mo@seismo.UUCP (Mike O'Dell) (08/12/85)
In spite of the fact that English doesn't need a new phrase for junk software, I am proposing one anyway: Junkware. I just witnessed an amazing feat which may well put the offending program up for the Junkware-of-the-year-award, but since I haven't yet given the author a chance to reply, I won't name the product involved. However, I will explain the amazing behavior. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the little button on the disk is OPEN the disk is write-protected, no?? Well, I just bought a game program which is of course copy protected (violating my first rule, of course). Silly me, instead of immediately cracking it with various copy tools, I though I'd just write-protect the disk and run it. Well, it worked fine until it went to write out some "high score" file. It immedate GORKED with "File Damaged or Missing" and exited to the finder. Well, restarting it got a very different window (one which betrays its forth implementation) repeating the "File Damaged" message, and then immediately exiting to the finder again. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? If the disk is write protected, how does it know??? How did it scrog something?? I can understand the exit-on-error attitude, but what got broken? Does the write protect not REALLY work?? If so, I want to speak to the management!!! This kind of poor QA and boundary behaviour is the basis of the Junkware nomination. I realize I brought it on myself by (1) initially buying copy protected software and (2) by not backing it up anyway. But this was really a kind of test - a $30 gamble to see if meer users can really live with copy protection. They can't. -Mike O'Dell
davet@oakhill.UUCP (Dave Trissel) (08/13/85)
In article <2957@seismo.UUCP> mo@seismo.UUCP (Mike O'Dell) writes: > >Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the little button on the disk is OPEN >the disk is write-protected, no?? ... Well - sort of. The problem is that it's only *SOFTWARE* write protected. It seems the Mac drives themselves do not inhibit writes no matter what the position of the tabs. The Mac O/S gets a signal about the tab position and sets up flags which are supposed to not allow any writes. So don't think the tab will protect you from program/machine malfunction. (I learned this the NASTY way.) Here's hoping future Mac drives are smart enough to just plain refuse to write data if the tab says so regardless of what the OS tells it. Of course, banning the bomb (i.e. memory protection so programs cannot clobber the OS) is a far bette solution. Actually, both should be implemented. -- Dave Trissel {ihnp4,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!oakhill!davet
bart@reed.UUCP (Bart Massey) (08/19/85)
In article <481@oakhill.UUCP> davet Dave Trissel writes: > > In article <2957@seismo.UUCP> mo (Mike O'Dell) writes: > > > >Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the little button on the disk is OPEN > >the disk is write-protected, no?? ... > > Well - sort of. The problem is that it's only *SOFTWARE* write protected. > It seems the Mac drives themselves do not inhibit writes no matter what > the position of the tabs. The Mac O/S gets a signal about the tab position > and sets up flags which are supposed to not allow any writes. > > So don't think the tab will protect you from program/machine malfunction. > (I learned this the NASTY way.) > > Here's hoping future Mac drives are smart enough to just plain refuse to > write data if the tab says so regardless of what the OS tells it. Of course, > banning the bomb (i.e. memory protection so programs cannot clobber the OS) > is a far bette solution. Actually, both should be implemented. I guess! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS! Didn't the @#$% idiots who designed this mess take hardware 101? I guess the new DS drives may fix the problem, and I guess machines with an MMU wouldn't necessarily have it (although one would have to be awfully careful about what bit-copier software you let have control of the system address space (how would a bit-copier work on a memory-managed machine, anyway?)) but it sounds like we're just stuck for now. Thanks, Dave, for warning us of this... Bart Massey ..tektronix!reed!bart
jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) (08/21/85)
>> Well - sort of. The problem is that it's only *SOFTWARE* write protected. >> It seems the Mac drives themselves do not inhibit writes no matter what >> the position of the tabs. The Mac O/S gets a signal about the tab position >> and sets up flags which are supposed to not allow any writes. >> >> So don't think the tab will protect you from program/machine malfunction. >> (I learned this the NASTY way.) The Apple Disk Utility on the Software Supplement seems to ignore it also. I copied on disk to another and found out afterwards that the receiving disk was 'write protected'. -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 749-5806 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb Compuserve: 72415,1200 "... Don't sue me, I'm just the piano player!...."
rick@sara70.UUCP (Rick Jansen) (08/22/85)
Jim Budler writes: >The Apple Disk Utility on the Software Supplement seems to ignore it also. That is NOT true. If you try to copy to a locked disk the error message "disk locked?" appears. So, I still believe it is pure NONSENSE that the protection is a flag bit in software. Rick Jansen {seismo,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!sara70!rick
bill@crystal.UUCP (08/23/85)
> > >The Apple Disk Utility on the Software Supplement seems to ignore it also. > > That is NOT true. If you try to copy to a locked disk the error message > "disk locked?" appears. So, I still believe it is pure NONSENSE that the > protection is a flag bit in software. > {seismo,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!sara70!rick > I've never done this, but... At least on the external drive, you can fool the drive into thinking that the disk is write-enabled by turning off the LED. I got this from an Apple tech support person. If you can do it on the external, it's probably possible on the internal as well. bill -- William Cox Computer Sciences Department University of Wisconsin, Madison WI bill@uwisc ...{ihnp4,seismo,allegra}!uwvax!bill
jimb@amdcad.UUCP (Jim Budler) (08/25/85)
In article <370@sara70.UUCP> rick@sara70.UUCP (Rick Jansen) writes: >Jim Budler writes: >>The Apple Disk Utility on the Software Supplement seems to ignore it also. > >That is NOT true. If you try to copy to a locked disk the error message >"disk locked?" appears. So, I still believe it is pure NONSENSE that the >protection is a flag bit in software. Correct. My apologies. I have a write protected disk, I thought I copied with Disk Utilities. I distinctly remember pulling it out of the drive after copying it and finding the write protect notch open. My reaction was surprise, to say the least. I can't duplicate it now. Maybe it was a case of three o'clock in the morning'itis. -- Jim Budler Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (408) 749-5806 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amdcad!jimb Compuserve: 72415,1200 "... Don't sue me, I'm just the piano player!...."