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The Klingon Pirates
When I released uBar 2 last year, it wasn’t long before cracked copies started appearing on the internet. uBar costs $20, which is more than reasonable for the amount of work put into it and what it does. But there’s always people who feel entitled to your work, and proclaim “it should be $X”, where X is the amount they arbitrarily have decided to be acceptable. That’s fair enough – nobody is forcing them to use uBar – but some people think that justifies pirating it. The “I’m pirating it because I don’t know if I like it enough to buy it” routine doesn’t work given the generous 4 week trial period. This is merely a case of people feeling entitled to other people’s work.
So a year ago, I decided to do something about it. Rather than change the protection mechanism and play cat and mouse with people that have nothing to do all day but crack software, I decided to play the long game, and have some fun while I was at it.
I made it so that if uBar detected that the registration mechanism was circumvented, after 10-15 hours it would begin substituting any app or window title with… Klingon.
I searched Google for “Klingon Dictionary”, and found a list of several hundred Klingon words. I then created a mechanism that would substitute the words of any sentence into a sentence with an equal number of random Klingon words. So “This is the title of a window” would become “Qus tay ngaS qlm lom wlv Qu'”, whatever that means.
So I implemented this system, and decided to wait and see what would happen. I figured the pirates wouldn’t suspect it had anything to do with a counter-piracy measure, but rather would assume it was a bug. They could solve it with a relaunch, but that would be annoying.
I was right. In fact, support emails began coming in from people who had the gall to actually request support when using a pirated copy of uBar.
It wasn’t who you would normally expect, and frankly, forgive, such as teens without any income. Many people have pirated high-end software in their youth, so I can empathize. The difference is that people with a conscience tend to do the right thing once they enter adulthood and earn a living. They understand that other people also earn their living writing the software they use, and that paying for what they use is what makes it work.
Instead, we got emails from grown adults using their corporate email addresses, replete with management job titles. These people actually pirated a $20 piece of software, and then had, again, the gall to email the uBar team for support. Example, with identifying information mercifully redacted:
Just reporting a bug. Every now and then the bar writes gibberish for the titles.
[image here]
These are Lotus Notes, Adium, Rdio. A re-launch of the application fixes the issue.
Kind regards,
[Redacted full name]
Development Manager
[Redacted company name]
[Redacted company address]
[Redacted company phone and fax]
I don’t know what “Mismoh pon” means in Klingon, but we can rest assured that Mr. Development Manager knows it’s Lotus Notes, which he may or may not have decided he didn’t have to pay for.
He got the boiler-plate response:
Dear [redacted],
As you are using a pirated copy of uBar, it is unavoidable that you must begin learning Klingon. It is the life you have chosen. Dujeychugh jagh nIv yItuHQo’!
Sincerely,
The uBar team
It’s been a year since this little experiment started, and it’s been interesting to say the least. uBar is used by thousands of Mac users every day, and I’m glad to conclude that the overwhelming majority are legitimate, paying customers who appreciate the effort put into it.
Qapla’!
The real threat to credit card hacking is in the form of ATM skimmers. Thieves place readers into any ATM or point of sale device where cards are read, and all of your data is collected. For them, it's much more efficient and they can gather thorough data in large quantities this way. Unfortunately, a foil sleeve or lined wallet can't protect you from this. The good news is the U.S. is finally adopting the Euro-style chip and pin pairing called EMV cards. They've been using this across the pond for nearly a decade, and it seems to be an effective redesign for minimizing fraud.
| Application Name | TextOverlayTool |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Short Description | Display transparent overlay of a Text file (plain text or markdown) |
| Supported OSes/Requirements | Any OS that supports .NET 4.5 |
| Download Link | http://bit.ly/TextOverlayTool |
I have created a number of checklists for flight simulator. But, having another Notepad window open to read the text line (checklist item) is quite distracting and the white background of the window makes things difficult to see for night flights.
