Ubisoft found Pirating the Pirates.

Have you ever bought a game, and then not managed to get it working on your machine? Have you ever had to resort to downloading a 'no-cd' crack to get it to run? I know I have, and I know that the games industry considers me a massive pirate due to buying their software, then running it in a way they don't like.

Which makes this thread over on the Ubisoft forums all the more entertaining. When faced with a version of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 that wasn't working on lots of machines, ubisoft did exactly what you would have done. They went and got a no-cd crack off the internet and released it as an official patch.

Here's the crackers code in the patch (apparently the name tag gives it away):

I'm not condoning piracy, even when you're pirating the pirates, but what I do like here, is that I'm sure everyone here has "pirated" in the black and white eyes of Ubisoft. But you know what you did wasn't wrong. You know you're not a pirate just because you didn't want to put your disk in your machine to get your game to work.

And today, by stealing that code, Ubisoft have acknowledged that piracy, at least when it concerns them, does indeed have shades of grey.

All respect goes to neilthecellist for revealing the story and Oby for bringing it to my attention.

If you feel like it, DIGG THIS HERE

UPDATE 4:34 AM: I've some more info on what the crack actually was for. According to MD_Sennet:

The Reloaded crack was required so the Direct-2-Drive customers could apply the new 1.03 patch, since the vanilla version of the patch UBI has on their website will not work on the D2D installations of Vegas2.

2nd UPDATE: Monday; July 21, 2008, Arstechnica has a good editorial about all this.

MyLifeMyID.org is going to be amazing.

MyLifeMyID has just launched. It's going to be a footbullet of immense calibre. A while back leaked documents showed the government plans to "coerce" people into signing up for the database state by various methods. Once method was to go after the young first. Assuming they are the most stupid and gulliable.

As such Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is fronting a down with the Yoof have your say forum on the subject of ID cards. It's going to get messy.

Current topics at the time of writing are:

Shop Assistants using the need to show ID to bully people
How can you stop civil servants peeking?
This website's Modeators are biast (sic)
Why are my new posts "moved" but actually deleted?
Looking forward to a simpler ID system
What age should people have an ID card?
Official ID Card Video
Don't want, Won't have
Why centralised?
New eyeballs

Make your voice heard people!

The Register has more.

Crackergate: Any old excuse for Lee and Herring

Crackergate AKA "it's a God Damn Cracker!" is spreading like wild fire (short version - man keeps, rather than eats bread), and whilst I'm currently on blogging sabbatical all this thought about communion and what happens to that bread has bewitched me. In particular, the idea that he literally abducted Jesus is wonderfully moreish.

And it reminded me of this wonderful Sunday Morning TV show sketch from the Legendary Lee and Herring. A sketch I love so much that I couldn't help break my self imposed rule and post it. Enjoy.

Skeptobot is on a break, I need to write a Thesis - see you September

So almost getting on TV and getting all over the web thanks to my (unfinished) Oyster card shenanigans has built up a sizeable increase in readers. But I've got to destroy all that hard work by focusing on my thesis for the next 60 days or so.

Sorry.

I'm not saying that there won't be any updates between now and then, but they will be few and far between and I would rather be upfront about that. Don't worry I wont be abandoning the site, as the URL suggests, I'm actually in the process of making it a proper site and everything.

The blog will relaunch sometime in September (all going to plan) and if you wish to be informed of when it does, pop me an email on skeptobotURI(at)GELLERyahoo.co.uk (remove the fraud).

The blog has never taken up much time, but with the thesis hanging over me, and the internet sitting in front of me it feels to much like this:

And the next thing you know you've spent two hours researching how Scientology brought down TV's Doctor and plagiarist Raj Persaud. Seriously, IP laws, Plagerism, Scientology and Bad Science. All in one story. It was like giving a cat catnip.

See you in 60 days!

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits, Fart, Turd and Twat - we'll miss you George

George Carlin is dead. Fuck.

Todays a day for swearing people. George Carlin was a hero for skeptics and realists and you owe him a lot - whether you realise it or not.



To put that aged clipped in context watch this episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit on Profanity



Part 2 & Part 3


If you are in a hurry they get to Carlin almost 8 mins into part 2. I feel bad about putting up a youtube copy of P&T's excellent show - so once you've watched it think about buying it

Also - I can't possible end this post without putting up the video of Carlin view's on Religion.



We'll miss you Rufus.

Anonymous VS Scientology on More 4 news

After the 42 day win yesterday Tony Benn said:

I never thought I would be in the House of Commons on the day Magna Carta was repealed

. Then David Davis resigned saying this was the tipping point to a police state.

Which makes this analysis of the arrests being made and the influence being exerted on Anonymous by the Police that little bit more important than it would have been yesterday.



The next protest is tomorrow. If you want to protest find out more here.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault - Humanity at its best

One of the great achievements of the 21st century, and one of the greatest human constructions of all time - the Svalbard Global Seed Vault has the power to save the world - In a very real sense. It has representation of every crop and plant and fruit they can get their hands on. Frozen in a vault that is embedded in permafrost. It only takes a flood, or a tornadoes or even just a little war to wipe out crop varieties. And now we have a back up.

Here's 60minutes having a look around the place:

Obama vs McCain: Faith off!

Here's a recent video from John McCain about Christianities role in the USA whilst campaigning to Beliefnet.com.

Which is of course massively factually inaccurate, not least because most of the founding fathers were deists and "In God We Trust" not being the motto of the USA till the 50's.

And here's Barak Obama giving a speech in 2006:


I dislike heavily edited things so here is the full 40min talk by Obama (I couldn't find a longer clip of McCain).

I think everyone who makes their way to this site (regardless of their faith) are going to be a lot more impressed with the latter talk - hell after the last 8 years it's almost astonishing. It will be interesting to see if Obama sticks to his guns on the topic, the fact that talk was given in a church is a good sign after all. Heres hoping.

Despite our 'special relationship' I find it reassuring that whilst Presidential candidates in America talk like McCain here in the UK Tony Blair was worried that people might think him a "A Nutter" .

Overall I think that is a far healthier position to be in.

Send your name to the moon!

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the proposed first step in the plan to return humans to the moon, and you can put your name on it. You can read more about it here though the PDF fact sheet is probably a quicker source of info. Most interestingly the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) will look in far-UV to search for frost and ice - to help any future moon colony.

If you go here you can add your name to a database they'll put on microchip and stick on board. It takes 30 seconds. You would be a fool not to.

I'm a sucker for stuff like that. Some 0s and 1s that I typed will be sent to orbit the moon. It's trivial - but awesome.

Terrorist propaganda or al-Qaeda research? No it's Fallout 3

Don't worry Skeptobot hasn''t become obssessed with CCTV/privacy and terror. It's just in the news a lot at the minute. So much so that I couldn't help notice The  Daily mail wip up a fury about this image:

Seriously go and read their "news story." I mean just look at it's web address for fucks sake:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1022840/Al-Qaedas-terrifying-vision-devastated-America-wake-nuclear-attack.html

Read it? Good.

 
I first noticed the image when The Metro (UK free newspaper) carried it on Thursday describing it as "chilling":

click to bigify

Now is this a image created by an al-Qaeda internet site where they plan to destroy the world.  Or is, perhaps, a promotional image for the upcoming computer game Fallout 3 ? 

Of course it is.

So the entire news story should read that al-Qaeda can use Google Image fucking Search.

Update: More details here (kotaku.com - a computer game site)

With thanks to Dudley who confirmed I wasn't going mad.

Oh and you can Digg this HERE.