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Sony’s decision to remove OtherOS from the PlayStation 3 could change the future of all electronic devices as we know them. You may not agree with or even completely understand that statement yet, but if you own anything (even a computer or a phone) that connects to the Internet, I urge you to read today’s post.

Today’s story begins back in 2006 with Sony’s release of the PlayStation 3 (PS3). The PS3 was (and still is) the most advanced video game console ever released. In fact, the console was so powerful that not only could it also play both PS2 and PS1 games, but using a feature called OtherOS, you could actually install Linux on the PS3′s hard drive and use the gaming console like a computer. Due to built-in restrictions the end result isn’t a terribly powerful computer, but it does work, and it is useful. I use it.

Most video game consoles contain some type of internal copy protection, to prevent people from downloading/burning/copying games instead of buying them. This was obviously a much smaller problem back in the days of cartridges, as most gamers had no way of creating pirate circuit boards and/or EPROMS. In today’s world where every computer has a DVD burner installed, this is a much bigger problem. So, companies like Nintendo and Microsoft and Sony include copy protection inside their video game consoles that prevent copied games from working. Many console manufacturers lose money on each game console sold, but recoup those losses over time by selling games for a profit.

To circumvent copy protection, pirates develop custom chips (“mod chips”) that allow these consoles to play copied games. Installing a mod chip requires a certain amount of technical ability as well as a certain amount of courage — one wrong move can both void your warranty and destroy your console all at the same time.

In the old days, once a console was modded, it was game over for the manufacturer. For example, consider the original Sony PlayStation. Once a mod chip was released, there was little Sony could do but watch as pirates sold mod chips by the thousands on the Internet and games were freely distributed. Suing the sellers, distributors and even makers of mod chips turned out to be a fruitless game of whack-a-mole. Sony’s only recourse was to redesign the internals of the PlayStation so that old mod chips wouldn’t work on it; pirates quickly countered with new mod chips that worked on both old and new machines. These days, it’s not a matter of if a new gaming console’s security measures will get “cracked”, but when.

The ultimate nightmare, however, is when pirates find flaws that don’t require any sort of hardware modification at all. The most memorable example of this was Sega’s Dreamcast. Utopia (a pirate group) released a boot disc for the Dreamcast that allowed burned games to be loaded and played without physically modifying the machine. Eventually, the boot loader was included on copies of pirated games. Utopia released their boot loader in June of 2000; Sega announced the death of the Dreamcast in January of 2001. Piracy is often (unofficially) cited as one of the major causes of the death of the console.

Enter George Hotz, aka Geohot, who by all accounts is a teenage genius. Geohot made his name in iPhone circles by creating and publicly releasing software to jailbreak iPhones. “Jailbreaking” allows iPhones to run unsigned code and change settings (including carriers) that customers are not supposed to be able to change. The first time I jailbroke an iPod Touch, it took me about two hours of dumping, patching, and reapplying firmwares. With Geohot’s blackra1n utility, you can do it in about 10 seconds by clicking a single button.

The seventh generation of video game consoles include the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Two of those three — the Wii and the 360 — have already been cracked. Early Wii mod chips have since been replaced by a software exploit that anyone with access to Youtube can figure out and perform in about 10 minutes. The 360 is a bit more complicated and requires flashing a BIOS, but it’s still relatively easy and requires no soldering or real technical skill. To date, only the PS3 remains unmodded … which is why Geohot set his sights on it last November.

By January, the whiz kid announced that he had successfully rooted the console, but it wasn’t easy. Circumventing Sony’s security measures required not only opening the console and soldering wires to the machine’s internals, but also required using an exploit found, apparently, in the PS3′s OtherOS feature. According to Geohot’s blog posting, “Sony may have difficulty patching the exploit.”

In fact, Sony has found a very simple way to patch the exploit. Sony’s latest mandatory update removes OtherOS from the PS3. And by mandatory, I mean you will not be able to play online any longer without applying this update. PS3 owners have two options; apply the patch and lose the ability to use OtherOS, or stop playing online. It’s that simple.

