but you need to go deeper than that. Again you are just taking things at face value without asking the most important question--why.
That is what I'm talking about when referencing your blind devotion. As I've said, I have little doubt they did what they said they did. My doubts come to everything that has come after what they said they did. None of it makes any sense whatsoever and nothing adds up. You like to ignore this part and it's the most important part of all, especially if you are going to the lengths you are going to defend them and belittle every one who has doubts.
Why are they so hell bent on proving anything to Nintendo
Why use flimsy excuses to keep these exploit to themselves (they have no obligation to release, but at least have the courage of your convictions and tell the truth and not hide behind some lame lie).
Why not reveal until 1 year later that they have actually not completely hacked the system as they had previously stated? (before you jump all over me, unless I missed something, this is the first time they have stated anything about not being able to crack the bootrom).
Why, if there was never an intended release, announce to the world that they were and have hacked the console?
Why release the hashes with an imbedded image of trollface? (and no, if it's "It was directed at Ninty", I don't buy it for a second).
Why create such a circus and cause such an excitement in the community only to bow out later and say "meh, not worth it" (though I believe my question about the bootrom answers this question).
So far there is no, nadda, 0 credible answers to any of these questions. It just baffles me as to why no one else is asking them--worse than that. Choose to ignore them completely and then get all pissy at anyone who dare asks them....
But it's not that simple. Why do they have such a hard-on to show Ninty what they can do? Doesn't make sense that they've had to keep this circus going for over a year just for the purpose of "poking the bear" Especially when that "bear" is completely ignoring you from the word "go."
I am unable to provide their exact motives as I am not them or in possession of a copy of their minds. Still I can offer ones based on what they have said in the past, what other hackers have done over the years and other such things.
"Why are they so hell bent on proving anything to Nintendo"
What says they are? Before you mention the call for Nintendo engineers at the end of the conference though it might have been serious it is also a fairly often seen sign off to such talks, in more general conferences if your talk it picking apart a game or an example of a strategy being used in a game then it is far from unheard of for the devs in question to have a quick word or beer afterwards.
Still they have repeatedly called for the consoles to have homebrew (though they themselves have stated it is less appealing in 2013 when the likes of android will probably outpower it, TVs and PCs speak to each other better than ever and you have all sorts of other options). By getting Nintendo to establish a dialogue it might happen, if nothing else look at how Rare got Nintendo's attention all those years ago.
"Why use flimsy excuses to keep these exploit to themselves (they have no obligation to release, but at least have the courage of your convictions and tell the truth and not hide behind some lame lie)."
A lack of desire to be the one that causes piracy is not a flimsy excuse. I can not say I would follow the same logic (I really do not care about such things) but it is a common enough one; for their day jobs they are or know software devs and being the one to at some level take a chunk out of their paycheck might not sit right with them.
"Why not reveal until 1 year later that they have actually not completely hacked the system as they had previously stated?"
Hacked as in I can run whatever code I like and hacked as in I can make a 1:1 clone in hardware are not necessarily the same thing. The bootrom may well not have any great impact upon the former give or take the aggro to launch the hack in the first place (my connection dropped when they went in depth there and I have not rewatched it yet, from what I gathered it was more of a nicety than a true essential).
"Why, if there was never an intended release, announce to the world that they were and have hacked the console?"
It is their hobby, it is a nice bit of publicity for them, it makes for a very good talk at a hacker conference (a breakdown of the setup and failure of a modern, security focused, high volume, consumer device is exactly the sort of thing these talks deal in)....
"Why release the hashes with an imbedded image of trollface? (and no, if it's "It was directed at Ninty", I don't buy it for a second)."
Trollface and sticking your tongue out may be roughly the same thing. It could also mean nothing, personally I will occasionally write with something resembling poetic prose just to amuse myself. Also if someone else manages to hack the console then the hashes of the files in question will demonstrate they did what they said.
"Why create such a circus and cause such an excitement in the community only to bow out later and say "meh, not worth it" (though I believe my question about the bootrom answers this question)."
The homebrew and warez community is but a small subset or even different community with a bit of overlap to the embedded device design/hacking community and they are very much a part of the latter. From the perspective of the latter it was a fine presentation and example of some work within it. Similarly they did not create the circus, that was on other people.
Why show Nintendo?
MS have long listened to hackers (even recruited them and otherwise did things with them), Sony were beaten over the head enough that they listened (they have a token offering on the vita for homebrew, otheros may have been something though it may also have been a tax dodge), mobile phone companies listened... lots of companies/groups listen and lots of other good things have happened.
in] The third one sucked.