[Acerthief]

As I promised, an interview in July!
This time, we have caught up with our golden-era developer, jas0nuk, to do the interview. He agreed, and spent a little for us here to do this email interview.
Here we go!

==

Q1: What's your name/nickname and how old are you? Currently residing? (No, I'm not a stalker )
jas0nuk: Name Jason (of course ), age 17, living in Manchester, UK


Q2: Why did you choose to use "jas0nuk" to be in the scene?
jas0nuk: A few years ago I made a new e-mail address. The usual combinations such as jason, jason_uk and so on were not available. So I made a few changes and came up with jas0nuk. That's the online nickname I've used ever since.


Q3: Currently a student or do you have a job?
jas0nuk: I am a student, but I am also hoping to get a job during the summer holidays which are just coming up.


Q4: Aside from being one of the golden-era developers in the PSP scenes, do you code or develop for any other consoles?
jas0nuk: Nope. I only learnt C when starting to code for the PSP, and my other console (Xbox 360) is still pretty locked up right now, so I can't code for it.


Q5: Any other hobbies besides from coding?
jas0nuk: Eh... watching TV, reading the occasional book and being with my friends


Q6: When did you start coding?
jas0nuk: I'd say I started coding around March 2006. That was the time that MPH released his 2.00 Game Loader which allowed us to run GTA:LCS (and a few others) on 1.50 firmware. It got me really interested in those kind of hacks which allowed us to run homebrew and still use the latest games at the same time. I wrote a few addons for the new versions of Devhook, which were released later that year.


Q7: When did you buy your PSP?
jas0nuk: I bought my PSP in December 2005.


Q8: Now what got you in the business in PSP homebrew?
jas0nuk: I just see a gap in the homebrew which is currently available, and write something to fill it. For example, back when everyone was using Devhook, it was a pain in the ass to go back to 1.50. You had to fully switch off the PSP and switch it on again. So I wrote a PRX that allowed you to go back to 1.50 in a couple of seconds with a key combination. Of course those kind of things aren't needed any more with the amazing M33 firmwares.


Q9: You seem to have quite some time for homebrews. What's your time table like?
jas0nuk: All of my weekday evenings are free, unless I have homework, which seems to have become quite rare recently. So I get home from school, and start coding an update for something. If it's finished I'll release it that evening. If I stay in during the day at the weekend, I might also code then.


Q10: Any new programs to surprise us lately?
jas0nuk: Nope, I'm not working on anything. However, a particular favourite for people that like to mess with their PSPs is Pandora ELF/PBP Menu, which allows you to run various homebrews right from inside the Pandora environment. In most cases, people use it to run the excellent nandTool by cory1492 which I'm sure has saved many a PSP. It also provides access to the flash partitions over USB which is handy when fixing certain problems.


Q11: Here's the chance to promote yourself. Tell us some of the homebrews you've made for the PSP that you think everyone should take a look at.
jas0nuk: As I've already mentioned, Pandora ELF/PBP Menu is one of my more popular programs. However, the other 2 which are still "current" are PRXdecrypter and PSPident. Neither of these will serve any useful purpose to people who just use their PSP normally, as they are really hackers/developers tools.
The first one, PRXdecrypter, uses the PSP's onboard decryption hardware to decrypt almost any kind of firmware file or resource you can find in flash0 (apart from RCOs, these are just compressed and I believe there is another tool for them). It will also decrypt DATA.PSP files from eboots, including official updaters. Finally it will extract updater PRXs, which are important as they allow the flash to be accessed in Pandora - for example, they are used in Despertar Cementerio to install M33.
PSPident uses a variety of data obtained from the PSP motherboard to identify the PSP's hardware version as accurately as possible. The values which Sony refer to as "Tachyon, Baryon and Pommel" (they are obviously huge Star Trek nerds !! ) change with each hardware revision and therefore can be used to work out whether the PSP is a TA-079, TA-082, etc. etc.


Q12: I saw the Utopia Project on LAN.ST. Looks like some neat stuff. I think Math is taking control over the project but do tell us, short and simple, What is the Utopia Project?
jas0nuk: The Utopia project is basically a new open source kernel for running homebrew. It will provide another kernel to run homebrew from, in the same way that we have 1.50 and 4.xx at the moment. So, the Utopia addon will be installed in M33, then you put your Utopia homebrew in ms0:/PSP/UTOPIA/ and they appear in the XMB. Then you run them and M33 switches to the Utopia kernel.