I’m not a lawyer and I’ve not read every license agreement, but I’m guessing Sony has and that in some bizarre way, this must be legal. It sure doesn’t seem like it should be to me. I bought a PS3, and when I bought it, it came with the ability to run additional operating systems. And now, that option is being removed from a device that I bought, paid for, and is sitting in my living room. It just doesn’t seem right.

Geohot, for his part, has promised PS3 owners a custom firmware that will allow both the use of OtherOS and the ability to play online. More power to the guy should he release it, but installing a custom firmware would most definitely void my warranty, something I don’t want to do (and shouldn’t have to do) just to keep the functionality my PS3 had when I bought it new.

For the record, other companies have waged wars against pirates as well. Microsoft, for example, routinely bans gamers running modified BIOS versions or pirated games. I have no problem with this. What I have a problem with is the removal of features that I paid for after I paid for them.

To some, this may seem like an essay about video games, but it’s not. It’s a question: what does it mean to own something in this day and age? Could AT&T or Apple prevent my iPhone from dialing 1-800 numbers if people start prank calling 1-800 numbers? Could Chevrolet remotely lower the top speed of my truck if they decide I drive too fast? Can television manufacturers retroactively lock TV channels that they decide aren’t worth watching? Where is the line between consumers and manufacturers? I don’t know, anymore.

Amazon pissed off thousands of paying customers last year by quietly removing books people had already bought and paid for on their Kindles. It was a public relations nightmare that caused loud discontent from Kindle owners (an obviously web-friendly demographic — oops). It appears that Sony is about to commit two giant faux pas with one stroke. Simultaneously, Sony plans on screwing millions of customers that own launch PS3s by removing the OtherOS option, and drawing the ire of Geohot, a technical genius who really doesn’t need that kind of prodding in order to chew up Sony’s security and spit it back up at them. Prior to this last announcement I was content to sit by the sidelines and see how this all played out, but after Sony’s latest blunder, I’m actually rooting for Geohot.

C’mon kid, let’s see what you got.

Even as a writer, occasionally words fail me.

For several days now I have searched for the right words to sum up my New York experience, but those words have eluded me. I had hoped to find and share a single anecdote that would neatly encapsulate one small town mouse’s view of the big city, but how can such an overwhelming experience get narrowed down to a single story when you’re comparing small oranges to such a big apple?

Through my Oklahoman eyes, New York is big, loud, crowded, and a little scary. The reality I know of hopping in my car each morning and driving fifteen miles to work in fifteen minutes simply doesn’t exist there. Those with a fifteen minute commute in New York are few and far between; daily commutes of 30 to 90 minutes (each way) are apparently more common. Manhattan is a city made for walking. A seven-day unlimited MetroCard costs $27. Parking at the hotel costs $65/day. Everything anyone ever told me about New York City traffic is true. You couldn’t pay me to drive in it.

Tourists are easy to spot in New York City. Many are holding cameras or subway maps, and a lot of whem are wearing white tennis shoes, but the easist way to spot one is if they make eye contact with you or say “excuse me” when you bump into them in a crosswalk — two dead giveaways.

This morning for the first time I saw Oklahoma through a New Yorker’s eyes. I marvelled at the open fields. I smiled when a fellow motorist allowed me to merge. I laughed when I realized I had not heard a single car horn or siren all day. Today for lunch I realized we had driven ten minutes and not passed a single restaurant. I wonder if there is any place in New York City where one can drive for ten minutes and not pass a restaurant?

But there were parts of New York City I loved. I loved seeing restaurants open past midnight. I loved Times Square and Central Park. I loved walking down Wall Street, 5th Avenue, and Broadway. Then again, I could just as easily list things I would not love. I would not love the traffic, the daily pace, or the rent.

If you’re waiting for me to say that I could never live in a place like New York City, I cannot. There were parts of the city that I really connected with. How can a city with surprises awaiting you around every corner ever get old? Oklahoma does seem quaint in comparison — then again, in the middle of the night with no sirens, horns or subways to wake you, quaint sounds pretty nice.

