Alek from Team M33 Interviewed

[wraggster]

ropspdev just sent me a nice tip regarding an interview that PSP-Fanatik posted with Alek of M33 Custom Firmware fame:

PSP-Fanatik has the chance to obtain an interview with Alek, an important member of M33 team and one of the father of CFW. I wont tell you more, just let you read the interview. Waiting thoughts through comments.

Kizko: What is you nickname and who you are?

Alek: My nickname is Alek (even though I have used plenty of other nicknames on other sites
that aren’t relevant at the moment), and I used to be Dark-AleX.org and Sceners.org
webmaster, as well part of the M33 Team.

Kizko: When did http://www.dark-alex.org appear?

Alek: The domain Dark-AleX.org appeared on 30 Sept, 2006; when we registered it for making
Dark-AleX work more reachable and official.

Kizko: What improvments (if there will be ones) will you bring to the website?

Alek: Actually, and as you might know, the domain and website is under undefined maintenance.
This is because Dark-AleX is resting, also undefinedly, from his developer activity, due
to his new responsabilities. Having that in mind, there is no improvements in mind for
the future.

Kizko: Any news from the great Dark-Alex, what he’s doing?

Alek: He got married with a russian blonde, 2 kids and 1 dog. Just kidding. He’s just with
another responsabilities, as I has just said.

Kizko: You know very well the PSP Scene, what thing do you want to be changed from it?

Alek: Considering all the past facts that have been recently on both the PSP and PS3 Scenes,
I’d say that the problem is the same that was when we used to be active.

Dark-AleX was one of the only ones that could make any real job on the PSP Scene, and
the rest of those so-called developers were just copying his job, and changing names.
You can see how this is as there hasn’t been any major revision of the CFW since he
left. And that’s sad.

Also, it doesn’t seems that anyone has actually learnt anything from what we have left
behind, as piracy is still a curse that is needed to be eradicated, and ‘fame’ is
something too juicy for some people to forget about.

Kizko: What do you think about the new exploits and the new teams rising?

Alek: There have been quite an interesting new number of teams, (that sadly keep on doing
revisions of the same code instead of improving it for the major new firmwares), even
though I guess that more participation is always interesting. On the other side, more
fame-seekers are not.

However, I personally know some of those developers that have been working on some
recently exposed exploits, such as m0skit0 and others; and I’d bet that they could bring
the difference on this sometimes rotten world.

Hopefully they will find something that will allow homebrew on the next firmwares, as
there are quite a number of exploits undiscovered that could be used for that issue.

Kizko: Does Dark-alex got something to say about PS3 hack?

Alek: Actually, we’ve grabbed some popcorns and we are watching how this movie is evolving.
We’ll have to see what happens on the next months.

Kizko: How do you see the CFW scene for the next years involving the psp?

Alek: Considering all that we have said before, I’d hope that there will be something that
will unleash, again, the power of this console, even though we still need to see some
real action of the actual developers, reversing and making the real deal here, creating
a new CFW core from scratch just as Alex used to do when Sony changed the encryption
keys and so on.

Kizko: What do you think about Sony’s attempt to fight the homebrew scene?

Alek: Well, Sony has been and will always be against the homebrew scene, even though I think
that it would give them more benefits than problems. On the other side, however, piracy
is NOT homebrew, and must be completely separated from that.

If Sony could understant the benefits of this open-source initiative that is the Scene
from any console, they wouldn’t have any problem related with most of the sceners.
Even though, there will still be people that prefer piracy over open-source software.

Kizko: Is the CFW scene dead in your opinion?

Alek: Over and over the same question Until someone actually codes something new instead of
copying what was Dark-AleX job and makes a new core for the new firmwares, yes, the
Scene will be dead.

Kizko: I saw on http://www.dark-alex.org the message “Christmas 2011 – PSP 2 release
worldwide.”. What do you think about the upcoming PSP2? Is this going to revive the
portable world and with it, the CFW scene?

Alek: On every new console release from Sony, they have created expectations that not always
have been quite on the same line as what the users wanted from them. On the Scene it
happens the same situation.

When PSP3k was released, there was a bunch of new coders that started on this little
world, and we could expect the same situation for the new console. The best console they
pull out, the best scene we will have.

[ropspdev]

It's not all here. Read more on the http://www.psp-fanatik.ro/2010/10/in...dark-side.html website.

[b_simpson1999]

do you know whould be nice a irshell cfw no sony xmb i know you can have it auto start but i think it be loads more features if it was a cfw. but i do like alex work and for me will always be the one that opened up cfw for psp users everywhere

[ropspdev]

Sure it is. The best team so far.

He said:

Dark-AleX was one of the only ones that could make any real job on the PSP Scene, and
the rest of those so-called developers were just copying his job, and changing names.
You can see how this is as there hasn’t been any major revision of the CFW since he
left. And that’s sad.

[Mauragon]

I'm still using M33 CFW

[ropspdev]

There are a lot of PSP Owners that keep using m33.

[Apoklepz]

Okay, now that team M33 is back in talk here...can someone please shed some light on this
Recovery Update that dates back to a few months back? I still don't trust rewriting my recovery files because someone just claims that Dark-Alex released this before the forums went down, and I do not have the means to un-brick my PSP anymore. :/

Thank you.

[Shrygue]

Apoklepz: it's safe, I've put that same recovery.prx on my PSP with no problems. Just follow the readme and you'll be fine.