1. That the NZ Government is basically the most corrupt that the country has ever had, including under Muldoon (for examples, look up the recent media stories on the PM forging works of art for sale, the PM dodging speeding convictions for a high-speed motorcade to a sports match that would have landed anyone else in Jail, the ruling parties blatant breach of election spending laws, and in the Auditor-Generals clear report the blatant misuse of public funds for political purposes, and using its control of law enforcement to dodge prosecution)- actually the Fijian solution looks kinda acceptable at this point
2. That the PM is arts-mad (banned the commercial parallel importation of legit DVDs when lobbied by the industry, lets people on welfare dodge work if they are engaged in artistic or creative endeavour), spends a bunch on arts, and will make a speech at the opening of a door if the arts are involved.
3. That the ruling party is flat-broke and desperate for cash, whereas the other main party is recieving a lot of donations - hence frantic government efforts to legislate for state funding of political parties and clamping down on private donations which they don't get many of now (see corruption above). Thus they are probably going to be very receptive to lots of little men in black suits from Sony et al with suitcases full of cash for bribes ^H^H^H^H errrr contributions.
When you add all these things up, there is probably zero chance of them standing up for the freedoms of citizens. Still, we should all put in submissions nevertheless, even if they are in vain at least they cant say that there were no objections.
Oh, and just as a tip, submissions can be emailed and letters to Members of Parliament don't require stamps - a little quirk of the NZ postal regs.
Or they might be corporates like the one I have been doing some work with - circa 8,500 desktops to support, all working "just fine" for the use they are required for with one standard box, running one standard install of OS (win 2K coincidentally) and packages off one standard image (plus a limited number of specialists who have customised boxes and/or configurations). Trust me, they haven't stolen *anything*, nor are they paranoid or weirdos. Why update 8,500 boxes that are running fine? When you are running a business in the real world, if it ain't broke don't fix it, esp when it will be disruptive and cost millions for no particular gain!
And as for Aero, this is slashdot not Oprah. Do we care about performance or about resource hogging eye candy? (STRAW POLL: Does anyone running XP still use the Fisher-Price default interface settings, or do they put the interface into less pretty but faster and more usable "classic" mode like I do?).
I find flash ads the worst. Static ads I can cope with, but it is really hard to concentrate on text with a large lurid technicolour flashing pulsing ad right beside it. I now run a nifty little flash blocker. It just kills all flash from loading/running, plus I can turn it on and off from the tray with one click if there is flash I need to see. Alongside firefox with java script disabled (to stop really annoying pop up video windows with sound etc that run on pestilential sites like www.herald.co.nz and www.stuff.co.nz - that I do look at to get news from home), popups blocked, and aggressive host file blocking of ad servers, surfing has become pleasurable again. The only time ads annoy me is on the odd occasion I look at sites at work - I have to leave javascript on for the intranet phone directory etc to work, and the system is locked down so I can't install flash blockers or edit the hosts file. It's enough to make me shudder and remember why I went to the all the trouble blocking this crud on my home machine.
"This is part of a larger Sony initiative. Lower expectations across the board"
- This is/. and we are talking about Sony..... how much lower can expectations possibly go
"We can't tell you why the GPU lost nearly 10% of it's clock, it could be an NVidia screwup"
- Naah....the extra clock cycles are being consumed by the rootkit.
I suspect that despite Sony's new policy of underpromising and then underdelivering purchasers will still get a warm glow from the product. Sadly, that won't be from the quality of the games... it will be from the battery spontaneously combusting.
Confession - I used to pirate games in the mid- to late-80s (that dates me!). Back then I had no money and couldn't have bought them if I wanted to. Once I had a job and could afford to, I purchased everything and have probably bought 100ish games over the past decade and a half. However, have not purchased anything for about a year (nor have I pirated - I have just more or less stopped gaming). There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, I guess I am turning into an old fart - but after staring at a screen for half a day or so at work I find my appetite to come home and stare at a screen is not what it was.
More fundamentally, I have issues with the way developers treat the customer. Starforce is a case in point - if I am to purchase games it will largely be on impulse. Starforce is *horrible* now its not "gee that looks interesting....I'll buy it". Its more a case of "gee that looks interesting... go home.... google for half an hour to make sure it does not have starforce or something nasty.... maybe come back and buy tomorrow". By then, interest and impulse has faded, NO SALE. I don't have HL2, I was actually interested and had the cash but I read a few pointed comments online about Steam and decided (rightly or wrongly, I don't actually care, so any flames that I am an idiot and it's not so bad are wasted on me) that it all sounded like too much of a pain in the backside and I couldn't be bothered.
