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Author Topic: Bill Gates and more double speak  (Read 1655 times)

Deathrider

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Bill Gates and more double speak
« on: February 20, 2002, 05:04:51 pm »

Read this news report about windows media player and how it sends data to MS regarding your tastes in media.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020221/D7HQ4M680.html
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Ilmar

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2002, 03:30:14 am »

Is it possible to remove Media Player from XP without crippling it or MJ in the process?
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Deathrider

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2002, 04:02:56 am »

I personaly went into my firewall and set it to block all out going and in coming traffic from the player. So now when I start it it shows the default page when you can not connect to the net, this would seem to be enough for me.  A good program that allows you to do this and is free is ZoneAlarm. Out of all the ones I tried, it is the one that works without confusing settings and does not have any major known issues with windows intergration. It can also be used in conjunction with BlackIce Defender wich will not conflict with ZoneAlarm, Unlike norton internet security or firewall does not like to work with other fire walls. If you have to fire walls running at once you can better control incoming and out going traffic. This is a must for me since I am on a cable connection that is on all the time.

Robert Long
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Doof

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2002, 04:20:27 am »

So let me see if I got this right...

CDDB comes along and creates a service in which users register for an account, and then their computer can automatically download track data for CD's that they listen to. Most everybody agrees that this is a convenient service.

Microsoft does the same thing, and it's a privacy concern.

I don't get it.
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JimH

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2002, 04:29:58 am »

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Jim Hillegass
JRiver Media Center / Media Jukebox

Gatobrit

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2002, 04:34:50 am »

Doof - the point (for me) is that CDDB is an opt-in service. I choose to sign-up and it's obvioius what is going on.

With WMP this feature has only just been released and there is no way of not using it without not using WMP.

What next? IE reporting the porn sites you surf to, your bank balance or medical conditions you check out on Dr. Koop?
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Namaste,
John

Doof

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2002, 04:46:52 am »

Well, nobody ever said you have to use WMP. I can't actually think of any reason I'd ever want to, actually.

Does MJ's usage of WMP's video playback engine then use this feature by default?
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Gatobrit

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2002, 05:01:17 am »

Doof - True. I do use WMP to download stuff to my Intel Pocket Concert because MJ can't  but otherwise I leave it alone.

However, the fact that this behaviour is now revealed by MS a long time after the release of the product is the kicker for me.

What else goes on under the hood that we're not aware of? Paranoid? Me??

For me it's just another argument for removing this stuff (IE, WMP, Firewall, etc. etc.) from Windows or have them as installable options. We'd have a faster more stable O/S IMHO.
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Namaste,
John

JimH

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2002, 05:06:23 am »

> Does MJ's usage of WMP's video playback engine then use this feature by default?

No.  MJ uses the Direct Show compatible plugin that came with your DVD player for decoding.
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Jim Hillegass
JRiver Media Center / Media Jukebox

zevele1

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2002, 05:41:43 am »

There is a program to remove system restore,movie maker,windowsplayer from WindowsMe.Do not know is it works with XP
I saw on the web,long ago that there is a fonction in MediaPlayer8 that,if activated by Windows can make all you music you have rip,all the windowsformats you have, protected.without you knowing about it.Do not know if is true or an other 'hysteria info'
I allways chose windows format when streaming.If you search a radio,most of the time you get the home page of this radio.So you do not need to open windowsplayer the next time
The rate of succes to get cd infos with windowsplayer are so slim,that they have to perfect it if they want to collect infos.For now they may have a lot of 'unknow by unknow' in they database
ZoneAlarm is very very very good.You can download a free program ZoneLog and you get in one click the adress of all the attacks you got

listening to Bluee Cheer Vincebus Eruptum
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Doof

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2002, 07:03:43 am »

XP was released in October. This is February. I'm not sure I'd call 4 months such a long time, but it's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

Basically I see it this way. You've got the teeming masses who will use whatever application came with their PC. Of those teeming masses, how many :

A. Have upgraded to XP
B. Are actually using WMP to listen to CD's or watch DVD's
C. Even care about this issue.

Those that fall into all 3 of those categories have now had their privacy "violated" for up to 4 months, and are now aware of it. I just can't help but view this as more overblown Intel CPU-ID, MS Product Activation, brouhaha.
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IQ10

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2002, 12:09:27 pm »

The previous version of this was deleted.  I have edited it, and trust that it is acceptable now.  If not, please let me know what you would like removed.  Thanks.

