DVD Loading

[Helldiver]

I hope that Microsoft finally gets smart and fires the stupid bloody idiot that dictated that the CD remain in the drive when you load Flight Simulator. That one action not only ruined more drives but it meant going back to Wal-Mart and get another new CD to replace the scratched up one.
This one thoughtless act cost billions of dollars in replacement drives, wasted time and screwed up CDs. - Not to mention having to put up with Wal-Mart Exchange Department, again and again.
Thank goodness that someone brilliant came up with a work around! I bet it was the people at Microsoft was the first ones that used it.
Heh heh heh!

[SeanTK]

Let me get this straight,

You are blaming Microsoft/The FS Team for this?
If you are too lazy to put your CDs/DVD's away properly and take good care of your computer equipment, that's your own fault, not theirs.
I've heard so many of these types of arguments about leaving the CD in and this and that.....if you are so lazy that you don't even have the willpower to get up to switch CD's, something is severely wrong.....

Blue skies,
-SeanTK

[Helldiver]

Ah youth. It's too bad they waste it on the young!

[Ed Philly]

for whatever its worth,....

when i loaded my FS2002 i didn't need my CDs again. i never bought FS2004 as i am perfectly happy with 2002.

it runs perfectly without them. and no,...i didn't have no special 'extra' program added in it.

for other flying sims, MS, Janes, B-17 etc. i do use a special program that eliminates the need to load CDs. having gone thru the hassle of getting a new CFS1 CD was my first lesson and was enough to convince me.

Ed

[SeanTK]

What kind of remark is that Helldiver? :angryfir:

Your laziness with your computer equipment is surely not my fault.
How come I don't have the problems with scratched CD's or poor hardware?

Good flights,

-SeanTK

[Henry]

he he guys!
thats a long and deliberated problem
until a few weeks ago i had one drive
cd im supposed to keep my fs9 , cfs3 cd in it
which one plus
the one i get for my down loads
personally i dont have a problem with security
but its a royal pain
this one in chuck this one on the table
etc etc oooops it got scratced or my dogs got it:d
whatever MS decides to do its up to us to
deal with it
ive space for another drive
H

[Ed Philly]

Sean,

you apparantly posted as i was typing.

please see my comments.

i am not lazy, just practical.

Ed

[Douglas]

Just had to buy CFS2 again,sounds like a gunshot when cds self destruct :isadizzy:

[KC13]

I'm a professional programmer and my work goes out the door with zero protection on it. Experience has clearly shown that protection hinders ONLY legitimate users. I can defeat any kind of protection in a short period of time. Pirates are even faster as they're more experienced at doing it, so why put resources and effort into a scheme that will be broken the day after the software is released. The MS "you must have your CD in the drive" is nonsense at best. Five minutes after installing FS9, I had a "fix" on the drive defeating it. It's simply a waste of time to put it on in the first place. Helldiver is correct. Whomever is responsible for it should be in the unemployment line looking for a real job.....

[SeanTK]

Yes Ed I see your point,

If you have a no-CD program to relieve you from the highly stressful activity of switching CD's, that's fine, but @ Helldiver, don't blame a company for creating their program without that luxury in mind. I personally have no problem with switching CD's a lot, and I also have had no problems with my equipment either. It's really hard to explain what I mean, but I hope you catch the drift.

Calling a member of a software group an idiot for not catering to your needs is just sad....(original helldiver post). I guess that is by biggest gripe.

Have a nice week, (EDIT: I did not see KC's post until now and don't have time to address it currently. Also, I won't be around till Tuesday so I will see where this leads then)

-SeanTK

[RichardIII]

Interesting. The problem with this kind of copy protection as I see it, is that it doesn't work. Within days, if not hours, it is defeated, and therefore, useless. As KC13 has already pointed out.
But, what really gets me is that the "I don't want to wear out my CD (or DVD) doesn't hold water either. The fact is, the CD only needs to be in the tray long enough for the program to check it's there. It can then be carefully removed and lovingly put away.:d
No CD or DVD will "wear out" or get scratched if you are careful, as Sean has ponted out. Bottom line, IMHO is that any software company has a perfect right to protect their "intellectual product". Problem is, IMVHO, they charge too much for it in the first place...:kilroy:
Rich :wavey:

[MCDesigns]

I tend to agreer with Sean, You'll find most games/sims require a CD to be in the drive when running it, so it's not MS's fault, but rather an industry standard. Be happy they aren't doing it via STEAM with an online subscription to activate and play, which looks to be the way it might become in the future.

BTW there is an easy fix since I don't use the CD other than for installation.

[VF15_gray]

SeanTK,

There are two issues about this that bother me:

1) I am guilty until proven innocent. I can sympathize with the problem of software piracy but accusing (assuming) a customer of being a thief is not good.

2) Wasted time. Have you ever stopped to think about how many man / hours are lost (consumed) each year just to change all the clocks back and forth to Day Light Savings. 15 mins a business or house x 100,000,000 x 2 times a year is a lot of hours that could be used for something a little more productive.

Why should I have to:
get the CD out - put it in the drive - wait for it to spin up - put it away when it is done - ??

How many hours are collectively wasted on some thing so stupid?

gray

[Gregory Paul]

I dislike having to put in the CD to play the game. There is no real good use for this as the bad guys will copy the game anyway. It's just a pain to do. I have to do this not just for the games I play but for the games my kids play. I have a 6 year old, 5 year old, and a 2 year old. If I let them handle the CD it will get scratched in not time flat(and there goes that 20.00 or 30.00 bucks!). It's bad enough I have to do it with the Gamecube (i've lost money there too because of the games getting scratched).