I do agree strongly with others' comments that devs need to treat their customers better. It's a fairly sad day when a pirated game performs better than a paid for original (eg no CD needed), a ripped DVD is better than a store bought one (no region, prohibited ops etc), and a downloaded MP3 is better (no SONY system crippling rootkits included) - and vendors need to think about the incentives they set up when the bootleg product is much better than the real thing!
Re:Hypothetical question: "lusers" as decoys
on
A Closed Off System?
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· Score: 1
I had an employer who went for the "stupid user - let's close everything off" business model, presumably because they thought it would save them on IT support costs. They ignored the howls of protest from we who basically knew what we were doing, used more than MS Office to do our jobs, and were used to having c:\drive and admin access to tweak the tools of our trade to work the way we wanted. (NB: we were mostly in relatively highly paid specialist roles). It saved them a bomb on technical support - I left, so did most of my colleagues, and there were virtually no staff left to support. Last I heard they were desperatley trying to recruit, and were in deep trouble with key clients because they couldn't provide the level of service and they were expected to.
I don't live in the US. The place I work does have a lot of IT equipment (much of it from the US) as do many other businesses. So this law passes, and gear made in the US by law has to include backdoors that could let US authorities examine traffic remotly, possibly from anywhere in the world.
Lets say, for instance, that my business competes with US businesses, or has competitive procurement where some of the parties involved are US businesses. There is a significant chance that my sensitive data will be accessed by the US government and passed to US competitors or those US businesses I am dealing with (Hint: The French were notorious for this, and their security people reputedly even bugged business class seats on Air France).
Am I willing to accept this risk - hell no. SOLUTION: don't buy any more IT gear from the US - the Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese/Europeans (exept the French) have just become more trustworthy. RESULT: The US IT sector will need to host a few more farewells, to say goodbye to a few more export markets!
Don't forget their greedy arrogance and "screw the customer" attitude, which is the reason my home has not had any Sony purchases for the past 5 years. In this country there has never been much point in buying a DVD player that is not multizone. All machines are pretty much sold as this *except* Sony's. When I bought mine about 5 years ago the salesman asked what I wanted, I replied "quality and multizone", and his answer was to buy anything but a Sony - good advice. Same with Minidisc - the technology was a good idea at the time, but the anti-consumer DRM was just ridiculous. When I questioned the DRM in the shop (I actually had cash on me and was looking to buy) they Sony salesman as good as called me a dirty pirate and a thief. And lets not forget their constant boosting of DRM, ArcOSS, and of course the infamous rootkit saga.
Personally, although I am not that much of a "tech guy" I kind of have that reputation at work. So far I am fairly convinced that my strong advice has cost Sony sale of at least 2 music players, a fairly high end component sound system and three plasma screens to my colleagues. I also got the rootkit a lot of publicity and got close to IT banning Sony music CDs from being inserted into work computers - and am fairly certain that put some people off copy protection and Sony branded CDs. I bet many on slashdot have a similar or (likely!) better tech rep with friends and family than mine - so do the same people - hit the bastards in the revenue line, it's probably the only thing the cretins will finally understand.
NB: Regarding game consoles, much as it sticks in my throat, Go Microsoft......(coughs up hairball)
I had two VCRs hooked up to my TV, with a switch box, more than a decade ago. All housed in an entertainment centre (=big ugly purpose built wooden cabinet). Arguably that is a "device". If that's what their patent covers, then all they have done is build a more elegant case.
They can't make up their minds whether they are a hardware or content business. The Hardware was formerly good (I have had Sony TVs, Stereos, walkmen, VCRs) but my home is now a Sony-free zone. Their products simply don't make the cut. There are a few reasons for this:
* DRM - Sony products seem to have more restrictive and annoying DRM than any other, and they seem to push it harder and more arrogantly. Cases in point - the Minidisc (bleech) software, and the fact thay every practically DVD player EXECPT Sony is region free.
* Lack of price competitiveness - bad news Sony, simply sticking a Sony badge on 3rd party products does not get you a 20-30% price premium.
