The comments on this blog entry scare me. Fanboyism and groupthink pushed to the limit.
EDIT: ah well, I see that this opinion is shared. It kind of cheers me up. Kind of.
EDIT: ah well, I see that this opinion is shared. It kind of cheers me up. Kind of.
Those praising the actions of Sony don't seem to understand any of the larger issues here. It doesn't matter to them that free inquiry is being destroyed in order to shield the embarrassing secrets of a huge corporation from public view, as long as they can boot up their game console and play their shiny new video game without any inconvenience.
Interesting to see, however, that the side people take is an efficient indicator of their intelligence level - not as in IQ, but as in CIA (on its better days).
Is this for real?
The moment I read the comments I was like, "this is so different from the view people have on HN". Also I am sure these are kids who just swear by their consoles. Sadly they are Sony's biggest chunk of consumers.
I thought that hackers and playstation 3 "owners" would be on the same side, given that the ultimate question here is whether they really own the console or not.
It also depends on what motivations you assign to geohot. I wouldn't have much sympathy for him if I thought his intention was to pirate video games.
Which isn't to say that Sony has handled this well: they're still incompetent and Evil.
I can see how people might worry that if using PS3s for non-gaming becomes widespread, Sony might feel the need to raise the price to make up for the loss.
Apparently, Anonymous took down the PSN for some time in protest to the litigation. I'm sure that galvanized the viewpoint of some Playstation users who may not have even been aware of the bigger picture.
Don't get me wrong, jailbreaking certainly opens up other avenues, but Sony (and developers) had been doing a very poor job of anti-cheat for a long time. With the jailbreak, they simply found a scapegoat that they hoped would take the heat off of them.
Poor souls. I always knew video games would destroy the mind and the ability to appreciate the finer things in life.
Someone who trots out such hackneyed clichés should be careful criticising others for following the crowd.
It is also not generally a good idea to attack others for following the crowd, as we all do it. Those who consider themselves contrarian are typically simply choosing to highlight the areas where they reject society, while ignoring the myriad ways in which they toe the line every day. People who really do question all of society's assumptions get locked away in mental hospitals.
Also, we all follow what others tell us because it would be impossible not to. To do otherwise would require independently researching and validating each and every position one holds, and there simply isn't enough time in the day.
If you really questioned everything, you would achieve nothing.