Microsoft Reader Foiled Again

I couldn't believe it when I found out. I read on Usenet a while back that Microsoft Reader activations could be cloned from one Pocket PC to another simply by copying five files. When I switched from my Jornada 565 to my Toshiba e570 as my primary device, I decided to put the theory to the test.

It worked! My Toshiba is now "activated" to the same Passport account as my Jornada without notifying Microsoft. I won't tell you which five files, as that could be construed as a violation of the DMCA, but it can be done.

I think this is fascinating for two reasons. One, the "hardware-keyed" DRM in Reader 2.0 seems to be no big deal, if it can be copied from one machine to another so easily. I have the files in question backed up to my storage card so I can quickly and easily "activate" any new Pocket PCs I get to the same Passport account.

Which brings me to my second point. I don't understand why telling you which files to copy should be a violation of the DMCA. This technique would be useless to pirates. A device can only be activated to one account at a time, so it wouldn't do pirates any good unless they kept a library of sets of files with the books they activate, and reactivate every time they switch books. A pain in the butt, to be sure.

The only thing this really does is allow people to activate as many devices as they want for their own personal use. That's not wrong, is it?

The Best Gets Better

Alex Kac has posted a new version of Pocket Informant, version 3.3. The big addition in this version is a new month view, called Inline Month View. When you tap on a day in the new month view, that square expands to show the events on that day. What makes this different from the old pop-up day display is that the whole week gets expanded, finally giving PI a sort of graphical week view. You see individual appointments and tasks for the date you tap, and time bars for the other dates in that week. When you're done, you can either tap a different date (they're all still visible) or tap the small triangle in the corner of the date display to go back to the normal month view.

This feature make PI even more useful for planning, in that it makes "the big picture" easier to see and-- if necessary-- refocus.