111-1111111 is a valid Windows 95 key (2021) [video]

Post by J-Kuhn » Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 11:13 AM UTC

consp wrote: post #220

Dalewyn wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It was normal for computers to auto-login and have no password at all, processes could each read entire memory on the machine. To be fair, this is specifically to do with personal computers of the time; MS-DOS, Windows 3x, and Windows 9x were all single user operating systems: They simply had no concept of multiple users at all. The concept was bolted on later as an afterthought, but it was really janky and paled in…

I distinctly remember having lots BSODs with IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL errors due to shoddy drivers all the time on XP (which is the first consumer NT kernel windows version), especially in the early days. Maybe not related to shared memory but overall not great either.

Post by ilyt » Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 11:58 AM UTC

srfvtgb wrote: post #221

ptsneves wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind that here in Poland it is said cdprojekt of Witcher and cyberpunk fame started by selling bootlegged western games. I do not have a source for this.

The founders got their start selling pirated software, but CD Projekt itself started as a legit importer and localiser. Their initial success was due to knowing that they needed to compete with pirates on quality and convenience because piracy was so prevalent in Poland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_Projekt#Founding

Post by ale42 » Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 1:58 PM UTC

aaronax wrote: post #96

ale42 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are 25 characters, each of which has 36 possible values. So 36^25 possibilities, and log2(36^25) = 129.2. There are basically 129 bits of entropy in there, so good luck bruteforcing it. This makes me think of a shareware app (I think an icon editor) for Windows 3.1 back in 1994 or so... I could find a valid registration key by entering random numbers by hand in around 2 minutes. And I wasn't lucky as I tried an…

Not used characters: 015AEILNOSUZ So less possible combinations.

Post by xtracto » Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 3:11 PM UTC

glandium wrote: post #114

SpaceL10n wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's weird reading about my life as if it's history. Everyone was doing it. I remember my teachers, friends, and family all giving me pirated software at some point. I remember my friends and I getting excited when someone got a ripped copy of some game and we couldn't wait to burn new CD-ROMs to share. If one of us got our hands on the copy of some game, we all got copies. It was kind of like a free-for-all in the w…

It was so common that "something cd key" was a common search term. And people would put that in the wrong input box/window such that they would end up typing that in chat rooms. In some of those, people would reply with the same "something cd key" followed with "to you too", as if it were some form of greetings. Later on, people would show up saying "something random cd key" as an actual form of greeting, not a mista…

Post by ElectricalUnion » Mon, Feb 27, 2023, 3:51 PM UTC

namaria wrote: post #208

isatty wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the world has changed. Sure, limewire had tons of trustmebro.mp4.exes but these days I don’t trust cracked software to not be mining coins or exfiling my personal data. I suppose it was still the case back in the day (more for botnets than coins?) but I just simply cared less. Had to get my hands on the AAA games.

Hell I don't trust most legit software with my data. I still remember people being in awe of how I made Teams work on my Linux notebook (the previous guy couldn't make it right for some reason) by just running it in Chromium. The more sandboxed these 'apps' can be the better.