Microsoft to Hire Xbox Hackers? 360
handsomepete writes "According to PlanetXbox, Microsoft is looking to hire 'software design engineers' to look into the properties of modchips and detection code for hardware. A background in game hacking knowledge is listed as a preferred talent. Will any of the Xbox Linux participants take a stab at this job?"
Read the contract carefully!! (Score:5, Funny)
I would assume (Score:4, Interesting)
Call me crazy, but... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Call me crazy, but... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Call me crazy, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Call me crazy, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
I think they see it as some distance away from the center of gravity of their customer base, which is mostly pimply -> wrinkly twitchers. Plus they probably rightly see that actually very few of their customers overall will ever get a modchip that is necessary to run it.. 1%-5% something like that.
However the other week Michael Steil, the project lead had Open Office up. That really made me think, with a little more maturity and slickness, quickly and easily booting into being able to run Mozilla, Mplayer, Office apps, all from a free CD and a $10 USB keyboard could potentially give MS nightmares from several angles. What's needed now is a) to still work with the new 'secure' version that's in the pipeline, and b) preferably some way to get control of the machine without a modchip.
On the job offer, most of the folks working on the project are in the EU, and several (although not necessarily all) do not find themselves philisophically aligned with the aims of MS. But if anyone wants to join them, I'd wish them good luck against the modchip manufacturers, they'll need it. I think that kind of job could be interesting, but if they day dawns that you 'win', the excitement fades, the scales fall from your eyes and you look around at the smoking ruins you have caused.
Re:I would assume (Score:2)
I would say they are trying to make their hardware harder to crack and software harder to copy and/or emulate (especially being that it is on PC hardware).
They aren't the completely evil company so many of you think.
Well maybe they are but still
Do what I did. (Score:4, Interesting)
I still got the job. I doubt M$ would accept that.
Try signing John Doe to those documents, see if anyone notices.
Re:Do what I did. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do what I did. (Score:4, Informative)
However, signing a false name to the documents (John Doe), is pretty clearly fraud and could get you in trouble if the company pressed the issue in court. Don't do it.
We all knew this was going to happen (Score:5, Interesting)
Let's just hope sellout hackers aren't as good as not-for-profit hackers.
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:3, Interesting)
At the very least, I would be amazed if Palladium development did not carefully scrutinize successes and failures of the X-Box model.
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:2)
No! Stop!
It's a cookbook [cox.net]! It's a cookbook [sideshowtoy.com]!! It's a [mrrrffph]
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:2)
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:5, Interesting)
IT'S A GAMES BOX for crying out loud.
Operating systems: Microsoft releases one every year or two. We'll say 1.5. Say people upgrade every other time (w-95 to w-Me, w-2000-w-XP), so that's one OS, bought for $150, every 3 years.
Video Game systems: Even on an off year, there are 100 titles. Chances are people will buy 6 or 8 in a year. At $50/pop, that's a lot of lost revenue they've lost in royalties over 3 years, a lot more than say operating system attrition. If people pirate games, they stand to lose more than from Operating Systems, and I'll tell you why:
A couple of key points that I've pointed out before. One: MICROSOFT does NOT CARE about individual piracy of windows. That's a fact. They care about idiots pirating it, and they care about coroprations pirating 4000 copies of it. They DO NOT CARE about the average slashdot reader pirating windows, for this reason: We are their free tech support. I pirate windows (sue me), and my dad asks me questions about how to work his computer, quote unquote. I would swear, being the "computer guru" has paid off for Microsoft more so than me, they've gotten their $200 worth out of me, in the way of I've prevented people with problems from contacting Microsoft. I have SAVED THEM MONEY, and therefore it is in their best interest to get windows, latest versions, into my hands as quickly as possible, and for free, so that I know it intimately.
Now, in the realm of games, they stand to lose money. The X-box is essentially an attempt to get into the game industry, specifically for the reasons outlined above: more people buy more video games than operating systems. More money is the bottom line to the X-box. Of course, they spent a god-damn fortune launching the thing with less than stellar titles, and competing with the PS-2's already entrenched lead and the backwards compatability of ps2-psx has proved hard. They can't stand to lose more money.
And speaking of the PS2: Sony, on the other hand, doesn't care if people pirate games for their systems. Why? They make money on the hardware. To play pirated playstation games, you first have to have a playstation. Any rumor that Sony lost money on the playstation or ps2 hardware is bull. They make the thing, and they make money on it.
