cdcollura
EF5
Good day all,
All of us need to be wary of counterfeited, pirated, or down-right stolen software.
Yes, I am guily of this in the past - In the pre 2000 "Napster days", but being a computer programmer myself, I have shied away - Paying the price and BUYING it to support both the economy and people like myself (who hate losing their jobs).
I have a very old copy of Windows XP Pro, that a deceased friend gave me back in 2003. I have been using it for years, and automatic updates and such worked (using the new "Genuine Validation" tool).
I had bad woes with getting used to Vista, so I have a dedicated OS 500 GB drive split in two for dual boot, running the XP Pro on one partition, with all my programs, and the new 64 Vist Ultimate, which I bought this week, on the other for testing / new programs. This solution works great.
Last night, I do the automatic updates for SP3 on XP Pro and the validation fails. I only installed this on my laptop last week, and it worked.
I went back to the laptop, validated, and XP Pro on it also failed. The copy my friend gave me was either stolen / boot-legged. I was furious.
I went to Microsoft's site, paid $149 bucks, and got a valid key for XP Pro, fair-and-square. After that, all was well on both the partition and laptop (genuine validation / updates).
The word here is to be very careful. Same goes for downloading music - Just pay the darn 99 cents - why even bother anymore?
Here are some points about downloading / aqcuiring software...
1). Downloading programs, 99% of the time now-a-days will only give you partially-functional code, viruses, or all of the above.
2). Major software compaies, like Microsoft, are cracking down on illegal / non genuine versions. They have steps in place so if you have a botched version it is either de-activated or updates / support denied.
3). If you DO have such (aka: you did not BUY it) ... Be wary of what you have. Microsoft has the little "send error report" and "don't send" after a program crashes ... If you have a boot-legged copy, hit "don't send" ... This is how they find out about illegal copied
As for programs like LimeWire, BitTorrent, and Kazaa ... Use these with EXTREME caution. MP3's are loaded with viruses (double-clicking on them can launch the virus). You can often tell by doing a scan on them, or first trying to load the MP3 into an editor and it says "invalid format" meaning it's not a sound-file (it's an embedded EXE). Also, searching for software on such sites gives you lots of results, but look at the file-sizes, often somethig like 200 KB for a 30 MB program - It's a virus / trojan! If you do finally find something, expect it to be an old version / beta release.
Adobe Premiere 6.5 is a classic example. It was offered on nearly all the "point-to-point" / file-sharing sites. It is "build 163", with tons of bugs, and has a logic-bomb in it so when you export Dv AVI you get a screen "flickering" with icons in the playback AVI! This was a beta testing, still during development, and a disgruntled Adobe ex-employee stole the code and out it out there. You get what you paid for (or didn't pay for).
Copying / pirating software - if you are caught - Is a 2nd degree felony and can land you 5 years and or $100K in fines in worst cases.
All of us need to be wary of counterfeited, pirated, or down-right stolen software.
Yes, I am guily of this in the past - In the pre 2000 "Napster days", but being a computer programmer myself, I have shied away - Paying the price and BUYING it to support both the economy and people like myself (who hate losing their jobs).
I have a very old copy of Windows XP Pro, that a deceased friend gave me back in 2003. I have been using it for years, and automatic updates and such worked (using the new "Genuine Validation" tool).
I had bad woes with getting used to Vista, so I have a dedicated OS 500 GB drive split in two for dual boot, running the XP Pro on one partition, with all my programs, and the new 64 Vist Ultimate, which I bought this week, on the other for testing / new programs. This solution works great.
Last night, I do the automatic updates for SP3 on XP Pro and the validation fails. I only installed this on my laptop last week, and it worked.
I went back to the laptop, validated, and XP Pro on it also failed. The copy my friend gave me was either stolen / boot-legged. I was furious.
I went to Microsoft's site, paid $149 bucks, and got a valid key for XP Pro, fair-and-square. After that, all was well on both the partition and laptop (genuine validation / updates).
The word here is to be very careful. Same goes for downloading music - Just pay the darn 99 cents - why even bother anymore?
Here are some points about downloading / aqcuiring software...
1). Downloading programs, 99% of the time now-a-days will only give you partially-functional code, viruses, or all of the above.
2). Major software compaies, like Microsoft, are cracking down on illegal / non genuine versions. They have steps in place so if you have a botched version it is either de-activated or updates / support denied.
3). If you DO have such (aka: you did not BUY it) ... Be wary of what you have. Microsoft has the little "send error report" and "don't send" after a program crashes ... If you have a boot-legged copy, hit "don't send" ... This is how they find out about illegal copied
As for programs like LimeWire, BitTorrent, and Kazaa ... Use these with EXTREME caution. MP3's are loaded with viruses (double-clicking on them can launch the virus). You can often tell by doing a scan on them, or first trying to load the MP3 into an editor and it says "invalid format" meaning it's not a sound-file (it's an embedded EXE). Also, searching for software on such sites gives you lots of results, but look at the file-sizes, often somethig like 200 KB for a 30 MB program - It's a virus / trojan! If you do finally find something, expect it to be an old version / beta release.
Adobe Premiere 6.5 is a classic example. It was offered on nearly all the "point-to-point" / file-sharing sites. It is "build 163", with tons of bugs, and has a logic-bomb in it so when you export Dv AVI you get a screen "flickering" with icons in the playback AVI! This was a beta testing, still during development, and a disgruntled Adobe ex-employee stole the code and out it out there. You get what you paid for (or didn't pay for).
Copying / pirating software - if you are caught - Is a 2nd degree felony and can land you 5 years and or $100K in fines in worst cases.
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