Before I reply fully… can you confirm you were calling me an idiot, or were you insulting somebody else?

To address your point about “what customers in the IT industry would do if, say IBM, HP or Dell, released a dodgy BIOS that bricked customer’s servers/desktops/notebooks”… yes, I am aware of the process; I used to install upgraded system software & apply patches for HP mainframe & mini computers across the UK.

“How can they NOT test all conditions?! It’s a limited environment - it’s not a Windows 2003 server with RAID adapters, FCAL controllers, SMBIOS standards, IPMI management processors and so on.”

Every environment is limited. As I mentioned, if you wish every possible permutation of every potential condition to be tested, then don’t moan if the release process takes more than a few months to complete.

Interesting you should compare a Sony video games hardware device to a Microsoft plug & pray… fun & games machine, though.

I think you’ll find the technology within the PS3 is on a par with that within some hardware servers capable of running Windows 2003 costing several thousands of pounds more.

I didn’t upgrade to firmware 2.40; I waited until a majority of others had tested it for me.

I don’t consider that stance to be indicative of the actions of an idiot.

If you disagree, I’m sure you’ll let me know.

I was not defending Sony’s inability to release a firmware upgrade that did not work, I was congratulating them on the turn-around time to fix the issue (rather than, say, Microsoft who would roll-out a new patch with the next monthly update).

“Over”.

—

@57 [Ozzy1313]:

The swap-out for a refurbished console (with a new exterior case, if you are lucky), should only take a few days; a week at most.

Hope you are not without it too long.

BFN,

fp.

Anyone else having the same problem? I’ve seen some other people out there on the internet with the same problem, but it seems like the majority of people didn’t have problems with the 2.41 upgrade.

My console is a 60 GB model, bought Sep 2007. Maybe 2.41 just messes up certain models? If anyone else is having a similar problem, please speak up. If there’s enough people affected, maybe Sony will release another patch (God forbid! LOL)…

I mean to buy one in the first place and then actually defend them for not releasing a reliable BIOS update.

Do you know what customers in the IT industry would do if, say IBM, HP or Dell, released a dodgy BIOS that bricked customer’s servers/desktops/notebooks?

Yet, Sony, with their ever-blind loyal fanbase can, effectively, get away with releasing what was obviously a rushed out and poorly tested update.

How can they NOT test all conditions?! It’s a limited environment - it’s not a Windows 2003 server with RAID adapters, FCAL controllers, SMBIOS standards, IPMI management processors and so on.

It’s a frikkin’ console!

2.41 is a great jump in functionality, but there are problems - design problems that is:

* The new icons in the Air Paint theme are the WRONG COLOUR! (they’re green but should be turquoise).

* The music player idiom feels like a hack, and is rather unintuitive. As a new entry on the PS menu it would have been fine, but as an isolated entry in the XMB it’s unusable… and there’s no way to pause if the phone rings - (E-, see me, must do better etc)

* Reselecting the playing track no longer takes you back to the classic music player UI - this is a mistake. I have over 4000 tracks, so if I start playing track 3999 and then want to stop it I have to scroll up through 4000 entries to get top the new UI. Who was it at Sony poo-pooing scrolling UIs? :-O

* In light of this there should be a MUCH EASIER way to switch between “current” applications… and the obvious UI would be a new entry on the PS menu, and make the PS menu available from the XMB (rather than only in-game) again via the long-press. When more than one “application” is running (eg music+photo, game+music or browser+music) the PS menu would gain a “Tasks…” entry (or “Go to…”) which when selected lists the applications (”Music player”, “Browser”).

So in conclusion: Always allow PS menu (and only on long-press for consistency); Add “Go to…” entry and list of “current” applications, and hey presto, much better UI. And fix those Air Paint icons!

(Repeat of post in “Sony’s official statement on firmware 2.4″ thread)

Not every PS3 will contain the same files on the hard drive as everybody updates their firmware revision to a later release upon different days at different times & perhaps skipping one or more revisions along the way. You may well have upgraded to every subsequent firmware release, but another user may have jumped from, say, version 1.60 (or earlier) to 2.40, without anything in-between. Some users even visit the PlayStation Store in a different region [so I believe ;)] & download content that may contain characters & symbols not found on their native console that could cause issues.

