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https://www.iafrikan.com/2020/06/30/do-we-really-own-our-digital-possessions/
During 2019, Microsoft announced that it will close the books category of its digital store. While other software and apps will still be available via the virtual shop front, and on purchasers' consoles and devices, the closure of the eBook store takes with it customers' eBook libraries. Any digital books bought through the service – even those bought many years ago – will no longer be readable after July 2019. While the company has promised to provide a full refund for all eBook purchases, this decision raises important questions of ownership.
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We Don't Really Own the Digital Possessions That We Buy Online
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Life is to you a dashing and bold adventure.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Thursday July 02 2020, @05:09AM (6 children)
The first time I ran into Expensive-Unrepairable was in fact an Apple desktop computer (Mac System 8 era). Fan died in the power supply and it was overheating. So I arrive, tools and replacement fan in hand, and discover that the whole assembly was RIVETED together such that there was no way to get it apart, short of a chainsaw. Owner settled for leaving the case open and a desk fan aimed at the innards.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Thursday July 02 2020, @07:04AM (3 children)
I ran into a not quite so expensive but more egregious example. A VCR with some probably minor mechanical failure so that it didn't correctly load/unload a tape. I took the cover off and tried to put it through it's motions to see what looked wrong, and damned if it didn't have a hidden light sensor to detect the cover off condition and perform a PLANNED malfunction so I couldn't see how it was supposed to work!
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday July 02 2020, @08:08AM (2 children)
Holy crap! the Mac was just poor design -- didn't look so much nyah-nyah-try-and-fix-this as what's the fastest and cheapest way to fasten it? (whole thing was made cheap as could be) but that VCR... yeah, that's just evil!!
Oh, speaking of evil... a tale I was told from back when software ran off floppy disks: if dBase (then thousands of dollars) thought you were making a move to pirate it, it would erase itself. And doing something like accidentally removing the wrong disk or in the wrong order would trigger it (I forget the details but it was way too easy to do by accident). Someone at a friend's former work managed to set it off... ouch.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday July 02 2020, @09:26PM (1 child)
Yeah, that dBase copy prevention was way over the line. Active and possibly irreversible retribution triggered by a hyper sensitive tilt switch.
DRM and other copy prevention is necessarily against any principle of robust software. Rather than trying to find a way to go on and just dealing with probably harmless quirks, DRM and copy prevention actively look for a reason to hard fail. Imagine if going to a 404 page caused the browser to just exit without saving state.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday July 02 2020, @10:31PM
Good analogy!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Thursday July 02 2020, @07:15PM (1 child)
You couldn't drill the rivets? That's the normal way to remove them.
I bought an expensive aluminum tower chassis many, many years ago, and it got damaged in shipping. I got a refund I think from the shipping company, so I had a free but dented case; it was made of aluminum panels riveted together, so I drilled out the rivets, took it apart, bent/flattened the aluminum back into shape, then riveted it back together, and it was pretty much good as new.
Rivets are certainly not as easy to remove as screws, but it's not impossible.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday July 02 2020, @08:33PM
I thought about it, but there were about a dozen (and the thing was layered together so you couldn't even reach some of 'em) and sadly I lack a drill capable of going around corners into very small cracks. Wasn't worth the pretty good chance of hitting something vital; owner said never mind, I'll just use a desk fan, and so it went until the thing died entirely a couple years later.
If it were mine, yeah, I'd probably have completely dysmangled it and made it so it came apart gracefully whether it liked it or not. Or, why I don't like creatively tight packing when stuff might need to come out. (Of course, Apple and repairs...)
Good story about your case -- well worth the effort!
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.