Now, there once was going to be a Mod-Chip for the PS-2 that was going to eliminate the need for ANY knife trick, ANY boot disk, ANY game shark, etc etc, at the price of having 58 solder points. It was called the Messiah. There are several out there floating around as the Messiah chip, but to my knowledge, none of them actually are the origional planned chip. Sony shut the messiah chip down. Why? Why this one and not any of the others? Why not get the people that made the USB mod chip that needed the game shark?
Because in order for the messiah chip to work, the programmers had to disable ALL security checks, including reagion coding for DVD's, and other DVD anti-piracy measures. Sony had too high a stake in movies, which they stood to lose quite a bit more, enough to shut the Messiah down.
So, to sum up: Microsoft cares about X-Box game piracy, not OS piracy. Sony cares about movie piracy, not Game piracy. In short, it's all about the Benjamins.
~Will
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:3, Insightful)
And speaking of the PS2: Sony, on the other hand, doesn't care if people pirate games for their systems. Why? They make money on the hardware. To play pirated playstation games, you first have to have a playstation. Any rumor that Sony lost money on the playstation or ps2 hardware is bull. They make the thing, and they make money on it.
... is horse pocky. If you think that Sony cares any less than Microsoft about the huge profits they make on a successful piece of game software, you're fooling yourself. The small amount they make on an individual console pales in comparison to what they make on the 6-8 games the average user buys in a year.
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:4, Interesting)
With sony, I think that they take a much smaller chunk of royalty for PS and PS2 games than Microsoft takes for X-box games. But, also, sony has a much higher stake in movies than in games. The same people that buy an operating system every 3 years, and a game every other month, will buy 2 or 3 DVD's per month.
I'm not saying they don't care about the money. I'm just saying they have their priorities in order. Sony seems to be a well run company, on the track to make good profit for quite a while, and in the meantime, still produce a good product.
Plus, when you sell as many copies of games as sony does, you can afford a little attrition: How many Tekken Tags or Final Fantasy X's or GTA 3's were sold? It's a lot, I can tell you that, more than X-Box games.
And also, I hate the X-box. Because of the reason microsoft got into the market: only to cash in, not to make quality games. Because of the lack of good games for it. Because of the controllers.
~Will
~Will
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a nitpick, but XBox isn't Windows CE. It's based on a stripped down Windows 2000 kernel. Perhaps you're thinking of the Dreamcast, which did support CE? (few games actually used CE, but it was an option). Anyway, your port argument will only be valid for the first generation or two of XBox games. Since the XBox is static hardware (ie, it's a console, regardless of what Slashbots say about it), most developers will write their own in-house libraries that are thin layers over the hardware itself, rather than using something bulkier like DirectX. Once they do this, PC-to-XBox ports will no longer be trivial, and vice versa.
Odd you say XBox has a "lack of good games", considering it had the strongest launch line-up of any console since I don't know when (definitely not the PS2 or Gamecube, PSX, Saturn, Dreamcast, N64, or even the Genesis and SNES). And before you ding me for still talking about the launch line-up, let me state that the XBox isn't even a year old yet. It's still completely valid to consider those games. I'll grant you that many of the games that came later haven't been that great, but there have been quite a few good ones (Rallisport Challenge, Jet Set Radio Future, Gunvalkyrie (hard, but fun), Crazy Taxi 3, etc). As well, more good games are being released right now, like Turok (last month), Sega GT 2002, Soccer Slam (ported from GameCube, but with extra features and supposedly better graphics and sound), Dead to Rights, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (laugh if you will, but it's supposedly a rather good action game), with quite a few more to come soon like Shenmue II, Quantum Redshift, Blinx, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and more. Maybe none of those are your thing (ie, if you're loyal to certain game lines like Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Tekken, or Gran Turismo), and that's cool. However, just because the XBox doesn't have those certain franchises doesn't mean it has a lack of good games (and no, I'm not putting words in your mouth. I'm just suggesting a possible reason for why you may be overlooking some good games).
As for the controller issue, try again [xbox.com]. Personally, I like the larger original controller (it just "fits right" in my hands), as do a number of my friends, but I've got one friend that swears by the smaller S controller. Both are good, high-quality, durable controllers. Neither will give you "game cramps" that you get with Sony's controllers (or, I get that, anyway).
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:2)
Actually, it's NT ports. In any case, developers had to work extra hard to get the stuff running under Windows in the first place.
