26 Nov
2001
26 Nov
'01
8:03 a.m.
Well the "new" Encompass site is updated and guess what, no "free
DECUS"
memberships anymore, now its $79.99 "early bird special" and $99.99 regular
membership. No doubt when they become HP it will be even more irrelevant to
the cause of preserving old DEC gear. I sure hope they offer lifetime VAX
licenses at some point.
--Chuck
26 Nov
26 Nov
8:45 a.m.
--- Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com> wrote:
Well the "new" Encompass site is updated and
guess what, no "free DECUS"
memberships anymore, now its $79.99 "early bird special" and $99.99
regular
membership. No doubt when they become HP it will be even more irrelevant
to
the cause of preserving old DEC gear. I sure hope they offer lifetime VAX
licenses at some point.
For those of us DECUS members who have not yet gotten any hobbyist VAX
licenses, is it too late? I have one of the recent hobby CDs and a bunch
of 6.x originals, so media isn't a real problem, but licenses are.
What about a project to hack LMF? There was a lot of controversy a while
back about the "Screw LMF" T-Shirt at a Symposium with, IIRC, a 5.2 and
5.3 patch (details of exact versions fuzzy). Did DEC decide to lock stuff
down after 5.x or is it still possible to simply bypass checks in LMF.EXE
to always grant a license?
It just sucks to have something as cool as non-commercial licenses granted
for free change to require a paid-memebership to an organization to get
them for free. In any case, I don't expect to _pay_ to join Encompass. I
would think that losing a substantial quantity of members would cause them
to re-think their policies (including folding, since it _does_ cost to
run an organization, but normally, those costs are considered absorbable
because of the greater benefit to the bottom-line that such an organization
represents).
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1
9:21 a.m.
At 11:45 AM 11/26/01, Ethan Dicks wrote:
For those of us DECUS members who have not yet gotten
any hobbyist VAX
licenses, is it too late? I have one of the recent hobby CDs and a bunch
of 6.x originals, so media isn't a real problem, but licenses are.
Its still possible to get licenses if you have a DECUS *number.* The
original DECUS membership "ids" were a mix of letters (basically parts of
both your last and first name) and they were later changed to Encompass
membership numbers. If you have the number then the Montagar page will
accept it, if you have the old LETTER id then that page will not recognize it.
What about a project to hack LMF? There was a lot of
controversy a while
back about the "Screw LMF" T-Shirt at a Symposium with, IIRC, a 5.2 and
5.3 patch (details of exact versions fuzzy). Did DEC decide to lock stuff
down after 5.x or is it still possible to simply bypass checks in LMF.EXE
to always grant a license?
Well it has been demonstrated on this list that one can "reverse engineer"
the LMF algorithm and generate your own PAKs. Presumably that is an option,
although it becomes significantly more onerous than being "legit"
It just sucks to have something as cool as
non-commercial licenses granted
for free change to require a paid-memebership to an organization to get
them for free.
Yes, and I'm afraid HP/Compaq is intent on laying off the "cool" people who
agree with sentiment in preference for keeping the bean counters. Now a lot
of DECUS folks are there only for the licenses so perhaps they could spin
off just a license program.
In any case, I don't expect to _pay_ to join
Encompass. I
would think that losing a substantial quantity of members would cause them
to re-think their policies (including folding, since it _does_ cost to
run an organization, but normally, those costs are considered absorbable
because of the greater benefit to the bottom-line that such an organization
represents).
In times like these, one has to wonder if they would notice the loss.
--Chuck
4:03 p.m.
At 11:45 AM 11/26/01, Ethan Dicks wrote:
The original DECUS IDs were numbers, then a couple of years ago they switched
to the mix of letters. They've just recently gone back to numbers.
For those of us DECUS members who have not yet
gotten any hobbyist VAX
licenses, is it too late? I have one of the recent hobby CDs and a bunch
of 6.x originals, so media isn't a real problem, but licenses are.
