Yes, that ill-informed, uneducated grunt... that happens to pay taxes... is allowed a voice on where his money goes.

If sony wanted to create such a platform, they wouldn't do it as a game console... they would rebrand the hardware, and release it as a new product, right?

"which would have engendered good will"... I highly doubt this. Gamers wouldn't/don't/will not care. Everyone else is going to get pissy no matter the reason, right? Totally agree with you on the "removing the feature from existing units was wrong", but i just don't buy into the idea that they would have preserved good will by giving a reason for the change.

Could it be due to the new ads i keep seeing on /.?

what do you mean 'googler'? a user or an employee? i'm a bit of a googler myself... i use the website 50+ times a day, but that doesn't make me qualified to respond (IMHO). i would think that someone who has built a script that watches for unwanted events... has figured out the robots.txt part of search engines by now. people still shock me from time to time, but someone on slashdot that has built a burglar-alarm? i'm going to give them the benefit.

okay.... how do you pay for google support on their free services?

P.S.S In face anyone thinks that Chyeld comes close to having a clue about Cuban's true worth, I also point out that... well... the truth is self evident.