* Utter contempt for ethics and customers - 1,2,3...say it in unison "Rootkit"
Far from being a premium label, it is rapidly becoming one to avoid. If you look at its behaviour, and that of the consortia it belongs to, there is probably no company in the world doing more to deprive consumers of their rights.
Personally, the only time I see anything in flash is on one locked-down box at work that I occasionally need to use and on which I can't install a flash blocker. The only thing it seems to be used for is for really intrusive and annoying "all singing, all dancing" adverts that ruin the web surfing experience. On my home system and personal work PC I could not imagine going back to using the web without a flash-blocking application, a really extensive & aggressive hosts file with all the major advertising URLs mapped to null, and animated graphics disabled. So they have a newer and better Flash..... big deal, I'll block that as well.
Re:Sony CEO didn't support Bush in 2004
on
Bad Day To Be Sony
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· Score: 1
They may not have donated in 2004, but I would imagine the halls of government have been swarming with Sony reps over the last 4-5 days, shoving briefcases of cash....erm.... "campaign contributions" towards anyone who even looks like a politician (of any persuasion)who will even make eye contact with them. Why worry about whether you have bought the wrong party/Senator/Governor/Congresscritter when you can buy em all.
I am not a sysadmin. However, I work for a fairly large (several thousand desktops) org at the moment, which has a fairly ummm anal computer network policy. Surely this sort of thing could pose a threat to the integrity of the network?
This seems like a great opportunity to educate the masses about DRM and generate a bit of a blast against Sony. I have sent an email, with a link to the relevant articles, to our IT division. I suggested that they send out a short email to the effect that they know that many people listen to music on their PCs, but until this is resolved it is expressly forbidden to place a Sony CD in a work machine, put a Sony CD in any machine with dial in access to the work network, and especially forbidden to install software of this type. Unless this software is removable, and it is clearly known what it does and does not do - including interfere with other software, then it appears to pose an unacceptable security risk.
I also suggested that they make it clear in very simple terms that CDs from other labels are still OK, and that it is a sound idea for people to not put Sony CDs in any home computer as well.
It seems to me that slashdotters are likely to disproportionatley occupy positions of technical influence in their workplaces, and that if many of us do this we will make lots of people that would not otherwise care aware that there is a big hairy problem here. If enough of us do this, we should be able to make the bastards feel some heat!
NB: I am also crafting an email to Sony telling them what I have done. Why not do the same as well, make 'em squirm!
I used to own a ton of Sony gear (TV, VCR, Walkman...), the price was steep but the products were good. Now I regard the Sony brand on a product as a negative rather than a positive, and I haven't purchased any of their products for 6(ish) years. Personally, I am starting to regard Sony as the vermin of the consumer electronics market. Just look at their record, craptastic DRMed to death music players, broken *ahem* "protected" CDs and DVDs, slavish adherence to DRM and region codes, and leading membership of the **AAs. Also, as well as being less user-friendly, the once legendary Sony quality is no more and they are just as crappy as the cheap stuff, and the "premium" pricing is all that remains.
The Chinese have them beaten on price and usability if you just want something cheap, the Koreans have them beaten on price and quality if you want something better, and the niche manufacturers (Marantz, B&W etc) have them beaten on performance if you want something top of the range.
I worked for a small outfit where they had a fairly unrestricted system, with virtually no problems, that let us be relatively unfettered and as a result highly productive. Then they outsourced IT on a long-term fixed-price basis to one of the most incompetent IT contractors it has ever been my misfortune to encounter [www.infinity.co.nz... uggh]. The CEO was technically illiterate people I have ever seen, and the office joke was that one day his obituary would read that he simply forgot how to breathe.
Anyhow, they locked the network down tight (no c:\ drive access, no comment prompt (bye batch files), no control panel... nothing). Pretext was security, real reason was if every system was identical they they had to spend less time on user support (=profit). Our productivity (mainly highly-paid financial types earning well into six figures) was crippled, but that did not concern them. The CEO response to any complaints was "but they are the experts and you are just users). The result was basically 75% staff turnover in a very short period - and last time I had coffee with one of the few people still there that I know, massive failure to meet contracts and a total loss of customer confidence etc. Still, at least Infinity got their profit.
