I used to really like Sony products. They tended to be well designed, innovative, performed well, and lasted a long time. Sure the stuff tended to be more expensive but I don't remember ever being dissapointed. Who can forget all of those fond memories with PS1 and PS2?

But over time Sony has turned into a bastard company that I loathe and despise. I think a lot of the trouble began when they got into the music, TV, and movie business. As an electronic company you'd think that owning the media would be a great asset, but it has turned into a fundamental conflict of interest.

Basically, Sony cripples its electronic products because it doesn't want people to violate the copyright of any of the media they own. They've jealously created a bunch of closed, propietary standards so that they and they alone could control all of the content. And of course consumers have promptly ignored them.

Exhibit A: MiniDisc
How long were these on the market? Exactly.

Exhibit B: Memory Sticks
These have actually stuck around because Sony's cameras were good enough that people didn't care that they couldn't buy some of the cheaper flash memory like CompactFlash.

Still, one has to wonder if they could've sold even more cameras, PSP's, Clie's and other devices by just subscribing to the industry standard rather than reinventing the wheel.

Exhibit C: NetWalkman
Sony really should have been the ones to come up with the market redefining music player (the iPod). But instead they dragged their feet and when they did come up with something it was dead on arrival

Exhibit D: PSP
The Playstation Portable could have been a killer app. Here you have a handheld gaming device that you could surf the internet on, run homebrew games and applications on, and watch music and movies.

But what did they do? They make it stupid difficult to upload video, they charge $20 for the MD movies, and they purposefully break homebrew applications with every firmware upgrade. I would have bought a PSP if not for all of this foolishness.

Playstation 3
So now we have the PS3 on the horizon and Sony thinks that they can charge $500 and $600 for it when Microsoft is charging $300-400 for the XBox360 and Nintendo is charging $199 for the Wii.

Sony in their delusional hubris believes that they won't have a problem selling their system because it will have native Blu Ray DVD playback. Their reasoning is that it will be the cheapest Blu Ray DVD player on the market, which is true.

However I think they will fail because people don't care about nor want Blu Ray DVD players. The major consumer benefit of the Blu Ray DVD's is simply that they play movies at a higher resolution. Who cares, DVD's are already enough to satisfy all but the ultra media geek. Not to mention the fact that HDTV's have very poor market penetration so most people wouldn't see the difference anyway.

It's a shame because Sony used to be such a good company but now they are on a precipitous slide that has no sign of ending, unless they get rid of their content divisions

Thoughts?

Not mine. Guy I was talking to, car looks like it is in fantastic shape and sounds to me like a fantastic deal. I'd probably offer $1900 or $2000

-$2200
-1992 240sx
-Automatic - not hard to fix (Blair and I have both done this)
-173,000 miles
-no sunroof, power windows, manual locks, has ABS
-AC needs a recharge
-Leather seats and rear seat was reupholstered 5 years ago (hopefully with something better than it came with)
-gray interior
-clean title
-no rust
He sent me some pictures, it's burgundy colored with the 7-spoke stock alloy wheels. The body looks like it is in really good shape. He's located in Woodbridge. If interested, email Greg at "greg-yong@comcast.net"

Well if you havent heard I purchased a 1999 GSX on last Friday, 8/11/06, 67k, Black leather only available in 1999, I love this car, and couldnt pass it up. Heres a pic, if our gallery would work I would upload more, but more to come tommorrow. Crappy picture I think I need to clean my lens....

Exhaust:
Extreme 3" downpipe, 3" testpipe, Thermal R&D catback with neck down cut off.
Ported 2g exhaust manifold
Ported evo3 o2 housing

Turbo:
Ported Forced Performance evo316g

Fuel:
Walbro 255hp
FIC 650 injectors
Aeromotive AFPR

Intake:
geddy rs bov.
SBR/Kinetic FMIC short route SS piping
Dejon tool intake pipe
K&N air filter
EGR blockoff plate
1g throttlebody, with port matched intake manifold.

Electronics:
HKS EVC boost controller
Greddy turbotimer off the RS
Apexi SAFCII
Autometer boost
Autometer egt
Autometer a/f guage
Magnacor plug wires
NGK bpr7es spark plugs
Infinity speakers.
Kenwood Headunit, just bought it and i love it.....
Optima red top battery.

Suspension & wheels:
Tokico Illumna struts with eibach prokit springs.
Yokohama avs es100 tires


Transmission:
act 2600 clutch with oem TOB
Redline Oil in transfercase, tranny, and rear diff.

4 DC United tickets against the Colorado Rapids.

Seats: Section M35 row 2 seats 15-18 Pretty good seats, have to go to the 'burg for a thing with the 'rents this weekend, so I can't go. Should be alot of fun though.

Anyone interested?

Great Falls? Oakton? Maybe even western Loudoun County?

Ok so I'm planning on buying a nice DV camcorder for around 300 dollars, maybe less, and there are way too many to choose from...can anybody recommend one that they have used and liked? Something with of course good picture quality, but also things like good low light performance, decent battery life, maybe image stabilization? I'm going crazy trying to choose. hock:

Sep 30 2006 7:00P
9:30 Club Washington, DC

DragonForce. Be there. Extreme power metal is the Genre they invented. Two of the best guitarists ever. Their songs are more like epics than short stories. check them out on myspace if you're skeptical.

Hey everyone...long time I haven't been here. Just wanted to tell everyone that I will be getting a new mesh grille for the Crossfire. I told the fabricator to make it look like a CTS-V grille. Let's hope he gets it right

Join us on August 26th for Dryft Motorsport's Dyno Day. We feature a 2WD Dynojet with A/F and boost on our dyno sheets!
We are doing another deal for you guys at 50 dollars for 3 pulls. Come get a baseline or check out how much that new setup is putting down.
We also have a large parking lot so come out to watch or check out each other's rides. We will also have the grill out, so come on out.

Come on inside and look at our newly refurbished showroom. Our garage features 5 new lifts and we carry BG products.
Get your BG coolant or transmission flush done here and restore your car's power with our great deals on tune-ups.

We are also an authorized Turbonetics distributor and can get you what you need for your new setup.

Dyno opens at 8:30 AM, first come first serve!

We are located on 700 West Market Street, Harrisonburg VA.
Contact us for questions at 540-433-1179

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Apparently some of these batteries had caught on fire hock:

I'm checking mine when I get home....