Growing up on making web pages and web development a few years before I ever got into programming, I got interested in making an application geared towards web development and data entry. There are many organizer/database apps for PocketPC and other PDAs, so why not one for the PSP?

I call it PSPMyAdmin, after phpMyAdmin which uses a PHP-driven front end to make it easier for users to update MySQL databases. phpMyAdmin is a tool that's found in most web hosts that support MySQL.

PSPMyAdmin does the same, only as a standalone program, and using external files for storage. The major difference is that my program will only work with MySQL scripts, and not the encoded database files themselves. However, the scripts are essentially commands to edit databases so they are transferrable to any MySQL host.

This VERY early build only lets you browse through the table names of the database and some of the "insert" command associated with the rows in the tables. It only reads files named "test.sql" and must be placed in the same folder as the EBOOT. I provided a screenshot of the program. There's not much to do, but a glimpse of things to come.

If you're a webmaster that deals with a large site (like this one) hopefully the final version of this program will be very handy for you.

Here are the proposed features for a "complete" version:

- Read from any compatible file in the directory
- Export/import phpMyAdmin SQL dump, so scripts are transferrable to host
- Read and edit following file formats: SQL script, CSV files, (maybe) XML
- Work with all files in a spreadsheet like format
- new GUI, with a clean look, visual effects and presentation
- Search feature, probably simple at first

It should work on most firmware except for 1.50, this was tested on firmware 2.7. Oh, and this crashes if there's no file with the right name in it. It's still an early version after all.

Court continues: "In the beginning, there weren’t many people doing the serious work, but as things have progressed, those of us doing the decrypting have developed quite a close-knit group." Indeed, it is this close-knit group which has managed to crack the latest Sony update (which generally try and lock out homebrew from the console) before it was even available for download on the English servers, something which used to take many weeks. An impressive feat, but one that begs the question: if the updates can be hacked so quickly - and given that their point, for the most part, is to keep the homebrew scene out - why does Sony still bother with them?

"We're not sure why. After all, they have opened up the PS3 to the homebrew scene," Court is referring to the ability of the PS3 to run Linux, an open operating system which effectively lets users run their own programs on the console. "It's symptomatic of Sony’s whole attitude to the consumer. They have a general disdain for the end user: “You will take what we make, and you will think its cool.” It's where they are falling down with the PS3. It doesn’t excite me, and then you can’t afford one.’ True that.

It would also be nice if you could download movies on your PC from the Station Launcher and play them on your PSP.

NP: That’s on the short-term plans already. We have a version of Launcher where it recognizes when you plug in your PSP into the PC. You can download a movie straight from the internet through the Launcher straight to your PSP without it ever having touched your PC. There is no version on the PC, if you don’t want it to be. It can download straight to your destination device like your PSP.

Are those movies going to be automatically formatted for the PSP?

NP: That’s right, you’ll be able to download whichever format you want. You want to watch it on PC its one format, if you want to watch it on PSP it’s another format.

But, you’re not going to have to buy the movie twice?

NP: That’s right.

Since you’re going to be able to download movies, what is going to happen to the UMD format?

NP: The movies are big, right? There is a storage capacity limit, so UMDs will still be a good way to watch movies.