beta update

[radiance]

Dongles we won't support now, maybe in the future.

We are building an automated license authorization system,
but that won't be available with this release, so this first beta will require activation via email and we will handle it manually during the first days.
I'll make sure we're around 24 hours to reply (we have multiple employees in different timezones.)

Radiance

[reberts2]

I work on my workstation during the day and my laptop at night (not concurrently).
So this becomes a real issue for me i when I move from one to another daily.
I prefer the license file method.

[radiance]

I work on my workstation during the day and my laptop at night (not concurrently).
So this becomes a real issue for me i when I move from one to another daily.
I prefer the license file method.

I'll contact you via email to give you more information about it.

Radiance

[MadMinstrel]

For safety reasons, my workstation is not connected to Internet. Usually, my software activations have been done by e-mail (on my weak internet pc), filing a form with my workstation ID.

How can you work like that? What do you do when you need to look up a quick reference for something? I, for one, can't possibly create anything useful without a browser open at all times on the secondary display. Without it, I just tend to sort of fudge the details, leading to sub-par models. Except of course when I'm not doing realistic stuff, but usually that's only the case with personal projects. I'm, of course, not criticizing you, I'm just curious.

As for security, I just use TrueCrypt and keep backups - that way no one can access my data even if he were to physically steal my computers.

[ROUBAL]

@MadMinstrel : to answer your question : my internet PC is just in the closest room, 4 meters beside my workstation. Everything downloaded on this machine is virus tested by BitDefender.

I work on dual screen display and my templates images are on my second screen when required.

I transfer all needed content with an USB key from the internet machine, after Antivirus control.

I have no antivirus on my workstation, as it is loaded only with safe materials. Antivirus always eat some ressources, and sometimes generate some troubles when rendering.

My internal hard drive is mounted in an extractible drawer, and I use also external drives. I put the removable disks in a safe when I'm not at home. I think that it is the safest method, because if the disks are physically stolen, even if the data are encrypted, you actually loose the softwares licences and have tens of gigabytes to reinstall ! It can kill your company, over all if some confidential content belonging to your costumer is stolen.

And of course I also make data backups on DVD and spare USB drives.

[MadMinstrel]

@MadMinstrel : to answer your question : my internet PC is just in the closest room, 4 meters beside my workstation. Everything downloaded on this machine is virus tested by BitDefender.

I work on dual screen display and my templates images are on my second screen when required.

I transfer all needed content with an USB key from the internet machine, after Antivirus control.

I have no antivirus on my workstation, as it is loaded only with safe materials. Antivirus always eat some ressources, and sometimes generate some troubles when rendering.

My internal hard drive is mounted in an extractible drawer, and I use also external drives. I put the removable disks in a safe when I'm not at home. I think that it is the safest method, because if the disks are physically stolen, even if the data are encrypted, you actually loose the softwares licences and have tens of gigabytes to reinstall ! It can kill your company, over all if some confidential content belonging to your costumer is stolen.

And of course I also make data backups on DVD and spare USB drives.

Thank you for your reply (it's always interesting to read about other people's solutions) and kudos to you - I see you take security quite seriously. As for reinstalling tens of gigabytes and losing licenses, that doesn't happen since I just temporarily add a drive to the RAID array to create a bit-for-bit copy every time I add a new tool to the workflow. While I've never had anything stolen from me, on the two occasions when my drives died I just put the backup drive back in and let the RAID restore the system - it worked fine without any reinstalling. The thieves would also probably have a hard time extracting anything remotely useful from the disks since the system partition is encrypted as well (I'd still lose my dongles though - I've never had to replace them, so I don't know how well that would go). It's just more convenient for me to keep my workstation connected, and I can never forget to make a backup since it's scripted to backup to two off-site locations via internet every night. Again, it's encrypted, every project has a unique key and they're all in my head, so no worries there. The requisite AV is about the only downside of this system I can see, but on the quad-core system I use, it doesn't consume all that much resources, or at least not more than the encryption does. I also make sure to keep my system behind a NAT, which prevents any would-be hackers from resolving anything but my router. Think about it, encryption is safer than a safe - a safe can be broken into, but an encrypted drive can't, unless you feel like giving up the key. They just had a case in San Francisco where a system admin for the city wouldn't give up his root password and there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it, even with physical access to the systems and all the money and resources the city had at its disposal to throw at the problem. They only got their systems back online when the admin kindly gave up the password a month later after being threatened with serious jail time.

[radiance]

Hi guys,

Sorry, i understand you're all keen to get your hands on the new beta,
but i've just hit a small showstopper with the encryption library...

I've been coding for 14 hours trying to get it done today and i'm starting to see crosseyed now
I'll try to get it fixed asap, but keep in mind we still need to do our testing...

I'm doing my utmost best.

Radiance

[jamestmather]

No worries - nice to get updates. Thanks for all the hard work. Looking forward to it when it lands.

Updates always appreciated.

[radiance]

When you'll have it in your hands you should be happy though, this update is one of the largest yet.

Radiance

[MadMinstrel]

Well, thanks for telling us. That way I can go to sleep early and check back in the morning rather than wait fruitlessly. Good night.