Here are all the pictures I took during my week long adventure. The New York City pictures are bookended by a few from Chicago, where my train ride began and ended. I took a lot of pictures looking out the window of my train to kill some time, which in retrospect are pretty boring; feel free to skip some of those.

My walking adventure through Manhattan took me through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Financial District, Wall Street, the marina district, Staten Island, past the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Rockefeller Center/Plaza, Broadway, and Times Square. You should be able to find all of those pictures (and more) in the following photo gallery.

Photo Gallery: Rob’s Adventures in New York City

It’s late, I’m sore, and I had an awesome night walking around uptown Manhattan. I’ve uploaded the pictures to the gallery, but haven’t added captions yet and some of them are showing up out of order. If you want a peek, here’s the link.

New York City Trip

The Late Show with David Letterman

Ice Skating in Rockefeller Plaza

Times Square

No time to post many details, but last night my friend Kevin walked me through Chinatown, Little Italy, past the World Trade Center site, all through Wall Street, and finally down to the Staten Island Ferry. From there we took the ferry to Staten Island and back, at which point I called “mercy” and took a cab back to the hotel. Tonight, we plan on seeing the north side.

This week I find myself working on the 23rd floor of a Federal building located on the south side of Manhattan. From the south side of the building, you can see where the Twin Towers stood, and where the remaining towers stand. Several of the employees I spoke with today recounted their recollections of that day. Looking out the west side, you can see the Hudson River. Last year while looking out the window, several employees noticed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 floating down the river after crash landing in it. Looking out the north side of the river, you can see all the way across Manhattan, with the Empire State Building standing tall in the background.

More pictures from the office here.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to travel from Chicago to New York City first class on an Amtrak train, this post is for you.

Departure

Aunt Linda and Uncle Buddy dropped me off at Union Station in downtown Chicago. The door I entered led to a cavernous room made of stone and marble that did not disappoint. It was filled with stone and marble and pillars and homeless people.

I had trouble checking in with the automated system so I went to the front desk. The system works just like the airport’s: you stand in line and eventually, “someone will help the next waiting passenger.”

About this time, people began addressing me as “Mr. O’Hara.” Apparently, the purchase of any sleeping room, no matter how small, qualifies you as a first class passenger. “Mr. O’Hara, are you familiar with the first class lounge?” No, Mr. O’Hara was not, but at the moment Mr. O’Hara is standing amongst a sea of scary looking people, half of which are travelling to New Orleans and the other half I think live at the train station. Mr. O’Hara would very much like to move to the lounge.

The lounge reminded me of one of the lounges on our last cruise ship. It was big, filled with lots of cheap furniture made to look expensive and multiple partitions to break the single large area up into multiple smaller areas. The lounge has several flat screen televisions, comfortable chairs, and refreshments. Does Mr. O’Hara know about the wine and cheese tasting (for first class passengers only) that will take place on the train between 7:30pm and 9pm? No, but I will definitely be there, as Mr. O’Hara rarely passes up a chance to drink alcohol on someone else’s dime.

Boarding

At 7:30pm, an announcement was made for all first class passengers to begin boarding. I grab my bags and get in line. We walk out the door and suddenly we’re outside. Everything is painted either light gray or dark gray, with yellow lines showing you where not to stand. There’s water dripping from the overhang even though it’s not raining outside. Everything is wet and damp and I feel like any wrong turn could lead me to a sewer entrance. After a very brief walk (2 minutes), we reach our train. The guy standing outside the train tells me “Car 12, Room 5,” so that’s where I go.

When I get to Car 12, Room 5, it’s filled with stuff. There are 3 bundles of newspapers, at least a dozen pillows, and all kinds of crap. I immediately start asking people around me, “are your rooms full of crap?” They say no. When someone in an Amtrak uniform comes by, I start to ask him if this was normal but before I could get the question out he says, “what are you doing in there? That’s not your room! Get out of there!” I show him my ticket and, turns out, I’m Car 11, Room 7. The guy outside the train looked at the wrong ticket. So then I leave and go to my new room.

