Techdose Blog
I hate CD copy protection
I just began converting CDs I own to FLAC in order to create a library of FLAC music for my Slim Device's Squeezebox 2 (a digital music player). Easy CD-DA has made the job extremely easy compared to my experience with using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) -- well worth the $35 to register Easy CD-DA. I'm not going to go on believing that seeing "0 c2 errors" means I have a perfect copy of the CD, but I just want to be reasonably sure I won't have songs skipping. Some people choose to use CD Paranoia, etc and rip the tracks multiple times -- I tried this over a year ago and was getting too impatient to see even like-new cds generating errors.
After spending what has probably amounted to 30+ hours ripping CDs, I thought I had a pretty good handle on things -- that is, until I listened to Velvet Revolver: Contraband today. Track #1 was skipping like crazy and I started to doubt the c2 error checking since it reported no errors. I re-ripped the CD and had the same skipping issues. I loaded up Windows Media Player, lo-and-behold the CD still skipped, even though it just looked like it had some minor scuffing (no deep scratches).
As you might imagine, I wasn't happy -- how could Easy CD-DA not be reporting any errors on tracks that are obviously skipping? Was it a waste of time to re-rip my CDs to FLAC and spend $35 on software that can't even catch these kinds of errors? So I began to research the issue more and noticed that this Velvet Revolver CD has copy protection. Turns out, it installs a driver called SbcpHid that garbles some of the tracks when you play the CD on your computer. I'd always heard about these copy protection mechanisms that the CD companies got a bunch of crap for a while back, but never experienced it first-hand. As soon as I stopped the driver and restarted the CD it played perfectly. I started the driver back up and got garbled music, stopped it again and it was fine.
I was almost about to scrap the entire idea of re-ripping my collection to FLAC, figuring if a CD with this many skips could get through the c2 error checking -- what else got through???! But I guess since it's the driver garbling it, as far as Easy CD-DA knows it's ripping it without errors. Just glad I researched it more and found what was going on -- for anyone else having the same issue, you can follow these instructions to stop and disable the driver. Yeesh.
Posted Apr 6th, 2008 9:40 PM by AceBHound
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Updates on counterfeit Adobe Photoshop CS3
Update to my other post about the bootleg Adobe Photoshop CS3 that I purchased from Amazon Marketplace. Looks like the seller "valu-mart" has finally been kicked off Amazon due to a few recent negative feedbacks concerning the scam. Again, if the seller legitimately didn't know he/she was selling illegal copies & stopped selling them I would have much more respect -- but this seller continued to sell bootleg copies of this software for 3 months after I notified them & filed a claim with Amazon to notify them this seller had sold me illegal software. Good riddance. I also sent another email to Amazon now that it looks like they shut this seller's store down -- I am hoping for a good response. It would certainly be nice to see some good customer service these days!
Also noteworthy -- looks like some eBay sellers are getting what they deserve: Software group files lawsuits against eBay sellers. Yay! Get 'em!!
Posted Apr 2nd, 2008 12:05 PM by AceBHound
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Beware of Illegal Adobe Photoshop CS3 Software on Amazon Marketplace
New article on professional-looking bootleg software that is being sold on Amazon Marketplace (as well as sites like eBay) - Consumer Alert: Bootleg Software on Amazon Marketplace. I was just going to make this a blog entry, but it was very long and figure it's worthy of staying on the front page for a while. Short story - a quick call to Adobe verified I'm out $300 for a bootleg professional-looking "retail packaged" copy of Adobe Photoshop CS3 that I purchased off of Amazon Marketplace last November. Beware of expensive software being sold from unverified sources -- and also beware of Amazon's A-to-Z Guarantee claims process. Amazon does not seem to care about Amazon Marketplace sellers who are knowingly selling bootleg software.Posted Mar 2nd, 2008 11:53 AM by AceBHound
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New Review: TomTom One 3rd Edition GPS
Just posted a review of the TomTom One 3rd Edition GPS, an easy-to-use affordable GPS that makes driving uncharted territory fun! These devices have come a long way in the last few years and certainly come in handy with gas prices on the rise.
Check out the review here
Posted Feb 1st, 2008 2:45 PM by AceBHound
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Wii Alerts Help You Find A Wii
Sick of taking trips to Best Buy or Circuit City looking for a Nintendo Wii System? What if there was a way to be alerted of when Wii's come in stock? Well sir, you're in luck!
Here are some sites to help you find a Wii (some of which will actually text message your phone when one comes in stock):
wiialerts.com
wiitracker.com
Wii Finder Widget
Another thing to try is find out what day/time your local Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc gets deliveries.
Does it work? You bet! Why, just the other week I was alerted that Circuit City online had some Wii's in-stock. It was a bundled system.. so they wanted you to buy 2 games and an extra controller. While I wasn't interested in having to buy all those extras, seems that many people were! They were sold out in about an hour. So alert services like this are extremely helpful. Now you can stop annoying those store clerks who are a Wii bit tired of you asking them if they have a Wii in stock.
Posted Jan 18th, 2008 5:33 PM by AceBHound
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Previous Topics
11-03-2007$10/mo Web Hosting Shout-Out11-03-2007
Orange Box Thoughts10-31-2007
Make your Linux desktop look like a Mac10-25-2007
OSX 10.5 (Leopard) Arrives 10/2609-07-2007
Apple Drops Price Of iPhone By $20008-02-2007
VMware Fusion Released
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