Ah youth. It's too bad they waste it on the young!

SeanTK don't call someone lazy it's just like EdPhilly it's just practical and when you get older you will learn it too.

I tend to agreer with Sean, You'll find most games/sims require a CD to be in the drive when running it, so it's not MS's fault, but rather an industry standard. Be happy they aren't doing it via STEAM with an online subscription to activate and play, which looks to be the way it might become in the future.

I hope you are wrong about that but if the game industry does go to the online subscription I will not buy any more game from companies that use this crappy idea. The bad guys will find a way around that to.


How come I don't have the problems with scratched CD's or poor hardware?




Well I wish I had your luck with hardware. I have to buy a new cd/dvd rom about once a year! And I don't buy the cheap one's as they don't work or last more than a few months!

[Tom Clayton]

To be honest, I'm surprised that this thread hasn't been locked. I know that staff policy is zero-tolerance for piracy, and that I support 100% - but I also use a cracked exe for the simple reason that I want to keep my CD's protected. Anyone who seriously wants to accuse me of piracy had better come up with some statutes that I don't know about. I own one PC, and one copy of FS9, and have NEVER shared my CD's with anyone else. I even had someone at work ask if they could borrow my CD's once, and I turned them down flat.

The biggest reason that I run the cracked exe is simple: I'm a klutz! (I can hardly hit the backboard from the free-throw line.) It's a good thing that I never needed to re-install Norton 2005 because during the PC restart, I had the CD drawer out to retrieve the disk. The drawer started to shut, and I ended up with a nick in the surface. Because of ADD, it's been this way all of my life. I know darn well that I'd better do all I can to protect my investment, and if a craced exe for my own personal use helps me reach that goal, then so be it.

BUT!!!

There's two sides to every story. There's now available at most electronic stores, a way to protect our CD's. It's called D-SKIN. It's a protective cover that, according to advertising, is left on your CD permanently and protects the surface from dust, scratches, etc. Link: www.d-skin.com (http://www.d-skin.com)

[Henry]

[QUOTE=Tom Clayton]To be honest, I'm surprised that this thread hasn't been locked. I know that staff policy is zero-tolerance for piracy, and that I support 100% - but I also use a cracked exe for the simple reason that I want to keep my CD's protected. Anyone who seriously wants to accuse me of piracy had better come up with some statutes that I don't know about. I own one PC, and one copy of FS9, and have NEVER shared my CD's with anyone else. I even had someone at work ask if they could borrow my CD's once, and I turned them down flat.

The biggest reason that I run the cracked exe is simple: I'm a klutz! (I can hardly hit the backboard from the free-throw line.) It's a good thing that I never needed to re-install Norton 2005 because during the PC restart, I had the CD drawer out to retrieve the disk. The drawer started to shut, and I ended up with a nick in the surface. Because of ADD, it's been this way all of my life. I know darn well that I'd better do all I can to protect my investment, and if a craced exe for my own personal use helps me reach that goal, then so be it.[QUOTE]


that sounds like me
at the moment there is no reason to close this thread
if someone was asking for a crack cd thats different!
personally im a mess when it comes to cd's
i just chuck them on the table
H

[Tom Clayton]

Thanks Henry. One other thing I forgot to mention, I've also been asked for a copy of my cracked file as well, but that request was turned down as well. I know one other person that has one, but I also know that he has his CD's, since I've walked him through retrieving replacement files from those CD's. There's just too many sources available through searching to risk being accused of aiding someone else's piracy!

[Ed Philly]

being a slow thinker,....last night when i was out having a smoke i thought about this thread.

yes, there is the desire to protect a CD from scratches, but you know what?

i like the 'convenience' of just clicking on an icon to start my game...after installation. you can call me lazy for that, i don't mind.

i've done that with FS98, FS2000, and now FS2002..after installation. i guess 2004 requires CDs in.

whatever,....this is my last comment on this matter and i'm stickin' to it.

Regards,

Ed
ps - Greg, i know you know, just like my oldest son, that kids will even put a CD in "between" drive bays. when we worked on his machine, for another problem, we laughed on how many kids' CDs we found were inside the machine. he has four young kids, 8,6,4, and 2.

[SeanTK]

Thread Participants,

I will pretty much summarize what I typed in two private messages a few moments ago. (Check you PM's Helldiver & Ken)

I was under the wrong impression about this No-CD thingy, with the assumption that Helldiver created/or was part of a group, that distributed these programs, which I am pretty sure are illegal. I now, after some research, understand the benefits of using these programs for personal use, if you believe in doing so. I would like to take back the "lazy" remark in that respect.

However, I still disagree with the CD's wearing themselves out/faulty computer stuff situation, and I continue to stand by my ideas about that.
I also disagree with the "idiot" remark aimed at a Microsoft employee as stated in the original post, but that is for another time.

Feel free to ask Helldiver (I don't know your real name) or Ken more about the contents of their PM's.

All in all, I feel that after this messup, it is the best decision for me to leave these forums for a few months to concentrate on other things and to loosen the tension around here. I may or may not come back next Fall.

^^This is the fast typed, concise version. I hope it makes sense.

Respectfully,
-Sean K.

[Panther_99FS]

All games should now be sold on plug-in USB drives. Problem solved, thread closed :mixedsmi: