Strange guy from asia...

Hi all,

I have received this email recently. I have replaced the email addresses 
because I don't want to blame him.

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: The structure, or ganization, and code of the Software are valuable 
trade secrets of Autodesk and its licensors.
Date: Tuesday, 1. May 2007 17:52
From: "Emmanuelle Seaman" <some <at> email>
To: my <at> email

Since a menu is a tool to get the user up and running quickly, you should
 follow the standard.

-------------------------------------------------------

Is that a hysteric-maker or true? I have checked the webpage out where his 
email address (seems to) belongs to.

Greetings,
Roland Haeder

Hi all,

I have received this email recently. I have replaced the email addresses 
because I don't want to blame him.

Re: Strange guy from asia...

On Tuesday 01 May 2007 22:09, Roland Haeder wrote:
> ----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
>
> Subject: The structure, or ganization, and code of the Software are
> valuable trade secrets of Autodesk and its licensors.
> Date: Tuesday, 1. May 2007 17:52
> From: "Emmanuelle Seaman" <some <at> email>
> To: my <at> email
>
> Since a menu is a tool to get the user up and running quickly, you should
>  follow the standard.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is that a hysteric-maker or true? 

Can you expand how you understand the question?
Autodesk is a company earning a lot of money with proprietary software.
Of course they would say and claim that structure, organisation and software
code of this software are valuable to them. Software-Patents, copyright and 
trade mark laws in the various countries of the world might allow them
to actually protect this proprietary knowledge.

With most graphical user interface elements you should actually follow
what the majority of users expects, from the usuability point of view.

Both does not seem to be news ...

Bernhard

sad treacherous computing day

Just a few minutes ago I made two sad discoveries:

0) my notebook has a tc chip inside
I bought a lenovo thinkpad r60 9456-HTG
and it has a fingerprint reader.
It contains a chip made by Atmel:

http://www.tonymcfadden.net/tpmvendors_arc.html#laptops

and this is from the datasheet:
--------------------------------------------------------
Security: Power-on password / hard disk password / supervisor password /
security keyhole

Security chip: Trusted Platform Module / Atmel chip / TCG 1.2-compliant

Fingerprint reader: Fingerprint reader on palm rest / swipe sensor /
integrated with security chip
--------------------------------------------------------------

1) my nokia n73 has symbian 9.1 operating system
which has tc too.

http://www.symbian.com/files/rx/file6965.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------
Platform Security architecture
The kernel and file server, and the software installer, are part of the
Trusted Computing Base
(TCB) and have unrestricted access to the device resources. They are

Re: sad treacherous computing day

On Sun, 2007-05-06 at 23:29 +0200, arc wrote:
> 0) my notebook has a tc chip inside
> I bought a lenovo thinkpad r60 9456-HTG

IBM (and then Lenovo) Thinkpads have shipped with this chip for a long
time.

They provide free software drivers and document it; you can use it to
protect the contents of your hard drive, or data from other users of the
OS, etc.: 

	http://sourceforge.net/projects/tpmdd

I wouldn't say it's a bad thing to have; they're useful devices.

Cheers,

Alex.

Re: sad treacherous computing day

On Sun, 2007-05-06 at 23:29 +0200, arc wrote:
> I don't know what to do.
> I can't sell them, I can't crush them but I don't want to use them.

It's the use you make of a technology that can be good or bad, not the
technology itself.
On my Thinkpads I run only free software (a GNU/Linux distribution of my
choice) and TC does not affect my freedom at all.

Fight the bad behaviors, not technology itself.

Simo.

Re: sad treacherous computing day

simo ha scritto:

> It's the use you make of a technology that can be good or bad, not the
> technology itself.
> On my Thinkpads I run only free software (a GNU/Linux distribution of my
> choice) and TC does not affect my freedom at all.
> 
> Fight the bad behaviors, not technology itself.

I understand but the main reason for the existence of drm and tc is
money and with my money I supported something I don't like.
If everyone buy things with this technology inside, even if nobody use
it, vendors will be interested in manufacturing it.
In this way we are helping spread drm and tc even if we didn't use it.

This is why I'm sad.

The only thing I can do now it's stop suggesting Lenovo notebooks as a
choice.

--
arc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal page: http://www.chi3.org/arc
Chi3 Hacklab: http://www.chi3.org
Join the Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
NO EMAIL from Gmail, >1Mb, html, ms-office files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: sad treacherous computing day

On Mon,  7 May 2007 12:20, arc@... said:

> In this way we are helping spread drm and tc even if we didn't use it.

You should be more worried about the BIOS than about the Fritz chip.  It
is not really possible to draw a line between a hardware based and a
software based restriction system.  In fact, allmost all deployed
systems don't need a TPM.  It is just another useless piece of silicon
on the mainboard.  Thus, you should better not suggest any brand of
laptop - with or without TPM.

Salam-Shalom,

   Werner

Re: sad treacherous computing day

On Mon, 2007-05-07 at 12:20 +0200, arc wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> simo ha scritto:
> 
> > It's the use you make of a technology that can be good or bad, not the
> > technology itself.
> > On my Thinkpads I run only free software (a GNU/Linux distribution of my
> > choice) and TC does not affect my freedom at all.
> > 
> > Fight the bad behaviors, not technology itself.
> 
> I understand but the main reason for the existence of drm and tc is
> money and with my money I supported something I don't like.
> If everyone buy things with this technology inside, even if nobody use
> it, vendors will be interested in manufacturing it.
> In this way we are helping spread drm and tc even if we didn't use it.

DRM and TC can be used in useful ways, again it is not the technology,
it is the use of the technology that can be good or bad.

PGP and DRM/TC may both use encryption, do you think encryption itself
is bad also?

> This is why I'm sad.

There are some many more bad things to be sad of, I think this has very
low priority.

Re: sad treacherous computing day

Werner Koch ha scritto:

> You should be more worried about the BIOS than about the Fritz chip.

Is there someone who installed succesfully a free bios on a lenovo thinkpad?

On the compatibility list I saw only ibm thinkpad t24.

--
arc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Personal page: http://www.chi3.org/arc
Chi3 Hacklab: http://www.chi3.org
Join the Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
NO EMAIL from Gmail, >1Mb, html, ms-office files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: sad treacherous computing day

   DRM and TC can be used in useful ways, again it is not the
   technology, it is the use of the technology that can be good or
   bad.

What are these useful ways one can use DRM and TC?  The whole point of
TC and DRM is after all to prohibit a user from updating their
software, or from listining to their favourite song on their music
player of choice.  I cannot see anything useful about these things.
Encryption doesn't even come into the picture, since you can do TC/DRM
without encryption; I think this is what Tivio did, they just signed
their binaries, and the hardware only allows running binaries signed
by that entity.