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"So everyone, stop hammering the SSH site and give the RIAA [riaa.org] the affection they so sorely need."

It's already 403ed, so there's no fun in /.ing them any more. Instead, I'm going to go for the throat by visiting Sony and BMG and any other RIAA members I can think of.

And maybe we should all pay a visit to Fritz Hollings' website while we're at it so he too can feel the love.

It's getting launched at pretty much the same time Everquest 2 is ramping up and Star Wars Galaxies is running. So, it looks like the latest attempt to save the EverQuest Brandname is to try to hook Mac OS users just as the game is being replaced.

So far to keep their game alive they have

- Removed information as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range of services that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history
- emailing out free accounts
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers

(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')

It's getting launched at pretty much the same time Everquest 2 is ramping up and Star Wars Galaxies is running. So, it looks like the latest attempt to save the EverQuest Brandname is to try to hook Mac OS users just as the game is being replaced.

So far to keep their game alive they have

- Removed information as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range of services that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history
- emailing out free accounts
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers

(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')

It's getting launched at pretty much the same time Everquest 2 is ramping up and Star Wars Galaxies is running. So, it looks like the latest attempt to save the EverQuest Brandname is to try to hook Mac OS users just as the game is being replaced.

So far to keep their game alive they have

- Removed information as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range of services that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history
- emailing out free accounts
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers

(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')

It's getting launched at pretty much the same time Everquest 2 is ramping up and Star Wars Galaxies is running. So, it looks like the latest attempt to save the EverQuest Brandname is to try to hook Mac OS users just as the game is being replaced.

So far to keep their game alive they have

- Removed information as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range of services that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history
- emailing out free accounts
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers

(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')

It's getting launched at pretty much the same time Everquest 2 is ramping up and Star Wars Galaxies is running. So, it looks like the latest attempt to save the EverQuest Brandname is to try to hook Mac OS users just as the game is being replaced.

So far to keep their game alive they have

- Removed information as to how many people are playing after noticing a 20% drop
- Started promoting EQ as a way of drunk women meeting famous people with a really amusing movie file that has basically vanished from the net
- Offering $40/month luxury servers that have what they used to promise the standard servers
- Providing a range of services that they swore they would never ever do (The Rename service netted then $69,200 last month alone)
- Trying to stir up interest in their game with some of the poorest tie-in merchandise in history
- emailing out free accounts
- giving free doses of their game away on magazine covers

(For people who don't play EQ, a lot of people are commenting on how once crowded zones are now going empty, and more and more people are leaving or Ebaying their characters rather then keep playing. When asked about Everquest 2, a common reaction is a shudder and 'Nope, never again')

I've had a VAIO for awhile and I can tell you firsthand that the support sux. Before you buy, bop around the support site. Don't worry, it wont take long (not much there). Dell OTOH has been wonderfull.

I am an owner of a Sony Vaio GRX570. What he said about them encoding the BIOS is correct, they do encode it, with what info I don't know. But as to what he said about installing other operating systems is wrong. I successfully installed WinXP Pro then a dual boot of Win2K, and Slackware 8.1. I was able to get the drivers for the 2K install from their website . The drivers I got from there were made for the GRX5xxK models. It seems to be the same model as the GRX5xx and GRX5xxP, but with a different BIOS chip.

Also on their support site, particularly the XP version of the GRX they give another place to get additional information on 2K drivers and how to do a clean install of 2K. How is that for OS support?

I am an owner of a Sony Vaio GRX570. What he said about them encoding the BIOS is correct, they do encode it, with what info I don't know. But as to what he said about installing other operating systems is wrong. I successfully installed WinXP Pro then a dual boot of Win2K, and Slackware 8.1. I was able to get the drivers for the 2K install from their website . The drivers I got from there were made for the GRX5xxK models. It seems to be the same model as the GRX5xx and GRX5xxP, but with a different BIOS chip.

Also on their support site, particularly the XP version of the GRX they give another place to get additional information on 2K drivers and how to do a clean install of 2K. How is that for OS support?