Sony could realize a similar advantage by going more strongly with open standards for the PS2: OpenGL, POSIX, etc. That way, developers could keep roughly the same code for PS2, Windows, Macintosh, and Linux, even if they need some platform tweaks on each.
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah... the bias comes out. I hate to burst your bubble, but I'm sure Sony's doing it for the money, too... you honestly think they make game consoles because the shareholders like "quality games"? What next, they make audio receivers because the engineers want to listen to loud, clear music?
Wake up, dude: Sony is a big ol' megacorp, just like Microsoft (except over a much broader range of products). Fine, if you prefer one platform over another, but let's not go nuts on the rationale.
Re:We all knew this was going to happen (Score:2)
Its called "PS2 DVD Region Free." A PS2 swapdisk that allows you to select which region you want. I got this for my imported r2 and r3 dvds (all of which have english subs, love you ghibli.) It works fantastically, ive never had a problem playing anything with it.
Oh, it also costs less then 20 Dollars. [lik-sang.com]
No, there must of been another reason. Perhaps it was simply a token gesture, who knows.
This makes me sick! (Score:3, Insightful)
When will they finally see that the best way to improve MS is to allow the Open Source developer community free rein in order to come out with more and more brilliant ideas and concepts?
Re:This makes me sick! (Score:2)
How the hell will this improve MS?? Their goal is total domination of all computer software; basically to collect a toll for anything and everything that someone does on a computer, and that requires monopoly control. How will disseminating new ideas and allowing free competition help that? MS isn't trying to help computing in general, or to make computing better for the users, they just want to have rigid control of it so they can make money.
Re:This makes me sick! (Score:2, Insightful)
Chris
Re:This makes me sick! (Score:2)
(thus, illustrating your point)
Mystery! Intrigue! (Score:5, Funny)
My opinion... (Score:5, Funny)
-Matt
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
But still, what you say above
is nonsensical.
no thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? So they can be part of the winning team that kills modchips forever?
no thanks.
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
There are always sell outs out there. They have people that wrote code that tries to track down P2P file swappers. I'm sure there are more than a few out there that are just chomping at the bit to help implement the USA-Wide identity card stuff. When you gotta eat, and you're tired of living in a cardboard box, principles go right out the window.
Re:no thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what morals are. The world is what we make it, pal, if you're so quick to do the wrong thing for a quick buck, then you go do that. I'm going to keep my spine and do what's necessary to live with myself & sleep at night.
I'm doing my part to make the world a place less driven by the dollars, and driven more by intelligence. Can you say that you're doing the same?
Money is a tool, and nothing more. It is to help you get out of the gutter & put you in a comfortable place and be able to provide for your children. It is NOT incentive to abandon your judgement.
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
Why not enjoy the sport of it and let the best hacker win. That's what it's all about, isn't it? Not about turning down perfectly good dollars so that technology can stay "easy" to mod.
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
While I didn't mean that *I* would throw my morals out the window for a buck, it is certainly a fact that your ideal world where everyone sticks to their guns is a fantasy. I've seen far too many 20ish people have the same attitude as you, and I'm as guilty as anyone is. When you decide that you're sick of seeing this know-nothings drive the nice cars while you're deciding if you want to pay rent or fix yours, or possibly just fricking sick and tired of living with five other roomates to be able to afford rent, your morals will disappear too.
Then try raising a family. You don't have the luxury of morals when you have children crying themselves to sleep because they are hungry. I'd stick a knife in the next person if it meant the difference between feeding my family and upholding my morals, and I don't apologize for it.
Re:no thanks. (Score:5, Insightful)
Especially when raising children, morals are not a luxury.
I hate preaching, so let me be plain. If you mean the last sentence about sticking a knife if that's what it takes, please don't breed.
Re:no thanks. (Score:3, Interesting)
Same applies to most other examples. Keep in mind that there's no single universal moral code, nor are moral codes absolute.
Of course there is the difference between survival (starving vs. working for evil masters), and simpler priorization between "right" and "convenient"... but I felt poster tried to make the point of at least considering why people do the things that are against their ideals, not to claim everyone always does what they thought is the right to do, no matter what.
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
I believe the quote from one of the Hellraiser movies (2 I think):
"There is no good. There is no evil. There is only flesh".
graspee
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
Then try raising a family. You don't have the luxury of morals when you have children crying themselves to sleep because they are hungry. I'd stick a knife in the next person if it meant the difference between feeding my family and upholding my morals, and I don't apologize for it.
Solution: kill yourself and your spouse if you have any. Then your kids will be orphans, and whatever food they will get in an orphanage will be far better than whatever you will get them by killing a random person.
And if your situation is not as desperate to do that it's quite natural to hold you to the same moral standards as the rest of humankind.
then you're a horrible parent (Score:2)
Please, for the sake of everything that is still good and decent in the world, DO NOT BREED!
Re:no thanks. (Score:2, Insightful)
Who says that someone has to abandon their morals in order to take on that job? Maybe it would violate your morals, and maybe it would violate mine too. But surely there is a damned good coder out there who loves working on security issues who also happens to think that DRM is a good idea and that businesses have a right to protect and control their proprietary systems.
Why is it that good programmers are automatically equated (at least on Slashdot) with rabidly anti-Microsoft anti-business anti-patent viewpoints? There are brilliant people on both sides of the fence. All you can really conclude is that Slashdot is not the place to post a help wanted ad for that particular job.
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
Re:no thanks. (Score:2)
Re:no thanks. (Score:2, Insightful)
Hell's Help Wanted Ad (Score:4, Funny)
[I cam sure that others could cook up something like this, a poster or something, with far greater finesse than this quick effort]
Then You may qualify to Become a Minion for his Satanic Majesty today
Re:Hell's Help Wanted Ad (Score:3, Funny)
"enjoy screwing with the minds of others?"
"do you take sadistic pleasure in your work?"
Two out of three ain't bad.
Re:Hell's Help Wanted Ad (Score:3, Funny)
The business plan revealed at last.... (Score:5, Funny)
2. Get hired for high-paying, do-nothing job at Microsoft.
3. Profit!
It's the accordian minstral theory (if you tip him, he'll go away...)
I assume you're being fascetious about the jobs (Score:2)
I was prepared to complain about pointlessly villifying MS, but reading the job description it really looks like they want to hire someone to nip modchipping in the bud.
MS rounding up mod chip makers (Score:5, Funny)
1. Do you have expertise with modification chips?
2. If so, do you know other people who have your level of expertise with these chips?
3. If you answered yes to number 3, provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses of all of these people. We're interested in prosecuting^H^H^H^H^H contacting them.
What better way to beat the mod chip makers then to recruit them.
Re:MS rounding up mod chip makers (Score:4, Funny)
--
[McP]KAAOS
BS Required (Score:4, Insightful)
There's hacking classes in college? Somebody needs to smack the entire H.R. dept. for weeding out a lot of talented folks.
-Lucas
Depends on where you went to school (Score:3, Interesting)
I distinctly remember taking a Linux kernel hacking class [gatech.edu] when I was in college which amongst other things included hacking Linux on the iPaq. I also seem to remember that one of my group members was in a video game class at the same time which included projects such as hack Quake I [gatech.edu].
Re:BS Required (Score:5, Funny)
Or is that not what they meant?
Re:BS Required (Score:2, Funny)
Re:BS Required (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course you might learn all of this outside of school... but the same people who sneer at school tend to sneer at this level of understanding and also seem to think that computer science == programming. Requiring a degree is one step towards weeding those folks out. (Remember that weeding a person out is not free from a business perspective, so it literally pays to have such easy criteria to filter on.) It also demonstrates a certain minimal facility with working with this sort of rigor, which is one of the greatest glaring weaknesses in the most self-taught computer scientists^W programmers.
Given the background necessary to really do a good job, I'm kinda surprised they aren't requiring a Masters or PhD in related speciality. Perhaps that would narrow the market too much.
Re:Well let me tell you..... (Score:5, Insightful)
I used the word rigor. As in mathematical rigor. I bothered to reply to such an obvious troll because it's a rather common misconception. You can be as disciplined as you want, but there are certain projects that must be completed using stronger techniques, not just by trying harder. Certainly college grads don't have a lock on either trying harder or knowlege of stronger techniques, but a college grad who used college to their advantage will certainly tend towards a much stronger comprehension and broader knowlege of such techniques. It's a tendency strong enough for Microsoft to use it as a filter criterion with the confidence that they will be cutting far, far more bad prospects then they will be losing good ones.
