I think what this guy (George Hotz)is doing is both good and bad. He is bringing to light information that people need to know about how Sony looks at the consumers and about the tech they work with. Granted he went the wrong way around doing it, but if your going to boast about your system being so great, then don't be going into a tantrum because someone proved you wrong and then made the info public. to be honest I'm not a computer programmer, though I wanted to in college but couldn't get past the math. I could write C++ but the grade needed the math to equal it. The point is I have a good understanding about what this is about but I'm no expert, just a guy with a keyboard.
Hackers have been going to to supposedly secure sites and hardware for years trying to figure out the systems and showing where the flaws are in the systems and showing their skill as programmers. I honestly respect these people because they are skilled at something and enjoy what they are doing
Hackers are needed in our day/age to show where the problems are so we can fix them. Hell if we had hackers working on the School systems, so many problems would be solved.
But I think most people don't know the difference between a Hacker and a Cracker. Though they may go by different names there is a very obvious difference between a person who breaks into a companies computer system and what they do once they have accomplished this.
Most Hackers go to the task of breaking into a system just to prove that they can do it. Its like a wood carver going out into the forest, cutting down and tree and then carving the tree down into a 5 piece bedroom set. He wanted to do it, he had to tools so he did it. And the key aspect is, he did no real harm in the process. This is what hackers do. They go into a system and break through the walls of encryption and find their way through. Once inside, they will copy the information and either send it to the company or post it online as a trophy, usually informing the company that they succeeded. What normally follows is either a suing process or a job application. Most often both happen. They sue the hacker and then offer them a job to work on the system.
Now a Cracker is a whole different type of computer programmer. These are the guys who do the same thing as a hacker but once inside the system they don't just copy a little info. These guys do damage. They take the information and then use or sell it to competing companies for profit. They infect the system with a virus or viruses and cause corruption of the system and causing millions of dollars in damage (dollars as in work hours trying to undo the damage and replacing equipment). This is where terms like malicious malware, virus, spam, and other terms come from.
What Holtz did shouldn't really be dragged through the court systems and waste time and money, though I guess someone thinks this is a worth-while cause to fight. I mean if the guy can jailbreak the iPhone and PS3, imagine if he got a job at Google?! I'd love for this guy to work for a major newspaper or computer/gaming news group so he could do it with all computer and gaming systems so we can have access to what the creators won't let us have. Hell he' doing what most MOD'ers do on their favorite video games. He's giving people a new way to use the product. I know a lot of low-income families would love to use their PS3 the same as a home computer. Hell its a lot cheaper the putting up the funds for a $1,000.00 laptop and it works on your TV. I can think of a ton of college kids who would pay the price of a PS3 to get what would usually cost a lot more on a Desktop PC. And it comes with Bluetooth!! Like TBBT says, "everything is better with Bluetooth."
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