Software ethics
One of my biggest worries is catastrophic data loss. A good way to prevent this is to use some sort of RAID setup, such as RAID-5. After seeing this deal at outpost.com (300GB SATA HD for $80 each, free shipping), I picked up five, along with a hot-swap chassis for easy install/removal of drives. Yes, that's 1.5 terabytes of storage. It'll come in handy when we start shooting video....
So now I need to get these things arranged in a RAID. There are two options: software and hardware. Hardware RAID-5 is expensive, since they use specialized processors to calculate the parity at high speed. And, my PC doesn't have PCI-X or PCI-Express, which is the preferred form factor for hardware raid cards. I don't need the speed, so I want to go with a software solution.
Here's the problem. Microsoft Windows Server does RAID-5 in software. Windows XP does not. I use Windows XP. But for whatever reason, the disk software in Windows Server is the same as the software in Windows XP. The folks at Microsoft just changed a few bits to disable the feature in XP.
You can activate the feature by changing a few bits back. See this and this.
I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know if it will work. I've been thinking, however, about the ethics of the issue. I read through the XP Pro EULA, and found nothing that addresses this. The closest is the clause which says, "You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation," but clearly, changing a few bits in a few files does not amount to reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembly. Even so, it seems clear to me that I am deliberately enabling a feature that the software creators disabled, which smells wrong....
But this also appears to be product sabotage, an attempt by companies to price-discriminate: to charge more to those customers who have more money.
Maybe the ultimate answer is just to switch to Linux.
So now I need to get these things arranged in a RAID. There are two options: software and hardware. Hardware RAID-5 is expensive, since they use specialized processors to calculate the parity at high speed. And, my PC doesn't have PCI-X or PCI-Express, which is the preferred form factor for hardware raid cards. I don't need the speed, so I want to go with a software solution.
Here's the problem. Microsoft Windows Server does RAID-5 in software. Windows XP does not. I use Windows XP. But for whatever reason, the disk software in Windows Server is the same as the software in Windows XP. The folks at Microsoft just changed a few bits to disable the feature in XP.
You can activate the feature by changing a few bits back. See this and this.
I haven't tried this yet, so I don't know if it will work. I've been thinking, however, about the ethics of the issue. I read through the XP Pro EULA, and found nothing that addresses this. The closest is the clause which says, "You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation," but clearly, changing a few bits in a few files does not amount to reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembly. Even so, it seems clear to me that I am deliberately enabling a feature that the software creators disabled, which smells wrong....
But this also appears to be product sabotage, an attempt by companies to price-discriminate: to charge more to those customers who have more money.
Maybe the ultimate answer is just to switch to Linux.
posted by Ang at 12:14 AM
3 Comments:
I think software/IP law is all very gray at the moment. So I would enable the switches without much thought.
To me, the whole problem of data safekeeping is very interesting. Because there are so many ways to lose data:
- Hard drive crash (most likely): RAID, tape/CD-R/DVD-R backup, or any more extreme measure can protect against it.
- Laptop Theft: sync with home desktop or any of the above solutions.
- Home Desktop Theft: in-box RAID fails. Store backup media separately, in hidden area.
- Home Fire/Flood: Any home-stored backup fails. Backup online, or store media off-site (office or safe-deposit box).
Here's what I do:
backup laptop to desktop HD: every 2 months
full desktop file backup to DVD+R: every 6 months
transport backups to locations in CA and TX: every year
A huge problem with having a terabyte of data is figuring out how to back it all up. I lost all my MP3s to a drive crash a few years ago and never again got motivated to re-rip my CDs. I'm thinking of doing it it again---this time to FLAC---but am worried about taking care of the estimated 400GB of data that would generate.
The nice thing is, all of my non-media data from 1992 onwards (no photos, no videos, no music) fit onto 2 DVD+R discs.
I run RAID5 on my primary fileserver, which runs Ubuntu Breezy; I'll upgrade to Dapper when Edgy goes gold. (I stay a release behind on my server for stability.) Someday I'll probably have a disk failure and be forced to find out what the recovery process is like, but so far it's not been an issue.
How demeaning it must feel to run software that's been sabotaged to extort money out of you... B-)
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