Shamil Salakhetdinov
shamil at users.mns.ru
Tue Sep 27 10:05:05 CDT 2005
> Maybe all code was > destined to be open source. They can only "unlock" forms' and reports' designs. They can't crack the code. Serge Gavrilov a long ago published similar utility for free. A while ago I helped here somebody to get their reports' designs out of .mde. I didn't know that time Serge Gavlilov's utility and I still don't know how Serge Gavrilov and romanian guys get .mde unlocked - I have heard that just one bit have to be patched or something like that. What I did when I helped to get designs out of .mde was just connection to a running MS Access app using Automation and getting all designs into a new database. This is possible since MS Access 95 I think. The similar things can be done with ordinary MS Windows, COM and .NET apps using .DLL injection techniques. All that is well known but have you seen a lot of apps "cracked" this way? > There are obfuscating tools available I think that these obfuscating tools are really good even relatively cheap ones. I used one of them - Xenocode - http://www.xenocode.com - even its standard edition for USD99 looks good enough to well protect the code. IMO to reverse engineer a well obfuscated code is a task comparable with developing similar code from scratch. Shamil ----- Original Message ----- From: "Boogie Loogie" <boogieloogie at gmail.com> To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 5:56 PM Subject: Re: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL > I have been learning dot.net <http://dot.net> for some time now. It is more > powerful with respect to developing applications for a Pocket PC. However > the one BIG BIG drawback to Vb.Net I have just learned, is that your source > code is not safe. VB.Net compiled apps can be decompiled with inexpensive > third party software. There are obfuscating tools available but as quickly > as new one comes out a decompiler comes out saying it can crack it. > > SO...I hold Microsoft responsible for this. If they can not protect my > intellectual property with their development software then I think they > would/should be held libel in a civil court. > > I was about to say 'If there is a third party app that can crack a .mde file > I do not know of it, so Access wins with respect to that.' but then I found > http://www.adresa.ro/QSDET1709.htm so this really sucks. Maybe all code was > destined to be open source. > > BL > > On 9/27/05, Jim Lawrence <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote: > > > > Hi Arthur: > > > > Most of the work I have done for the last eight years has been with Access > > and MS SQL or an Oracle BE. I think that is where most of the Access > > developers have been migrating. It is a great presentation tool and it > > will > > be a long while before its functionality is surpassed. > > > > On the other Hand, everything is moving towards the web with the next > > version of ADO.Net 2 being very much a RAD type program, standards like > > XML > > becoming common and SQL databases everywhere and getting cheaper. Throw > > SQL > > Reporter into the mix and maybe that is the future of development. > > > > Maybe we are just getting old Arthur?? > > > > Jim > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller > > Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 11:05 PM > > To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' > > Subject: [AccessD] The future of Access, .NET and SQL > > > > Frankly I would say that MS (the company) has never regarded Access as a > > serious development tool... this despite the efforts of the Access > > development team to make it one. > > The bottom line (of principal interest to MS) is that Access ships with > > Office, and despite the developer's kits, they always have and always will > > regard it as a toy, as compared (in various eras) with VB, VC, .NET et. > > al. > > We are the underground. We like RAD development and the Access developme nt > > team keeps helping us do it. But it is not in the commercial interests of > > MS > > either to provide a genuine compiler or to provide a .NET porter. > > I deeply admire the Access development team (knowing none of them > > personally). My take is that they fight an uphill battle to keep this > > product in contention; but MS the corporation is much more interested in > > the > > money it can make from .NET software, seminars, books etc. > > This is not to slag .NET either. It is a high-quality product and it can > > do > > things Access developers only dream of. But that is the dividing line. > > There > > will never be an MS-authored Access compiler, nor a tool to port Access > > apps > > to .NET. MS is in exactly the same position as Ashton-Tate was, so long > > ago, > > when my friend Brian Russell had a vision that led to Clipper, which > > revolutionized the dBASE marketplace back then. There seems to be no one > > to > > step up to the plate and provide an Access-compiler nor an Access->.NET > > converter, so here we are, not quite orphaned, and certainly not abandoned > > by the Access dev team (mucho kudos to them), but we are not in the MS > > mainstream. > > The greatest thing the Access dev team has achieved so far, IMO, is the > > ADP > > project format, which can speak directly to SQL. I don't know how long > > this > > will live. I hope for a long time. But I cannot help but think that inside > > Microsoft, various powers think of this as heresy, and tolerate it the > > same > > way they tolerate FoxPro. Funding will continue, but minimally. (This is > > pure conjecture; I don't know a soul within MS in any position of power or > > influence, so take my words as pure conjecture from a recipient of their > > software and nothing more.) > > I am slowly learning .NET. Only because the market seems certain to go > > that > > way. I would much prefer to stay with Access, and receive a compiler that > > delivers EXEs rather than the current run-time solutions, but I don't see > > that in the cards, nor see a third party with the skills to bring it to > > the > > table. So here I am, relatively expert at Access, an amateur at .NET, and > > thinking more and more and more that I should just concentrate on my real > > expertise and become a SQL Server DBA, and to hell with the application > > side > > of things. > > Perhaps I am just depressed this evening :) > > Arthur > > > > -- > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > > -- > > AccessD mailing list > > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com