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Doom3 Open SourcedYesterday ID Software released the source code of Doom3 under the GPL License. Those of you who feel that the Vita would love to run a port of Doom3 should start digging in the thousands of lines of code of this beast even before the vita is out. “Sadly”, it’s C++, so don’t expect to port it smoothly to the Playstation Suite 
Samsung released a commercial mocking Apple’s fans. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, I’m going to talk about some Japanese translations… that’s not entirely off topic, because this subject came to me as I was playing Uncharted 3, so there, still related to Sony and gaming news.
The Japanese are well known for their shameless use of foreign languages, especially English. Now, don’t get me wrong, what’s fun is not that the Japanese can’t speak proper English (I would be lame to criticize that given my own level in Japanese), but that many companies in Japan don’t even take the two minutes necessary to make sure that the English sentence they plan to print on hundreds of thousands of advertising posters actually makes sense…
There’s one thing me and the mods at wololo.net don’t like, it’s fakers, people who pretend to be hackers, but are just tricking gullible people.
There’s one thing we hate even more, it’s GPL infringement.
I was randomly browsing the web yesterday, and found this article that was getting lots of hype on Gizmodo (I usually don’t read these generic gadget websites, but the title caught my attention)… You’ve got to read it to understand, but basically this Gizmodo editor thinks she’s too good to date John Finkel, a professional Poker and Magic:the Gathering player, because, well, he’s a nerd, and who wants to date a nerd? That article is so wrong in so many ways, that Alyssa Bereznak (the blogger who wrote this article) quickly became a meme…
Is it a joke to welcome the announcement on Magic’s latest expansion? Is it an attempt from Gizmodo to create some buzz (in which case, well done, it’s working!), or is that person dumb enough to think it’s a good idea to publicly talk about her dates on a major website, and on top of that, complain about nerds on a gadget website (where she works, what tech-oriented company hires a person who doesn’t like Magic 
)?
The author of the blog article complains she didn’t google for John Finkel and should have, in order to find out he’s a nerd before going to a date with him. She should also probably have googled a bit more to find he’s making hundreds of thousands of dollars playing Magic, before bashing him for being a nerd.
The lawsuit initiated by Sony against hackers is now over, as “The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011.” As part of the agreement, Geohot “consented to a permanent injunction.”, which basically means, as far as I understand, that he agreed to stop distributing his files used for the PS3 jailbreak (which, although I’m not a lawyer, means that we still don’t know if distributing those is legal or not, just that one guy on Earth is not allowed to distribute them).
Legally, Geohot is not allowed to talk about the case, the settlement, or even his opinion on the subject. This makes many people pissed at him, as they believe he simply gave up… The fact that the settlement contents cannot be disclosed doesn’t help him, as it makes imagination the limit, and some people now accuse him of stealing their money (from donations), giving up the fight, or even accepting a huge pile of cash from Sony.
Although he can’t directly talk about it, George Hotz has posted a few comments on his blog that are still convincing me that something good might be coming, or maybe something “more important” than a fight between a Hacker and a corporation. Am I the only one dreaming of having Sony lobbying in favor of interoperability in the future?
The settlement surely is a bad surprise, but George Hotz’s history with the iPhone makes me believe he (or at least his lawyers) knows what he’s doing.
Below are the quotes from Geohot, taken from his blog:
Regarding why he doesn’t talk about it
The terms of the settlement agreement are “confidential” and the matter requires that they be “confidential”.
[...]
By contract, I cannot discuss the Action or my views regarding the Action.
[...]
I will attempt to clarify this further in upcoming posts. But if it isn’t already clarified by the work I’ve done on the iPhone, I’m not sure how much more I can convince you.
[...]
I do not like confidentiality
Regarding people thinking he stole their money by accepting donations
I will address the donations in a forthcoming post, and I think people will be happy.
[...]
I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me.
[...]
I promise you none of your money will end up in my pocket. And I haven’t set anything back at all, hilarious how you can claim I set the jailbreak movement back. I was there when it was invented. The original iPhone hackers, me included, invented the word usage.
