ok. this post is a rant more than anything. i myself work in tech support for my real job and am very proud of the level support and customer service i deliver. i work with my users who have issues or problems and will stick with them until its either figured out or we have an alternative solution/route. this is what i'm paid to do and in turn what i deliver.

this leads me into my rant. we live in a world in which information flows at an amazing rate. look at any internet meme? within hours, a single topic or fad or event can catch the net on fire. we can tweet or facebook or rant on a blog or site or in a forum. communicating information couldn't be easier or cheaper either.

so.. why is it that a company that offers services to users who in turn pay for feel that they don't need to let the users know when there are problems? my example is a current one that i'm very annoyed with: EA's Madden 2010 servers went down last night around 7pm CST. at that point, i was kicked off of my wildcard online franchise game and in turn have not been able to connect to since. this is now over 24 hours. yes, i know taht doesn't seem that long but when you are the commissioner of a online franchise of hardcore madden players; thats an eternity. and add to that the fact that my game is the last game before everyone else gets to play. yeah, not cool.

like any geek, the first place i hit up was the forum boards over at EASports. i notice that there are several threads strewn about with issues w/connecting to the servers. most issues seemed to be pretty similar, kicked from a game and can't connect. however, in every SINGLE THREAD, I DIDN'T SEE A SINGLE REPLY BY ANYONE FROM EA.

really??? what the f@$(k year do we live in??? i hate when companies have a forum support board but no one from the company ever monitors or even makes a post hardly. why can't ea just say that "Hey, we're having intermittent issues with the Franchise servers. We are working on a fix." and then keep us posted on that thread?

is it really too much to hire a college intern to be in charge of monitor the forum boards and replying to issues? hell, i'd take a tweet that just confirmed they knew of the problem.

all we want is just to know that someone is aware and working on the issue. i talked to tech support online and they were the most hopeless group yet. are they in the USA even? sure seemed like a ton of canned responses. telling me to unhook my cable modem? wtf?? did i not just tell you i can get online via my ps3 browser and have connected to madden servers JUST fine until the last 24 hours??

sorry. it just annoys the hell out of me that we pay companies millions of our dollars for even a subpar product yet they don't think its important for us to know when there is an issue. you better reply soon, or you may have a forum board of pissed off madden fanboys. they're worse than sonyfan boys.. just playin


/Rant

yea, yea. i know. i'm one of 'those' psp owners. one of those cfw users. however, as i have repeatedly said to others, the day that sony/square release FFVII on the PSN, i'd buy it. my main reason for CFW is really for the ability to replay my PSone games on my psp since sony's selections were SO SLIM.

currently i am still using my PSP Phat from launch and Dark Alex CFW 5.00 M33-6

as one of my main reasons for running cfw, the day FFVII hit the US PSN, i snatched it up on the PSN and then copied it over to my PSP. however, just as i am about to enjoy my legit copy of FFVII (full user manual, all discs in one file!); my psp shows me this error.



:(

now i was put in a position that i had previously been at:

a)do i upgrade to official psp firmware and in turn lose my homebrew/cfw abilities?

or

b) do i take my $9.99 as a lose on the psp end and just play it on my ps3?

my decision? c) keep CFW 5.0 M33-6 Dark Alex on my psp and still be able to play the official PSN copy.

how?

spoofing your psp's cfw version! dark alex has included this ability in his CFW 5.00 M33 and up versions! basically it involves modifying the version.txt and enabling the hack in the recovery menu :)

this should also work for say Metal Gear Solid PSN release and any other newer PSN release. basically we can have the freedom of Custom Firmware and still support Sony! WE ALL WIN!!! (wow, that was really hippy-ish)


Hit up my full guide over here:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/4276/sony-psp-cfw-getting-purchased-final-fantasy-vii-from-psn-store-working-on-cfw-500x/

has hollywood heard our screams/grunts of pure loathe and hate for commercials that you CAN'T SKIP on a bluray movie that COST $30???

i think they may have, thank god!! keep listening to us, you may sell more things. :)

one thing thats pretty sweet about the Playstation3 is that Sony allows us to upgrade the hard drives w/normal laptop sata harddrives.

so, how many of you have upgraded yours and to what sizes?

me, i've upgraded my hdd 3 times.

-started w/the factory 60gb
-upgraded to 160gb
-upgraded to 320gb
-last month, upgraded to a 500gb.


btw, here are the specs of what kind of drive the ps3 takes:

2.5" Laptop HDD
SATA150 or SATA300
5400RPM or 7200RPM (factory drive is a Seagate SATA150, 5400RPM harddrive)
Should be able to handle any capacity (atleast up to 500gb, doubt they make 1tb drives yet)

youtube quickie on PS3 hard drive upgrade:

seriously?? where the heck are they?

i grew up on RPGs and have been pretty psyched for some next-gen RPGs but so far have not found any worth my time.

i'm not untold legends fan; button mashing annoys me; i'm more of a FF-ish rpger.

white knight may be my money game but thats not until late dec/early jan 09.

so, any good PS3 RPG suggestions? or am i stuck w/some PS2 RPG classics to hold me over?