(un)certainty == freedom the owners of the device will have. Will they prefer a black box(manufacturer control==certainty) or a white box(owner control==uncertainty)

Believe it or not humans(grown ups as well as not so grown ups) as a species can never stop complaining. Its really unbearable to watch the various incidents unfolding(purely own thought process of technological advancement causing the dissatisfaction) right in front of oneself. Happen to get my hands on PSP 3001(yep, a Sony product) Its an awesome product with no freedom for user(mainly it was meant to be for a certain age group so not much of freedom/responsibility talk involved). (OSHW)The kid happen to buy PSP with the intention to play as much game as possible as soon as the device was bought but to his disappointment there was one UMD(universal Media disc) and another one bought for 500+INR but the kid was not satisfied. The package came with
- power adapter
- PSP
- 8GB MMC
- manual (ridiculously was meant for non English speaking audience)

* no USB cable was provided.

This device was/is a great piece of work (HW as well as SW(firmware)) and there it was in the hands of a kid so that he/she can play with it(superficial act) and no knowledge of device either its hardware spec or software stack could be elicited out of that device but little bit of googling helped with some wanted information like
MIPs based processor - speed
graphics accelerator
no mmu
sdcard size

I am not certainly asking Sony to part with HW schematics but they can at-least let the device owner who want to willfully go beyond set gaming use(there are tons of games I can get my hands on then why confine to games that is defined by manufacturer). They can also add the void warranty if something done beyond gaming purpose and believe it or not there are takers for such options too(not too many but yep they exist). Its tug of war between user/manufacturer gaining access to the device. Seriously device owner paid for it and they don't have complete access to the device, must be kidding(Its like after buying a motor bike one cannot open any part of it because that is the invasion of privacy so says the manufacturer. Well then why to sell the product if they want so much privacy). Who ever thinks in that way they take the responsibility of what happens to device is of their own doing and believe it or not its exciting for very few and for most its the pain in the a**(just a matter of frame of mind).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable_homebrew
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable#Technical_specifications
http://psplinux.info/

Yep the device came with certainty i.e Sony will take care of anything if any thing goes wrong but was the kid satisfied by buying the product. NO!!! reason there was not enough games provided... reason the ignorance of the ones accompanying the kid as well as those recommending the device based on its certainty and Sony invariable cashing in on any thing the poor kid touches (know that the game creators need be payed) but this is no way to make money.
Another reason for switching the area of responsibility i.e philosophy behind FLOSS where the user desist from being ignorant and see to it that what they want.
Certainty which includes
- You don't have to be responsible
- Everything is the responsibility of the providers(Sony in this case)
- Don't even bother to know any thing related to installing process
- provider will be charging exorbitantly for the services (don't complain)

Uncertainty which inculcates or involves
- be responsible(you make or break the device)
- be attentive
- be far-sightedness i.e use device for life long without being bogged down by the manufactures terms ones the consumer buys the product its his/her device and should have the freedom to upgrade or do what ever the user wants with no restrictions imposed by others.
- the manufacture take less or no liability even if the device is buggy

linux on PSP
http://sites.google.com/site/linuxonpspproject/
http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PSP
http://psplinux.info/

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

top