I feel like I got ripped off.
Yesterday I ordered the Advanced CCIE Routing & Switching 2.0 Work Book from Narbik and figured I would share my experience.
If you have read my post on the TSHOOT book you have an understanding of my disdain for DRM and the reasons for it. It boils down to the fact that I use Linux as my primary environment at work and home, we don’t even have a Windows PC at home, and most of the DRM out there requires Windows. So then I have to load whatever I need on my work laptop, but if I am studying at home I have to make sure I bring my laptop home.
Imagine my disappointment when I got the following email from Micronics after I spent $350 on an e-book. I could not find anything on the Micronics website that says the DRM is this draconian.
If you follow the link inside the quote, it says you must use either Windows or a Mac. I am going to say this again, get SafariBooksOnline, O’Reilly is a company that understands technical people and caters to them. I am sure that Narbik is a great teacher and I hope these books are as good as they say, otherwise I will know I got ripped off.
Dear Student,
You will receive three separate emails.
1. Locklizard License
2. Vol. I & II
3. Vol. IIISince you will have only one license, choose a PC or Laptop that your Secured File will reside.
Please follow these procedures before you open the attached file:
1. First you need to open, Download and Install Lizard Safeguard Secure PDF Viewer Email (sometimes this email is considered a SPAM and if you have Gmail it goes to “7 or More” section of your Gmail).2. Once you completed this step, you need to scroll down the page and double click on the .llv file and download.
3. After installing your PDF Viewer, open the Secured PDF Files that you have received as an attachment.
You can check the operating systems requirement on the following link:
http://www.locklizard.com/LockLizard_Secure_PDF_Viewer_v25.pdf
If you have difficulty opening your files you contact me as soon as possible so we can walk you through this process.
Thank you for your business – we appreciate it very much.
Janet Kocharians
Director of Marketing & Sales
Micronics Inc.
Mobile: (818) 331-2419
Fax: (818) 249-8388
Sorry to hear that. I’m also not a fan of DRM products, because they only cause you trouble as a customer. One of the reasons why I have chosen the Internetwork Expert CCIE products over IPexpert was that they are DRM free. INE’s workbooks carry only some kind of a watermark and contain additional info about you (e-mail, ip address) in the footer of the documents. They work very well on linux. I understand on the other hand that those companies have to protect their products, but they shouldn’t forget about their real customers and the usability of their products too. And in the end, I have never seen or heard about a good copy protection method / software that really works.
Regards,
Jochen
Thank you for the comment, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who feels this way. I agree with you on multiple points and have not activated my license with LockLizard because I’m just not comfortable having spent all of that money to not be able to use it when and where I need.
Jud
Oh the irony. The Cisco 360 program uses LockLizard as well. Sounds like it’s a great product from the troubles this guy has had.
I had the exact same frustration. Ended up returning the product. But after 6 months or so (hoping there will be a linux supported version), I accepted defeat, used a beat up dell laptop to run XP so that I can read the book on it.
If you’d like to try what I do: I use synergy between ubuntu and XP so I still use ubuntu for everything (labbing). The laptop is placed nearby and uses the same mouse and keyboard as the ubuntu machine.