I ran across the following, yesterday:
----------
"SUMMARY:
There are folders on your computer that Microsoft has tried hard to keep secret. Within these folders you will find two major things: Microsoft Internet Explorer has not been clearing your browsing history after you have instructed it to do so, and Microsoft's Outlook Express has not been deleting your e-mail correspondence after you've erased them from your Deleted Items bin. (This also includes all incoming and outgoing file attachments.) And believe me, that's not even the half of it.
When I say these files are hidden well, I really mean it. If you don't have any knowledge of DOS then don't plan on finding these files on your own. I say this because these files/folders won't be displayed in Windows Explorer at all -- only DOS. (Even after you have enabled Windows Explorer to "show all files.") And to top it off, the only way to find them in DOS is if you knew the exact location of them. Basically, what I'm saying is if you didn't know the files existed then the chances of you running across them is slim to slimmer."
It's interesting to note that Microsoft does not explain this behavior adequately at all."
http://forum.####microsoft.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=10&t=000001
----------
My view is we own our computers.

Using JimH's landlord word of yesterday (which has now disappeard from his space?), we are the landlord of each bit that seeks squatter's rights on our machines, in our space.

I remember when Jim once posted to a user that there was no way to remove the later version of Media Jukebox and go back to an earlier version.  That would mean that the squatter's bits will never fully leave our computer.  Of course, this was and is false, and I know Jim only meant 'that without resort to other non-JRiver tools (like FDisk or Ghost), it is not possible to remove each and every bit that JRiver installs in our space, and that it is not JRiver's responsibility to vacate our premises on demand.

So, we have a delicious standoff that consists of conflicting elements. As it has always been; it appears that only the technology and weapons change. The stuff that make lawyers rich.  Here are the elements:

From the highest law of the land, the US Constituiton, Article I, Section 8,  "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries" http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articlei.html

And a warning from Harry The Hipster's great Grandfather (do any of you guys realize Harry is a retired Supreme Court Justice?):
“We must take care to guard against two extremes equally prejudicial; the one, that men (and women) of ability, who have employed their time for the service of their community, may not be deprived of their just merits, and the reward of their ingenuity and labour; the other, that the world may not be deprived of improvements, nor the progress of the arts be retarded” [Lord Mansfield in Sayre v. Moore, 1785]

And the common view that Owners/Landlords have at least the limited right to control such property, like computers, and Forums (subject to certain common good values like (perhaps) free speech and public safety).

And the hope/fact that the public has a protected right to, eventually, be the beneficiaries of such invented property.  So called Public Domain, that Prof Lesser has taken on (in NYT article on extension of Copyright).

And the Fair Use statutes (Copyright Law Tiltle http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/ ).

IMHO, a lot of this can be understood in terms of BIG versus small. The famous, B v. S, Planet Earth Court, vol 1, page 0: [Do you know that West Law tried to copyright their citation system?]

If you are small, you cannot look deeply into the bits a BIG has placed on your computer.  Read the licensing agreements of the BIG, in regard to reverse engineering and de-compiling.  Read the new Digital Millenium Copright Act.
If you are BIG, you can use your copy of a smaller companies software to reverse engineer, and approprate into your own product.  Look at history of IE, WMP, et. al.
If you are small, you cannot make copies of CDs you buy to listen to from your hard drive, or in your MP3 walkman.
If you are BIG, you can appropriate a starving song writer's creation (called a Contract), and keep most of it's economic value for yourself.

So nothing really changes.  What you can do, and when you can do it, has a lot to do with  the size of your guns, and the size of the guns of who you know.  I think, if there ever is going to be a solution to this, it is going to be based on a methodology whereby we can only increase our slice of the pie by making the pie bigger.  What that methodology can be, I do not know.  

[former member]
Geez...I like Media Jukebox, and INTERACT!!
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Charlemagne 8

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2002, 02:08:40 pm »

Ha!
Harry's not retired.
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IQ10

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2002, 03:15:23 pm »

Charlemagne 8, I meant 'often tired', as in re-tired. Sorry.

[former member]
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Charlemagne 8

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RE:Bill Gates and more double speak
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2002, 03:18:59 pm »

BTW, IQ
I went to that site. It wasn't real hard to guess the sentiment and fill in the "blank".
Interesting stuff. They really do hate Microsoft.
You didn't write that article, did you?

CVIII
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