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Following on the Mass effect post from yesterday, one of my friend reported to me that the iPhone hacker has defeated the PS3 security. From the blog of geohotps3.blogspot.com :

I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I’ve also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip.

3 years, 2 months, 11 days…thats a pretty secure system

Took 5 weeks, 3 in Boston, 2 here, very simple hardware cleverly applied, and some not so simple software.

Shout out to George Kharrat from iPhoneMod Brasil for giving me this PS3 a year and a half ago to hack. Sorry it took me so long

As far as the exploit goes, I’m not revealing it yet. The theory isn’t really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can’t post dumps. I’m hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone’s KBAG.

A lot more to come…follow @geohot on twitter

Link to blog : http://geohotps3.blogspot.com/2010/01/hello-hypervisor-im-geohot.html

Nextgen.com has a full transcript of the torrent site that leaked on january 20th the two disc version or mass effect 2. Now I am not very happy about this as this game is quite an undertaking from a scenario and technology stand point. It really deserves to be bought. I played the first one through five times on different difficulty level. I actually bought my xbox for this game. Although I dislike some industry practices Electronic art as done in the past, I do not think they deserve that specific title to be pirated.  This sequel does not need a demo “before buying”, we all know its better than the other one. I guess the argument will go on forever, that those prople would not have bought it anyway. All in all, as a professional game developper I can just condone this case of piracy.

Read the transcript here : http://www.nextgn.com/2010/01/21/mass-effect-2-leaked-to-torrent-sites/

Additional thought on bitbag here : http://www.thebitbag.com/2010/01/21/mass-effect-2-leaked/

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

…

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

ComputerWorld has a good analysis of the whole affair, including a link to the U.S. department of state where Hilary clinton comments briefly on the subject. Read the computer world story.

“The 3D porn experience is coming (eventually) to a home theater near you. Most adult filmmakers are moving slowly toward 3D video because of higher production cost, the small number of 3D TVs in the home, and, of course, the glasses. Rob Smith, director of operations at Hustler Video Group says he hopes that market penetration of 3D TVs in the home is high enough that ‘by the fourth quarter of this year it will be at the point where we can justify doing a 3D product.’ The average adult movie costs around $25,000 to $40,000 to make, and 3D movies cost about 30% more, says Ali Joone, founder of Digital Playground. But Joone thinks the biggest hurdle for 3D isn’t so much the cost as the glasses: people don’t want to be encumbered by eyewear when viewing a film, says Joone.”

“Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted. As there normally exists sex differences in liver and kidney metabolism, the highly statistically significant disturbances in the function of these organs, seen between male and female rats, cannot be dismissed as biologically insignificant as has been proposed by others. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggests that these GM maize varieties induce a state of hepatorenal toxicity….These substances have never before been an integral part of the human or animal diet and therefore their health consequences for those who consume them, especially over long time periods are currently unknown.”

What is sad is that my step father is growing corn here in Quebec and once you start using Monsanto, you cannot go back, they kind of own you for good. Their prices are also so low that it simply makes it a defacto choice for farmers that intend to make a living out of growing crops. Read the Monsanto response at the Huffinton Post.