31 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

We can all dream but, in real life you can pay with your data or you can write a check for all that "Free stuff online" each month. It's you choice.

Yes, someone does have to pay for the TV shows and free email, but it has historically been advertisers that pay for all this.  We customers in turn pay with our time because we must endure 10-15 minutes of advertising in a one hour program.

It is one thing to collect user data like Amazon does where they use cookies to determine which products you browse so that they can better tailor their algorithm to display products that you are interested in.  It is another to turn around and sell, or even simply provide, that data, along with personal information like your name and address, to other companies and governments without your consent.

I don't know what the laws are regarding this data collection.  I know that some in Congress have talked about requiring an "opt in" for example, but I don't know if that ever became law.  It should be IMO.  I have little faith that politicians, who for the most part are bought and paid for by big corporations, will do anything to limit this activity.  I hope I'm wrong.

Dave

 

OK, this is the P3D forum and this thread is about P3Dv6 Personal Edition and its internet connectivity requirement, not the general perils of data collection in a connected world.

The P3D site says "requires internet connectivity during use"--that suggests to me something more continuous than a one-time license check at the start of a session.

It's possible to mitigate the effects of spotty internet connections, e.g. by use of a "keep-alive" timer that resets periodically with a request-ack packet exchange with the server, say every minute, and allows a break of something like 10 or 15 minutes before stopping the session.  Something like that would eliminate most of the problems from intermittent connectivity issues.

It's hard to guess what the rationale for the internet connection is...the most likely reason that comes to mind is collection of detailed performance metrics across a wide variety of systems to identify bottlenecks and otherwise tune the code.  I'm sure some inquisitive folks will go about capturing the data exchanges and analyzing them with an eye to spotting nefarious usage or abuse, and I'd be pretty surprised if anything ugly turned up.

 

They removed the watermark from the personal edition and opted to have proper overview (aka control) of who is using that version, especially considering the price difference w.r.t. the other offerings. That is my guess. 

On 6/30/2023 at 10:57 AM, GCBraun said:

They removed the watermark from the personal edition and opted to have proper overview (aka control) of who is using that version, especially considering the price difference w.r.t. the other offerings. That is my guess. 

How that would work, though? 

With the widespread use of international VPNs and regional-scale dynamic IPs, you really don't know who's on the other end of a connection or where they are.  So I don't see how they could enforce the terms of the "Personal" license (at-home use by individuals) given that kind of broad systemic ambiguity.  I first thought it might be intended as a means of restricting against use in embargoed countries that might violate the US AECA (Arms Export Control Act), but that same IP ambiguity problem exists there, too.

'tis puzzling.

Considering how easy it was and the speed in which LM dropped the watermark, I have to wonder if some code jock just noticed that the name had changed to "Personal" and made the change and everyone else figured that was a decision made in some meeting. Some times things just happen...LOL They (LM) may be having a good laugh at how we so often read things into their actions.🤓

6 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

That why they been working in my are to improve this, all the main players are investing in this Amazon live sports MS game pass and Google streaming platforms.

Repeat after me, c is a hard limit.

There's a lot of money that was thrown around (away?) when capital was free.

Cheers!

Keep on topic. I’ve hidden a couple of posts unrelated to it.

45 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Keep on topic. I’ve hidden a couple of posts unrelated to it.

Got the message over and out.

On 6/30/2023 at 10:34 AM, abrams_tank said:

I bet it's probably for the initial license check when you load P3D.

But - P3D always did this, right? I know that the devel and the time limited versions do it, and I always assumed that the "continuous/full" version does it too, for copy protection purposes (so you can't just copy an activated P3D installation to another computer). 

Edited July 2, 20232 yr by Lorby_SI

On 6/30/2023 at 1:12 AM, willy647 said:

Looks like an internet connection will be required for the personal version / or $350 for a prof license .....

https://www.prepar3d.com/news/announcements/2023/06/121250/

Gee whiz, now ultimately internet dependent, but without the streaming scenery.  I'm glad they lost the Academic License nonsense, though they still require the Personal License must not be used for "personal entertainment" so I guess I'm stuck w/ MSFS as I find the whole activity exceedingly personally entertaining 🤣

On 6/30/2023 at 6:27 AM, Luke said:

You're not getting around latency. c is a hard limit.

But as long as the interval is fixed/controlled/in sync, why would it matter if there is latency?

19 hours ago, Noel said:

But as long as the interval is fixed/controlled/in sync, why would it matter if there is latency?

Pretend the latency was 500ms each way. Moving a control in the sim would not be reflected on the screen until a second later. It would be unusable. There's a a maximum latency that you can tolerate; it's likely below 100ms, maybe 50ms.

Cheers

3 hours ago, Luke said:

Pretend the latency was 500ms each way. Moving a control in the sim would not be reflected on the screen until a second later. It would be unusable. There's a a maximum latency that you can tolerate; it's likely below 100ms, maybe 50ms.

Cheers

You have just made a case that Microsoft are wasting billions on a streaming platform for MSFS, you should let them know and First Person Shooters. Almost 80 billion for COD studio. over and out.