I am an owner of a Sony Vaio GRX570. What he said about them encoding the BIOS is correct, they do encode it, with what info I don't know. But as to what he said about installing other operating systems is wrong. I successfully installed WinXP Pro then a dual boot of Win2K, and Slackware 8.1. I was able to get the drivers for the 2K install from their website . The drivers I got from there were made for the GRX5xxK models. It seems to be the same model as the GRX5xx and GRX5xxP, but with a different BIOS chip.

Also on their support site, particularly the XP version of the GRX they give another place to get additional information on 2K drivers and how to do a clean install of 2K. How is that for OS support?

What about Star Wars Galaxies? I thought that was the big game they were hyping...

Travis

Star Wars Galaxies may turn out to be exactly this. (Official Lucasarts SWG Site)

Where do you get your numbers? I think it's bunk. I couldn't find any profit statements (I didn't look very hard), but I found out here that Sony Music Entertainment had $4.8 BILLION in sales for the fiscal year ending in March 2002. So, on $4.8 billion in sales, they only cleared $50 million? That's only 1%. Seems like a pretty slim margin to me.

The problem is that Philips works together too closely with Sony to go this far.
The CD isn't even a Philips-only development, it's a Philips-Sony joint development.

And with Sony being one of tha bad guyz...

OK, fine, I can do the same with my remote control, but Rube Goldberg would be so proud!

-Ray

[D-VHS] provides digital video (something Beta doesn't)

Mind you, those players and discs are still way to expensive for me.

Beware TPB

>Vinyl provided better "sampling rates"

Snap, crackle, and pop aren't just the names of Rice Krispies, they're also the names of just some of the problems of vinyl.

And lets not forget warp and warble, these aren't Mork and Mindy's sidekicks.

Read this.

While technically, as with any analogue medium, an absolutely perfect copy could be made with vynil and played with a laser, but at $20k you can get pro audio gear that far outpaces anything vynil can do more than once (maybe less if the mocules making up the very high end of the spectrum [which some people seem to think they can hear, but scientifically can't] are rubbed off by the paper cover given to so many records).

96 kHz/24-bit pro audio gear outpaces anything anyone really thinks vynil can do more than once, and, more importantly, can even reproduce much of the non-listenable-to-humans-but-my-dog-hears-it part of the audio spectrum. I only mention this because I was once flamed by a few vynil boosters because I suggested that hard science disproves the fact that noise outside of our hearing range has any effect on us.

Either way, CD has it in the bag in terms of a pleasing mix of quality, price, and reproducibility, and for anyone wanting that ethereal listening experience, there's SACD which outpaces any and all reproducible vynil results I can think of.

The only reason to use vynil today is because you either have the record on it already, or you're a real DJ and want to mix the "proper" way (not that there isn't great software out there for that as-is, like PCDJ and Traktor).

Oh, and just to note, all the vynil you bought will sound worse than a CD in the future. Sure it beats most any other analogue medium in longetivity, and even beats a CDR for the length of time it can sit on a shelf, but just as with all analogue mediums, any wear whatsoever degrades sound quality and the inability to make successive copies without degrading the sound means vynil is effectively dead for pro audio.

Next on the chopping block: Why CCDs beat Film, and how people argue that seeing silver nitrate molecules is better on the eyes. :-)

Just my 2 cents on why vynil is unaffordable and uncessary...

Might want to link to the application rather than the error page..

This will be the first online RPG I'll be trying since Ultima Online.. I hope it will be cool, although you can't be a stormtrooper :(

Besides the next generation of the current crop of MMORPG's like Asheron's Call 2 and EverQuest 2, Cyan has finally announced their intentions of doing a MMORPG with the MYST universe.

1. There is no slashdot

   The audience of slashdot is composed of a fairly wide range of opinionated individual. Even thought each reader probably have a mostly consistent point of view, the slashdot pool as a whole as little chances to be.

2. Sony's hardware and music departments are mostly independent from each other - and often at odd.

   I'm sure Sony Music isn't too happy Sony Hardware is selling consumer grade cd duplicators.

If that's not a dead giveaway that this is a pro-Microsoft post, I don't know what is. See, this troll is smart, though, because he doesn't say "but I'm impartial!" till the end.

. . . when it's functionality stretches . . .

That should read if it's functionality stretches. Microsoft is already losing money on this baby; do you really think they're going to dump more hardware into it just so they can lose more money? Also, any product that tries to compete with the already established market leaders on features will lose. Didn't you get that memo? One last thing is that I think I'll trust a truly unbiased source with years of experience in the industry before I trust what is obviously an end user in this market.