The hallways of the train are so narrow that I can’t imagine any two adults of the opposite sex passing one another without conceiving a child. And there’s no way even a premature baby could get past me in the hallway. Before I go to my room I look down the hall to make sure the coast is clear. I feel a bit like Godzilla in a minuature town. When I turn a corner and find people there, they scatter for safety into available rooms until I pass.

Shortly after arriving in my room, “Christopher” shows up. Christopher is in charge of Car 11, so if you need anything, you go find Christopher. Christopher asks if I’m familiar with everything and when I tell him this is my first time on a train ever, he shows me how to work the A/C controls, the toilet and sink, and where the TV controls are to the TV that’s missing. “People kept stealing them, so we quit putting them back in,” he informs me.

And yeah, the room is small. For one person, it’s fine — for two, it would be tight. For two strangers it would be really uncomfortable. I’m estimating that the room is 6 1/2 foot long by about4 foot wide. Sitting in the chair, I can touch both the door and the outside window with my elbows. There’s an upper bunk that looks more like a sarcoughagus than a place to sleep, but I figured out that it moves upa nd down. Everything in the room is made to condense space.

Once I got unpacked, it was off to the wine and cheese tasting. The dining car has a dozen tables with 4 chairs each, so strangers are piled together at the same table. I sat with Margaret, a widow from Boston who was travelling back home after visiting family and taking care of her father’s funeral arrangements in Nebraska. Margaret and I had a really good time chatting about our families and drinking wine. At the end of the meal they even gave us complimentary bottles of wine for our rooms.

We’re Moving!

I was sitting in my room working on my laptop when suddenly, the train began to move. It took us quite a while to get up to speed. According to the GPS on my phone, we did around 30mph for a while before getting outside of town and cranking up the engine. Right now, the GPS says we’re doing almost 80. Doesn’t feel like it.

Sleeping

I got tired much earlier than I thought I would, so around 10:30pm I decided to convert the two chairs into a bed. It’s a pretty simple procedure. First you put your foot on a pedal, then you push, then you fall forward on your face and scrape your shin on the pedal on your way down to the floor. Piece of cake.

It’s not until you lie down that you realize (A) the bed is not comfortable at all, and (B) this train’s a rockin’ all night long, and not in a good way. I ended up watching an entire movie on my laptop (“Batman – The Dark Knight”, which I had not seen and was great) and still couldn’t sleep. I laid (bounced around) until 1am, at which point the train stopped.

When the train stops, sometimes, the electricity in your room stops too, which is a jarring experience if you sleep using a CPAP machine like I do. Nothing says “enjoying your trip so far?” quick like waking up, gasping for oxygen. Rock.

I didn’t fall asleep until at least 2:30am, and woke up at 6:30am, not sleeping more than half an hour at any given time. On the way back, I’ll definitely skip the whole bed conversion and just sleep in the chair, sitting up. Much less work, much more confortable.

Breakfast

I had breakfast with “David,” a pilot whose eyes lit up when I told him I worked for the FAA. David’s a pilot an an ex-Army Blackhawk helicopter pilot, and boy did he have stories to tell. He also told me that he, as far as he knows, is the only person to ever been issued a certificate to pull advertising banners behind a helicopter. Really interesting guy. David works with drone helicopters and does all kinds of cool stuff. We talked a lot about planes and technology over bad eggs and cold sausage. Fun times.

The Rest

Kind of pressed for time this morning so I’ll wrap this up. Most of the rest of the trip was spent sitting in my room, watching movies on my laptop or reading. We arrived in New York’s City Penn Station almost an hour and a half early, although we had to then wait 30 minutes for the previous train to clear out.

Tonight’s update … “Welcome to New York City!”

I took several pictures looking out my train window, and added them to the gallery. I haven’t added captions yet — not that it matters because I don’t know what most of the things were, anyway. Here they are.

