That nice Sony company

All the new VAIOs do come with a service pre-installed that spends its life sitting around querying the battery ever now and then and -- if a non-Sony battery is detected -- forces the laptop into hibernation after telling you that only Sony brand batteries are supported!

Happily, the service that does this easy to remove... but still, it's annoying that you're sucking up memory and CPU time to run a program that's only ever going to make your VAIO less usable than it otherwise would be!

I have a Sony Vaio. It came with ME and Sony "Utilities", both of which I immediately killed, and I replaced the OS with Win2K.

However it WAS hell-on-wheels getting all the features working again, but I succeeded... don't know if I'll ever try that again ;-)

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Yawn....

I used to be a big SONY fan. I also love buying music CDs. But I won't put my computer at risk by buying a SONY CD, and in the future I will no longer risk my household with a SONY product.

I am sorry, but they went over the line, FAR FAR over the line.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Hello Jim,

Maybe because they are so fully loaded with electronics.

The same would go for OS and SW. My mantra is, if I don't need a huge and glitzy bloatware package I don't use it. That's why I am still running some DOS SW. It yields what I need, just as my bare-bones vehicle does.

Sometimes I even take the shovel and bring an old one back out. About 15 year ago I bought Oktay Alkin's PC-DSP DOS program along with his book. Since my fingers begin to hurt from pounding on that poor HP11C keypad I'll have to dig that old DOS software out again. It lets me calculate digital filters on the PC, and very fast. Now I just have to find that old 5 1/4" disk...

Regards, Joerg

...

Right! We don't hear about Mac diseases because they don't exist.

It wouldn't surprise me if Sony's DRM was already embedded in OS10; no need for subsequent infection. No proof or substantive thought; just prejudice, based on 15 years of buyer's remorse. I've resented every Apple product I ever wasted a dime on.

Hello Jim,

A good policy. I should do the same although I'll have to keep a few of them. In the old days the sticker on the disk with the numbers on there was your license so you hafta keep it. Probably nobody is going to look at this old stuff anyway but I try to keep everything legit.

Just found the PC-DSP disk. It was properly stored in the first CAE binder. Duh.... Sure enough the license sticker couldn't withstand all those hot summers out here and it came sailing out before the disk.

Regards, Joerg

So, d'ya think Linus still has a handle on Linux?

Thanks! Rich

Hey, I have a newish Vaio, and the replacement battery from Sony is about $300. What's the thing I should remove?

John

I recently loaded Tiger OS X onto my "naked" PC. Most of it worked. Strange seeing the Apple logo on my PC.

AFAIU OSX is just a butchered version of Linux(whatever), and there are so many gurus out there, the DRM stuff will be cracked and disabled very quickly

martin

I make a text file with all of the disk keys in it with a note as to which program it went with and keep it in the root directory of the CD and keep all of the software in sub-dirs. I still have a 5 1/4 drive along with the masters in storage (just in case), but so far the CD thing is working out very nicely.

Jim

No, it's BSD unix. Linux is GPL: they can't hide their modifications. BSD has a different license that lets vendors do pretty much what they want with the software, in particular, hide their own code mods.

Now, as to cracking Apple's possible malware, which system would be easier to do :-)?

John Perry

Yes, several years when MS started on their digital rights kick (XBox!), I thought briefly that Linux will likely be our last refuge. On topic, though, what do you think they butchered to make OSX? and do you not think DRM is already part of your life?

Sony apparently has become one of the biggest offenders, I'm certainly not going to ignore their evils just because some others may do it as well. When I learn of them, they'll go on my list. It's long past time we took a stand. It's also clear new consumer-protection laws need to be passed; the corporate pendulum has swung far too far the other way.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Hey get out a bit, we do, the cold is invigorating!

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

I wonder if Douglas Hofstader is proud? In _Godel Escher Bach_ he had a series of dialogues involving increasing escalation in complexity of execution, usually titled "This record cannot be played on record player 1". Now a couple of decades later the record companies are resorting to similar means (although all you gotta do is either not use Windows or hold down the shift key when you put in the CD to bypass the crap.)

I shot off my mouth too quickly about Beamers and Mercedes.

Yesterday the Air Door Controller on the Q45 shot craps at 130,000 miles.

Change that out and have some regular maintenance items done while I'm there (had to be towed in)...

Out-the-door for $1193.44 :-(

...Jim Thompson

--
|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
|       http://www.analog-innovations.com           |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Whew, you're beginning to sound like a Democrat there!

Music CD to cassette? How'd they do that?

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Not with Post Polio Syndrome... cold aggravates the muscle shortening :-(

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.