soe@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Brad Soe) (01/24/89)
I want to find a way to get a Unique Macintosh ID (like the Mac's serial number) under software. Is there some unique ID number stored away in a System Resource or something? It doesn't have to be backwards compatible (with Mac+ or Mac 512), but just some unique number that can be accessed in this way. I just need some number that is unique for each Macintosh. Thanks Brad Soe soe@ames.arc.nasa.gov
falken@caen.engin.umich.edu (David R Falkenburg) (01/24/89)
In article <20963@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, soe@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Brad Soe) writes: > > I want to find a way to get a Unique Macintosh ID (like the > Mac's serial number) under software. Is there some unique ID > number stored away in a System Resource or something? It doesn't > have to be backwards compatible (with Mac+ or Mac 512), > but just some unique number that can be accessed in this way. > I just need some number that is unique for each Macintosh. > > Thanks > > Brad Soe > soe@ames.arc.nasa.gov Why on earth do you need such a thing? Are you using it for something useful (like network node id assignement) or just to "node-lock" a software package. There should be no reason you need such a unique number-- not only is it almost certainly uneccessary, but such "measures" make things a pain in the *&^( to administer. Remember keeping your Lisa Office System Originals? Rumor has it that NeXT might be using node-locking as a strategy for sw distribution-- BIG MISTAKE. -dave -- Dave Falkenburg @ University of Michigan Computer Aided Engineering Network ARPA: falken@caen.engin.umich.edu UUCP: umix!caen.engin.umich.edu!falken
oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (01/25/89)
It depends on what you need it for. If you want an immutable, unspoofable number for copy protection, I don't know of anything that will do it for you. If you need it to be unique on a network, appletalk's distributed name server will give you a unique socket numbe for each mac on the net. Lastly, the Map CDEV stores the latitude and longitude of the mac in the parameter ram is a 32-bit fraction of a great circle, which gives a positioning on the Earth of a few feet. This lets you asign permanent unique ids to any set of macintoshes under your control, but the user can changes these numbers, if only by removing the battery that backs up the parameter RAM. Ithink Mac 512KEs don't have enough parameter RAM to store these values.