

Air Force may suffer collateral damage from PS3 firmware update - alrex021
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/how-removing-ps3-linux-hurts-the-air-force.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

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axod
"Sony's decision had no immediate impact on the cluster; for obvious reasons,
the PS3s are not hooked into the PlayStation Network and don't need Sony's
firmware updates. But what happens when a PS3 dies or needs repair? Tough
luck."

So basically, it's pretty much the same as if Sony just stopped
selling/repairing PS3's. Hardly seems terrible doom and gloom to me, and
certainly not something anyone should be angry at Sony for.

They got a ton of cheap subsidized hardware, and can use it until it dies.

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fragmede
This has been true since Sept '09 when the slim PS3 was introduced which
doesn't support the OtherOS feature; as noted, the Air Force PS3's aren't
hooked into the PlayStation Network.

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BrandonM
> Off-the-shelf PS3s could take advantage of Sony's hardware subsidy to get
> powerful Cell processors more cheaply than via any other solution.

If Sony was subsidizing something like $100 per machine, the Air Force cost
Sony over $200,000 that it has no hopes of recovering. Thanks, Air Force, for
giving Sony a very good reason to remove support for an alternate OS.

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seabee
What purpose did you think an alternate OS would serve? To drive sales of
Playstation games so that Sony could recoup their subsidy? I don't think so.
You can hardly blame the Air Force for doing what Sony enabled them to do.

The alternative for Sony would be to sell non-subsidized machines with other
OS support.

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rbanffy
I really can't feel bad for the USAF when Sony decides to no longer subsidize
them.

I am quite sure the USAF has pockets deep enough for a supercomputer more
expensive than a cluster of PS3s.

Right now, I would suggest taking the GPU route. The Cell BE was hot a couple
years ago. Not anymore.

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ericz
To be fair, Sony is hard-pressed to provide hardware at a loss just because
it's being used for good. As a company they need to stay profitable and all of
the good press it got for being a research beast was not translating into
positive returns. So it was good while it lasted but unfortunately the free
market dictates this change.

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gaius
The military will spend $5000 on a toilet seat, I'm sure they'd be willing to
buy a PS3 at what it costs.

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hga
Except like most of these stories it was a lie.

It was an injection molded waste receptacle cover for the toilets. Given that
this was for the huge C-5 air transport, which could be carrying, shall I say,
a s..t-load of men on long flights, that weight was at a premium in the design
of the aircraft and the expensive tooling was amortized over very few total
units for this sort of thing ... well, you can do the math.

The C-5's coffee machines are pretty expensive as well....

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ck2
Forgive me as I am not a gamer and don't know much about the PS3, but couldn't
they image the hard drive from a working linux PS3 to the newer PS3 without
linux?

Or it doesn't work like that?

update: oh I see below it's in the firmware.

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MikeCapone
Already submitted without the RSS string in the URL:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1340983>

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DeusExMachina
Why is not possible to install the old firmware on the new devices?

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someperson
Security measures - Sony doesn't want you doing things like that because it
gives people more opportunities to find exploits that will eventually lead to
piracy (which will reduce its revenue).

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DeusExMachina
Are these security measures not bypassable? This is the same thing that Apple
tries to avoid in iPhones, but AFAIK is possible to change the firmware for
jailbreaks.

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eli
Doing so would likely be illegal under the DMCA

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tesseract
Even if you're the Air Force?

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eli
Well IANAL, but I can't imagine why it wouldn't apply to them. It's not like
the Air Force is allowed to pirate software.

