Will this exciting news mean that, eventually, you'll manage to fix the broken Go To First Unread Post feature?
 

 
I always found this to be extremely useful, but it doesn't work anymore. Not in IE10 anyway

SteveStrummerUK
 
Will this exciting news mean that, eventually, you'll manage to fix the broken Go To First Unread Post feature?
 

 
I always found this to be extremely useful, but it doesn't work anymore. Not in IE10 anyway

I may be wrong but it seems to work in Chrome. Or, at least the the way I expect it to.

bapu

SteveStrummerUK
 
Will this exciting news mean that, eventually, you'll manage to fix the broken Go To First Unread Post feature?
 

 
I always found this to be extremely useful, but it doesn't work anymore. Not in IE10 anyway

I may be wrong but it seems to work in Chrome. Or, at least the the way I expect it to.

I use Chrome and it seems to work most of the time, but I do get some threads (usually those created by Steve with lots of images in them) where it puts me into the middle of the posts I've already seen.

Hello, all.
 
Dear, Willie and or any Bakers monitoring this thread... Just so I understand this correctly this is an Opt In type scenario? Because this is most definitely NOT something I want happening with my account. Let me explain.
 
I consider my Cake store account to be a secure account that needs to be protected just like any of my other accounts that require monetary transactions such as banking institutions, paypal, etc. I certainly trust that you guys keep our personal info and product codes secure however I believe online security is two way street and the brunt of the responsibility lies on the user/customer because really... we tend to be the largest security gap for various reasons.
 
So to keep unwanted eyes away from my sensitive data I try to do everything possible to keep those accounts isolated from my more general online activities (such as forum posting). When I log into my store account I do it on a specific computer that ONLY goes on the internet for necessary transactions and downloads. That computer is locked down as much as possible and only gets connected with a hard wire (no wireless adapter installed). I don't surf on it, do any research, log into forums or anything else. I always use private windows with elaborate security settings and stay connected for as little time as possible to accomplish what I need to. Needless to say I use lengthy and complex passwords for any sensitive accounts and NEVER store them ANYWHERE digitally.
 
Then I use my beater laptop for everything else and use different emails, usernames, passwords, etc for any public sites I participate in (like the forum). That way if someone somehow manages to hack their way into one account or my network it should, in theory, be next to impossible to access the stuff that really matters.
 
I am also about to make some even more elaborate changes to how I have all this set up but I won't go into that.
 
Am I paranoid? Perhaps but I have been hacked before back when I was young and foolish about my intertubing. Nothing drastic happened but it was still an unpleasant experience and I decided to take all precautions I could to avoid it in the future especially considering I do more stuff online now.
 
"Merging" my forum account to my store account would completely defeat all this extreme separation of Beepster the affable n00blie you all know and love from the guy who actually pays for all this stuff. I simply don't have the time, energy and/or money to wrangle with a hacking situation.
 
So I don't mean to rain on your parade or anything and do look forward to some improvements to the store accounts (because it is a little wonky at times) but I have absolutely no need or want for the "convenience" of having my forum account tied to my store account especially if they are going to use the same password.
 
Please let me know that if I choose to leave things EXACTLY as they are that all I have to do is nothing and I'll scuttle back off into my busy corner to continue my various other scheming and plotting. If that is not the case then I will probably have to call you guys to get this sorted out and explain further why this is important and to hopefully come to some sort of arrangement.
 
Thank you and good luck with the upgrades.
 
To everyone else, sorry I have not been around but I've got lots of good things cooking at the moment that I'm sure many will find quite interesting if I can see it all through. Cheers and take care.

Hi, Steve. How ya, been? I'm actually mulling over asking the Bakers whether I could open a new forum account (for completely unrelated purposes... part of my master plan) but even still the old account with all the old posts would remain. So technically someone with enough brains might be able to use my old posts/profile as an entry point to get at the store account. Maybe not but I'm simply not educated enough in blackhat wizardry to know for sure. Also things that are impossible today seem to find ways of becoming possible as time marches on.
 
The way I read the OP though it looks like we have to actually go out of our way to merge the accounts. I just wanted to make sure before the deadline because if that's not the case I'm gonna have to make a call to see what can be done... which is a bit of a distraction from all the other stuff I have going on right now.
 
Anyway, I'm sure one way or the other it'll work out. The Bakers are pretty responsive to this type of thing. Cheers.

lol...
 
I'd also like to offer my opinion on the twitter, G+, FB syncing. Please keep that crap WELL separated from the main account. Like none of those buttons and spying scripts and whatnot. I've had serious issues with worlds colliding when some of those sites started helpfully scouring my email contacts and online activities then sending friend/add on requests/suggestions and ads to separate groups and communities that I kept separate for a reason. Any time I see ANY of those stupid buttons I block them and Facebook has gotten so horrendous now I only log into it on a separate partition and with ALL other windows/tabs closed and a completely cleared history.
 
Seriously, my mom doesn't need to be getting friend suggestions from some of the crazy groupies and various lunatics I've met over the course of my bar gig days. Nor do you guys.