To people who said he gave up, making the fight pointless:
It definitely was not a waste, I assure you.
Allow me to quote The Social Network:
Sean Parker: I brought down the record companies with Napster.
Eduardo Saverin: Uh, sorry. You didn’t bring down the record companies. They won.
Sean Parker: In court?
Eduardo Saverin: Yeah.
Sean Parker: Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?[...]
To people who think he sold his soul
As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product.
I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it.
Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?
There is much more to come on this blog.
[...]
I think Apple actually likes their customers.
Unlike certain other companies
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit[...]
Hilarious that anyone would even consider the idea that I would consider working for Sony. I wouldn’t work for someone I hated, no matter how much they paid me.
@XXX I believe there is a war coming that extends much much further than “is jailbreaking fair use?” and Sony.
[...]
That’s one way to look at it. Another way is that they are saving their strength for games where the refs aren’t biased and that actually have much more importance to the rest of the season. [Note from wololo: in reference to soccer players giving up in the middle of a game]
Last but not least, this one I Quote for Truth
What I’ve found in all PS3 related matters is no matter what you do, you make tons of people pissed off. You release something, people are pissed. You don’t release something, people are pissed. Sony removes OtherOS, people are pissed at YOU. You settle, people are pissed. You fight, people are pissed. You talk, people are pissed. You stay quiet, people are pissed.
The conclusion I have drawn is that PS3 fanboys are just pissed off.
And no one except me has lost any rights today.
So, well, I still have hope that something bigger is coming, although I swear I initially thought this was a joke when I read about it today…
Geohot also announced that he would be boycotting Sony’s products from now on. This happens as a protest is being organized in Sony outlets all over the world, Saturday this week. The demonstration is organized by Anonymous, and is one way to protest against Sony’s attitude towards their customers, while not disrupting the PSN, are you planning to go?
SCEA vs Hotz
I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it.
Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?
There is much more to come on this blog.
posted by George Hotz at 8:59 AM 
The trailer for “Anonymous” a movie distributed by Sony Pictures, was made public today. I like the irony.
Note that the movie has nothing to do with the recent Anonymous attacks on Sony, since it’s about Shakespeare. Also this movie is by Roland Emmerich, which is a guarantee it will suck, unless you’re 12 (based on a linear interpolation of Emmerich’s previous movies, which happens to have a 100% accuracy rate so far).
A few days/ hours ago, in a move to support homebrews and fanmade applications, Sony publicly released a major part of the encryption/decryption keys of the Sony Playstation3, in the form of a website screenshot included in one of the legal documents provided in their case against Geohot.
These documents are legally hosted on several servers all over the world, including the website of the district court of Northern California (through the PACER system), a direct proof of Sony’s good will to open the console to independent developers.
You can't unsee it.
A part of the keys is missing, but this seriously weakens the security of the PS3. Sony stated that they do not condone piracy, but no doubt that pirates in the world will find the missing bits, and use these keys in order to run illegal copies of games.
Please note that unlike Geohot, the district court of Northern California apparently accepts donations for the keys, but for US citizens there is a way to make that tax deductible it seems. More info at http://www.pacer.gov/ , or google for “Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC v. Hotz et al”
(To people reading this and who didn’t completely get it, this is irony. Of course it is easy to prove that Geohot released these keys before Sony, but it’s still very funny.)
Source KaKaRoToKS
It is funny how if you change a few words inside a legal document, a simple case of a major company bullying a few individuals can become super creepy…
Disclaimer: this is a work of fiction, any similarity to actual events would be unintentional
SKYNET COMPUTERS ENGINEERING AMERICA LLC
Plaintiff,
v.
John Connor, Sarah Connor, and DOES 1 through 100
Complaint for injuctive relief and damages based on violations of Digital Millenium Copyright Act; common law misappropriation, and trespass
Skynet is a Delaware company with its Headquarters and principal place of business at 919 East Hillsdale Boulevard, foster city, California, 94004. Skynet is engaged in the business of annihilating mankind and distributing man killing machines, hardware and peripheral accessories.