If Will Wright did say that in an interview, he must have been smoking crack. Any half-decent programmer could write clients and servers that would work perfectly well across various platforms.

When I worked for Sony, I wrote most of the server code for an MMO action game, and it ran under Linux. Management then decided they were going to use Win2000 machines as servers, so I ported the code over, and it still worked.

As for clients, at one point we had three versions: Windows, Linux, and PS2. They all worked equally well. Eventually the latter two were scrapped, but not for technical reasons.

(The PS2 version was chucked because of the low resolution of a TV set. The Linux version got tossed because of the head programmer's opinions; he thought that anyone who didn't pay money for his OS must be a cheapskate, and would therefore use warez instead of paying $50 for a game. Neither of those issues has anything to do with transmitting data between operating systems.)

(Andy)"Ever tried to quit AOL? They just won't let you. It's like the Roach Motel, they check in, but they don't check out. I'm wasting away the final years of my life on hold."

(Jerry) "So who invented hold anyway?!? That's one person who's going to hell. It's a battle of wills, just like the staring game we played when we were kids. After an hour and a half on hold I'm thinking, just a few more minutes, I know he's about ready to cave, there's no way I'm giving up now!"

(Dave) "The call center, I swear I am not making this up, is actually manned by CIA 'Pain Specialists' who are studying the average time a person will stay on hold before giving up. This is going directly into their Pain Threshold Database for future use in IRS audits."

Except Katz takes himself seriously. Oh, and he's not funny.

X-Box has Unreal Championship and an online version of Halo probably as well as Asheron's Call. I don't recall if SW: Galaxies will be going to PS2, and a quick lookover the FAQ says its undecided.

As a PS2 owner, I think Sony is the only one that has really announced concrete plans, and theirs will launch first in the US unless MS pulls something weird at E3. However, as far as who is in the better position, that's definitely undecided.

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

Sounds like you need some Planetside!

Well in short the EverQuest engine as it stands now sucks. Modern MMO type games like DAOC are alot faster, have larger environments and generaly load faster. They have also released 3 expantions, the last one with an upgraded rendering engine. Too bad it's brutaly slow on my 1.2 Ghz Athlon at 800x600 and DAOC runs very quickly at 1280x1024 on the same system. But to be fair it looks great, in the new areas the old places still look the same. So there's a lack of consistancy in the world as it stands and that's only going to get worse if they just keep tacking addons on. They've needed a proper rewrite for ages, and after looking at the screenshots for Vernat's other big name venture Star Wars Galaxies I can't help but think it's going to be worth it.

They aren't godless ... they just worship Cazic-thule

Before I was laid off last year, I was in the movie industry working for a company that I am contracturally forbidden from naming. I can tell you, though, that this problem is more widespread than even the Slashdot community suspects.

I first became aware of RIAA's shady business practices when I noticed a friend and former co-worker walking back to his cube from a meeting with our supervisor. Apparently the conversation had gotten rather heated, as more than a few of us noticed the screaming coming from the boss's office. Two days later, my friend was fired.

At first I thought nothing of it, but began to suspect something was going on when 2 HR people and a sales executive were dismissed under similar circumstances. Rumors began spreading, and the general consensus was that these people had been screwed by management because of a disagreement over the RIAA.

I had no idea how true those rumors were. Two weeks after my friend was fired, I found myself before the boss, with several members of upper-management in attendance. I was asked what I knew about RIAA and what my opinion on it was. I answered truthfully: that I was concered that some of the RIAA's goals might put my rights as a citizen in jeopardy. My boss nodded thoughtfully for a second, nodded, and the management guys closed and locked the door of the office. What happened next makes me wince in pain at the mere thought of it.

The two managers, with deceptive strength and agility, shoved me over my boss's desk. They tied my ankles to the feet of the desk, while my boss duct-taped my wrists together around the monitor on his desk. My memory is somewhat blurry about this part, but I remember having my pants torn from my body, and then the managers began taking turns ravaging my virgin cornhole. The rumors were true: there I was, being screwed by management, all because of my feelings on the RIAA.