I run a small "no flash" utility to block all flash from running, and this is better than an uninstall as it means that I am not constantly nagged to download it.
Basically, the main use of flash seems to be to put annoying ads on web pages. I block flash, javascript, animated gifs, popups and popunders. Not only is my browsing faster (still on dialup at home, sigh, and will be until Telecom NZ offers acceptable broadband options), but pages are much more pleasant to read without floating overlays, pulsing animations and sounds etc to distract.
Not so worried about cookies, but *hate* the things that chew bandwith and, much, worse, irritate and annoy me while I surf.
This is entirely consistent with their robust stand on DRM - minidisc, magicgate, the fact that only Sony players in this country seem to support regional encoding etc
For some time I have regarded Sony as the vermin of the computer electronics industry. I presume that many of the people are, like me, thought of as "the techie guy" by friends and workmates. Don't stand for it - refuse to buy Sony. If advising people what to buy, explain at great length why they should avoid Sony. If you purchase for work, mark tenders that specify Sony equipment down, and explain to the vendor why you are doing it (I recently did this). If you are discussing things on line, explain why Sony are unethical scum peddling inferior products. Tell people how to modchip PS2s. Waste the time of Sony dealers speccing very high priced home entertainment setups, then when you are right at the point of confirming the large order, phone in and pull out at the last minute - and explain why you are giving your money to someone else.
If enough of us do it we will hit the bastards in the only place they will notice - the wallet. If only a few of us do it, at least we will have the satisfaction of not supporting Sony and hurting them even if only in a small way.
Does anyone know the particular pattern that Photoshop etc looks for to determine whether something (ie currency) should not be loaded, processed & printed etc?
Personally, I would love to get a tie or t-shirt etc printed with this pattern. I hate being photographed. On the assumption that this restriction will become standard and incorporated into most imaging software, in this digital era that would give virtual invisibility. No one could take/edit/print a picture of me at a corporate function, party or BBQ etc ever again.
" 'Until now, the complaint was that Sony products sold at a major premium,' said Gregory Kukolj, general manager of the personal audio group in Europe."
Bzzzzzzt...Wrong answer!
The real problem is that Sony sells DRM-poisoned crapware, and misleadingly labeled (Minidisc does NOT support MP3) and overpriced to add insult to injury.
Sorry Sony, I won't buy from you even if it is better and cheaper (which it isn't). Your brand has too many negative connotations for me now.
That more or less happens now in other areas of Tech. I have a fairly nifty (somewhat obsolete now but still good) radio scanner, the Uniden UBC-3000XLT. Made in the USA, as I understand the situation, and a darn good bit of kit. The US model is the BC-3000XLT, and I gather it is illegal for my model to be sold in the US. The reason? Apparently the FCC won't allow radios to be sold in the US if they can recieve cellular phone frequencies. US manufacturers are able to sell me the UBC (= unblocked cellular) model, but can only sell the BC (= blocked cellular) model to Americans. And yes, just like I imagine there will be for HD tuner cards, there is a lively trade of US people ordering their radios from countries (UK, Australia, New Zealand etc) where the un-crippled hardware is legally available.
How about keeping your GPS phone (Phone A) and buying another phone without the GPS in it (Phone B). When you leave home, change the Sim card from Phone A to Phone B - you have the same number and people can still call you. When you get home, swap the card back to Phone A. "Gee dad, I don't know why the GPS won't work in the car, the phone was on... you called me 5 times and I answered".
Actually, I had decent parents who (by the time I could drive) treated me like an adult, and there is no way they would have done something as shitty as inflicting one of these on me. It must be terrible to think so little of your kids that you resort to stuff like this, and *awful* to be the kid with parents like that.
Slashdot Mirror
1. That the NZ Government is basically the most corrupt that the country has ever had, including under Muldoon (for examples, look up the recent media stories on the PM forging works of art for sale, the PM dodging speeding convictions for a high-speed motorcade to a sports match that would have landed anyone else in Jail, the ruling parties blatant breach of election spending laws, and in the Auditor-Generals clear report the blatant misuse of public funds for political purposes, and using its control of law enforcement to dodge prosecution)- actually the Fijian solution looks kinda acceptable at this point
2. That the PM is arts-mad (banned the commercial parallel importation of legit DVDs when lobbied by the industry, lets people on welfare dodge work if they are engaged in artistic or creative endeavour), spends a bunch on arts, and will make a speech at the opening of a door if the arts are involved.
