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How else can you explain the fact that they STILL insist on using insane proprietary standards like ATRAC and even new Sony devices like the Vita use custom sto

How else can you explain the fact that they STILL insist on using insane proprietary standards like ATRAC and even new Sony devices like the Vita use custom storage instead of standard (far less expensive) storage formats like SD cards? I don't know anything about the corporate culture at Sony, but I had assumed that their relentless, senseless pursuit of proprietary formats and interfaces (among other customer-hostile stupidity like the CD rootkit scandal) was a sign that wacky Sony marketers were running the show, not engineers. Because pursuing a proprietary format is generally a terrible engineering decision. If your product has to touch the outside world in some way, and there's already a de-facto standard way of doing that touching, you'll generally get your product done sooner and cheaper by using the de-facto standard. And the product will work better for the user, too. That is to say, it will be cheaper to make and it will also be worth a higher price. What engineer could say no to that? If those decisions were driven by engineers, they must come from a very different engineering culture than anything I'm familiar with. Even if this really is the fault of engineering amok, blaming "arrogant corporate culture" might communicate the situation more clearly than blaming "engineers."

lmkg 14y ago
Proprietary formats could be a manifestation of "Not Invented Here" syndrome, which is usually an engineer's vice. Granted, it's not often a good decision, but it's one that still gets made by engineers with regularity. The usual catalyst of NIH is thinking that the standards suck and you could do better. So, as you say, it requires that decisions be made not just by engineers, but arrogant engineers, with both those words sharing part of the blame.
dagw 14y ago
Relentless pursuit of building the Best possible thing irregardless of silly things like profits, market share and time to market sounds very much like engineers I've run into. As does eschewing standard or off the shelf solutions in favour of something you made yourself since you're obviously much smarter and anything you build yourself will be much better since it will be designed around solving your problem. Not to mention that many engineers I know love building and designing from scratch rather than using something already available, simply because that's much more fun.
- anonymous 14y ago
  So it's a double-whammy of Cult Personalities who are all afflicted with Not Invented Here syndrome. I can see how that would lead to some massive problems.

lmkg 14y ago

Proprietary formats could be a manifestation of "Not Invented Here" syndrome, which is usually an engineer's vice. Granted, it's not often a good decision, but it's one that still gets made by engineers with regularity. The usual catalyst of NIH is thinking that the standards suck and you could do better. So, as you say, it requires that decisions be made not just by engineers, but arrogant engineers, with both those words sharing part of the blame.

dagw 14y ago

Relentless pursuit of building the Best possible thing irregardless of silly things like profits, market share and time to market sounds very much like engineers I've run into. As does eschewing standard or off the shelf solutions in favour of something you made yourself since you're obviously much smarter and anything you build yourself will be much better since it will be designed around solving your problem. Not to mention that many engineers I know love building and designing from scratch rather than using something already available, simply because that's much more fun.

anonymous 14y ago
So it's a double-whammy of Cult Personalities who are all afflicted with Not Invented Here syndrome. I can see how that would lead to some massive problems.