On information and belief, Defendant John Connor is an individual residing somewhere in the present.
SKYNET COMPUTERS ENGINEERING INDUSTRY (SCEI), a global leader of mankind destruction, manufactures, distributes and markets the T-1000 system, also known as Terminator.
Skynet is known for its massive killing of millions of humans and is highly regarded in the war crimes industry. Chief among the many products SCEA sells is the T-1000 system, a computer entertainment system featuring hardware and firmware designed for killing humans, including women and children. The T-1000 system is a highly sophisticated apparatus that, in conjunction with complete software, butchers people (and looks a lot like Arnold Schwarzennegger if users install the necessary plugins).
The T-1000 system has enjoyed wide success throughout the United States and the world. Over 41 million Human beings have been killed worldwide since the product release in November 2006.
Skynet’s affiliates have invested hundreds of millions of dollars developing the T-1000 system, including the T-1000 System’s TPM. Those TPMs are designed to prevent, among other things (a) unauthorized deactivation of the T-1000 system; and (b) users from saving their souls.
Since the release of the T-1000 system, software pirates (also known as “rebels” or “humans”) have attempted to write code to run unauthorized software on Skynet’s T-1000 Systems. As described below, until recently, their efforts were prevented by the weapons that secure the various levels of the T-1000 system. In late December 2010, members of a group of computer hackers discovered a way to travel through time and circumvent the T-1000 TPM. The group then provided mankind with tools to destroy the T-1000.
Defendant Connor is a well-know human who has gained notoriety for circumventing the technological protection measure in a number of sophisticated killing machines, preventing the annihilation of the human race. Connor circumvented the TPMs in the T-1000 system without authorization, and misappropriated certain keys. (He also stole money from an ATM when he was 12)
On or about January 12, 2011, Connor published these keys on his website and started leading the human rebellion. Connor addressed Skynet in the same post in an attempt to bring back hope in humans’ hearts: “No fate, but what we make for ourselves“. Connor’s January 2nd post encourages and induces other humans into fighting back against the reign of terror installed by Skynet.
Defendants individually and collectively, have directly, or acting in concert with a third party, violated Skynet’s rights under 17 U.S.C (a)(2) by offering to mankind, providing, or otherwise trafficking in, promoting, and placing in the market circumvention devices, technology – including but not limited to the circumvention method, and code .These circumvention devices are primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing TPMs that effectively control access to the T-1000 system. These devices have no commercially significant purposes other than to circumvent the TPMs in the T-1000, in order to save mankind from its programmed extinction.
John Connor is clearly in breach with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and I sure hope that something will be done to solve this problem. We can’t allow mere humans to break into machines just to make them do what Skynet doesn’t want them to do. We’ve even seen one of them being reprogrammed by John Connor, which started protecting humans instead of killing them. Shortly after this event we removed Linux support, just in case.
A Russian team was apparently able to adapt a famous PS3 hack to the PSP. This is not surprising since these consoles share part of their security scheme. Congrats to the team and thanks to Renny for the video.
The youtube page includes a link to download the bread used for the hack, so check it out.
What surprises me, is that it seems no ham or cheese is required, which leads me to believe this might be fake. Wait and see.
I think I need some rest
Update: seeing some comments, it seems this post confused many people, so I have to be completely direct: this is a joke
The ATMEL usb microncontrollers are out of stock, you don’t have a fancy TI84, or a smartphone, and you don’t believe that PS Groove can be ported to the PSP? Fear not, because I ported it to a Ham & Cheese Sandwich.
This is NOT a Fake! Ham and Cheese sandwiches can be found on eBay for cheaper than ATMEL boards, and you can easily DIY if you don’t trust people who sell sandwiches on eBay.
Mine was found at Family Mart, and worked directly out of the box.
Be careful! This DOES NOT WORK WITH TOMATO/EGG sandwich, because tomatoes don’t support the USB Host mode. You’ve been warned.
Who said hacking a ps3 was hard?