3. That the ruling party is flat-broke and desperate for cash, whereas the other main party is recieving a lot of donations - hence frantic government efforts to legislate for state funding of political parties and clamping down on private donations which they don't get many of now (see corruption above). Thus they are probably going to be very receptive to lots of little men in black suits from Sony et al with suitcases full of cash for bribes ^H^H^H^H errrr contributions.
When you add all these things up, there is probably zero chance of them standing up for the freedoms of citizens. Still, we should all put in submissions nevertheless, even if they are in vain at least they cant say that there were no objections.
Oh, and just as a tip, submissions can be emailed and letters to Members of Parliament don't require stamps - a little quirk of the NZ postal regs.
And as for Aero, this is slashdot not Oprah. Do we care about performance or about resource hogging eye candy? (STRAW POLL: Does anyone running XP still use the Fisher-Price default interface settings, or do they put the interface into less pretty but faster and more usable "classic" mode like I do?).
I find flash ads the worst. Static ads I can cope with, but it is really hard to concentrate on text with a large lurid technicolour flashing pulsing ad right beside it. I now run a nifty little flash blocker. It just kills all flash from loading/running, plus I can turn it on and off from the tray with one click if there is flash I need to see. Alongside firefox with java script disabled (to stop really annoying pop up video windows with sound etc that run on pestilential sites like www.herald.co.nz and www.stuff.co.nz - that I do look at to get news from home), popups blocked, and aggressive host file blocking of ad servers, surfing has become pleasurable again. The only time ads annoy me is on the odd occasion I look at sites at work - I have to leave javascript on for the intranet phone directory etc to work, and the system is locked down so I can't install flash blockers or edit the hosts file. It's enough to make me shudder and remember why I went to the all the trouble blocking this crud on my home machine.
They do as far as I am concerned. I emailed them to that effect and got an acknowledgement.
- This is /. and we are talking about Sony ..... how much lower can expectations possibly go
"We can't tell you why the GPU lost nearly 10% of it's clock, it could be an NVidia screwup"
- Naah....the extra clock cycles are being consumed by the rootkit.
I suspect that despite Sony's new policy of underpromising and then underdelivering purchasers will still get a warm glow from the product. Sadly, that won't be from the quality of the games... it will be from the battery spontaneously combusting.
More fundamentally, I have issues with the way developers treat the customer. Starforce is a case in point - if I am to purchase games it will largely be on impulse. Starforce is *horrible* now its not "gee that looks interesting....I'll buy it". Its more a case of "gee that looks interesting... go home.... google for half an hour to make sure it does not have starforce or something nasty .... maybe come back and buy tomorrow". By then, interest and impulse has faded, NO SALE. I don't have HL2, I was actually interested and had the cash but I read a few pointed comments online about Steam and decided (rightly or wrongly, I don't actually care, so any flames that I am an idiot and it's not so bad are wasted on me) that it all sounded like too much of a pain in the backside and I couldn't be bothered.
I do agree strongly with others' comments that devs need to treat their customers better. It's a fairly sad day when a pirated game performs better than a paid for original (eg no CD needed), a ripped DVD is better than a store bought one (no region, prohibited ops etc), and a downloaded MP3 is better (no SONY system crippling rootkits included) - and vendors need to think about the incentives they set up when the bootleg product is much better than the real thing!
I had an employer who went for the "stupid user - let's close everything off" business model, presumably because they thought it would save them on IT support costs. They ignored the howls of protest from we who basically knew what we were doing, used more than MS Office to do our jobs, and were used to having c:\drive and admin access to tweak the tools of our trade to work the way we wanted. (NB: we were mostly in relatively highly paid specialist roles). It saved them a bomb on technical support - I left, so did most of my colleagues, and there were virtually no staff left to support. Last I heard they were desperatley trying to recruit, and were in deep trouble with key clients because they couldn't provide the level of service and they were expected to.
Lets say, for instance, that my business competes with US businesses, or has competitive procurement where some of the parties involved are US businesses. There is a significant chance that my sensitive data will be accessed by the US government and passed to US competitors or those US businesses I am dealing with (Hint: The French were notorious for this, and their security people reputedly even bugged business class seats on Air France).
