..as much as I feel terrible for Sony employees who will bear the brunt of this on a personal level, it couldn't happen to a nicer company. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you rootkit-installing bastards!

Now their new slogan makes sense: "Be humanware". (http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/) Although I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be "employee or customer, you're just humanware to us" or whether it's a thinly veiled "human, beware!"

It was neither unique nor really very visible. Joe public doesn't know about it and probably wouldn't understand if he did.

Me, I love Sony kit, though I think their software sucks and I try not to get involved with their music biz. They're one of the few PC makers that actually make pretty laptops, though they are pricy.

<quote> operating loss of ¥260bn ($2.92bn, £2.11bn)

October forecast of a ¥200bn ($2.24bn, £1.62bn)

Net income is expected to be a loss of ¥150bn ($1.69bn, £1.22) for the year </quote>

So does that mean that the £ (sterling) recovered while this article was being written?

Mines the one with the sixpences in the pocket

I think Sony's problem is illustrated by their latest portable. Take the cheap netbook format and then produce something costing three times as much.

I used to buy Sony products but stopped when their obcession with propriety formats started. They know where they can stuff their memory sticks.

Sony: They've not done anything wrong towards me, and make great pieces of kit. Yes expensive, but still great. I wonder what other organsiations have the same R&D going on for all their depts. I think I can count them on one finger..

Mine's the one with the "SCE" logo on the back, with the PSP in the breast pocket, a 1980s walkman in the inside pocket, and a Sonycam in the the left outter pocket. Oh, there might be a copy of the Sony Magazine in the right outter pocket..