In the kind of shock that only comes with a brutal ass-raping, I stumbled back to my desk, thankfully unaware of the small stream of blood and jizz that had stained my underwear and begun to ooze down my legs.To complete my utter humiliation, I was given my pink slip 3 days later, before I had even recovered from my ordeal.

Recalling all of this, I can't help but believe that my layoff came as a direct result of the RIAA. Naturally I am concerned whenever the RIAA rears it's ugly head, because I wouldn't wish upon anyone what happened to me. I was afraid the RIAA would take away my rights, but could never have prepared myself for the amount of personal violation that it would bring. Thank you for reading this. May it serve as a warning to all.

...a lot like todays audio equipment. The crap will look like this and the better stuff like this. Expect all visible surfaces to be manufactured from brushed aluminium, chrome and glass. The quality of the product will be inverse to the number of blinking lights in the front.

Anyone else find it funny that the non apple version is called 'iLINK'?

The only people that call it iLink are Sony.

Firewire is mostly an Apple term, although it doesn't seem to be exclusive to them.

SB1394 just means that it passed Creative's "comprehensive SB1394 Certification evaluation" (which is just marketing-speak for saying that it works with the ports on their SoundBlaster cards).

Before I was laid off last year, I was in the movie industry working for a company that I am contracturally forbidden from naming. I can tell you, though, that this problem is more widespread than even the Slashdot community suspects.

I first became aware of RIAA's shady business practices when I noticed a friend and former co-worker walking back to his cube from a meeting with our supervisor. Apparently the conversation had gotten rather heated, as more than a few of us noticed the screaming coming from the boss's office. Two days later, my friend was fired.

At first I thought nothing of it, but began to suspect something was going on when 2 HR people and a sales executive were dismissed under similar circumstances. Rumors began spreading, and the general consensus was that these people had been screwed by management because of a disagreement over the RIAA.

I had no idea how true those rumors were. Two weeks after my friend was fired, I found myself before the boss, with several members of upper-management in attendance. I was asked what I knew about RIAA and what my opinion on it was. I answered truthfully: that I was concered that some of the RIAA's goals might put my rights as a citizen in jeopardy. My boss nodded thoughtfully for a second, nodded, and the management guys closed and locked the door of the office. What happened next makes me wince in pain at the mere thought of it.

The two managers, with deceptive strength and agility, shoved me over my boss's desk. They tied my ankles to the feet of the desk, while my boss duct-taped my wrists together around the monitor on his desk. My memory is somewhat blurry about this part, but I remember having my pants torn from my body, and then the managers began taking turns ravaging my virgin cornhole. The rumors were true: there I was, being screwed by management, all because of my feelings on the RIAA.

In the kind of shock that only comes with a brutal ass-raping, I stumbled back to my desk, thankfully unaware of the small stream of blood and jizz that had stained my underwear and begun to ooze down my legs.To complete my utter humiliation, I was given my pink slip 3 days later, before I had even recovered from my ordeal.

Recalling all of this, I can't help but believe that my layoff came as a direct result of the RIAA. Naturally I am concerned whenever the RIAA rears it's ugly head, because I wouldn't wish upon anyone what happened to me. I was afraid the RIAA would take away my rights, but could never have prepared myself for the amount of personal violation that it would bring. Thank you for reading this. May it serve as a warning to all.

At least until Star Wars Galaxies comes out...

That quote can be found here, for all those interested. Forgot to include it it in my previous post.

Sony Broadcast and Professional and Chrysler would be two examples.

I liked the concept of the XBOX, I liked the idea that things like Everquest would be easy ports.

I liked the concept of the XBOX, I liked the idea that things like Everquest would be easy ports.

damn submit button so close to preview... >:)

the post should read:
Well... seeing as Sony is being sued over an addict to EverQuest who was so consumed with his online identity that he lost site of reality and finally committed suicide. Or so is being claimed by the plaintiff!

This may be bad news for the company right about now. :(

Chat and in-game communications are indeed stored and logged on the server. Sony has used these data in the past for its own purposes (cf. the "Conquest" incident).

It is interesting to see the attention paid to policing these virtual worlds. Currently, they are trying to do most of that with volunteers. A few paid staffers or contractors (GMs) oversee a larger force of volunteer guides.

