#Dongles
Chuck,
>>piggy-backing onto the 3DS dongle: out of wack?…
This won't work for a product like Liquid Speed. (The 3DS software is not
keyed to the dongle – any 3DS executable will work with any dongle.) Vibrant's
only customers for LS are all us nasty 3DS users, who will, by definition, all
have the 3DS dongle, and would surely promiscuously copy the silly thing.
The whole Liquid Speed thing makes me MAD. A stupid dongle for a $300
"utility"??? Until Vibrant did this, I was behind them. I think they would
have made more money by having the ADESK deal build "it" into 3DS for an
additional $100 or so in upgrade fee. Then ALL serious 3DS sites would "buy"
it (who wouldn't upgrade to R3?). Vibrant would make a lot more money, 3DS
customers would not be alienated, and we wouldn't be having this discussion.
(this week, anyway)
The Schreiber concept breaks down if your computer signature changes at
midnight Saturday: you can't get a new code to finish your job until Monday
morning. If they ever go out of business, kiss it goodbye.
I agree with Don, and will only buy a dongled program if I absolutely can't
live without it and there is no significant competitor. I also refuse to buy
any copy-protected software that messes with my hard disk. (I have a $500
music printing program that won't work anymore and the company won't help.)
Too bad honesty is so out of style…
JKJ
PS. re cheap switchboxes: our years of extensive experience with switching many
dozens of HP printers indicates NO problems. An insider at HP indicated their
stance was taken because of some early "shorting" rotary switches, as opposed
to the "non-shorting" type found in today's boxes. FWIW