to drive my car, drink or turn on my computer today (Not to mention that people Drink and Drive and their car doesn't disable it self, but Heaven forbid we upgrade our hardware). My computer, the hardware configuration that I purchased and own. Not Microsoft! I switch my hardware All ThE TiME!!! I have 2 computers that only I use. Do you honestly expect me to shell out over $700 for a "multi-user license" just so I can have "Fair Use". That is a law that YOU have to comply with, not me. Lets not forget that the OS is the Air that the programs breathe, the electricity (That I pay for) its blood or should I call it the sodium and potassium that flow through its neurons.
   
   Our Founding Forefathers never intended for such things as this, and some even were opposed to the ownership of ideas as commodities. When Technology advances to a point of no return, we cant let a bunch of greedy Luddites try to put forth unbelievable limitations on things that they could never and should never have total control of.
   
   Artists vs. Photography, Hollywood vs. VCRs, Government vs. Supercomputers and Encryption, Record Industry vs Napster. There are going to be technological changes we can't do anything to stop. Case in point: A new radar was invented called "Passive Radar" that makes the billion dollar Stealth Plane totally obsolete. No one can hide from it and its absolutely undetectable! If thats not enough to make the Government s*** themselves, Scientists speculate that in the future, Quantum computers will be able to decrypt ANYTHING!
   
   The Government and Billion Dollar Industries such as Microsoft want to tell you what you can and can't do, while doing what ever they want with technology and information. What would we do to stop formerly unavailable technologies being used by people?
   
   Perhaps in the future of "Quantum Computers", when encryption is impossible, we could add special death darts that kill people that try to decrypt restricted government documentation.
   
   Or if someone tries to copy a CD we could make their computers explode, creating a shower of bloody chunks and shrapnel.

4. Comment - Microsoft Axes Smart Tags

   (Jul 1, 2001 - 11:29 AM)

   M$ knows how it builds the hash. If they know how it builds the hash, then via reverse engineering, they can easily know exactly what hardware you have. EACH piece of hardware has a UNIQUE hardware vendor code/id/mac address. Each separate vendor uses specific mac addresses only for their company. If M$ can get your PID from the hash of several randomly picked hardware IDs, then M$ can easily know how to decrypt those hareware vendor IDs and know exactly what you got. Look at Plug and Play, if M$ is going to use Plug and Play Data, the info plug and play has are the following: Vendor ID, Product ID, Hardware Type ID.
   The scanning of hardware has ALREADY been done by Win2k and stored in the registry. If you want to crack this code, just gather all the data from the registry and apply it to the hash algorithm. Hardware IDs are all there. Does NOT take for ever as the quote implies. If it is protected by law, then every Windows since Windows 3.x is in violation of this law.
   Consider this. If you took this information and put it into a text file, zipped it up, added password protection, and handed the file to anyone out there and had the tools to "bruteforce" crack the password or run a systematic hash cracking, then they will be able to unzip the file, and know what the Text file contains.
   Remember the old fashion global world problem with software. Anything can be cracked/hacked/stolen from you. It is only knowing what tools to use. M$ CAN, and WILL reverse engineer their secret key to sell "personal data" to other companies who want to know what general hardware (Video, CPU, Soundcard, HD, CR-RW, DVD, and Memory type/vendors) and will allow M$ to personally gain extra cash from other people's data which they did not authorize to have that data transmitted.
   What should be done is that M$ "most definately will" get in trouble with the law again and this lawsuit on product activation will put M$ bankrupt.
   I KNOW there will be contests out there to crack/reverse engineer the PID/hardware hashed code cause there are MANY out there very interested in knowing how M$ will do this hashing. There must be a sequence of "registered" bits that will notify the decryptor what type of hash was used and I have a very good IDEA on how they created this hash.
   It would be more along the lines that the PID is the Public key in an RSA master key code. However, the hardware PIDs are possibly combined together or stacked one on top of eachother and presto, if you got the master key, you can get associate it with the RSA Public key, and then be able to reverse engineer the hardware PIDs.
   As I have reiterated before, IF you transmit ANY hardware information in some sort of KEY, the remote party receiving this information WILL know what type of hardware you have, period. M$ thinks we are stupid enough to believe that they don't know how to reverse engineer their own code to find out the hardware info.
   Think about it. The US and British people could not crack the code the Germans were using during WW2 but eventually cracked the code and knew how to decrypt it, knowing their every move. With GHzs of CPU power out there, who says this code can not be decoded? I sure don't believe it, do you?
   Think about it, your freedom of privacy is now violated. Add information raping here.

5. Comment - Appeals Court Reverses MS Breakup

   (Jun 29, 2001 - 6:08 PM)

   the DOJ says it is so, and they have spent a lot of time reading and listening to lots of witnesses. You on the other hand have not.
   
   Let me see:
   
   1. exclusionary contracts
   
   2. OEMs.
   
   3. ISPs
   
   4. EarthLink
   
   5. Gateway
   
   6. Compaq
   
   7. Intel.
   
   8. Netscape and Opera.
   
   9. Contracts that force people to NOT use Netscape.
   
   10. AOL was forced NOT to use Netscape in exchange for desktop space in the OS.
   
   11. M$ refusing to make office for the mac blackmail Apple into adopting IE as its default browser.
   
   12. Internal documentation (the most harmful to M$) that said stuff like:
   
   "Stab the baby!"
   "So you want me to stab the baby?"
   "Yes, stab the baby."
   
   and
   
   "Lets see Netscape charge for their browser when we give ours away for free. We'll remove their air supply!"
   
   13. They also where caught lying through their teeth in court, and produced fake evidence.
   
   14. Bill Gates is also an evasive spoiled brat:
   
   Did you write this e-mail? "Importance: High."
   
   "No," Gates said curtly.
   
   "No?"
   
   "No, I didn't type that."
   
   Then who did?
   
   "A computer."
   
   15. The truth is out there. Do the research.
   
   -----
   
   Brian, I sent you an e-mail!
   Where are you, I want to hang off your coattails?!?