(Another problem people have is comparing a well-motivated self-taught programmer against a frat-boy who happens to be taking Comp. Sci. as his excuse to qualify to live in the frat house. Comparing well-motivated college grads against well-motivated self-taught programmers will show wide disparities in certain skills that are importent at certain times, especially those that are the reason we call it computer science and not computer programming in college. This is one of them; creating security (as opposed to merely cracking it) is hard ; it's possible, but very hard to gain a true appreciation of the truth of that statement without either going through the classes, or replicating the class experience by reading papers in the field, texts on the subject, etc. until you might as well have taken the class. You really can't putter aimlessly around a field as complicated as security and expect to do half as well as people who have made a concentrated effort to learn from decades of experience of the best and brightest... usually in class, at least to start.)
To counter-troll, missing the distinction between rigor and discipline is exactly the sort of rigor I'm talking about. "Self-taught" programmers make exactly those sort of mistakes in truly technical fields all the time, and the shoddy software that results can be downloaded from Sourceforge anytime you like. Some problems are hard; it's really a form of hubris to think that you can do as well (or better(!)) then the entire academic community, which comprises thousands of very smart people working together. The system ain't perfect, but it's hella hard to beat working all by your lonesome.
(Another example of poor thinking is exhibited by all those "self-taught" types who see people like me claim a correlation between skills and schooling, and immediately and highly erroneously translate that to "only school can teach you skills, and it's impossible to self-teach", which is general and regrettably has little to do with whether one is schooled or not. Shades of grey, people, shades of grey.)
Re:Well let me tell you..... (Score:3, Insightful)
"formal education in computers is bad"
And yet every so often there will be a news item on a basic principle of comp science which is taught during formal education, and it will be posted as "news". "Testing is good!" "People like whitespace???"
But what I really think underlying this is "programmer snobbery". A lot of the formal educated people cannot actually cut it as programmers in the field, and shift into the satellite jobs, such as proposal writing, testing, management etc...
Still, I think arrogance in programmers is one of the worst thing about computers though...
Re:BS Required (Score:4, Funny)
Re:BS Required (Score:2)
Ignoring the funny "BS" joke.. (Score:2)
Think about it. You are an employer, you see 10 people. 8 of them have degrees, maybe 4 of those are masters, and one of those is a Phd. Do you even consider the lamer just out of high school who doesn't have the work ethic or dedication to even do university? Do you think that lamer will be able to actually meet deadlines?
Plus you're forgoing all you'll ever learn in university, be it from a book, from a prof, or from another student. That's years of life experience you say to your potential employer that you don't want.
Really, for a group of people who like to talk down about stupid people and ignorance, a lot of geeks seem to just want to skip the hard part where they have to learn because they can't coast anymore. That's a disgusting attitude to have towards knowledge.
Not the first time... (Score:2, Insightful)
(No joke... Todd Berkbile, AC's lead systems programmer now, came from "Todd's Hacking Zone" -- and he's modified some core systems that his predecessors were scared to touch due to flammability.)
Unnamed Patron (Score:4, Interesting)
As the old saying doesn't say... (Score:2)
Hire them.
One thing your forgetting here... (Score:2, Interesting)
This is doubly so if you live in Oregon, Washington or California - where unemployment is still 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest in the nation respectively.
I mean its either that or going to work for stream international
Re:One thing your forgetting here... (Score:2)
Open Letter to Microsoft (Score:4, Interesting)
I am fully qualified for the position you have listed. In fact, I may be one of the most qualified applicants around. I have been hacking copy protect mechanisms since I was 7. I have something to tell you. You have heard this before from people just like me, but you have not listened.
You do not seem to realize that what you are doing, in your attempts to introduce completely 'trusted' computers, is evil. I'm not referring to your usual misguided 'save the world by taking it over' style of evil, I'm talking more of a killing kittens for fun kind of evil. You are, whether it is your intention or not, going to remove general purpose computing from the hands of the non-experts, and they won't know enough to stop you. Depending on your success I forsee one of two final results. The likeliest option is that you go out of business in 80 years, because your 'innovations' stunt the technological development of an entire generation and alienate those few who are intelligent enough to have become programmers anyways. In this case, you will set back humanity's development by hundreds of years. Or, alternately, you drive your existing user base to other platforms and go out of business in 5 years. I doubt you will allow the second option to happen.
