From: mike 



It certainly would make it easier to implement if each app did not have to
phone home when it started up.

An application would just query a "Enhanced Reduced
Functionality" service to determine if the app should enhance itself
by running in a sub-optimum manner.

That way there would not be any phone-home network traffic when the app
starts up, making it easier to disguise just when the phone-home stuff
occurs.

 /m


On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:05:20 -0500, "Geo."  wrote:

>I was thinking along the same lines and took a guess at what service they
>might check with. The Software Licensing service is described like this:
>
>"Enables the download, installation and enforcement of digital licenses for
>windows and windows applications. If the service is disabled, the operating
>system and licensed applications may run in a reduced function mode."
>
>I disabled the software licensing service figuring it would give me a taste
>of the official reduced function mode so I can see if it acts like what I
>experienced with solitaire and network properties. I disabled it at 1:45pm
>sunday, so if anything starts degrading now I can just re-enable and restart
>it then see if the degradation goes away.
>
>I have too much other network stuff running to monitor traffic right now so
>I figured this would be the easiest way to poke drm with a stick and see how
>and when it pokes back.
>
>Geo.
>
>"mike"  wrote in message
>news:2qifp2pclsranvo4phnip4na2aodbrsqbj{at}4ax.com...
>>
>> I wonder if something in Vista notices that it cannot phone home, and
>> triggers a reduced functionality mode until it can phone home once
>> again.  Then certain applications, upon their startup, would check some
>> internal data value to see if they run in full or reduced mode.  This
>> would prevent each crippled application from having to know how to phone
>> home.
>>
>> The internal data value could be incremented the longer Vista is unable
>> to phone home.  Each application would have a threshold at which its
>> reduced functionality would kick in.
>>
>> /m
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 30 Dec 2006 22:49:10 -0500, "Geo."
 wrote:
>>
>>>No error message, I would click on it and get the spinning
donut (what the
>>>hell is that supposed to be anyway, the hourglass signifies time but a
>>>spinning psychedelic donut?) then that would end and nothing
would happen.
>>>No errors in event log, nothing. Same with right clicking on
>>>network/properties, spinning donut then nothing. I telneted to my router,
>>>removed the routes and within a couple minutes both worked again. No
>>>reboot,
>>>no nothing happened on the laptop.
>>>
>>>Prior to this I had tried rebooting several times, didn't help,
but once I
>>>removed the null routes then it started working again.
>>>
>>>Geo.
>>>
>>>"Rich"  wrote in message news:45972cf9{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>   "Wasn't able to play spider solitaire" how?  What
was the error
>>> message?
>>>
>>>Rich
>>>
>>>  "Geo."  wrote in message
news:45971e6d{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>  So I had blocked vista from talking to MS for the past few days via a
>>>series
>>>  of null routes in my router. Today I wasn't able to play spider
>>> solitare,
>>>  removed the routes and a minute later solitare starts up no problem.
>>>
>>>  You know, I'm really starting to hate this dumb OS.
>>>
>>>  Geo.

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