Am I willing to accept this risk - hell no. SOLUTION: don't buy any more IT gear from the US - the Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese/Europeans (exept the French) have just become more trustworthy. RESULT: The US IT sector will need to host a few more farewells, to say goodbye to a few more export markets!
Personally, although I am not that much of a "tech guy" I kind of have that reputation at work. So far I am fairly convinced that my strong advice has cost Sony sale of at least 2 music players, a fairly high end component sound system and three plasma screens to my colleagues. I also got the rootkit a lot of publicity and got close to IT banning Sony music CDs from being inserted into work computers - and am fairly certain that put some people off copy protection and Sony branded CDs. I bet many on slashdot have a similar or (likely!) better tech rep with friends and family than mine - so do the same people - hit the bastards in the revenue line, it's probably the only thing the cretins will finally understand.
NB: Regarding game consoles, much as it sticks in my throat, Go Microsoft ......(coughs up hairball)
I had two VCRs hooked up to my TV, with a switch box, more than a decade ago. All housed in an entertainment centre (=big ugly purpose built wooden cabinet). Arguably that is a "device". If that's what their patent covers, then all they have done is build a more elegant case.
* DRM - Sony products seem to have more restrictive and annoying DRM than any other, and they seem to push it harder and more arrogantly. Cases in point - the Minidisc (bleech) software, and the fact thay every practically DVD player EXECPT Sony is region free.
* Lack of price competitiveness - bad news Sony, simply sticking a Sony badge on 3rd party products does not get you a 20-30% price premium.
* Utter contempt for ethics and customers - 1,2,3...say it in unison "Rootkit"
Far from being a premium label, it is rapidly becoming one to avoid. If you look at its behaviour, and that of the consortia it belongs to, there is probably no company in the world doing more to deprive consumers of their rights.
Personally, the only time I see anything in flash is on one locked-down box at work that I occasionally need to use and on which I can't install a flash blocker. The only thing it seems to be used for is for really intrusive and annoying "all singing, all dancing" adverts that ruin the web surfing experience. On my home system and personal work PC I could not imagine going back to using the web without a flash-blocking application, a really extensive & aggressive hosts file with all the major advertising URLs mapped to null, and animated graphics disabled. So they have a newer and better Flash..... big deal, I'll block that as well.
"relatively durable and versatile technology. Sony's new Reader will not spell the end of that"
Yep that's the true Sony we all know and avoid. Buy quick folks, special offer on now - a free rootkit for the first 100 customers who call right now.
2. Profit!
They may not have donated in 2004, but I would imagine the halls of government have been swarming with Sony reps over the last 4-5 days, shoving briefcases of cash ....erm.... "campaign contributions" towards anyone who even looks like a politician (of any persuasion)who will even make eye contact with them. Why worry about whether you have bought the wrong party/Senator/Governor/Congresscritter when you can buy em all.
This seems like a great opportunity to educate the masses about DRM and generate a bit of a blast against Sony. I have sent an email, with a link to the relevant articles, to our IT division. I suggested that they send out a short email to the effect that they know that many people listen to music on their PCs, but until this is resolved it is expressly forbidden to place a Sony CD in a work machine, put a Sony CD in any machine with dial in access to the work network, and especially forbidden to install software of this type. Unless this software is removable, and it is clearly known what it does and does not do - including interfere with other software, then it appears to pose an unacceptable security risk.
I also suggested that they make it clear in very simple terms that CDs from other labels are still OK, and that it is a sound idea for people to not put Sony CDs in any home computer as well.
It seems to me that slashdotters are likely to disproportionatley occupy positions of technical influence in their workplaces, and that if many of us do this we will make lots of people that would not otherwise care aware that there is a big hairy problem here. If enough of us do this, we should be able to make the bastards feel some heat!
NB: I am also crafting an email to Sony telling them what I have done. Why not do the same as well, make 'em squirm!
I used to own a ton of Sony gear (TV, VCR, Walkman...), the price was steep but the products were good. Now I regard the Sony brand on a product as a negative rather than a positive, and I haven't purchased any of their products for 6(ish) years. Personally, I am starting to regard Sony as the vermin of the consumer electronics market. Just look at their record, craptastic DRMed to death music players, broken *ahem* "protected" CDs and DVDs, slavish adherence to DRM and region codes, and leading membership of the **AAs. Also, as well as being less user-friendly, the once legendary Sony quality is no more and they are just as crappy as the cheap stuff, and the "premium" pricing is all that remains.