I have not participated in the efforts to hack your hardware (XBox) previously because I did not want to support you by purchasing one. Now, I see the light. I, with the help of other slashdotters, have realized that the XBox is just a test run of your trusted computing initiatives. It is a chance for you to find the bugs in your system and fix them on a platform which attracts hackers, yet presents no serious loss when it is hacked. I have no doubt in my mind that if you manage to perfect this architecture you will waste no time in implementing it in desktop PCs and using your monopoly power to force a significant number of users over to it.
Therefore, this is my notice to you. I will not let you succeed. I am qualified for your position, but I will not be applying. I will be adding my intelligence to the effort to stop you, and I will succeed. And if I do not, it does not matter. Because I am not alone. You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all. [hackers.com] And, in the end, you will lose. I promise.
-JM
101010
(Posted anonymously because Microsoft's lawyers are more expensive than mine.)
Re:Open Letter to Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Open Letter to Microsoft (Score:2)
Re:Open Letter to Microsoft (Score:2)
See this Penny-Arcade strip [penny-arcade.com].
We need a +1 (Previous moderator missed the point) option.
Re:Open Letter to Microsoft (Score:2)
I would imagine that he or she is rather more anonymous than by just checking the anon box.
At least they didn't sue (Score:3, Interesting)
Has anyone thought of.... (Score:2, Informative)
I wonder if anyone is a sick and twisted as me.
In Australia at the moment they have jobs going for "anti linux and anti SUN" people. The job advertisments specifically mention limiting the growth of linux and solaris in the "responsibilities" section of the job description.
get the job, take the cash, and then go around promoting linux on Microsoft's money
Sony did this with the Playstation (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect that any modchip detection code in the XBox will have a similar effect.
Warning ! This is an MS control ! (Score:2, Funny)
"How is the hacker extermination plan going ?"
"As soon as we've rounded up the most desperate
and the geediest, we'll suck their brains out
and present them to your Filthyness in a cocktail
glass with novelty umbrella!"
"Good. Proceed."
"Right, saw right throught that ceiling and
nail their asses !!
Make sure someone signs a receipt before leaving !"
"oooh those live pictures of those free
thinkers getting busted had me soil my
StayDrys I was so excited!!!"
Quick Question (Score:4, Funny)
Can I take my Game Genie to the interview?
Why take this job? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why take this job? (Score:2, Funny)
It's a cult. Everyone there loves it soooooooo much and wants to share it with you. They're smart, articulate, and scary.
When I interviewed there a couple of years ago, I noticed fairly that there is a largish Scientology outpost right on the campus. That and the "contagious enthusiasm" vibe that was coming off everybody weirded me out sufficiently that I didn't want to work there.
That said, there have definitely been concrete reasons to work there these past 20 years or so. As long as Microsoft keeps its thumb firmly on software users, its employees will have plenty of cash and benefits, nice buildings, and fascinating co-workers.
Re:Why take this job? (Score:2, Informative)
Take a look at this map [mapquest.com] The Church of Scientology is on the corner of Bel-Red and 24th. The land in between is owned by a hospital (not affiliated with Microsoft.)
Need a conspiracy theory? Just south of 24th is Uwajimaya, the local Japanese grocery store. That can only mean one thing: Yes, Sony bought Microsoft! That's why they need modchips for the X-Box--they're turning it into the PS3!
Software Hippocratic Oath (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Software Hippocratic Oath (Score:2)
Just like the Hippocratic oath that states that the person taking it will not perform abortions ? That really stops them.
I'm not pro or con abortion- it's just interesting to note that it should be called the Hypocritic oath.
graspee
Re:Software Hippocratic Oath (Score:2)
Please indicate where abortion is mentioned in the modern hippocratic oath [pbs.org]. Lots of things are said about the oath by people who have never read it, let alone understand it. Please don't fall into that trap.
Re:Software Hippocratic Oath (Score:2)
But I like falling into traps! One of my favorites is falling into the trap of believing that my insurance covers me against attack by lemurs.
Also of course, with this reply, I have fallen into the trap of using stupid surreal humour in an attempt to get out of a situation where I showed my ignorance...
graspee
Re:Software Hippocratic Oath (Score:2)
hehehehe
Are you sure you're not covered for the lemurs? I think I saw a clause somewhere in mine for that. Of course, if they're lesser-spotted brown-nose lemurs then all bets are off.
Working for Microsoft... (Score:2)
Brian Hook of id Software said it best... (Score:5, Interesting)
"This is my view of the people who work at Microsoft: You have a choice. You have to realize that what you're doing is bad for the industry. If you're doing stuff that you don't even agree with and do it for the money- we have a word for that: Whore."