Train Pictures

According to our local weathermen, a blizzard was scheduled to hit Oklahoma City around 6am, Saturday morning. I did my best to beat it by hitting the road to Chicago right at 5am. By then the bridges had already iced over and I saw three wrecks within the first mile of my trip, but once I hit Edmond (30 minutes away) the ice turned to rain. I had steady rain from Edmond to St. Louis (a little over six hours), and then light drizzle from St. Louis to Chicago. 800 miles in 12:30, and that was with a 30 minute nap. (Not while driving; I pulled over.)

Had a good Italian Beef sandwich for dinner. Had a great breakfast over at Uncle Joe’s house, and Aunt Linda’s homemade lasagna for lunch. I’ll probably grab a couple of Chicago hot dogs or something before I head out tonight.

The train pulls out of Chicago at 9pm tonight and arrives around 6pm tomorrow in NYC. I haven’t been able to get iPhone tethering to work on my laptop today so I won’t be updating the blog, but I can check e-mail and Facebook from my phone so, it’s all good. I copied 20 movies, a hundred books, and a thousand games onto my laptop before I left, so I should have plenty to keep me busy.

I took a few pictures at Uncle Joe’s Breakfast this morning. By tomorrow night I should have all my train pictures online. I’ll update when I get to the hotel.

I’m headed to New York City (Manhattan) next week to perform security testing for a customer. I’ve never been to New York before, so I’m expecting quite the adventure.

Just glancing at Wikipedia, I’ve found some interesting comparisons between Oklahoma and New York City. For example, the state of Oklahoma has approximately 3.5 million people living here on 70,000 square miles of land. Manhattan has a little less than half that amount of people (1.6 million) living on 22 square miles of land. And apparently during the day, that number grows by another million people. Physically speaking, Manhattan is about the same size as the city I live in (Yukon, Oklahoma), which is 25 square miles. Of course Yukon only has a population of around 21,000 people, and New York City has 70,000 people … per square mile.

I’ve driven downtown in lots of big cities — Boston, Chicago, Washington D.C. — but I haven’t found a person yet who thinks driving in NYC is a good idea. In fact, I have had people I know from Boston, Chicago and Washington D.C. have all actively discouraged me from trying it. (I must admit, the $65/day parking fee at the Holiday Inn I’m staying at was a bit of a deterrance as well.)

And so, I’m taking a train.

Now, Oklahoma’s train service (the “Heartland Flyer”) only goes one way from Oklahoma City: south, to Ft. Worth, Texas. And the Amtrak train from Ft. Worth doesn’t go east or northeast to New York — it goes north, to Chicago. Getting to NYC from OKC by train looks like this:

Depart OKC: 8:25am (Monday)
Arrive Ft. Worth: 12:39pm (Monday)
Depart Ft. Worth: 2:20pm (Monday)
Arrive Chicago: 1:52pm (Tuesday)
Depart Chicago: 6:40pm (Tuesday)
Arrive Pittsburgh: 5:05am (Wednesday)
Depart Pittsburg: 7:20am (Wednesday)
Arrive NYC: 5:00pm (Wednesday)

Yeah … that’s not happening. The biggest bottleneck is the 28 hour trip to Chicago. It only takes 12 hours to drive there … and so that’s what I’m doing. Tomorrow (Saturday) I’ll be hitting the road, headed for Chicago. If I leave early enough, I’ll get there in time for a late dinner with family. I have all day Sunday to hang around and visit (read: eat) before catching a ride to the
downtown train station. From there, it’s a smoothe 21 hour ride from Chicago to NYC.

And, I bought a private room. It’s a small room with only two seats that convert into beds, but it has a big window and a place to sleep. I really don’t think the trip will be that bad. Twenty-one hours in front of my laptop is what I used to call, “Saturday”. I’ll have my iPhone for internet access, my Kindle for reading, my camera for shooting pictures and my laptop for everything else. To be honest, I’m quite looking forward to it.

