Filed under: Business, Internet
Does product activation suck?
Across two posts, Charles Miller describes an unfortunate experience with re-registering NewsFire, a popular Mac RSS client. NewsFire's developer, Dave Watanabe, implemented a registration system that simply asks for the email address used to register the software, which the app then checks against a central server Watanabe maintains.The problem arose when Miller tried to re-activate NewsFire after switching Macs and wiping Mac OS X a couple of times (he goofs around with OS seeds and a lot of software). After one too many activations, NewsFire eventually told him that his email was no longer valid, in which case Miller emailed Watanabe to see what was going on. Check out Watanabe's response:
While you may now activate your software again, the evidence suggests that you've activated your single-user license from a suspiciously wide variety of locations. An explanation would be appreciated. I don't want to have to presume this is breach of license.This 'interesting' response prompted Miller to explore the many and unfortunately ugly faces of product activation (as well as the fine line between customer service and disservice), and plenty of questions have resurfaced in the ongoing discussion of software and licensing. Is replacing a registration name and key with nothing but an email address a good idea? How about tying a key to specific hardware? Can we trust users with activation systems that *don't* phone home? Should these complications force product activation in the nether-regions of our hard drives, or is there a better idea on the horizon?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
