neurological dryer lint

wired's got an article generating some buzz on whether the PS3 will stop sony's sad decline, or if it's the final nail in their coffin.

personally, i think anyone who drops $600 on a PS3 is either mentally ill, or Scrooge McDuck. consumers didn't follow when neo-geo asked for disgusting amounts of money, and i doubt many will follow sony - with the exception of sony fanboys and clueless parents who, a year later, buy their kids their first Benz.

how quickly the tides turn. ten years ago, sony was emerging as the leader, trouncing sega and nintendo. now everyone's looking at them like the loud drunk guy at a party, acting the fool, thinking they're behaving completely reasonably.

wired makes a point that i think cannot be understated: a significant contributor to sony's long downward spiral has been their continual backing of proprietary technology that they control. you have to feel bad for them, almost. days when i find myself making dumb decisions driven purely by emotion, or making statements i'm not sure are true, and having them end up being wrong, i flushed, frustrated, and ashamed for a while.

so i can't imagine sony management's sheepishness at getting dissed consistently over the years - on beta, minidisc, UMD, ATRAC-3, and now likely blu-ray. they are a historical case study in the preference of the consumer - we want interoperability, standards, commonality, not only because it's cheaper, but because it gives us more choice. we don't want proprietary formats, even if they provide some advantages over the standard ones.

(darkwing duck = still better than ducktales)