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Phone home software discussion

MEC4D

Zbrushing through the topology
Contributing Artist
What, Computers have GREMLINS??? Why didn't somebody tell me this...Sure I once spilled a coke on my keyboard, but I thought I got away with it...Gremlins? Don't they like eat you or something?
No hunny , they just messed up with your HD ;)
You know I had not so far ago a new HD installed for extra important backups for my photography , week after it was empty with some strange folder that had a blue window in the corner, Windows decided to use it as its own backup HD and blocked my permission to it . Weird stuff happening , usually I do not mess up with the system if everything working fine , but sometimes it has brain on its own.
 
I *really* don't think RDNA would do something like that. I used to product test there, and they were the nicest, most generous people. If they had secret take-back software, they sure kept it secret from us testers.
 

Hornet3d

Wise
TinyWall is a freeware Windows Firewall. It works in reverse, compared to the normal Windows Firewall - all outbound traffic is blocked, and you need to specifically allow traffic from .exe files you want to go online. Works well, and worth a look.

It was stated above that Daz Studio phones home, but so far as I know this is only for updates. I have all that update and telemetry stuff turned off in settings, and TinyWall does not allow Daz online - and it works fine. That said, I have not bothered with the last couple of versions (because there's no rendering speed boost and some of the UI has been changed).

In the EU and UK I believe it is legal to hack software you have purchased, to keep it running after a company or the software is defunct. Not sure about the USA, and don't rely on my fuzzy memory for legal advice. In some circumstances the defunct company's devs will, as a final act, kindly release a version that does not require that. Smith Micro's developers did that with their MotionArtist software, for instance, which was very good of them - as it is the only decent motion-comics maker. Not sure about what the laws say about a former paid user going and getting a 'cracked' version of a software (rather than doing the work themselves, to keep it running) but I imagine that such things happen.

I've never heard of specific 3D content being pulled remotely. Is it possible that the circumstance was that the content vanished from the Daz production database (and thus a library that was hooked into that) - but was actually still in the user's runtime?

Microsoft, while clearly not defunct, released a free Microsoft Money version when they stopped developing the program, The old version still works but once you have migrated to the new version you cannot go back, well actually you can but the database is converted to the new version so it cannot be read by earlier versions.

I have had some data go missing with a Windows 10 update, in fact I lost an M10 SSD drive during one update, coincidence or what? That said it is hard to see why only RDNA files would be affected if this was the cause. Yet another reason to back up, not only that but also have some way of finding any backup file if you need it.
 

DanaTA

Distinguished
I'm still using MS Money 2004! I considered the free one for a little while, but decided against it. I only use certain features, so it's overkill anyway. I've considered making a trimmed down version with MS SQL Server for the database, but don't have time for such an undertaking right now.

Dana
 

Glitterati3D

Dances with Bees
I won't purchase another product with phone home requirements again. As someone who lives in an RV part of the year, that situation is simply untenable. Not to mention that I find it an insult that companies will take my money, then accuse me of being some kind of thief that would distribute their products. So, DRM/PhoneHome = No sale.
 

MEC4D

Zbrushing through the topology
Contributing Artist
I *really* don't think RDNA would do something like that. I used to product test there, and they were the nicest, most generous people. If they had secret take-back software, they sure kept it secret from us testers.
There is nothing to think about, they just simply did not do that , there are no evidence or even possibilities for that action to be executed, as that would affect every customer and would be a huge deal long time ago already . Not to mention that would be against the law.
 
well I have duplicates of all my RDNA files that were at both places because DAZ added them to my DAZ library too,
but
they are in two separate libraries
Because I have a DAZ product library and several other libraries for stuff from elsewhere.
(have duplicated HW3D stuff too in my Poser11 one and original one)
Maybe having just one library some folders were overwritten by the DAZ downloads?
 

MEC4D

Zbrushing through the topology
Contributing Artist
well I have duplicates of all my RDNA files that were at both places because DAZ added them to my DAZ library too,
but
they are in two separate libraries
Because I have a DAZ product library and several other libraries for stuff from elsewhere.
(have duplicated HW3D stuff too in my Poser11 one and original one)
Maybe having just one library some folders were overwritten by the DAZ downloads?
I have many libraries , to avoid DAZ overwrite my manual installations by accident.
so that is all possible Wendy !
 
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