Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 7th Sep 2010 21:52 UTC
I've often harped on Apple for its policy regarding jailbreaking, but of course, Apple isn't the only company engaging in such practices. We already talked about Motorola, and now, we have Sony - already a company with a checkered past when it comes to consumer rights. As it turns out, Sony don't want you jailbreaking 
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Member since:2005-11-14
Sure, you own it. But Sony owns PSN, and they're free to limit its access to those running the latest firmware update.
Also, the article written by Thom fails to mention a couple of things:
1) The only homebrew application currently developed for the PS3 is the "Backup" Manager, written using Sony's leaked SDK;
2) Any and all apps built with Sony's SDK are unlicensed and therefore a copyright violation. It'd be like running a proprietary app linked against a GPL licensed library: not legal.
Member since:2007-05-12
Member since:2006-02-15
1) The only homebrew application currently developed for the PS3 is the "Backup" Manager, written using Sony's leaked SDK;
You know why there is no more homebrew for it? Because it's has not been possible to install or use such! _Of course_ there is no homebrew yet then >_<
Now that the backup manager is out there people will start coding stuff and seeing what they can get out of PS3, it just takes time, you know.
Member since:2005-06-29
Any and all apps built with Sony's SDK are unlicensed and therefore a copyright violation. It'd be like running a proprietary app linked against a GPL licensed library: not legal.
Uh, the GPL places no restrictions on use. What you say is perfectly legal. In fact, it happens on almost every Linux installation: graphics drivers.
Member since:2006-01-26
It'd be like running a proprietary app linked against a GPL licensed library: not legal.
Wrong analogy - since that's a perfectly legal activity.
I think you meant - it would be like *distributing* a proprietary app linked against the GPL without also distributing your source, or providing the recipient with an offer to obtain the source code along with it.
It's ok - a common misconception.
I would guess that there will eventually be homebrew software that doesn't rely on Sony's SDK. At the very least, I would eventually anticipate a version of Linux which doesn't require the OtherOS feature - it's inevitable.
Member since:2010-09-08
It'd be like running a proprietary app linked against a GPL licensed library: not legal.
As far as I'm aware (I'm not a lawyer by any means) it is perfectly legal to do anything you want with GPL code. It only would only be illegal if you distributed GPL code with the proprietary application.
Member since:2005-08-09
Member since:2007-02-17
"When you buy a PS3, you are *buying* it - you're not renting it. You *own* the thing.
You're free to do anything with your system,
but the entire content distribution ecosystem is not yours. So you're not supposed to break it. "
Jailbreaking your PS3 changes only the PS3 machine itself, a machine which you own. It does not "break" the content distribution servers which Sony own ... it does precisely nothing to them.
Edited 2010-09-08 05:31 UTC
Member since:2010-04-27
You're free to do anything with your system,
but the entire content distribution ecosystem is not yours. So you're not supposed to break it.
but the entire content distribution ecosystem is not yours. So you're not supposed to break it.
Hmmm... that's like saying that if I get aboard a bus with a fake ticket, I'm endangering other passengers or the whole service. Well, no.
Sony is ok in policing its busses and checking tickets at their doors (to keep it profitable), but it is not in stopping me on the street to rip my 'worthless' piece of paper.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 23:35 UTC, submitted by kragil
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
Linked by MOS6510 on 05/17/13 22:22 UTC
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/17/13 22:15 UTC, submitted by Tom
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 21:41 UTC
Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/16/13 17:04 UTC
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.More News »
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Member since:
2007-05-12
When you buy a PS3, you are *buying* it - you're not renting it. You *own* the thing.
Ok, I have no problem with jailbreaking invalidating the warranty, but if you own something (whether it is a PS3 or whatever), surely it is *your business and no-one elses* if you choose to chop it around in whatever way you want, as long as it harms no-one else. If you choose to make a garage door-opener out of it, then that's up to you.
Let's say I *did* want to make a garage door-opener out of it. Sony obviously would not be interested in providing such functionality itself, so it would be up to me to do it. I reckon that if such an "enhanced functionality" case went to court, Sony would have a very hard time winning it. You are simply adding new functionality that Sony does not provide.
Where does this nonsense stop?
Edited 2010-09-07 22:18 UTC