This is interesting. While checking up on the implications of Sony’s removal of the “Install Other OS” option, Thinq ran into a particularly troubling clause in the EULA.

Some services may be provided automatically without notice when you are online, and others may be available to you through SCE’s online network or authorized channels. Without limitation, services may include the provision of the latest update or download of new release that may include security patches, new technology or revised settings and features which may prevent access to unauthorized or pirated content, or use of unauthorized hardware or software in connection with the PS3™ system.

While I might have at first considered it boilerplate to say that they may provide matchmaking services and trophy tracking without your express consent every time, that second bit does go out of its way to say “no, this is about us keeping the PS3 in Sony-approved condition.”

I actually glanced over this EULA when I was researching that User’s Manifesto post. I ended up using Apple’s EULA as a sample, but as it turns out, the Sony one might have been even better. The language says, without exaggeration, that they may change settings and shut off access to your own software and hardware, without asking and without notification.

Do you like the sound of that? I doubt it. But you did agree to those terms. Luckily, it seems Sony hasn’t felt the need to exert this power yet, seeing as the clause above has been in the PS3 EULA since launch and we haven’t heard of anything as nauseating as the Amazon thing. Cold comfort that.

It really just amounts to something a PS3 hacker needs to account for (find the method by which automatic updates occur; block it), but it sends a chill up your spine, doesn’t it — what’s next, remote access of the Eye to check if you’re not having enough fun? Quick! Check the EULA!

[via HardOCP; image: Penny Arcade]

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Whether your a systems administrator managing hundreds or thousands of machines, or a freelance designer working on your trusty laptop, chances are that a mandatory system update has, at one time or another, interrupted your day with a mandatory reboot. When it’s just your laptop, it’s not so bad — get a refill on that coffee! — but when it’s hundreds or thousands of machines, it can be a logistical nightmare. Now a new company called KSplice is looking to make all our lives a little easier by applying system updates to a running computer without requiring a reboot!

Currently available only for Linux, the KSplice secret sauce applies system updates directly to the running system, without requiring a reboot.

Ksplice allows system administrators to apply patches to their operating system kernels without rebooting. Unlike previous hot update systems, Ksplice operates at the object code layer, which allows Ksplice to transform many traditional source code patches into hot updates with little or no programmer involvement. In the common case that a patch does not change the semantics of persistent data structures, Ksplice can create a hot update without a programmer writing any new code.

Security patches are one compelling application of hot updates. An evaluation involving all significant x86-32 Linux security patches from May 2005 to May 2008 finds that most security patches—56 of 64—require no new code to be performed as a Ksplice update. In other words, Ksplice can correct 88% of the Linux kernel vulnerabilities from this interval without the need for rebooting and without writing any new code.

If a programmer writes a small amount of new code to assist with the remaining patches (about 17 lines per patch, on average), then Ksplice can apply all 64 of the security patches from this interval without rebooting.

For those so inclined, a KSplice technical paper is available for your perusal.

Via Technology Review.