Computer frenzy

Posted on November 20, 2005 by Ian Betteridge

Today has been spent in a frenzy of computer buying, updating and installing, after myself and Kim went on a casual trip into John Lewis’ on Oxford Street only to walk out, a couple of thousand pounds lighter, with a Sony Vaio S5XP for me and some enormous desktop media centre-type machine for her.

The Vaio is rather fabulous, although like all Sony’s it’s somewhat overpriced. However, it offered just about the perfect blend of performance (a 2GHz Pentium M, 1GB of RAM, a 100GB hard drive), size (13in screen, couple of kilos weight) and rather fine good looks.

Of course, any new machine is always a slog: updating, installing, transferring. But it’s all part of the fun.

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  • James Bailey

    You bought thousands of pounds of hardware from Sony? Hmm, way to punish them for the rootkit. Weird.

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    The funny thing about Sony is that they’re one of the most balkanized companies around. The left hand very rarely knows what the right hand is doing.

  • Ian

    “The funny thing about Sony is that they’re one of the most balkanized companies around. The left hand very rarely knows what the right hand is doing.”

    Is that supposed to be an excuse for your behavior?

    To paraphased yourself:

    Whoever sanctions a Company that uses a DRM scheme that apparently installs a rootkit on Windows should be shot.

    Like James said: Weird

    Ian

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    Do I punish people at Sony Computer Ltd for the actions of executives of Sony BMG? Were they consulted about the rootkit? Did they implement it? No. Knowing the way that Sony works, not only would people at Sony BMG not care about someone not buying a Sony PC – they’d probably be quite happy about it.

    For Sony’s music properties, like for most music companies, technology is the enemy, even if it wears the same logo.

  • James Bailey

    Are the shareholders the same? I actually have no idea but if they are then your reasoning holds no weight. Punishing Sony is meant to get them to change their ways. Sony is the shareholders through the board of directors. Unless Sony and Sony BMG are separate corporate entities it doesn’t matter much that the personnel are different between divisions.

  • Ian

    James, Like the ads say where there is a Sony, “it’s a Sony” (SonyEricsson, Sony BMG, and so on -

    http://www.sonydadc.com/americas/about.other.go)

    Or read the fact sheet here – http://www.sony.com/SCA/corporate.shtml.

    Ian using the workers as an excuse is just that an excuse. Do you really believe that shareholders care about their employees let alone their customers. Its thinking like you which is reflected here in this article

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/analysis/

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    Yes, indeed, the shareholder are the same – there is, in that sense, “a” Sony. However, as I’ve said, within Sony it’s not quite everyone pulling together – it’s more like everyone pulling apart. You aren’t punishing the people making the decisions for the rootkit if you don’t buy a Sony PC or a PlayStation.

    Ian, I disagree with you about responsibility. Punish those who made the decisions, not those who didn’t. Did the investors in Sony make the decision to include a rootkit? No. So why should they suffer for it? After all the furore, I doubt very much that the person responsible for buying into that technology has much of a future within Sony BMG.

  • James Bailey

    So basically what you are saying is that the corporation isn’t at fault but just some executives in one branch of the company? I don’t understand that theory at all.

    Sony has a fiduciary responsibility to make money for their shareholders. To make sure that Sony changes its ways, you punish the corporation for its acts. I will not buy anything from Sony until they fire any executive at Sony BMG that had a hand in this outrage and fix their anti-customer attitude. Right now, they don’t seem to believe that any change is necessary.

    Have you heard anything from Sony’s CEO on this issue? Why are executives in the company still claiming that they’ve done the right thing on this issue? Why are they claiming it was just a “bug’?

    Your logic escapes me. You won’t convince me that Sony as a corporation isn’t at fault here. I don’t care if the company is disfunctional. That isn’t my concern. The shareholders must be the ones to take the hit on this because they are the owners of the company.

    Punishing the corporation is the only way to make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen in the future. I hope all the shareholders lose large amounts of money over this holiday season. I have no sympathy for the fact that they didn’t know this was happening. Again, that isn’t my concern.

    By giving Sony money for any reason you are encouraging them to continue their immoral behavior. That is really sad.

  • Ian

    James – Well said! Hear hear!

    Ian when dealing with a company or for that matter with its subdivisons or what ever, there is no way to difer between the corporation or its employees. Sony is at fault noTHING and not noONE else.