Moriarty: first to successfully virtualize the Holodeck. (Granted, he also had root on the holodeck, and the Enterprise computer). Point is, someone *thought* of it, and the first "person" to do so was a Holodeck program, and the ugly bags of mostly water couldn't figure it out.

Correction, re-read tfa, get that this is Texas Court, and Canadian developer with rights... -- my bad.

Anyone who has visited the Dell website with any recency knows that Word is not bundled as a default "freebie-included-in-price" option. The default option is "No Productivity Software Added." Adding MS Works (which includes MS Word 2003) costs $79. So what's the "imaging" problem? Are we supposed to pretend this particular retailer, whose model is different from others because of user-customization options, is incapable of providing machines without a software option (particularly given that this is their default configuration?).... The place this impacts Dell the most I'd imagine is in relation to Enterprise level customers, and all those Colleges and Universities they are partners with --- who sell pre-configured machines with Word installed to their students. Of course, everyone has moved into their dorms in the next "120 days" and it's not like Enterprise customers in Canada won't deal with this from every PC retailer. I smell a rat.

What did the "Web Hype" do for Snakes on a Plane, oh thats right, NOTHING. Just like some bad press will not kill the PS3.

That's because Snakes on a Plane web hype also appealed to people who leave the house a lot less and are more apt to wait and download then pay and sit next to joe-joe the idiot circus boy and his ringing cell phone.

To deny that "web hype" has any effect on the real world is just silly. Ask those folks in Alaska whose little pork project just fell apart if blogs have power over public opinion. They will undoubtedly say, "Yes."

This doesn't mean that the PS3 will fail, and by all accounts "SoaP is not a "failure." But to deny that the Internet bailed out what was likely to be another Deep Blue Sea is inaccurate. The impact was nowhere near as big as expected, but people certainly saw that movie because of hype. Imagine what the box office would have been *without* the hype...

Nevertheless, inaccurate box office projections will likely hurt some people. It doesn't mean that New Line Cinema or anyone else is going to "fail." It does mean that someone somewhere will probably lose a job or two. It does mean that some people with lofty endorsement contracts or marketing tie-ins may not make as much money.

So too, it could be with Sony and negative web hype. This does not necessarily mean Sony dies. It just means they ain't in first. Internet hype has power. It is important. It's just not magical, or special.