The benefits Utopia will provide include totally open hardware access, it will be open source so kernel bugs can be fixed by the community rather than hoping Sony fixes something in their next update, and it will be highly optimized for running homebrew. However, this means in turn that UMD games and all current homebrew which runs on the 1.50/4.xx kernel will not be compatible.

I haven't been heavily involved in developing Utopia but I know a lot of hard work has gone into it.


Q13: Like Mathieulh, you guys don't really like to talk about yourself much, and spotlights don't seem to attract you. Any reasons why?
jas0nuk: Could just be that I'm shy. :P I'm not really in it for the fame, I just like developing small useful apps which serve a purpose. As far as not talking about ourselves, I'm careful about that, because as I'm sure many people will remember, last year WildC*rd (which I was a part of) was hacked, all our source code was leaked, and many of our team member's details posted online. It has made me wary about how much info I give away about what I'm currently involved in.


Q14: Will it scare the crap out of you if some a-hole spread your privacy around?
jas0nuk: It has already happened and it really did scare the crap out of me. It just reminded me that some people see the internet purely as a source of revenue and don't give a damn about how they do that.


Q15: You don't go on here (exophase.com) a lot, but I know you've visited here before. What do you think of exophase.com?
jas0nuk: I spend a lot of my online time on another forum which I'm a moderator on (MaxC), but I visit exophase from time to time. I like this site for a number of reasons. The news is very well written and of a high quality, and the forums seem very friendly with a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people.


Q16: Compare us to other forums (MaxC, QJ, etc)
jas0nuk: Exophase is certainly less busy than MaxConsole and QJ which has it's benefits. It means there are a lot less "noobs" and spammers on the site. It also makes it more personal. I do not visit QJ at all any more as there are way too many idiots on the forums. My favourite forum is still MaxConsole because I released my first homebrew there, and I know a lot of the regulars. I recently became a moderator there which has given me quite a task.


Q17: Describe the PSP Homebrew after 1 year.
jas0nuk: 1 year from now I think the scene will either be totally dead or just as it is now. It just depends on how interested people remain, which will largely be decided by the number of firmware updates released by Sony. Unfortunately I don't think it will ever return to the "golden era" of last year as many developers seem to have left. I'm hoping StrmnNrmn will make a comeback as Daedalus hasn't been updated in ages, and I'd like to see a gpSP update. Finally I'll be keeping an eye on Basilisk II which is being very nicely updated by J.F.


Q18: Will you still be in the scene?
jas0nuk: Probably. Even if I'm not updating any apps I'll be around various forums.


Q19: Any other consoles you have?
jas0nuk: I have a 360... and in the attic, an old PS1 and a Philips CD-i


Q20: Which one of them is your most favourite?
jas0nuk: I can't really decide between the 360 and the PSP. I think I prefer the 360 at the moment, as I love GTA IV, but I also like the PSP because of the homebrews I've mentioned. I particularly like the Slim's TV out feature.


Okay let's hit the end with funnier ones:

1) How's Sony lately?
jas0nuk: Oh, he's fine, but did you see him at the E3 conference? Dull and unexciting as usual. I'm particularly annoyed about GT4: Mobile which was supposed to be a launch game and has ended up being pushed back to a possible 2011 release, if that even happens. I bought the PSP for that game, and it STILL hasn't been released! I think we'll see Duke Nukem Forever before GT4: Mobile is ever released.

2) Believe Love in first sight?
jas0nuk: I believe love at first sight has happened for many, but personally I haven't yet been convinced :P

3) Even for blind people?
jas0nuk: Ah, that depends on whether both parties are blind. :P

==

Here the entire exophase.com would like to thanks jas0nuk to spend time for this interview! Hope you enjoy the future heh heh.

Alrighty! Who's gonna be next the dude to be interviewed? Well seriously I don't know either . Have fun with this interview y'all

[x3sphere]

Nice interview

[robertfisk]

Nice one mate

[january39]

Sweet as. Nice one - Acerthief & JasOnuk. That was an intresting read.

[Hanzo_f19]

I love these interviews.
umm....let just start getting some folks on my list o.0

[Paaaaaaaaaaul]

Nice interview =]

[darkstone]

A jas0nuk is amused :=D

[Neo1607]

A TZASONOOK

[XsavioR]

I just wanted to add, you guys are hitting some of my favorite guys with the interviews now. Well done guys... way to be the source.

Sup jason good to see your still around. you might not reconize this name.... but thanks for the help on the other boards.

Hes a great guy , a true asset. great choice for interview.

[Acerthief]

Wait til you see me interview DAX
haha