Solution to X-Box Hacking (Score:3, Funny)
You will be receiving a bill for my services shortly.
Business as usual (Score:2)
Hmmm (Score:2)
Copy protection is fruitless. (Score:3, Interesting)
Pirating has helped some companies in gaining market and mindshare. Sony and Playstation come to mind as does Commodore 64, amiga and the PC. They wouldnt have left the ground if it hadnt been so darn easy to copy the games and apps.Imagine buying all applications on a normal PC without linux?
Should the PS1 have been as successful if it hadnt been modchipped and games pirated? I dont think so and the same goes for the PC. Install a working copy protection and your user base flies off to another platform instead.
Re:Copy protection is fruitless. (Score:2)
A worrying trend (Score:3, Insightful)
For example:
Now I'm not accusing all these people of necessarily selling out, but obviously, if you work with a company, you're less likely to speak frankly about how much it sucks (if only because you have to take into account the interests your employees/shareholders).
Re:Sounds like N.U.R.V. (Score:2)
Re:Sounds like N.U.R.V. (Score:2, Funny)
In the movie, there wasn't a BSD license.
Seems like a decent way. (Score:5, Funny)
Minion: Sir?
Head of XBox Development: Yes?
Minion: We've been hearing reports of people hacking the XBox. Apparently its quite easy.
Head of XBox Development: (rubs temples) Alright. How many do you think there are?
Minion: Pardon?
Head of XBox Development: How many developers?
Minion: Oh. Couldn't be more than 30, sir.
Head of XBox Development: (breathes a sigh of relief) That's all? You had me worried for a minute there. Is the alligator pit and trapdoor working?
Minion: Yes sir. I just had maintenence check it over this morning.
Head of XBox Development: Excellent. And the other alligators?
Minion: The lawyers? Already creating reasonable doubt.
Head of XBox Development: Good. Alright, post a job offer with a handsome salary. Make sure you put the word "hacker" in it.
Minion: I'll get right on that-
Head of XBox Development: One more thing!
Minion: Yes, sir?
Head of XBox Development: Make sure slashdot finds out. Wouldn't want to miss any developers, now would we?
Minion: (smiles evilly) No, sir. I'll give our friends over there a call.
Yeah. (Score:2)
I like IE best for webpages.
mIRC best for IRC
but
PAN best for newsgroups and
Evolution best for mail.
Gentoo is my favorite operating system, but I'll work for whoever will pay me to do stuff I love -work with math and tinker with computers.
It just seemed like an appropriate exercise in paranoia: big company hiring rivals DOES sound a bit suspicious, doesn't it?
Re:is it just me or .. (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Ever heard of a mirror? RedHat maybe makes it hard to download from their site because there are hundreds of mirrors around the world. Besides, who wants to download from a site that might be around the globe from you when there is more than likely a mirror a few hops away? (Yes there are financial reasons too. All that bandwidth used up by people downloading directly from RedHat isnt free.) Oh yeah, it exists at the same relative location on all mirrors, so ftp://ftp.whatever.com/pub/redhat/linux/current will always point to the latest release of the distro. (Yes this includes ftp.redhat.com) It really _isnt_ that hard to find!
2) I guarantee that I could install 100 machines with RedHat faster than you could install 100 machines with WinXP, Win2k, Win98, WinME, Win95 or any friggen Win* you care to mention. A floppy Kickstart install with DHCP assigned addresses. Hell I could make every machine a different configuration and still get them done quicker than 100 identical Windows builds. (DHCP to assign different
Total cost for RedHat solution - the floppy disks used.
Total cost for MS solution - 100 x cost of WinXP/2000 + 100 CALs for the server they will likely connect to +
(Disclaimer - I am a contractor who supports both Windows and Linux on server and desktops. I have several clients with RedHat on the desktop (admittedly a somewhat customised distro) and many with Windows. Right at the moment, I am kept in a job as a result of the Windows clients constant problems and adminstration required. The RedHat sites are pretty much set and forget, with the occasional re-KickStarting (which takes 15 minutes from go to whoa) Needless to say, for my livelihood, I suggest everyone runs Windows (But fuck i hate working on them!))
"And in some ways you have to respect that." (Score:3, Insightful)
Why?
