QJ.NET presents ‘Know the Developers’ Part 3!

Ok, so it’s Sunday. And I’m sure that most of you have been eagerly waiting for this feature. And you will not be disappointed today. In the QJ.NET box, we were lucky to have a very popular developer. I’ll give you a small hint: He is one of the people behind the eLoader.

So I’m sure you’ve at least got a pretty good guess who he is. And I’m sure you’re dying to read more about him.

Well, fret not! You can read the full article after the jump! You know you want to 😉

Ok, so it’s Sunday. And I’m sure that most of you have been eagerly waiting for this feature. And you will not be disappointed today. In the QJ.NET box, we were lucky to have a very popular developer. I’ll give you a small hint: He is one of the people behind the eLoader.

So I’m sure you’ve atleast got a pretty good guess who he is. And I’m sure you’re dying to read more about him. Well, let’s start then…

There have been numerous successful partnerships over the years. I can probably name a few of them myself. If youÂ’re talking about superheroes, youÂ’ve got Batman and Robin. Or if youÂ’re talking about business partnerships, weÂ’ve got people like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the founders of Microsoft.

And our PSP community is very lucky to have one such pair. And you know who IÂ’m talking about. TheyÂ’re the guys who brought us tons of homebrew on FW 2.0 and above. Although they werenÂ’t the people who discovered exploits, they surely were the ones to bring homebrew to the masses. Yeah, IÂ’m talking about Fanjita and Ditlew.

So what is it about those guys? Every few weeks, they appear from their shells, release a new version of the oh-so-popular eLoader, and vanish again, not to be seen until their next update, especially Ditlew. Fanjita is almost a household name in the PSP homebrew community. But when talking about his sidekick, Ditlew, people are at a loss for words. And I donÂ’t blame you guys.

Fanjita (left) and Ditlew (right) having a good time.

But, how about getting to know him today? IÂ’m sure there are lots of people whoÂ’re quite curious about that dude. And consider the fact that I had a chance to talk to him a few days back. Call it an interview if you will, but IÂ’d rather call it a casual conversation. Fact is, IÂ’d describe Ditlew as an interviewerÂ’s dream. He was ready to talk, and wanted to shed some light about facts. Or in his own words, “I hope to shred some light on who detiw, detelew, bittlow, erhm  … Ditlew is” =)

Firstly, let me get through a formality. His real name is Daniel Ditlev Pedersen, and he’s from Denmark. The rest of his personal details, youÂ’ll get in the interview. Like I said, it was more of a casual talk. And I didnÂ’t get a chance to get his proper education and work info before finishing this article.

Anyways, for the moment youÂ’ve been waiting for.

— Interview —

QJ: Firstly, thanks for sparing some time btw…I’m sure all the PSPU readers will appreciate it.
Ditlew: You are welcome, I hope to shred some light on who detiw, detelew, bittlow, erhm… Ditlew is.

QJ: Lol, can you give me your real name and age?
Ditlew: My real name is Daniel Ditlev Pedersen. Ditlew is an old spellbug, that has caught on and that I have used for years regarding all my projects. And I am 30 years old.

QJ: Wow…It’s funny how almost all of the great developers are above 28 years old. Lol.
Ditlew: Yea, I think most of us are around my age +- a few years. But a few like Homer are only about half my age. I’m sure that many of our users are about our own children age-wise.

QJ: So when did you begin programming?
Ditlew: I started at age 14 on a C64. Man, those were the days. My family didn’t see me for long periods of time because I went straight to my C64, when I got home from school. Later I continued on Amiga 500, amiga 1200, and later PC. I had a break for a few years, where I concentrated on 3D graphics instead. The turning point was when I started at the university. At that point I got really interested in AI, and started to do some serious programming, which resulted in NNBot for Counter-Strike, which was my first public project.

QJ: And your work on the PSP? Was the contribution to eLoader your first project?
Ditlew: I got in contact with Fanjita late last autumn, regarding some config changes to allow his Eboot Loader to support more homebrew. At the time I think I was one of the few people seriously trying to help improving the Eboot Loader besides Fanjita himself. We got talking, and I told him about my background – Lead programmer, with a history in the gaming scene. When the PSPSDK allowed for encryption of GTA save-games I started looking at that. Having some good early results, Fanjita asked me to help him, bringing the Eboot loader to GTA. That way eLoader became my first PSP homebrew. We worked day in and day out for what seems months to get it working. I even had to take some holidays to concentrate working on eLoader.

QJ: Yeah…It was funny in a way. Suddenly one day, Fanjita announced that a certain guy called Ditlew had a brainwave regarding the syscalls and the eLoader would suddenly support a lot more homebrew on 2.5/6
Ditlew: At that point I had worked with him for a long time, but we had agreed not to mention me to keep the constant email preassure away from at least one of us.

