Slashdot Mirror
Xbox One Consoles Are Down (mashable.com)
If you are having trouble getting your Xbox One online, you are not alone. Xbox One consoles around the world have stopped working. From a report: Xbox One owners are reporting major problems with their consoles online with displays being stuck on black screens at startup, games not loading, and errors when trying to login to Xbox Live. Microsoft is aware of the situation and has promised to give more information when they have it. Within a couple of hours, the official Xbox Support Twitter account updated everyone, saying that they have identified the problem and are working on fixing it. There is no estimate on how long it will take to fix. Bad week for Microsoft services continues. Update: The issue with Xbox Live appears to have been resolved.
Just yesterday there was a post asking about what global technical disasters had not yet come to pass, suspiciously like they were plumbing the Slashdot crowd for ideas on how to finish ruining civilization. And now, here we are.
This is exactly what happens when you buy in to a system that depends on online connectivity.
Fuck that. When I buy a game I want to own the game. You millennials have no idea of the pain you are in for.
This is sadly why I refuse to own a game console which requires an internet connection.
When my XBox 360 started displaying ads, it got disconnected from the network never to be connected again. When the XBone was coming out and MS was saying "it must be on-line", I knew that was the end of console gaming for me.
First, because I don't trust companies like MS to suddenly decide that content I've paid for is no longer available to me.
Second, because I don't trust the competence of MS to maintain such a connected device, which they've been proving in spades with Windows 10.
Third, because as an old fart who doesn't play on-line games, there is no benefit to me to have my video game on the internet, other than to put a microphone in my living room and hope that MS plays nice. I'm too cynical to hope that.
Fourth, because fuck you with your ads, analytics, and other pointless on-line shit that is hostile to me as the one who bought the fucking console in the first place.
I'm afraid I have no sympathy for a massive outage no doubt caused by Microsoft's new-found use of everyone as beta testers, and when my older XBox 360 dies and I can no longer play Skyrim in a completely off-line console, that will be the end of my gaming.
I just don't see how I would trust a platform like this.
Many of us care, but we're called Luddites, old men, and paranoid.
We should embrace modern technology and stop being so cranky we're told.
Meanwhile people who know almost nothing about setting up computers or a network are buying connected devices, and letting them have free rein on their network with shit like UPnP, which just turns off all the security.
They find their creepy baby monitor talking in strange voices to their children. They buy a Barbie which uploads everything their child to someone's server.
Hell, they install locks that allows Amazon to open your door to strangers.
Congratulations, you've put complex networked devices with major security ramifications to people who can barely operate their TV remote.
But it's people like me who have been in IT for 25+ years who are the ones trying to explain why this is a terrible idea, and being dismissed as alarmist. OK, well, fine, let's ignore what I do for a living and how 6 months ago you could barely access your own wifi.
Everyone is so obsessed with their connected gadgets they've stopped listening to the people they used to ask how to get onto the interwebs. Because they're all experts, and the devices undermine their security for them.
They all want shiny and easy, but they have no idea of what else is happening.
The upshot of all of this is now I just simply refuse to help or answer questions, because they're clearly experts now.
I had to explain to my parents when they bought their first laptop that I was a two hour flight away, that I couldn't see their screen, had no idea what they'd done, and can't just magically divine their problem over the phone. They bought a Geek Squad package that day.
So, I care about how this affects me, but the people buying the connected toilets and fridges? They're on their own.