Right in this day and age this really is just wrong wrong wrong.

[MD]

Hold the front page, I'm back in my blog and I'm up for a good old rant of loads of little things and a couple of biggies.

Notes to self...


1. Don't think that you are having a good day; as soon as you do your Creative Gigaworks T20's will blow up with an impressive bang and crackle.

2. Don't read up about HDDVD and BluRay anymore, it’s all very confusing and fundamentally is a big bitch fight of epic proportions. Although it has to be said there is something about the price of these mediums, i mean, unlikely but true the BluRay, Sony produced medium is actually cheaper to buy than HDDVD, I mean that’s just not normal, Sony, cheap? Nah.

Indeed it is. But a friend of mine is into laserdiscs, now much ridiculing and piss taking has ensued about his fascination for large shiny things but you know what, it’s actually proof that there is life in even the failed formats. LD's were too expensive back then and you wouldn't believe the money you can make off some of them now, it’s just insane.

Alas I digress, but I do have a point (for once) and its pretty important a point if I do say so myself. You see back in the day Sony made LD's out of a factory in the US, nothing out of the ordinary there, but now that same factory is being used for BluRay's instead. Ok reusing factories is fine, it just means as a business you miss out on stupidly large benefits from desperate US states.

But reading around it seems Sony might have a bit of a problem. Laser Rot. Yes, LD's rotted, usually from the outside edge or alternatively from the centre spindle outwards. Now BluRay's are doing the same!

Shocking, and yet we still keep buying, I can't figure out why or how these companies get away with it, but they do.

I won't be buying HD systems quite yet, although to be honest to get the full film selection I'll need both but I’ll be dammed if I am shelling out £900 for a dual format LG player.

No no HDDVD is the way for me I think, and I considered getting the drive add-on for the 360 but that leads me to the next problem....

3. Microsoft. Microsoft, Microsoft, why do you do this to yourselves. I am on the verge of buying a PS3 it's getting that bad.

Why?

Well I got the three red lights of joy a week ago Saturday and on the Sunday I called Microsoft and they did a bit of typing and I got a returns label. UPS collected it last Monday; I noted delivery of it on Tuesday.

Tuesday a week ago that is. And that’s the last I have heard of it. Not a jot of information, not so much as a 'we have your box' email. Nothing nada zip.

Pissed off? Damn right I am and what’s more the promotion of Microsoft's new web technologies on the net is doing nothing to dampen the feeling either.

Why is it in the day and age of logistics the consumer is made to sit here and twiddle his thumbs waiting for it to come back? I should have a website I could check, I should be able to know what to say to people who ask how the experience is going.

If I call them they play a message on the phone that unless you've been waiting 25 days please bugger off and go play on your Apple Mac. Ok so I made the last bit up but damn it’s infuriating.

What happens with the month lost on XBOX live? Why are you repairing my console, if you know it’s going to take you 5 working weeks to turn it around then maybe send me a new one and fix the one I sent back at your convenience?

I don't understand it; I really don't and if there is so much as a mark on my console when i get it back I will have issues. Big issues.

Ask people who know my, I take care of valuable things, I obsess about the supermarket parking to avoid the trolley and door dings on my car, I obsess about my mobiles, usually keeping the screen covers on as long as I can, but Microsoft oh Microsoft, I triple-double-knickerbocker-glory dare you to send me a trashed console.

Someone somewhere needs to approach Microsoft about a logistics solution for this, with the reported 2,500 360's a week being return it has to be said, although I didn't play it every week when I had it I object to someone else taking it away from me.

Come on MS, sort if out, don't make me buy a PS3.