A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista...

[JoJo]

...Regarding content protection:

www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/%7Epgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history.

A long but detailed explanation of what the new copy protection schemes of Windows Vista will mean.

(have fun Windows users...)

[fourthousandholes]

"the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server)."

Have fun Apple users.

[JoJo]

Apple users will be fine, at least for the time being, unless they cave to the demands of the HD content producers. I think what he meant was that in a networked Vista/Mac environment for example, the Apple hardware would not be "certified". But in a standalone situation, no problem, as OS X doesn't have anything like this. (yet)

Besides, near the end of the article, he makes the point that I was already concluding myself... Just buy a cheap standalone DVD player for 50 bucks, and play all the content you wish.

One of the most amusing parts of the article:

Note C: In order for content to be displayed to users, it has to be copied numerous times. For example if you're reading this document on the web then it's been copied from the web server's disk drive to server memory, copied to the server's network buffers, copied across the Internet, copied to your PC's network buffers, copied into main memory, copied to your browser's disk cache, copied to the browser's rendering engine, copied to the render/screen cache, and finally copied to your screen. If you've printed it out to read, several further rounds of copying have occurred. Windows Vista's content protection (and DRM in general) assume that all of this copying can occur without any copying actually occurring, since the whole intent of DRM is to prevent copying. If you're not versed in DRM doublethink this concept gets quite tricky to explain, but in terms of quantum mechanics the content enters a superposition of simultaneously copied and uncopied states until a user collapses its wave function by observing the content (in physics this is called quantum indeterminacy or the observer's paradox). Depending on whether you follow the Copenhagen or many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, things then either get weird or very weird. So in order for Windows Vista's content protection to work, it has to be able to violate the laws of physics and create numerous copies that are simultaneously not copies.

(Someone has pointed out that Microsoft is trying to implement a quantum encryption channel in software that attempts to make premium content non- observable, detecting problem states and discontinuing transmission if any are observed).






Mr Johnson, that fuzzy region on your X-ray indicates one of two things. Either you have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, or the copy-protection system on our computer thinks that part of your left lung looks like Mickey Mouse.

[revolver]

Here's a good article on the many annoyances of Vista.

I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon. It's ridiculously overpriced. It usually takes at least a year before most device drivers are stable with a new OS. But MS wants us to pay top dollar for a buggy product just so we can get a slicker interface. No thanks.

[sadiewestbrooke]

eh xp will work for me fine for a few more years.