It's just as safe as usual Paulo. Maybe even more safe as I'm sure Cake would have locked down security even harder for this. Think of it the other way around, the store is opening up forum features. As you know this sort of thing is pretty common nowadays. Give yourself a good password though (recommended with all sites really). Cheers.

P.S. hopefully this will stop people registering multiple accounts. I'd like to see something like 'cakewalk customer' next to forums posts, one better would be the forums would display all the products people have bought (optionally). That would probably be a long way away though.

mike_mccue
Hi Willy,
 Thanks for the heads up.
 
 I just went to my account page and did a "save as web page" to get a comprehensive record of my serial numbers, reg numbers and order history.
 
 

Cut-n-paste into an excel spreadsheet works too.

SteveStrummerUK
 
Will this exciting news mean that, eventually, you'll manage to fix the broken Go To First Unread Post feature?
 
I always found this to be extremely useful, but it doesn't work anymore. Not in IE10 anyway

Sorry unfortunately there is nothing we can do about this one - but we have notified the ASP Playground people.

I do not care about security. In case someone want to hack YOU (I mean some concrete person or organization)  he will have success at some point. Using some paranoid live Linux CD (with paranoid AppArmor configuration) with disk less computer will keep potential hacker busy for some time, but still he/she will find the way (hack your router for example).
 
But what I always try to understand are consequences. What a hacker gets in case Cakewalk Store account is hacked? Registration codes!
 
With merging of accounts the probability to be hacked is increasing, many users are "hanging" on the forum more or less permanently. So the following question should be answered: what will happened in case throw hacked account my registration numbers become public? Will Cakewalk accuse me for publishing these number, and so make me responsible for illegal distribution of the products?
 
That is why I am not permanently logged into my banking, PayPal, etc. But with account merging, Cakewalk a kind of forcing me to stay logged in.
 

Hi azslow,
 
Great points and valid concerns. I'll try to address each of them - if I miss anything or just totally missed the entire point please let us know.
 

But what I always try to understand are consequences. What a hacker gets in case Cakewalk Store account is hacked? 

 
Yes that is correct - if someone was to gain access to your account or our entire system the only thing they would have access to is serial numbers, registration codes, downloads, your email address and a shipping address if your purchased products through the store. Yeah that is a problem, your email address and shipping address is personal and sensitive data. We encrypt it whenever in transit to prevent man in the middle type of attacks and go to great lengths to keep it secure. When working with third parties for example that require a sample of our customer data to test functionality - we always use fake or dummy data. Most every Cakewalk employee's data is in our system as well, we take it seriously and treat it as if it was our own because well - it is.
 

Registration codes!

Honestly - I'm ok with that. That's a piracy problem for us, not a 'your banking or financial data was compromised' nightmare for you. 
 

what will happened in case throw hacked account my registration numbers become public?

 
Once it was identified (either by the user reporting it to us or through one of our security audits) that an account was compromised we would:

1. Reset your account password and lock your account until someone from Customer Service spoke with you or you reset your password and re-validated your email address
2. All of your serial numbers would be added to our 'known pirated blacklist'. This would prevent them from being used for updates, tech support or registering
3. We would re-issue serial numbers for your products

This is no different than what we do today right now if a similar situation arises with a user's account.
 

Will Cakewalk accuse me for publishing these number, and so make me responsible for illegal distribution of the products?

No of course not. What could we possibly gain by upsetting a user who was the victim of fraud or hacking? That would neither help the victim or help us retain a happy customer.
 

That is why I am not permanently logged into my banking, PayPal, etc. But with account merging, Cakewalk a kind of forcing me to stay logged in.

Alex touched on it earlier but staying perma-logged into an account isn't insecure provided you're doing it from your own computer. Most financial/banking sites will auto-log you out after a certain period of time, that's not because its insecure to be logged in it's because they don't trust that you're using a personal computer and aren't at a library or anything.
 
Specific to Cakewalk Accounts - nothing that we are changing requires you to stay logged into PayPal or your banking services. If you would prefer to not stay perma-logged in to those services then by all means sign out. This change has nothing to do with that.

Willy Jones [Cakewalk]
Bapu ol' pal - how did your post count get so high?

I was unemployed for about a year.
 

Willy Jones [Cakewalk]
I'll get on that now. 

Oh no, not again.....
 
Good to see you back Willy.
 
Now how can we get Seth and Ryan back?

Thanks for the reply, Willy. I unfortunately am not grasping the nuances of your answer though (I can be a little slow on the uptake at times). I have sent a PM to avoid causing any extra confusion in the thread but you may be busy dealing with the implementation of all this. If there are any other Bakers monitoring this thread and know Mr. Jones is too preoccupied to answer my specific silliness then perhaps they can help get me sorted out instead. Otherwise I will just keep an eye on my inbox. I would however like to get this figured out before the deadline tomorrow (preferably this afternoon). Sorry to be a pain.
 
Thanks.

Lol agreed :)