Found this interesting site on the web: X-Box Hacking

First off, I don't have an X-Box, not intend on getting one (unless its really cheap), and even if I do get one, I probably won't hack it. I have no access to Japanese games anymore anyways. Plus, it just takes too much time. As if the PS/2 isn't keeping me busy enough.

BUT, reading about the technology used to HACK the X-Box and the technology inside the X-BOX is really interesting. I came across this article by Andrew Huang, who published his first X-Box hacking paper: Keeping Secrets in Hardware: the Microsoft XBox Case Study. Just reading about all the technology thats inside the X-Box is very exciting. After all, I do the same thing at work, just in a different kind of system. That, and I design, not hack.

I guess the moral of the story is how selfish humans are. We go through great length (like Microsoft) to protect the "data" so that no one else can see what genius inventions other people came up with. We go through layers and layers of encryption just so others wouldn't be able to know what it is. Why? Economic reasons, of course. If people don't know how it works, then the only way to play XBox games is to buy it straight from Microsoft, helping Microsoft making millions of $$$. In the process, Microsoft probably spent millions of dollars and weeks to come up with a scheme to "hide" all this information, only to be broken in by a MIT professor. Just goes on to show you, that no matter what you do, there is always a way around it. :-)

You know, I can't wait until the day that information just flows, for free, and we humans don't take adventage of one another. Rather, we use the knowledge and expertise that is shared amongst everyone to propel our society forward to bigger and better things, and we give credit (in both $$$ and recognition) where its due. As for me, I try to buy origional DVDs and play original PS2 games, along with NOT downloading MP3s and actually buying the CDs that I want to listen to.

john