Smiley's Life

BioShock 2 is already cracked and available online.

Packing in a nicely-chilled cocktail of “only-disc-checking-and-street-date-verification” SecuROM and Games for Windows LIVE, BioShock 2 seemed like it would survive a bit without being cracked and pirated. Alas, thanks to 2K releasing it 5 days early (hereby defeating the point of their street date verification, that was implemented to make sure no one played ahead of release), hackers had a few days before the real, grand release to start cracking it. And after hearing about it and checking, I can safely say BioShock 2 has been fully cracked and can be easily found online in PC and XBOX 360 flavors.

I have several issues with Games For Windows LIVE, most importantly the fact its client won’t run on my computer: Because it is a Hebrew version of XP, which requires a patch to run the new version, and because Israel (where Hebrew is the main language) isn’t supported by LIVE, there is no patch for Hebrew versions and because of that, I cannot run the client and buy any DRM for GTA IV, for example. (This will be one of the few times I will pirate content, despite my moral disagreement with it. Hey, if I can’t pay them for it in any way despite wanting to, that’s the only choice I have left.) However, even though SecuROM has yet to cause any issues on my computer - *knocks on wood* - I still don’t like the fact it was included along with GFWL in both retail and digital versions, especially Steam’s. I think they made a mistake using these two in the first place.

Another reason why this type of DRM shouldn’t be used is that a lot of games not using it have easily sold a massive number of copies, and ended up becoming less pirated than protected products. For example, Mass Effect 2 has no DRM at all and yet it sold more than two million units in its first week of release. The only form of DRM I agree with is Steam’s, because it’s the most flexible form of DRM possible that benefits the publisher and customer equally and because it can be circumvented quite easily if the service is unavailable or unstable for some odd reason. (Obviously, I will not post details here. Or anywhere.)

2K Games, I suggest you to learn from this mistake. Using intrusive DRM is never a good thing. Let’s admit it, EA is the last publisher to stop using DRM, so if it decided to stop using SecuROM DRM in Steam versions, and perhaps stop using it altogether in retail versions (Mass Effect 2 is one hint), maybe it’s a sign for you to stop as well. And for crying out loud, don’t release a game without DRM and later bundle downloadable content for the game with DRM like you did with Borderlands. That’s just sneaky and even more unfair to the customer.

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Bye bye 012 (Smile), hello 013 (NetVision)!

I’ve been using a troublesome ISP for over 6 years. Now, after so many technical issues, so much frustration and a couple months of some new issues, like failed connections and having certain ports blocked, I’ve finally moved to the best ISP (Internet Service Provider) around: 013 NetVision.

My parents are divorced (and it’s perfectly fine) and each use a different ISP: my mom uses 012 Smile and my dad uses 013 NetVision. Using both ISPs over the years made me see how one works very well while the other does not. For as far as I can remember, I’ve used NetVision without any issues at all and don’t recall making any calls to their technical support line. (There was one last week, but that turned out to be the server’s fault - it was busy - and my own, not opening certain ports after reconfiguring my router) However, I do recall making countless calls to 012 and Bezeq (my infrastructure company) to solve technical issues, only calling Bezeq because 012 simply didn’t fix it and I thought it may not be their issue. This made me realize we should switch, and after postponing it for so long - I realized this almost 2 years ago - I finally did it, after new problems popped up with 012. Many connections just failed or froze, mainly on Google. Yes, Google. It took me loads of stops and reloads to get just one search done, which defeated the purpose of Google: Speedy searches. After that, I finally snapped and switched.

Long story short, I’ve had various deals offered to me and ended up picking this one: a combined plan consisting of internet service at 10Mbit/s (1.25MB/s)and getting the infrastructure at the same speed through the same ISP, for just ₪150/month. (Though, my infrastructure provider would still be Bezeq. However, that’s just fine.) Seeing as the infrastructure alone was offered for ₪100/month through Bezeq, and the other deals cost about ₪65-75/month, I figured it was the best one.