Its still possible to get licenses if you have a DECUS *number.* The
original DECUS membership "ids" were a mix of letters (basically parts of
both your last and first name) and they were later changed to Encompass
membership numbers. If you have the number then the Montagar page will
accept it, if you have the old LETTER id then that page will not recognize it. What about a
project to hack LMF? There was a lot of controversy a while
back about the "Screw LMF" T-Shirt at a Symposium with, IIRC, a 5.2 and
5.3 patch (details of exact versions fuzzy). Did DEC decide to lock stuff
down after 5.x or is it still possible to simply bypass checks in LMF.EXE
to always grant a license?
Well it has been demonstrated on this list that one can "reverse engineer"
the LMF algorithm and generate your own PAKs. Presumably that is an option,
although it becomes significantly more onerous than being "legit" 
5:15 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Dittman" <dittman(a)dittman.net>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: one shoe down ...
You can patch VMS to always return a valid status for
a requested product,
but some products request a bogus license to check if this patch is in
place. If it is, the product will disable itself.
Or you can run a little app that correctly creates what appears to be a
valid installed license for what particular products you wish to run,
including the version, number of license units etc.
I have plenty of VMS licenses, including a few unlimited user non expiring
ones, and a smattering of app licenses, so I don't need it. But I can tell
you that the app in question apparently works with any LDB based product.
I don't remember any of DEC's/Compaq's
products checking for the patch,
but I know of at least two third-party products that perform the check.
They would still work with this particular method.
Just as a matter of interest, which apps?
Some 3rd party stuff is a bit strange, PerfectDisk, for instance, uses some
oddball method, not the LDB.
Personally, I firmly believe that all such license enforcement systems are a
waste of time, since ultimately they can all be circumvented. It's just a
question of how bad you want to do it...
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Mark's College
Port Pirie, South Australia
geoffrob(a)stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au
ICQ 1970476
27 Nov
27 Nov
4:58 a.m.
You can patch
VMS to always return a valid status for a requested product,
but some products request a bogus license to check if this patch is in
place. If it is, the product will disable itself.
Or you can run a little app that correctly creates what appears to be a
valid installed license for what particular products you wish to run,
including the version, number of license units etc.
I have plenty of VMS licenses, including a few unlimited user non expiring
ones, and a smattering of app licenses, so I don't need it. But I can tell
you that the app in question apparently works with any LDB based product. I don't
remember any of DEC's/Compaq's products checking for the patch,
but I know of at least two third-party products that perform the check.
They would still work with this particular method.
Just as a matter of interest, which apps? 
26 Nov
26 Nov
9:38 a.m.
On Mon, 2001-11-26 at 14:03, Chuck McManis wrote:
Well the "new" Encompass site is updated and
guess what, no "free DECUS"
memberships anymore, now its $79.99 "early bird special" and $99.99 regular
membership. No doubt when they become HP it will be even more irrelevant to
the cause of preserving old DEC gear. I sure hope they offer lifetime VAX
licenses at some point.
--Chuck
Are you sure? Looking at the "i want to re-enlist form" at
https://safe2.sba.com/encompass/MemberForm.cfm
It only looks like money is required if you're going to become a
sustaining member...
Of course there is a monster note on the page before:
"Join or Renew Today - BASIC and SUSTAINING membership will only be
available until December 31, 2001!"
Brian
9:48 a.m.
--- Brian Wheeler <bdwheele(a)indiana.edu> wrote:
Are you sure? Looking at the "i want to
re-enlist form" at
https://safe2.sba.com/encompass/MemberForm.cfm
It only looks like money is required if you're going to become a
sustaining member...
For now...
Of course there is a monster note on the page before:
"Join or Renew Today - BASIC and SUSTAINING membership will only be
available until December 31, 2001!"
I just renewed, but if next November they try to shake down the Basic
Members, they'll shake me right out of the tree. I haven't made my
living off of DEC hardware/software in nearly 10 years. The only
thing that kept me around was that I like to play with the toys.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.
http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1
8273
days inactive
8274
days old
7 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
bdwheele＠indiana.edu -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
dittman＠dittman.net -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au