New MediaMax breakthrough!
p2p news / p2pnet:- “MediaMax Technology Corp., seller of MediaMax(TM) enhancement and content protection technology, is proud to announce another technologic breakthrough,” says the company in a fluff release pumped out today.
“The software engineering team at SunnComm International has developed and fully-implemented localization routines that allow a single MediaMax CD to support multiple languages.”
However, p2pnet MediaMax correspondent Astrid Cameron isn’t impressed.
Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What a farce. They’re calling the ability to have text displayed in a local language by a single program a "technological breakthrough".
From SunnComm’s PR: "SunnComm’s new ‘Internationalization Process’ is available today and supports every element of the MediaMax interface including menus, command windows, pop-up messages, prompts and every other textual component that supports the end user experience."
When I did elementary programming nearly 20 years ago, we were taught a simple techique to internationalize programs. (This was in Europe, where having the program interface in the local language was a necessity.)
The method was simple. All user interface text (menus, command windows, pop-up messages, prompts in this case) are externalized from the program code. This means the text is stored external to the program in files, rather than being explicitly "coded" into the program. There’s a different file for each of the supported languages.
At the beginning of the program, one determined the local language (in the case of MediaMax, which runs under Windows, one could read the system value for Language that is set when Windows is installed, or one could ask the user to specify the preferred language).
Then, based on the local language, all the text to be displayed (menus, commands etc) is read into variables from the appropriate file. The following is a very simplistic example, but is pretty much all that is required.
Let’s say one wants to issue a pop-up message "Insert CD in Drive" in the local language. If the text isn’t externalized, that pop-up might be issued by a statement such as:
Display (Display Parameters) "Insert CD in Drive"
When externalized, that text might be stored in record 1 of a file that has a record for each pop-up message to be issued (Record 2 would be another pop-up message, such as "Remove CD from Drive" etc). One file would have all this text in English, another would have the same text translated into German etc. One file for each supported language.
So after determining the language to be used, one would move the text from the approprate file into the variable that is to be displayed. Conceptually, it might be like this:
If Language = "English" Store Record1 of file POPUPMESSAGES-ENGLISH in
POPUP1
If Language = "German" Store Record1 of file POPUPMESSAGES-GERMAN in POPUP1
etc.
So when that pop-up is to be issued, one simply displays the contents of that variable.
Display (Display Parameters) POPUP1
That will display the text in the appropriate language.
This is so trivial to do.
And last week, SunnComm had another technological breakthrough and someone on CDFREAKS quickly saw through that too.
They’d "invented" a DVD that can’t be played on a stand-alone DVD player (because it requires MediaMax and MediaMax only runs on PCs, not on stand-alone players). Here’s a link to the story. The first comment reads:
This is a complete joke. In the past few years they have come up with so many "revolutionary" products that its amazing they share price is still at 3 cents.
There was the StealtMedia product that was to allow watermarking of audio CDs. Never heard of again.
There was their DarkNoise Technology that was to plug the audio analog hole. Never heard of again (that was actually a fraud). Darknoise did not even reside at the address SunnComm gave and which they were to make their European HQ).
Then there was their DVD copy protection that they were tesing will all the major studios. The studios said they never even heard of it and 18 months later, not one word from SunnComm on that product.
There was the 11 international subsidiaries they were to set up. These turned out to be just 2 dollar companies registered in the US and most have since expired. Check this link (put Sunncomm as Corporation Name): https://esos.state.nv.us/SOSServices/AnonymousAccess/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.aspx
Then they announced that they had solved their shift key problem about a year ago. Yet all their CDs can still be bypassed by holding down the Shift Key (or disabling Autorun)
This latest technology relies on Mediamax being installed on the PC to play this new format. But that means these DVDs will not play on non-PC based DVD players!!!! What a joke.
This PR is just to hide the fact that the planned merger between SunnComm and MediaMax Technology has run into serious problems because of what the auditors found. This fluff PR is just a diversion to keep the shareholders happy so that they don’t enquire into the merger problems. That merger was just a fraud to begin with. Read this article to see why.
Astrid Cameron (nom de plume)
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September 15th, 2005 at 4:05 am
I had the same thoughts when I saw the PR. How can it be a breakthrough when national language support is available for most applications, including the Windows Operating System itself.
SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM etc. all have national language support and is implemented by methods similar to that described.
Perhaps SunnComm programmers haven’t passed Programming 101 yet.
September 15th, 2005 at 9:56 am
Yes that true there programers haven’t passed Programming 101. They where just able to grasp the idea of “void main ()” in C, it did though take them 2 years to learn.
But it is ture that there PR department have passed BullShit 101 course. I also hear it was with filling colors, in one day and next day passed.
September 15th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
Applications these days use localized resource dll’s. The program then loads and does a standard LoadString() from the string tables stored in the language specific dll.
There isn’t really that much to it. You use the same resource ID’s for each language set, just with specific language text, then the application is completely independant from the localization string tables.
This allows for maximum extensibility.
September 15th, 2005 at 8:23 pm
Seems like all those who believe in stealing from artists try to make
mediamax look bad.
I bet you guys take money out of the collection plate in church. you are all sickies.
September 15th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Sharing is NOT stealing. If I buy a vine from a nursery (buy a CD), make a cutting and root it (equivilant to ripping CD to hard drive), and give that new vine to someone else (file share), it is not considered stealing. However, if I hide the CD and walk out of the store without paying for the CD, I would be stealing (just like I would be stealing if I took the vine from a nursery without paying). What I do with the CD or the vine after I buy it (or receive it as a gift) is my business and nobody else’s.
As far as churches go, you should read the Bible about, tithing, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and look at how well most of the “ministers” live as compared to their flocks. And no, I do not take money out of church collection plates. I also believe that the Bible is true and try to live by the standards it sets. With that said, i would also like to bring up that many of the “artists” that you claim we steal from release their work free of charge and encourage filesharing. I also would like to point out the hypocrisy of organizations like the Christian Coalition that support the likes of the RIAA and MPAA, yet strongly complain about the filth that they spread.
September 16th, 2005 at 12:34 pm
“There isn’t really that much to it.”
Absolutely, I agree 100%. We do it all the time just like you described. Have these SunnComm guys been on a desert island for the last 10 years?
July 20th, 2006 at 10:55 am