And now, after finishing it up and configuring my network, I’ve finally left that bad, old ISP and my connection is already better. Raptr, which was for some reason blocked on 012, now works flawlessly and server connections no longer fail. So now, I’m happy. :-)

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One of the best parts about being openly gay...

...is being able to say stuff like this:

Friend A: I've been working out so much. Check out my abs! *takes off shirt*

Friend B: Stop taking off your shirt! Nobody wants to see that!

Me: Speak for yourself!

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I bought the best paperclips: emoticon paperclips! (black border added because cutting away some graphical junk ruined the borders. :-/)

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An extreme case of legal software agreements gone nasty

An hour ago, in the supermarket, I saw a cereal box advertising this flying game inside. What caught my eye was small, bold text under the ad saying you need to agree to a legal release form and a End-User License Agreement to use the game. This seemed odd, and because the form was on the back, I started reading. Here’s a rough translation of what I found: (Text was in Hebrew. Bold parts were not originally emphasized.)

From the moment you insert the disc into your optical drive, you agree to waive your legal rights against the publisher, should it damage your optical drive. […] By using this computer program, you confirm you are aware any computer program may contain a computer virus (“infection”) or any form of malicious code. All possible actions were taken to make sure the disc will not have any defects or errors. However, you agree to waive your legal rights against the publisher should the disc contain any defects, errors or malicious code. […] The application may gather information about your computer and use of the software and send it to the company’s servers, should you contact technical support. You agree to have the application gather information about your use of it, your computer and its configuration.

It “may” damage your drive? It “may” contain malicious code? It “may” watch what you do and tell its creators? Awesome!

I’ve read about cases where a license agreement was tricky and had some bad parts, and we all know about SecuROM, a known “legal computer virus”. But this is just too much. You’re basically agreeing to not take any legal action against the developer/publisher or even complain if the game turns out to be a malicious spyware-like virus! Earlier cases and the legal release form above (Yes, the game also comes with an additional EULA you must agree to. Crazy!) emphasize the fact a user should NEVER install software without thoroughly reading the attached agreements.

Welcome to the 21st century’s revision of the “Buyer Beware” rule.

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Steam's Early Holiday Sale

See Steam’s Early Holiday Sale page, containing each day’s deals.

Steam, Valve’s great content delivery system for games, is having a five-day sale of games for the holidays. Every day 6-8 other games are discounted for 25%, 50%, or even 80%. I personally adore Steam (I’ll write my opinion blog post in the coming days) for its ease-of-use and great prices, since games are usually sold for 150% their U.S. cost here in Israel, and because Steam has great weekend and midweek deals. Today’s deals are Left 4 Dead for a mere $7.49 instead of $29.99, Resident Evil 5 for $24.99 instead of $49.99, SPORE for $19.99 instead of $39.99, Ghostbusters: The Videogame for only $9.99 instead of $19.99, Trine for just $9.99 instead of $19.99, Borderlands for $33.49 instead of $49.99, Order of War for just $9.99 instead of $39.99.

Of the above, I personally recommend Left 4 Dead (4.5 stars), Trine (4 stars) and SPORE (4 stars). I’ve played those three and can definitely say they’re great games: Get Left 4 Dead if you like action-packed shooters that unlike the other 80% don’t take place in a military environment. Get Trine if you like puzzle platforming games, and have a thing for retro sidescrollers. (It’s a beautiful ”3D sidescroller”.) Get SPORE if you like smart simulation games.

(This post has been redone from a link with a description, since my theme apparently does not support link descriptions. I’ll add it in myself later. >.>)

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Hello again, World!

