The problem is, I'm not a dick. You don't know me. I ticked you off because I made fun of your misusing the word "proofreader" in the process of calling me a dick. But come on, what do expect? If you don't call me that, then there's no response from me.

My intitial letter was pretty innocent. Just a garden-variety complaint that Farhad's writing was getting too cute. Viktor disagreed with me and actually said why, and I suppose he could be right and I didn't get it. But from my perspective the column was useless until I got to punchline at the end. I've had that experience before reading Farhad's posts, and so I figured it was early enough in the life of Machinist to complain about it.

My name calling says the same thing that your original post said: that you're a dick.

Your grade-school goody-goody shtick -- implying that you're shocked and disappointed by my naughty language (and that it's really sad and unfortunate that I've revealed my lack of tact and dignity) -- says it a third time.

Sometimes, there isn't a nicer way to put it. In this case, I think it needed to be said, if only to make you pipe down -- or express yourself politely -- the next time Farhad Manjoo doesn't structure a blog post in a way that you approve of.

I get depressed sometimes when I'm surfing the Internet -- even sites like Salon -- and find that guys like you are dominating the discussion: being petty, mean, snarky, childish, and insulting to no purpose. It doesn't surprise me that you can't take your own medicine -- that you revert to this insufferable Pollyanna mode ("your naughty names say more about you than they do about me") when somebody calls you to the carpet. Your nasty little comment to Farhad -- not my R-rated epithet -- is what poisoned the air in here. ("Ask Conason for help." So insulting.)

You'll be handled with kid gloves when you can address others respectfully; until then, I think people are entitled -- and even obligated -- to be blunt with you.

This is not a regular, anything-goes blog. It's a theme column in an online magazine. Like you, I'm paying the author to write this stuff. Reading him in the weeks since Salon started Machinist, I saw a tendency in his writing that bothered me, so I complained about it. So what if it was something elementary and maybe he was doing it consciously? It still annoyed me. Far had is a professional writer. I'm sure he can take a little criticism of his rhetoric. I wasn't worried about offending him.

Okay, yes, the title, "Seek help," was disrespectful. But it doesn't justify your name-calling in his defense, which says more about you than anything else.

I enjoyed reading this blog entry - it was a nice chronological take on the confusion surrounding Sony's price cut (and incidentally the whole company's PS3 strategy) and their seemingly continuous problems with corporate communications & PR.

OK - the Chewie dolls were quite an obscure metaphor, but a funny one at that - and this being a tech blog I actually thought it had a place here.

Regarding the price cut, "too little too late" is starting to sound really apt here. Especially when MS will surely have agreed that a sizeable amount of their GTA4 downloadable content payment goes towards marketing GTA4 with the Xbox 360 logo and "Jump In" slogan...

Thanks for helping me out with the definition -- but I don't need an editor either.

And yes, I am calling you a dick. Your comment to Farhad was disrespectful and condescending. It was also pretty daft; you seem to think it goes without saying that any deviation from the formulas perfected by hack business writers for major-market magazines and newspapers is "incorrect." When I want by-the-numbers tech coverage or prefab business writing, I'll look elsewhere. This is a blog; the "rules" are different. In fact, the rules are whatever the hell the blogger wants them to be. If you don't like the way Farhad Manjoo writes, there are certainly dozens -- hundreds! -- of other places for you to get your PS3 and iPhone gossip. As an occasional reader of Kotaku and Gizmodo, I can tell you that Farhad's prose is much livelier, more readable, and even -- ! -- better-organized than most gadget blogs.

Smugly telling a blogger to "seek help" -- or giving him free J101 classes ("see, this is where you put the lead . . .") -- doesn't make you seem savvy or knowledgeable. It makes you seem like a narcissistic, insecure piss-ant.

But hey, I'm just trying to help you out here.

A "proofreader" is someone who checks a piece of writing for spelling and grammatical errors. Farhad needs an editor, not a proofreader. Call me a dick, but I don't think it's too much to ask that he improve the way he organizes his thoughts and information.

Where do I go to sign up for a job I know nothing about and still get paid? Because just by the headline I can tell that the writer knows nothing "NOTHING!!!!!" about business. When sales are slow and your competitor is having problems potentially huge ones thats when you strike. So that way it's not to confusing lets copmare how the pricing went for the ps2 it started out at $249 then it dropped to $199 then dropped further to $159 and now you can buy one with a game and two controls for $125. So why start at $250 then drop to half price because they have recouped thier investment and can now make decent profit at a lower price point. and by the way the ps2 is still outselling EVERYTHING except the wii that means that sony has the profits of the ps2 pluse the receantly announced drop in production costs to help offset losses. And yes as some 360 fans constantly point out ps3's library of exclusive titles is a little thin but being able to play most all of the ps2 games (upscaled into hi def i might add) plus the titles made for for the ps3 the ps3 ends up with the biggest library of all. Microsoft took advantage of the fact that the ps3 is a complicated machine and the 360 is basically off the shelf parts put those two together and you have a much earlier launch of the 360 again that's called business. And when the 360 launched it didn't have much of a library either so microsoft went and signed developers up to make games and they used there position as the leader of next gen consloes to get exclusive games, again called business and now that the ps3 is showing promise devlopers are signing deals with sony I wonder why? could it be business?

In the future if your going to write an article like this I would suggest using a different headline like "Here's a story I know nothing about but I still pulled it from the wire anyway because it sounds good and so I didn't have to do any real work today"