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-! Microsoft !-
For it's raw capabilities, the XBox 360 was a pretty decent bit of hardware. When it was released it had exceptional graphics and processing power for the price. However, all of this power was locked under code and intertwined hardware. It was structured and designed to be what Microsoft wanted and now anything else.
Of course, hackers are an ingenious bunch who like to poke at the loop holes in the code. Like the original XBox people started finding ways to get around the blocks to make it do what *they* wanted. In the case of the original XBox there were enough loopholes for people to install custom Linux distros and tie a bunch of them together to create micro super computers.
Not so much with the 360. And with ever successful hack and crack the wonder folks at MS are busy patching them. To really hack a 360 you need external probes, soldering skills and specialized software to crack the system. These cracks will work usually until the next kernel update. It would not surprise me if there were people at MS whose job it is to patrol the hacking community to find the latest attacks and fix them.
Because, well they want you to use their product their way.
To be honest... most of the hacks and cracks are to play either pirated games or games not approved my MS. It keeps all the money flowing to MS. They've lawyered up to protect their games from being copied. Cracked and pirated games may be cheaper - if not free - but my thoughts are that if the pirates are willing to cheat MS they'll have no problems cheating you.
Just like the Big Boys I can easily see pirates putting in back doors and data scrapping code to lift your account and credit card information. Data mining is big business to sell your information to *cough* advertisers (NSA, CIA, FBI, and all those Russia letters too).
Again, you really don't own your hardware that you've bought. I'm betting MS loses money on the hardware - it's the subscriptions and official games, downloadable content, and the money they get from the streaming video services (hello, Amazon) when you rent movies.
More of you get to rent stuff - not own stuff.
It's the back end where they make their money, not in selling game consoles. The original vision was not just to be a game box though, it was to be a media hub where you store your music, rent your movies and play your games on. One box does it all! And we have chat rooms and audio/video conferences so all your social media needs are right here in this one box!
Eh, not... quite.
-m
For it's raw capabilities, the XBox 360 was a pretty decent bit of hardware. When it was released it had exceptional graphics and processing power for the price. However, all of this power was locked under code and intertwined hardware. It was structured and designed to be what Microsoft wanted and now anything else.
Of course, hackers are an ingenious bunch who like to poke at the loop holes in the code. Like the original XBox people started finding ways to get around the blocks to make it do what *they* wanted. In the case of the original XBox there were enough loopholes for people to install custom Linux distros and tie a bunch of them together to create micro super computers.
Not so much with the 360. And with ever successful hack and crack the wonder folks at MS are busy patching them. To really hack a 360 you need external probes, soldering skills and specialized software to crack the system. These cracks will work usually until the next kernel update. It would not surprise me if there were people at MS whose job it is to patrol the hacking community to find the latest attacks and fix them.
Because, well they want you to use their product their way.
To be honest... most of the hacks and cracks are to play either pirated games or games not approved my MS. It keeps all the money flowing to MS. They've lawyered up to protect their games from being copied. Cracked and pirated games may be cheaper - if not free - but my thoughts are that if the pirates are willing to cheat MS they'll have no problems cheating you.
Just like the Big Boys I can easily see pirates putting in back doors and data scrapping code to lift your account and credit card information. Data mining is big business to sell your information to *cough* advertisers (NSA, CIA, FBI, and all those Russia letters too).
Again, you really don't own your hardware that you've bought. I'm betting MS loses money on the hardware - it's the subscriptions and official games, downloadable content, and the money they get from the streaming video services (hello, Amazon) when you rent movies.
More of you get to rent stuff - not own stuff.
It's the back end where they make their money, not in selling game consoles. The original vision was not just to be a game box though, it was to be a media hub where you store your music, rent your movies and play your games on. One box does it all! And we have chat rooms and audio/video conferences so all your social media needs are right here in this one box!
Eh, not... quite.
-m
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no subject
Which is why the ethos among the white-hat hackers is you don't own something until you hack it, and you really don't own it until you built it yourself.
With your snow box, custom firmware chips aren't that hard to find, [if you know where to look] and you can buy a kit of jumper cables to fit them over the surface mounts, and then cut the power and ground pins on the stock chips. Granted, it might kill your mobo, but you did get it for free after all...
no subject
I'd done that with an original Xbox which I also found in the garbage. I *should* have tried the swap-drive method instead of trying to solder in a bypass board with my shaky hands.
At the moment, I'm rather reluctant to go investing in more exotic tools just to play hacked games.
That may change if I stumble across another tossed box. X-D
-m