Well, I guess the move was successful! After sticking with WordPress for a while, I finally decided to move to Tumblr. Mostly because of its kick-ass design, though. :-D

But unlike when I moved to wordpress.com, this time I’m starting over. Meaning, except for a few recent posts none of my old, pre-teen posts will be available here. I’ll keep smileybarry.wordpress.com open for archiving purposes, showing my older posts, (or maybe just move them to a dedicated Tumblr blog instead?) but those posts won’t be here, on the new blog. I’ve matured a lot over the years, and if I had my old-old blog’s content (I accidentally deleted the wrong database back then and had no backup. AHH!) I could showcase my progress. This new blog will be a little less “lol” and a little more serious than my previous one, but it won’t be a Negative Nancy. Or a Serious Samuel. (Serious Sam series unrelated) :-P

But in conclusion, what I wanted to say from the start is: Hello again, World. :-)

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Me VS Virus: Progress Report

I recently handed in my PC for a disc drive repair, and it ended up that one of their USB pen-drives, which was used on my computer, was infected with a autorun.inf virus. They also apparently disabled my antivirus’ behavioral scanner, which enabled the unknown virus to act. So far the only thing it has appeared to do is spread by making an autorun.inf file on every USB stick, and I’ve managed to track it down to a Services group in Windows. To investigate, I disabled all but the basic and antivirus services and am now scanning with various other ones (Mine, BitDefender Antivirus 2009, couldn’t find it even then.). I may even contact BitDefender support for help and attach the infecting file for them to investigate, but it seems I may need to format and reinstall. Fortunately, I only set it up 9 months ago and clearly know what I need to backup and what I can simply redownload.

My mom and I already decided we will buy our future computers from a known OEM like HP when the time comes again, because of the amount of times we’ve been burnt by their bad parts and lousy support. As of now, I’ve replaced my old PC’s motherboard about 3 to 4 times, changed the power supply twice, and on my new PC that is only 9 months old, I changed the power supply 4 times and replaced the disc drive once (now). And my mom’s new PC’s disc drive is defective and can’t read any discs’ last sectors.

Given the new development, once my mom comes home from Beijing (she’s on a trip to Beijing and Tibet) we’re going to send a letter to the CEO of Ivory Computers, only ship the parts we know are bad to Ivory requesting a replacement according to our warranty agreement and if necessary, take the computer to a different branch for repair, since my uncle uses Ivory PCs and has not come across an issue like ours.

I’m sick and tired of these troubles that I didn’t even have anything to do with. I just want to use a normal, working computer. If this continues I’m sure my mom will agree to buy new HP PCs already and reuse the graphics card if the troubles continue. Trust me, the gas used to drive there all the time may actually cost the same.

This is doing wonders to my ongoing depression.

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Poem: Fake Crush

Sometimes when I’m bored, I come up with poems about many things just for fun. (Most are, obviously, about love.) After re-reading one I wrote last night, I decided to share it and some of my following ones on my blog every now and then. Here’s my first one, named “Fake Crush”:

Before you first came along,
I was heavily depressed.
But when I saw you,
With my heart you’ve messed.

You gave me strength to go on,
And show everyone the real me.
And I thought this may in the end,
Make you go out with me.

But as I walked towards the light,
It became clear.
You don’t really know me.
You’re not even here.

You’re on the other side,
Playing for the other team.
And everything I wanted,
Was nothing but a dream.

If you have anything to say about the poem - feel free to comment! :-)

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Store your game progress in the cloud - for free

Sketchy Steam Cloud logo

Valve introduced a sub-service of their content delivery system Steam last November called Steam Cloud, which is basically a system to store your saved games on Steam servers as well, so that you could pick up where you left off on any other PCs you might have, without needing to do anything. The service sounds well, but sadly, only supports a limited number of games, most of them from 2008 and later. Games like Half-Life 2 and Portal were excluded with a notice from Valve that they will be supported in the future. In addition, Steam Cloud only supports games purchased and/or activated through Steam. But with a little willpower and about 5 minutes, one could make his own Steam Cloud without repurchasing games or even paying a single dime. You don’t have to be a computer expert, too; you just need to have an advanced knowledge of computers and not have the irrational fear of black-background-white-text console windows many people have.