Newsweek: New Microsoft Program 'Palladium' Next Step in Computer Security

PRnewswire ^ | 6/24/02

[steve-b]

Those "special chips" enable content publishers to control their content in your machine.
You can't seriously think that.

It says so right there in the article:

It is also being offered to the studios and record labels as a way to distribute music and film with "digital rights management" (DRM)

Remember the screaming fits of rage when Intel included a serial number in their CPUs? The same sorts of claims were made then. Have you read or heard anything that would lead you to believe any of the specious claims have come to pass?

The Big Brother possibilities didn't come to pass because Intel backed down.

[steve-b]

I predict Palladium would be cracked within a week of its official release.

And that's another reason why implementing mass-market user security in hardware is the dumbest idea this side of hiring Bill Clinton to chaperone the senior prom. You can't download new hardware over the Internet when the manufacturer releases a patch.

[steve-b]

But, I'm sure, they've really really changed this time.

Yeah, just like Arafat.

[steve-b]

The idiots at Slashdot have been lulled into the NSA's version of Linux...

What a bunch of idiots, to trust a decades-old organization of security specialists over MicroSieve.

[steve-b]

I've been writing a piece of music and recorded a draft of it about a week ago onto my Win2000 machine with SoundForge. I then converted it to .mp3 with AudioCatalyst and uploaded it to my website.
Yesterday I downloaded it on my personal laptop at work, so I could hear it through different speakers. When I opened it with Media Player 7, the digital media security kernel kicked in and brought up a dialog box stating that I was opening a piece of music "recorded from a CD" and asking me if I wanted "migrate my license" and warning me about copyright infringements.
ON MY OWN MUSIC AND ON MY OWN MACHINES.

For Hollywood, that's a feature, not a bug. You're supposed to be leering at Britney and listening to N'Stink (or maybe the other way around, since I don't know your gender or orientation), not trying to make competing music of your own.

[Bush2000]

What a bunch of idiots, to trust a decades-old organization of security specialists over MicroSieve.

Especially when the NSA is so fond of domestic surveillance and is more than happy to use the war on terror as a pretext to track everything we do.

[steve-b]

Yes; that's why you check the source code. :-)

[Bush2000]

Yes; that's why you check the source code. :-)

You actually expect anyone --including my Mom -- who uses NSA Linux to read the source code for vulnerabilities?

[TechJunkYard]

Remember the screaming fits of rage when Intel included a serial number in their CPUs?

The Big Brother possibilities didn't come to pass because Intel backed down.

Well, IIRC, Intel went ahead and did what it wanted to do, but allowed a feature to turn it off.

[InfraRed]

You actually expect anyone --including my Mom -- who uses NSA Linux to read the source code for vulnerabilities?

If you will not check the source code for Mom, there are plenty of other eyes on the 'net that can and will.

If Mom is running "closed source", your only choice is to keep your prying eyes to yourself. This requires that you have blind faith in those that produced the proprietary code which is controlling Mom's machine.

It's not terribly difficult to grasp which code base is more likely to be trusted.

[TechJunkYard]

anyone --including my Mom -- who uses NSA Linux

Your own mom uses Linux? ;-)
Well, somebody will review the code, and if Mom reads either the tech press or Slashdot, (heh-heh) she'll hear about it.