Thanks to MathieuLH and the team behind the PSGroove project for the source code.
Hmmm, maybe I need holidays or something…
“What if SCEA tries to settle?
Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It’d be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I’m also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.”
Doesn’t sound like it.
Since release of OFW 3.21 I never bought any Sony product again.
F you, Sony.
I’m BRICK, I donated $500 towards your cause.
Please tell me all’s well, and we’re getting back our OtherOS?
@BricksLamp The terms of the settlement agreement are “confidential” and the matter requires that they be “confidential”.
Any way I look at it, I don’t mind. It wasn’t a waste.
The DAY the PS4 comes out, I’m picking one up JUST to attempt what you started with the PS3. Freedom. I stood idly by for this one, because I’m not the best at hacking consoles, but now Sony has garnered my attention with this. I’ll make it a personal goal for PS4 w/CFW if I can.
Of course, you can’t talk about it, so we will never know.
Sure, it’s nice that it’s over and people can move on with their lives… but I just think people expected a bit more of a fight than this.
Hopefully you lived up to your aggressive postings on geohot.com.
Best wishes
Allow me to quote The Social Network:
Sean Parker: I brought down the record companies with Napster.
Eduardo Saverin: Uh, sorry. You didn’t bring down the record companies. They won.
Sean Parker: In court?
Eduardo Saverin: Yeah.
Sean Parker: Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?
I hope your satisfied, I’m looking forward to hearing an announcement of you refunding every single person’s donation because you obviously didn’t keep up to your end of the bargain.
That makes me feel a lot better… and those repercussions have already been seen to a small degree…
It just dawned on me… I think I may have an idea on the settlement… >.>
Anyway thanks for your efforts and good luck and anytime you feel like repaying my £10 feel free, and just for the record I never used your hack I just paid because of what i THOUGHT you were standing for…..
Please tell me your bloody trolling. You went from diehard anti Sony who is the freedom protector to a swiveling bitch which bows down? JESUS CHRIST. Way to sell out.
@CheeseBiscuit I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me.
Ya’ll stop flaming him… if I’m right, there’s a lot more than the surface shows…
I risked the most… but I feel better than most… why is that? I’m not rich, there’s just more return than what’s showing at this time…
Am I right, Geo?
Give things time to settle down and wait and see what happens before we form an angry mob.
“I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well.” ~ Yannick Noah
The seeds of victory have been sown; wait for them to grow and blossom.
Why is Apple not going after hackers in the same way? Isn’t this a similar issue?
Unlike certain other companies
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit
Your nothing but a fraud and you have done nothing for the PS3 but cost us our other OS feature.
I hope annoymous attacts your sites.
Go on Geo. Good job.
Damm! I was hoping you would ‘jailbreak’ the NGP/PSP 2!!!
Please change your mind!
I hope he is claiming the money for the donations on his tax return for 2011.
That’s considered earned moeny even if people give it too you. IRS will be sure to make him pay it on his taxes. We might see him fighting the IRS next year.
If not, will there be another announcement of any kind that will show people in any way that they were right to trust you to fight their fight?
I will attempt to clarify this further in upcoming posts. But if it isn’t already clarified by the work I’ve done on the iPhone, I’m not sure how much more I can convince you.
They aren’t the type to settle if they can win all the way.
He is most likely joining the sony boycott because he’s already been enjoined from possessing sony hardware.
I suspect the answer will be apparent with the next firmware update.
I bet you they paid him off in the settlement. Things just got settled like that so quick. Geohot is fraud and all you geohot supporters are a bunch of losers like him.
What has he done for the Scene? Tell me? He caused the loss of the other os? If thats a victory your all a bunch of fools.
One good thing about the settlement is we won’t have to hear about geohots sorry ass again. RIP Geohot.
We need a 4.3.1 iPad 2 jailbreak!
I just made a call to get my PHAT PS3 shipped to me…
Let’s see how far a get with my laptop, a soldering iron, and the internet…
Obviously I recognise what you’ve done within the iOS scene giving users the means to acquire this right in a practical sense themselves. Good to know we haven’t seen the last of you in that scene.
