Rootkits anyone?

Since I was a youngster, I've always been a fan of Sony stuff.  I'm old enough to have spent a few years alive before CD's came out.  I was still a little guy when I got my first Sony Portable CD player. Even though there were only a few CDs available at the time (The Firm - Mean Business, Pink Floyd - The Wall, The Miami Vice Soundtrack, some Robert Plant CD and a few others were all that was available).  There was a huge battery pack that made it really clunky for mobile use, but you could hook it into your home stereo or you could use self-amplified speakers like the Bose 101s which is what I opted for.

When I got a little older, I remember our first Trinitron, a tradition we kept for a while.  I try to avoid TV as much as possible, but even today I have a Sony TV to play video games and watch movies on. 

The PlayStation was absolutely freaking awesome, as was the PS 2.  The PSP I recently purchased is quickly becoming one of my favorite gadgets.

The first cool MP3 player I had was a Sony Memory clip, which had the coolest form factor of just about any gadget I've had before or after.

One of my favorite Laptops has been my first Vaio.

For much of my life, I've had a long running love affair with Sony products.

But this is just freaking pathetic.  Even more so in my opinion b/c I have two vaults. The biometrics stuff is a nice touch but not something I honestly get too excited over, but it was a small factor in picking them up. You really need to read the article itself to appreciate how lame it is.   Hearing a corporate executive whine about how their heart was in the right place with something like this is just plain sad.  If this didn't just happen, it'd be one thing.  But for godzsake it was practically yesterday this just happened.

From a manufacturing and R&D point of view, Sony rocks. They have great quality and good products. But they are making so many stupid stupid mistakes, it's hard to fathom some times.  I really hope this is the last such screw up.