The upside to volunteer guides is enthusiasm and game knowledge. Downsides include poor training, spotty supervision and questionable legality. Game users regularly complain about the lack of guides online. These "Disneylands" certainly aren't patrolled 24/7.

Everquest is attempting to address this problem with the launch of their premium Legends server: where they promote a dedicated CS staff. Even they aren't promising 24/7 coverage, though!

It is interesting to see the attention paid to policing these virtual worlds. Currently, they are trying to do most of that with volunteers. A few paid staffers or contractors (GMs) oversee a larger force of volunteer guides.

The upside to volunteer guides is enthusiasm and game knowledge. Downsides include poor training, spotty supervision and questionable legality. Game users regularly complain about the lack of guides online. These "Disneylands" certainly aren't patrolled 24/7.

Everquest is attempting to address this problem with the launch of their premium Legends server: where they promote a dedicated CS staff. Even they aren't promising 24/7 coverage, though!

Check out the FAQ on this. it sounds fantastic and looks fantastic too. I don't know about swimming and climbing, but there is going to be an expansion released that allows personal starships and fighter craft for transport and combat. I really can't wait for this. EQ looked like crap to me, and while AC was better visually, it just seemed so repetitive. This looks like something I could spend some time with though.

We do not want this distro method to become the MTV of the gaming industry like gamespy is today. In fact I can only hope that this will kill gamespy before a torrent of vapid, cookie-cutter, corporate researched FPS/RTS/RPG are unleashed upon the unexpecting consumers out there.

I've been playing the same free and fun online game for over 5 years and the corporate replacement even though it too is free sucks the big stinky donkey wang because it was overproduced.

On an off topic: Today, I finally got a Sony DSS box hooked up to a pc so SnapStream can change channels! It ain't Tivo, but it ain't bad. I got the cable instructions from Snapstream's website. Certain RCA boxes can also be used.

The audio fidelity on the whole is as good as can be expected. We all know what MP3 encoding does to your tunes if you have a reasonable speakers

All mp3 decoders are not created equal and I sure wish reviewers would dig a little deeper. If they go beyond navigation and I/O features and cover audio quality, it's typically only to mention background hum or hiss or a wimpy headphone amplifier.

mp3 at high bitrates created with a competent encoder (LAME is one) can sound pretty good. Decoding with cheap 16 bit DSPs such as the TMS320C54x used in the Rio One is hard to do-- you have to watch out for error accumulation (e.g. please round to zero instead of simply truncating).

If you don't believe me that decoders differ, consider these tests of PC decoders. Unfortunately, no one seems to do such detailed testing on embedded decoders.

I'm giving my Rio One to my nephew who will be so thrilled to have it that if he hears the high-frequency errors on playback of middlin' bitrates (192kbps), he probably won't mind.

I don't know what I'm going to replace it with, though. I know I shouldn't expect much out of a $80 player powered from on AA cell, but there's no guarantee that a $400 Rio Riot or iPod will be glitch-free: they might have spent the whole power and cost budget on LCDs, hard drives and amortizing development.

A StrongARM-based PocketPC might be the answer- plenty of horsepower to run less compromised 16 bit decoder or even a 24 bit or floating point one. It should also be able to decode ogg vorbis....

By the way, instead of reasonable speakers, I'm using a good pair of headphones. Much more bang for the buck when it comes to revealing audio defects, though the Sonys tend to be a bit shrill (well the older V6s that I have) for long-term listening. These are the same model we used when I was at E-mu for all normal testing. The only thing more revealing was the elements from a good pair of Sennheisers in a set of noise protection muffs to cut background noise by 23dB. Also, some of the ATC guys have Grado electrostatics.

You're kidding, right? Look at the lines of business Sony Corp. of America is into. They make TVs, stereos, computers, PDAs, game consoles, motion pictures, DVDs, Music CDs, etc. Look at Nestle USA. Dog food, cat food, chocolate bars, coffee, frozen dinners, blah, blah, blah. All under different labels. I'm sure there are many other large companies that are very diversified. I just don't have the time or inclination to look them all up.

And even allowing for all that, there is also the small matter of Sony Corporation. The company has already warned the German duo against using its logo and made threatening noises regarding the use of the name if the pair ever wanted to commercialize their product.

http://www.sony.com/clie/

http://www.sony.com/clie/