QJ: Lol, I can imagine the pain Fanjita goes through. He’s got auto-responders on all his email accounts.
Ditlew: Yep, but I’m sure he will tell you a lot about his pain when you get to interview him.

QJ: Lol, anyways how does it feel to be working on one of the most famous projects in the homebrew scene with arguably the most popular homebrew developer?
Ditlew: It is always great to work with skilled people, famous or not. What many people don’t realize is that we are only standing on the shoulders of giants. We are merely using the tools and knowledge of other devs, hackers and so forth. We are of course also adding our own to the pot, but we wouldn’t have an eLoader without all the work that others have put into the PSP homebrew scene. When I made the final version of eMenu I added a background with some of all the names, of people that have added greatly to the homebrew scene, but are often forgotten. These names we now display in the top banner on noobz.eu

QJ: (Kids, make sure to check out this ‘banner of fameÂ’ 🙂

QJ: Yes, it’s sad that the greatest developers aren’t well known…I myself can name a few who’ve not got the recognition they deserve. Anyways, apart from the PSP, have you developed homebrew for any other console?
Ditlew: No, not for any console. Besides NNBot for Counter-Strike, I made a Half-Life mod called BuzzyBots, which got the attention of Valve. It earned me a trip to Dallas, Texas, where I spent some days with the bosses from Valve, and Cliff from the Counter-Strike team. After that I got headhunted for a gaming job, and lost the time for such projects. Luckily my current job offeres me more spare time.

QJ: Wow! Speaking of jobs, what exactly are you doing currently, apart from homebrew development?
Ditlew: Currently I’m working with VoIP, making a nice PBX solution that should turn some heads shortly.

QJ: Ah! I’ll be seeing your name in the news shortly I guess.
Ditlew: Depends… Mostly newssites tend to mention the name of the other teammember more often 😉

QJ: Anyways, on to a few technical details about the PSP. With the big news about kernel access, what are the new possibilities on 2.XX, apart from the downgrader?
Ditlew: Ohh, there are plenty! As mentioned on noobz.eu, we are currently looking into not needing eLoader at the moment all on those firmwares. You would still need GTA untill another exploit is found, but we would like to see an eLoader free world. I think it is awesome that we now have the possibility to downgrade, but that isnÂ’t the way we want to go.

QJ: I read a few days ago that even though we had kernel access, a few commands/modules didn’t run properly…Should that be a problem? Fanjita mentioned something about the sceKernelLoadexec() function working erratically.
Ditlew: I’m not sure that going into to many details will be a good idea, but rest assured that it is being worked on. Personally I’m focusing on other areas atm.

QJ: Ok. Anyways, do you think that 2.XX can overthrow 1.5 as the ‘golden’ firmware?
Ditlew: Hmm, good question. Not at the moment, but I hope that the future will bring us custom firmwares that will erase the 1.5, 2.XX choice.

QJ: Ok. Finally, what can you say about the developer scene? And any suggestions for newbies getting into development?
Ditlew: I think the standard answer to that one is: “Get started”! On a general note, I would instead like to say, “Be nice to your women, and don’t always do what is easy, but try to do what is right”

QJ: Lol…That answer takes the cake! Anyways, I’ll stop bothering you now…A big thank you for sparing some time, and for making the 2.XX homebrew scene a better place
Ditlew: You are welcome. Being able to add to the homebrew scene has been my pleasure, and hopefully someday, people will learn how to spell Ditlew.

QJ: Lol, I hope this article will go a long way in doing that.

— End of Interview —

Ok, so thatÂ’s the interview. Generally, at this point, I tend to finish off the article with a bit of talk about the upcoming guest. But not this time. IÂ’ve always observed that the homebrew community, while being a nice place, is filled with a lot of people whoÂ’re too busy to even read stuff. And this interview with Ditlew reaffirms my belief.

Just a note to all the readers here, please make sure to spell the name right guys. ThereÂ’s a certain amount of pride in every developerÂ… A sense of having added something to the community. IÂ’m sure none of you would like it if your name was spelt wrong. Make sure you do the same. Secondly, like I said, please be sure to make your way to www.noobz.eu and have a look at the wall, err banner of fame.

Well, that just about wraps it up for this weekÂ’s article. I hope, heck, IÂ’m sure all of you enjoyed it thoroughly. And next week, youÂ’ll get to know another developer. If youÂ’re a premium member of our forums, youÂ’ll get a sneak peak at the upcoming guest next Friday. ThatÂ’s just one of the many things that I have planned for the future. Anyways, until the next Sunday, keep guessing 🙂