As for the Sony boycott, most definately, I’ll join up. I got a PS3 and a PSP at the request of a friend and I’ve never seen so much… I don’t even know the right word for it… insanity? lies? deceit? I’m sure there’s a better term for it, but there’s just so much to cover in that one word…
Already joined the boycott when this whole thing started. I’ll get stuff second-hand when it can run homebrew.
I don’t know who’s worse GH or Sony…..
Fraud that is all he is or should I say a scammer. Contact Paypal and tell them you want to dispute the money sent and do charge backs if you paid by credit card to paypal. Teach this fool a lesson.
Boy you piss me off. Don’t shoot the mouth off if your not going to follow threw on what you say and now we should listen to you and boycott sony because you say so? Who the hell are you. I have been boycotting sony since april 1 2010.
He took those donations to get his ass out of trouble, than signed a job. I feel sorry for all those who donated to him, you just gave him a job.
Geohot isn’t a fraud as your the one who donated to him, he also cannot say anything about the case as it may make it a worse situation
The REAL details are in the memorandum of understanding, which is confidential, and direly in need of leaking by someone other then Hotz and his legal team.
Straight from his blog:
What if SCEA tries to settle?
Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It’d be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I’m also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.
Well after reading the court documents, i’m wondering what this lawsuit was all about
George Hotz just accepted what Sony wanted from him in the first place – he could have signed this agreement months ago
@iShauny I believe there is a war coming that extends much much further than “is jailbreaking fair use?” and Sony.
As I said before, you are a genius and now is a right time to put that to work. be the good boy and hack in the shadows. Stop looking for celebrity status. But be carefull! They are on to you now and they will put you in jail if you mess with the NGP or Xperia or any other SONY device.
Just a few words about you: You talked a lot of #$$# and coulnd cash any of it. You were never in this for “us”, you did this for yourself and I pity the people who donated money to your Holy Crusade.
You got OWNED boyz!
Pathetic, fucking pathetic if you can’t see how you are being manipulated here.
Is it considered “encouraging hackin of Sony systems” or something?
I guess the early bath suited you more. And that picture of you lifting the cup? Not going to happen as I don’t think even a Sunday league team would take you with your baggage in tow.
Thanks for the drama.
Not Tv, Not SoundSystem, Not DVD player, Nothing Sony.
From Chile
Fuck you.
You owe us an explanation on what exactly happened.
Fuck your confidential shit nobody gives a fuck.
Man it up.
‘Cus atm i and many others would class you as a fraud, and a lier, “I will not give up until they settle with my demands” now, were your demands “my demands must remain confidential” eh eh eh? i didnt think so, you settled on theres, thus you fail.
Get your head out of your ass, put yourself in Geohots shoes for five minutes. I doubt he RAN away with your money. Sure he and Sony settled but we still don’t know the terms and we may never get the full details… But if you donated to him you were a supporter and now because he walked away with a settlement you want to crucify him without even knowing the full impact of this case. Really?
@Geohot Winning!!!!!
I assure you… after what I just realized and compared to what I read, it’s not what everyone here thinks. Back off of Geo, I know (though not word for word) that this isn’t actually over. And Sony didn’t win. Anyone who donated more than I has somethin’ to say. Sorry, not tryin’ to be an ass, but “when you play the rank game, you gotta have the rank,” and no one I know yet has donated more than myself. I assure anyone who donated to him, it wasn’t in vain at all…
@George Hotz
All I can do is thank you. I refuse to divulge anything I found out. If they wanna know, they can snoop around. And as far as Sony is concerned, don’t sweat the small stuff. You did a great favor to many, and there are plenty of others to pick up the torch. It’s all about fear. They’ll never make it illegal for everyone. We’ve (You’ve) won this one.
Everyone either boycott Sony or hack the **** out of their products! They can’t stop us all!!!
The conclusion I have drawn is that PS3 fanboys are just pissed off.
And no one except me has lost any rights today.