Week In Review - PSN Predictions + SingStar

---

What a Week

PSN intrusion to SingStar, I've tried to cover it all. Here's some highlights:

From PSN Still Out. Why? (My Best Guess):
Monday, April 25, 2011 @ 6:15 AM PDT

So Sony had an intrusion. Why isn't this a non-event and we go on with our lives? Simple, PSN accounts have associated names, addresses, and credit card information.

I'm guessing that the real work has just started today. I'd expect some real progress in the next 24-48 hours, but don't be surprised if PSN is off into the weekend.

Sony Response, Update on PlayStation Network and Qriocity:
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 @ ~12:50 PM PDT

Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, [sic] PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

We have a clear path to have PlayStation Network and Qriocity systems back online, and expect to restore some services within a week.

From PSA on PSN Data Breach:
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 @ 4:15 PM PDT

The problem is Sony relied on their leaf node security to protect users. In other words, they thought the PS3/other services were not hackable so no need to secure the inner data. ... now we find out they didn't encrypt the user data?

Sony Response, Q&A #1 for PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 @ ~5:15 PM PDT

Q: Was my personal data encrypted?
A: All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

From PSN Security - Transparency and Trophies:
Thursday, April 28, 2011 @ 6:05 AM PDT

The thing about trophies is, they are kept on your local system and synced to the server. Even if somehow Sony screwed up and didn't have this data backed up, your PS3 does. Your trophies will be fine people.

But what's more important is this is still described as a data breach not vandalism. That means the person(s) in question just copied data and didn't trash the database. They likely had read only access through a partially privileged account, meaning they couldn't trash the database.

I full [sic] expect all profiles to be fine.

Sony Response, Q&A #2 for PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services:
Thursday, April 28, 2011 @ ~8:50 PM PDT

Q: Will our download history/friends list/settings be affected by the PSN downtime?
A: No, they will not.

Q: Will trophies that were earned in single-player offline games during the outage be intact when the service resumes?
A: These trophies are intact and will be re-synched [sic] when the network is once again operational.

Q: Will my PS+ cloud saves be retrievable?
A: Yes, once PSN is restored.

Finally, there's the SingStar Dance review. As a gamer, who can't sing in general I was actually surprised by the game. Well worth checking out.

PSN Still Out. Why? (My Best Guess)

---

Rebuilding a Network from Scratch

First, let me say this post is based on my own experiences in IT and computer programming. I have no knowledge of what Sony is actually doing, but this is my best guess.

So Sony had an intrusion. Why isn't this a non-event and we go on with our lives? Simple, PSN accounts have associated names, addresses, and credit card information.

Now according to Sony they have people working around the clock trying to rebuild the network. As much as anyone would like to believe them, I'm calling BS.

Here's the thing, a major rebuild requires an architect. One guy who, in essence sees the big picture. This is true for both small software as well as products like office. It is especially true in IT, where interactions can cause major problems.

Now think about it, if you have one guy you're depending on to give orders to everyone, it simply isn't possible to have them up for 5 days straight and have a coherent strategy. Hop that person up with as much Ritalin and coffee as you want, by about 24 hours they'll start to make mistakes.

So we have the outage on Wednesday and 48 hours to investigate/formulate a plan of attack. That brings us up to Good Friday, a holiday for a lot of people.

Assuming the mitigation plan on Friday/Saturday was to rebuild the network as evidenced by blog posts, I suspect that this nameless person would have taken Easter off. I mean really, work is one thing but family, they are paramount. So at best I give this foreman of the network 24 hours in the last 5 days to put a set of orders together. (Assuming 12 hours on Friday and 12 on Saturday.)

Now 24 hours seems like a lot of time, but you have to realize 90% of that time would have been working with other engineers to get a grasp on the changes needed and to start to formulate a new networking strategy.

I'm guessing that the real work has just started today. I'd expect some real progress in the next 24-48 hours, but don't be surprised if PSN is off into the weekend.

Incentives for Getting the Lights Back On

So even through people point out PSN is free, it really isn't. PSN pays for its self via online purchases and such. Ever wonder why a game that costs $5 in the store still costs $30 on PSN? It is because Sony controls the pricing and can get people to pay the higher rate to have the game right now.

Every second PSN is down, they are losing money. Lots of money. So while I've painted a picture of doom and gloom above, I could be wrong. Money talks and depending on who's overseeing the network overhaul, the architect could be listening.

Is Your PS3 Borked Too?

---

So, not playing too much PS3 right now. Like a vast majority, I'm getting an error on log in.

Since this appears to be related to internal time tracking and leap years, I'm going to diverge a little bit and discuss the strangeness of our calendar.

For example, everyone knows that every 4 years is a leap year. This is a LIE. In truth, the rule is more complex but not too much more. Here's how the rules work.

• If the year is evenly divisible by 400, it is a leap year
• If the year is evenly divisible by 100, it is not a leap year
• If the year is evenly divisible by 4, it is a leap year.
• It isn't a leap year.

Now I know the math inclined are going, but wait a minute, 400 is evenly divisible by 100, and 100 is evenly divisible by 4. Yes, that's true, but the first match wins of the rules.

Yes, this means that 2100 will not be a leap year. Look it up for your self, if you don't believe me.

So what the heck does this have to do with the PS3 issue? Well without trying to excuse Sony for this bug, I'm trying to show the day/time rules we live by are a little, well, insane.

It does seem likely that this is a leap year bug. Understandable? Yes, given the date/time rules we have, but excusable? Not on your life.

This is one of the specific cases that should be tested for. And while some people claim, "this is the first even non-leap year since the launch" well that's true. The launch was on November 11, 2006. If you're trying to say that Sony wasn't testing the hardware February of 2006, you're just plain nuts. I guess it is just a game of wait and see right now.

Reality. Worst game ever.

Media Review - Wii PlayOn

---

You may want to read our first PlayOn review before this one.

So I'm going to preface this entry by saying there are two possible reasons I got such poor performance. Either the wi-fi connection or the fact that Wii PlayOn is still in beta may account for my issues. That said, Wii based PlayOn sucks.

So let's start off with the interface. Simply open up the Opera web browser on the Wii and go to http://playon.tv to see a list of PlayOn servers on your network. Unfortunately, it seems that the same server showed up multiple times. Not a good start.

So I loaded up Hulu (I did like the interface here) and pulled up "Married... With Children." After a few seconds of buffering the TV show started. I picked a SD show, as PlayOn says that the Wii handles HD poorly.

Let me just say based on the performance of the SD picture, I'd hate to see HD. The video stuttered through the show. The forward/back controls I was used to were basically non-existent. Pausing caused the stream to break. The Wii has no digital sound, and the analog wasn't any better than analog broadcast TV.

Wii based PlayOn earns Full Frontal Gaming's first Epic FAIL.

Ratings:

• Video Quality - Bad (Jerky, Stuttered)
  
• Audio Quality - Marginal (Analog Stereo)
• Controls - Non-existent
  
• Selection - Wonderful (Almost enough for me to give up cable)
• Streaming Issues - Yes (Streams break, SW Updates)
  

Overall Rating 3/10