The Chinese have them beaten on price and usability if you just want something cheap, the Koreans have them beaten on price and quality if you want something better, and the niche manufacturers (Marantz, B&W etc) have them beaten on performance if you want something top of the range.
I worked for a small outfit where they had a fairly unrestricted system, with virtually no problems, that let us be relatively unfettered and as a result highly productive. Then they outsourced IT on a long-term fixed-price basis to one of the most incompetent IT contractors it has ever been my misfortune to encounter [www.infinity.co.nz ... uggh]. The CEO was technically illiterate people I have ever seen, and the office joke was that one day his obituary would read that he simply forgot how to breathe.
Anyhow, they locked the network down tight (no c:\ drive access, no comment prompt (bye batch files), no control panel... nothing). Pretext was security, real reason was if every system was identical they they had to spend less time on user support (=profit). Our productivity (mainly highly-paid financial types earning well into six figures) was crippled, but that did not concern them. The CEO response to any complaints was "but they are the experts and you are just users). The result was basically 75% staff turnover in a very short period - and last time I had coffee with one of the few people still there that I know, massive failure to meet contracts and a total loss of customer confidence etc. Still, at least Infinity got their profit.
Basically, the main use of flash seems to be to put annoying ads on web pages. I block flash, javascript, animated gifs, popups and popunders. Not only is my browsing faster (still on dialup at home, sigh, and will be until Telecom NZ offers acceptable broadband options), but pages are much more pleasant to read without floating overlays, pulsing animations and sounds etc to distract.
Not so worried about cookies, but *hate* the things that chew bandwith and, much, worse, irritate and annoy me while I surf.
This is entirely consistent with their robust stand on DRM - minidisc, magicgate, the fact that only Sony players in this country seem to support regional encoding etc
For some time I have regarded Sony as the vermin of the computer electronics industry. I presume that many of the people are, like me, thought of as "the techie guy" by friends and workmates. Don't stand for it - refuse to buy Sony. If advising people what to buy, explain at great length why they should avoid Sony. If you purchase for work, mark tenders that specify Sony equipment down, and explain to the vendor why you are doing it (I recently did this). If you are discussing things on line, explain why Sony are unethical scum peddling inferior products. Tell people how to modchip PS2s. Waste the time of Sony dealers speccing very high priced home entertainment setups, then when you are right at the point of confirming the large order, phone in and pull out at the last minute - and explain why you are giving your money to someone else.
If enough of us do it we will hit the bastards in the only place they will notice - the wallet. If only a few of us do it, at least we will have the satisfaction of not supporting Sony and hurting them even if only in a small way.
Personally, I would love to get a tie or t-shirt etc printed with this pattern. I hate being photographed. On the assumption that this restriction will become standard and incorporated into most imaging software, in this digital era that would give virtual invisibility. No one could take/edit/print a picture of me at a corporate function, party or BBQ etc ever again.
Bzzzzzzt...Wrong answer!
The real problem is that Sony sells DRM-poisoned crapware, and misleadingly labeled (Minidisc does NOT support MP3) and overpriced to add insult to injury.
Sorry Sony, I won't buy from you even if it is better and cheaper (which it isn't). Your brand has too many negative connotations for me now.
That more or less happens now in other areas of Tech. I have a fairly nifty (somewhat obsolete now but still good) radio scanner, the Uniden UBC-3000XLT. Made in the USA, as I understand the situation, and a darn good bit of kit. The US model is the BC-3000XLT, and I gather it is illegal for my model to be sold in the US. The reason? Apparently the FCC won't allow radios to be sold in the US if they can recieve cellular phone frequencies. US manufacturers are able to sell me the UBC (= unblocked cellular) model, but can only sell the BC (= blocked cellular) model to Americans. And yes, just like I imagine there will be for HD tuner cards, there is a lively trade of US people ordering their radios from countries (UK, Australia, New Zealand etc) where the un-crippled hardware is legally available.
Actually, I had decent parents who (by the time I could drive) treated me like an adult, and there is no way they would have done something as shitty as inflicting one of these on me. It must be terrible to think so little of your kids that you resort to stuff like this, and *awful* to be the kid with parents like that.