Not every PS3 owner has the same set of game titles & the associated “save game” data. Different PS3 consoles will have downloaded different PlayStation Store content (videos, themes, wallpapers, music, and so on).

Some people may never have visited the PlayStation Network Store or even played an online game! Some consoles have had one (or more) Linux variant(s) installed. Some do not.

One PS3 console may only be used to watch Blu-ray movies titles (that store data on the hard drive), whereas another PS3 console may never have played any Blu-ray movies at all.

Not everybody has used the “Network” / “Information Board” &/or the integral Web Browser, or even the “Friends List” messaging functions. The content on any of the many millions of possible web sites available that could be visited may well still be resident on the console’s hard drive.

A number of consoles will have had PlayStation Eye, SingStar microphones, third party keyboards, PSP console(s), and/or any number of other USB devices, USB hubs, and/or memory card readers plugged into them. Each of these devices requires hardware driver support that will create different files on the console’s hard drive. Some consoles may never have had any USB peripherals attached (apart from the USB-to-SIXAXIS controller recharge cable).

Bluetooth device configurations may exist on one console, but not on another.

Consoles that may have ‘crashed’ previously may have left temporary system files on the hard drive that were not deleted as the system was not closed down properly.

All these examples of “system administrative data” form the basis of an extensive test plan that cannot possibly encompass all the permutations that may be encountered without taking many years to plan, formulate, execute, & review..

Sony will, I presume, engage a “best efforts” basis in testing a vast majority of typical installations with firmware revisions, but it is impractical to assume that they can make provision for absolutely every possible case of every perceivable combination of a console’s hard drive contents.

To their credit, they acted quickly in removing the offending firmware (2.40) update file. The decision to do so will not have been taken likely, not least due to the backlash they would receive & the impact to their reputation & revenue (having to re-visit the code, re-test to find the fault(s), re-code & provide remedial action, re-test, & re-issue the firmware to their download servers), but this has to be balanced against the damage to the organisation (and the associated costs in compensation) if they failed to take action.

The re-issue of the firmware (2.41) happened in less than a week (spread across a weekend & a national holiday period in the US), throughout all global regions (with issues relating to localised language support). I think they should be commended on their turn-around time instead of being harangued for the initial issue.

Granted, everybody remembers something that is faulty & everybody is entitled to criticise actions (or lack of them) if they are a consumer who has paid for a service that is not delivering as advertised. From my computer software testing background it is my opinion that it is better to deliver a week late & get the product right rather than deliver on time to the detriment of sufficient testing. In the long term the over-run of a week will be nowhere near as memorable as if the delivery schedule was kept but the product did not perform as expected. Nobody remembers a late product… Everybody remembers a broken one!

As I said previously, it just demonstrates why local regions may differ in functionality or supported features as the PS3 brand diversifies. The risk of having all regions fail concurrently would be too much to cope with in an acceptable timescale, and releasing new functionality to a limited audience (with a limited number of potential failures) is good, practical business sense.

I would not be surprised if there is not a firmware release of this scale for some time as I would hope lessons were learned regarding ensuring adequate testing is undertaken. To some extent I hope Sony did not bow to consumer pressures about constant enquiries about “in-game XMB” being available as rushing to meet a deadline can mean mistakes are made &/or corners are cut.

I do think they could have improved on communications channels to each registered PlayStation Network Id though, but to date it has not been the case that Sony makes consumers personally aware of every new firmware revision so it may not be in their business plan to advise the same set of customers in the event of a problem.

This aside, it does make you wonder what is going to be available in the next firmware milestone of version 3.00, and whether this will be the collaborative selection of features from the next 12 months of user comments.

Again, with hindsight, it is easy to criticise the apparent after-thought of the provision of the in-game XrossMediaBar integration, and/or or the support for game achievement ratings in the form of “Trophies”. We do not know if any foundations were laid prior to the first firmware release, or within subsequent firmware revisions have. It may well have only just been possible to deliver this functionality at this time due to the increased understanding of the set of tools the Sony representatives have had available to work with.

One thing is for sure, though… the PlayStation 4 is going to be worth waiting for!

BFN,

fp.