91–100 of 135 posts
Who recalls the provenance of this old legend about the fellow who challenged his pal to decode a certain floppy? It was a bog-standard DOS boot disk (IIRC) that he could put in his machine and boot normally. But his pal put it in his computer and... nothing doing, no boot. Analysis of the floppy availed not. The challenge went unmet. What did our hero do to make the floppy? .esrever ni nups evird eht os ytiralop eti…
I'm curious what tricks people use nowadays for software copy protection? Are dongles still a thing? Have people given up on the idea of software protection? (SaaS is probably the best kind of protection if you don't take it too literally)
Back in the 1980's I think there were a lot of interesting schemes. The solution was to just get an updated version of copy2pc or copywrite and they would have a fix. But I remember a few schemes that were interesting workarounds. One was the hole in the disk, one was a laser-burned dot on the disk. I recall with the hole in the disk - the software would try to read and if it succeeded it was a copy. The second one w…
Slightly off-topic, but since when were floppies referred to as "disc", as opposed to "disk"? I thought it was from Diskette? Is it a language / region thing? Optical discs were "disc", but at least growing up in the UK in the 80s/90s with DOS/Windows, I'm pretty certain I remember them always being "disk" for floppies? Am I misremembering?
It is/was the usual British usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc The OED includes these references: 1947 Math. Tables & Other Aids Computation 2 229 The program of the Symposium was as follows:..4. ‘Magnetic and phosphor coated disks’ by Dr. B. L. Moore. 1952 Electr. Engin. (U.S.) Aug. 745/2 When the heads are in position, the disk is rotated past them while information, in the form of coded magn…
The Wikipedia article affirms this convention as well, which begs the question: solid state disk drive? solid state disc drive? solid state brick drive?
Who recalls the provenance of this old legend about the fellow who challenged his pal to decode a certain floppy? It was a bog-standard DOS boot disk (IIRC) that he could put in his machine and boot normally. But his pal put it in his computer and... nothing doing, no boot. Analysis of the floppy availed not. The challenge went unmet. What did our hero do to make the floppy? .esrever ni nups evird eht os ytiralop eti…
Would that work for CDs too?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is/was the usual British usage. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelling_of_disc The OED includes these references: 1947 Math. Tables & Other Aids Computation 2 229 The program of the Symposium was as follows:..4. ‘Magnetic and phosphor coated disks’ by Dr. B. L. Moore. 1952 Electr. Engin. (U.S.) Aug. 745/2 When the heads are in position, the disk is rotated past them while information, in the form of coded magn…
> The last one has K for magnetic disks and C for optical discs. The Wikipedia article affirms this convention as well, which begs the question: solid state disk drive? solid state disc drive? solid state brick drive?
Back in the 1980's I think there were a lot of interesting schemes. The solution was to just get an updated version of copy2pc or copywrite and they would have a fix. But I remember a few schemes that were interesting workarounds. One was the hole in the disk, one was a laser-burned dot on the disk. I recall with the hole in the disk - the software would try to read and if it succeeded it was a copy. The second one w…
I'm on the (significantly) younger side, is there some kind of trick or reason behind these questions, or what they're for?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm on the (significantly) younger side, is there some kind of trick or reason behind these questions, or what they're for?
Yes, to keep you out of a racy game before central ID registries like login-with-FB. They're old-people questions.
Back in the 1980's I think there were a lot of interesting schemes. The solution was to just get an updated version of copy2pc or copywrite and they would have a fix. But I remember a few schemes that were interesting workarounds. One was the hole in the disk, one was a laser-burned dot on the disk. I recall with the hole in the disk - the software would try to read and if it succeeded it was a copy. The second one w…
I'm on the (significantly) younger side, is there some kind of trick or reason behind these questions, or what they're for?
(Bearing in mind that photocopiers were uncommon at the time.)
In the case of Leisure Suit Larry the opening questions were actually designed as an age-test. The intention was that "children" wouldn't know the answers and would be unable to play the "risqué" game.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, to keep you out of a racy game before central ID registries like login-with-FB. They're old-people questions.
Did people not just search it on whateever engine was available at the time? (Yahoo?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry_in_the_Land...