Okay, so this isn't a perfect world, so I will settle for a menu-less, border-less text editor with the capability to make the background black and the text white or green (sort of like Q10). It would have the ability to shrink it vertically to only see one line at a time.
| Application Name | WakaDash |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Short Description | A dashboard for WakaTime |
Personal Knowbase is a program for organizing free-form information using keywords. Build a personal knowledge base of all your notes, messages, and ideas. Store and index your information in one place for easy retrieval using keywords that you choose. The attachment feature even associates disk files and Internet addresses with your notes, so you can access any computerized information using the same set of keywords.
Chrome’s Terrible Bug Turned Into a Game
As of Monday, Chrome is vulnerable to a bug that can crash any tab, just by hovering over links with certain characters in succession. This is obviously terrible, but you know the old saying: when life gives you bugs, make bug-based games.
3030 is a simple game where you move your mouse through a maze of potentially browser-crashing links. Don’t touch a tree!
Mouse your way through the map without touching the deadly trees! (Chrome, Opera, etc. only)
WARNING: Do you have important, unsaved work open in other tabs?
You need to close this tab RIGHT NOW. Go save your work. Come back. Enjoy!
Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports for our Newscast unit:
"The German automaker will have to recall about 482,000 Audi and Volkswagen cars with 4-cylinder turbo diesel engines. The issue affects 2009 through 2015 model years.
"The cars have devices that turn emissions controls on during tests and off during normal driving.
"The deception is a serious violation of the Clean Air Act, for which CEO Martin Winterkorn says he is personally deeply sorry, and he promises the company will do whatever is necessary to reverse the damage this has caused. The company faces potentially billions in fines and other costs."
On Friday, the EPA and the California Air Resources Board said that a "defeat device" had allowed diesel Jettas, Beetles and other cars to "emit up to 40 times more pollution" than allowed under U.S. standards.
Saying that Volkswagen has ordered an external investigation of the software exploit that skirted U.S. emissions tests, Winterkorn stated, "We do not and will not tolerate violations of any kind of our internal rules or of the law."
"Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
Promo link: https://www.stickypa...5&utm_content=lp
Promo type:
Giveaway
BETHESDA CLASSICS NOW DRM-FREE - BUY ANY BETHESDA GAME, GET THE ELDER SCROLLS: ARENA & DAGGERFALL FOR FREE
Microsoft has announced that it will block games utilizing SafeDisc or Securom DRM on Windows 10, citing security concerns owing to a lack of support by the companies that made them.
So ofcourse Microsoft being Microsoft they are very vague about licensing which makes the whole thing somewhat unintuïtive.
This is what i figured out myself, and it works for doing a complete fresh install of Windows 10 and activating it if you are currently running Windows 7 or 8(.1).
1: First things first, make sure you have everything backed up and saved. Also write down your current key for Windows 7 or 8.1.
2: Then download this little tool https://www.microsof...e-download/windows10 . And use it to download an ISO for your version of Windows. Got Windows 8.1 Pro? Go with Windows 10 Pro. Got Windows 7 Home Premium? Go with Windows 10 home, etc..
3: Make a bootable USB stick with this: https://rufus.akeo.ie/ . Use GPT for partition table, and file system FAT32.
4: Then put the USB stick aside and install the Windows 10 upgrade through Windows update. The reason being that your old key won't work to activate Windows 10. But during the update process you automatically get a new key, a legitimate Windows 10 key.
5: Now once it's all installed use this tool: http://www.nirsoft.n...t_cd_key_viewer.html to find your new Windows 10 key. Make sure to write this down, so you can always find it.
6: Now with your new Windows 10 key you can install Windows 10 and activate it like you're used to. Boot from the USB stick, install Windows 10, install the drivers, activate and off you go.
I hope this is helpful for someone out there, because it took me a while to figure out as well since there are 0 tutorials explaining this right now at the time of writing.