I’ll be arriving in New York City around 6pm on Monday. I’m staying in SoHo, which appears to also be in Chinatown. It’s about 4/10 of a mile walk between where I’m staying and where I’m working, so it’s a good thing I started walking around the neighborhood again recently. Maybe I should do a few laps while carrying a laptop on my back. If everything goes well, I should have a few evenings free to go see New York City. I have a couple of friends who have graciously agreed to “show me the sights,” and I’m really looking forward to that.

All that’s left for me to do is load up the truck and head north in the morning. Thank goodness there’s not a blizzard or anything scheduled to arrive. Oh, wait …

St. Patrick’s Day came and went. I didn’t drink any green beer or have any corned beef, although Susan did prepare some green macaroni and cheese and made some green Kool-aid.

I don’t know what it was this year. I didn’t leave the house to celebrate. I didn’t even wear green yesterday.

I did a poor job representing the O’Hara name this year. Maybe next year.

This story caught my eye yesterday and, at least from a “Freedom of Speech” perspective, I found it pretty interesting.

“Scott” (no last name given in the story I read, but I’m sure it’s out there) is an amateur photographer who likes to photograph strangers in public places — mostly in and around businesses in the Burlington, Vermont district known as Church Street Marketplace, and specifically, a local coffee shop known as Uncommon Grounds. (Edit: It’s “Dan Scott”.)

Just so you get a clear picture of this, Scott stands on public property and shoots pictures of people he doesn’t know, without their permission, sometimes using a telephoto lens. This is all perfectly legal. Now in a perfect world, Scott would (A) ask permission from people to take their picture, (B) stop taking people’s picture when they asked him to, and (C) delete the pictures he has shot when people ask him to. Scott does none of these things. He repeatedly takes pictures of the same people after they have asked him to stop, he has refused to delete pictures after people have asked him to, and on at least one occasion (and I suspect many more), when one of his subjects got angry with him and physically confronted him, he continued taking pictures.

I’m not a psychologist and I wasn’t there, but from what I can tell, “Scott” is one of those people who enjoys conflict and provoking people, even though the method in which he is doing it is legal. As long as this guy is standing in the street (hopefully in traffic …) or on the sidewalk, he can take pictures of whatever, or whoever, he wants.

And, Uncommon Grounds can serve, or not serve, whoever they want. Earlier this week, the coffee house (along with 66 other businesses in the Church Street Marketplace) banned Scott from coming on to their property. This took place after Scott took place after Scott took photographs of a coffee shop employee who had already asked Scott to stop photographing him. (Scott says he did not recognize her as the same person.)

I’m not sure what the coffee house hopes to get out of their action, as Scott takes his photographs from the street. And just to clarify, few of Scott’s photos appear to be of employees; most of them are of customers, either sitting inside (taken through windows) or standing outside. I’m sure this guy is bad for business. Personally I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t return to “the coffee house where the creepy guy was taking my picture through the front window.”

Scott was within his legal right to take the pictures, and the businesses were within their legal right to ban him from their properties. So why doesn’t it feel like this story has a happy ending? If the people of Church Street Marketplace really want to get their point across, I suggest organizing a “photo-a-thon” outside this guy’s house. I’m guessing having camera flashes going off 24/7 for a week or two and capturing thousands of photographs of this guy’s family coming and going might actually get the point across …

For the record, I have only been confronted once for taking someone’s photograph. It was at Defcon 2007 (a hacker convention, held on private property). After taking a picture of a really cool t-shirt vendor’s booth, I was quickly and loudly confronted by the guy running the booth and told to “delete the picture immediately.” I was too embarrassed to admit that my camera was so old that it didn’t have the ability to delete a photo, so I just fumbled around for a minute pretending to press buttons and then told him it was deleted. I suppose I could have published it later, but as a general rule it’s a good idea not to go around making enemies at hacker conventions, so I ended up deleting it anyway when I got back home.

Link to Coffee Shop Story

EDIT: It appears, at least according to the comments on Facebook, that a lot of people are backing the photographer in this deal. Interesting.