Seriously. Why? You're talking about Microsoft making money. We already know they do this in many ways, not all of which involve competing in a market dynamic on the basis of product quality. More relevantly, your specific point was, in the end they want to make money. There are other motives- wanting to work in a specific field, wanting to benefit the world, wanting to buy up the state of Washington and turn it into a nature preserve so geeks can go big game hunting with digital cameras- there are motives that involve DOING things or BEING things, positive things, negative things, whatever.
If the bottom line is no more than making the most money, they become a poster child for the ugliest repercussions of untrammeled, self-consuming capitalism. They have NO GOALS if that's all it is to them. They could just as well do it all with paper games on Wall Street and not even care what they're producing in terms of software (and in fact they are doing essentially that). They have no connection to the world apart from Hoovering money and 'valuation' from others and accumulating it, only to blow up when they can't maintain the expanding valuation.
I am serious. Why should I respect that in the slightest? Tell me something they want that's more than 'make money'. I don't care if it's 'control the entire world and replace governments'. That is evil and I still respect it more than the brainless, cancerous 'make money'. If you think 'make money' is enough, you haven't ever thought deeply about what you're doing, or what Microsoft is doing, or what capitalism is for. It's not an end in itself, it is a mechanism for society. Treated as an end in itself it is pathological.
Re:Anyone who takes this offer... (Score:2)
9,999,999,999 years and 11 months later...
"Mr...uh, UrGeek, sir? We're here from Microsoft...after ten billion years we've had a sudden attack of morality and we've decided to dissolve the company, and we were wondering if you'd like to press the button that will detonate all Microsoft campuses in the universe with a massive nuclear blast."
It's not about lock-in, it's about lock-out (Score:2)
Nintendo and other console makers of cartridge-based console games have historically dealt with this issue in a rather straight-forward and obvious way: put a patented peice of the console hardware in the cartidge itself. Nintendo used to put the console MMU on a chip in the cartridge. This was a patented chip that you had to buy from them, and they would simply refuse to sell them to you, if you didn't pay license fees and enter into royalty contracts with them. This is the "dongle" approach.
This set the stage for the current console marketing model, where the console itself is sold as a loss-leader, and the cost of the hardware is subsidized by the royalties to the console maker from the games producer, with a fixed minimum number of games (everything past that point is profit).
This model breaks when it is very easy to copy the "cartridge" because all the "cartridge" contains is data -- as is the case with a CDROM.
The response to this is to deal with it using a CDROM with a data density that is high enough that copying is not an option for the user. That's the DVDROM.
It's pretty clear that what Microsoft is working towards here is the day when they can't rely on the data density distinction to protect the fact that their "cartridge" is only data.
Part of this strategy is to establish an umbilical back to "the mother ship", so that a cryptographic system can be hung of a peg that they have physical control over.
Part of dealing with this is to build a "dongle" into the machine itself (a unique console identifier), and to combine this with the "contact the mother ship" strategy, to endure that a given console can only run authorized software.
Indeed, this needs to be the end-goal of Palladium, as well; DVD content, if it were similarly protected, would be subject to the same controls, in terms of "authorized use".
Unfortunately, such a system permits an easy conversion from a "license purchase" system to a "subscription" or a "pay per use" system, with only a change on the server software side (specifically, you would log events, and could make a seperate "business rules" decision as to which events translated into events for the billing system).
This is actually what consumers need to be worried about; it is the thin edge of the wedge toward not being able to *own* something, rather than merely leasing it.
One has to wonder what lasting monuments, if any, are being built by modern society. The Romans built roads, and most of them, with modern repaving, are still in use today. The reniassance built ornate cathedrals.
Now compare that with, say, the "Riccochet" network, which, now that the company is out of business, has merely left so many useless artifacts clamped to municipal street lights. Motorolla has done the same thing with their satellite phone system, etc..
And now, we are on the verge of doing the same thing with books and movies.
-- Terry
DVD-R does not have the same density as DVDROM (Score:2)
This is moderately irrlevant, in any case, since a DVD drive can detect the difference between a DVDROM and and a DVD-R (or DVD-RW) -- just use hardware in your box that's incapable of reading the recordable format, which is the same reason there is no single recordable format yet.
In the limit, it can be done by having a DVD-R or DVD-RW drive in the product itsel, and trying to write all 1's over the boot sector. If it's pirated software on writeable media, it's cooked.
These are just escalations of the situation without Palladium today, and we were talking about Microsoft hiring people to prototype Palladium in the X-Box to figure out how to make mod-chipping not work.
-- Terry