Just installed it. My bluray discs are being recognised again for the first time since the last update.

Same problem for me. I'd sort of ignored my Netflix for a while, but the first Bluray disc I played after the update crashed and now no Bluray discs show up at all. If Sony thinks I'll give them $150 to fix a problem they caused, they're insane. And buying any future Sony products will be verbotten.

I've just got around to getting FIOS TV and these two channels are definitely among the better ones I've watched so far. The sheer stupidity of cable companies is stunning at times. But I guess that they're proof of how having no competition can make a company weak and prime for extinction. I mean, sheesh, AIG has had a amazingly disasterous run over the past year with incredibly horrible press AND they still barely beat out Comcast for most hated company.

Side note -- can you guess what industry New Orleans Mayor Nagin (he of Katrina fame) came from before he entered politics? If you guessed cable TV, then you'd be correct.

The hostility by serious gamers towards the Wii and motion control is fascinating. It's like they're threatened by the idea of an easier controller that almost anyone can learn to use rather quickly. Like a Japanese samurai, they fear the new weapon (guns) that threatens to take away the advantage of years of training (swords and bows) gives them over newbies (peasant soldiers in the Meiji Army).

The failure of Sony and Microsoft to copy the Wiimote control from a financial perspective is gross negligence towards stockholders. Nintendo has been kicking their butt for three years already, yet neither company has answered the call. Which is amazing when you consider that both companies have better consoles, software and availability but are only losing because of an easier controller and a lower price (the latter advantage, at least, has been steadily shrinking).

Though, I would say that Sony has run a remarkably inept ad campaign for the PS3 where it's advantages are rarely mentioned but creepy images abound. Their entire marketing department needs to be shot. And then laid off. Then they need to hire Nintendo's ad guys. Those ads make the Wii seem fun. The PS3 ads make you go WTF? at best and give you nightmares at worst.

Now this I want.

Evil monkeys.

This is great! There's nothing sexier than a herpes sore about four feet tall in 1080p in your home theater.

Gack!

You've never dealt with colleges or universities before have you? As fast as govt. aid and loan programs have grown, they've managed to raise tuitions and fees even faster for decades.

But the TV makers do have to work in the real world of competition, so they couldn't just blindly raise prices. But such a program would increase the demand for TV's. And that extra subsidized demand would make it easier for manufacturer's to delay price cuts and for retailers to reduce their "sale" prices. Adam Smith's dead hand always wins in the end.

Streaming ..... mmm, mmm, good.......

China has a huge demographic problem barreling at them rapidly. Just like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, they are rapidly aging. But unlike those countries, they aren't wealthy yet so their elderly costs will be very hard to bear. In fact, China will actually begin shrinking in population in about 16 years if current demographic trends continue.

It's hard to be an economic and military superpower without young workers and soldiers.