LABTESTING THE PLAYSTATION THREE: Pretty good marks, but since it’s still showing as “unavailable,” it’s hard for me to get too excited. I think that Sony has made a mistake by launching without enough machines to meet demand. I wasn’t in the market for one (though I might have considered it as a cheap way to get a Blu-Ray player) and I’m still somewhat irritated to see that I can’t get one . . . .

UPDATE: Reader Joseph Burns emails:

I saw your little write up about the PS3 and think you should check out Nintendo’s Wii. I’ve got one and it’s a total blast. I’m you’re typical colelge guy, but bringing it home for thanksgiving, every member of my family played it and loved it. We even used the SD slot to view family photos for the senile grandmothers. Nintendo’s kind of a ‘david’ in this market, in many ways (although the market is so huge, the company with $6 billion in cash is a ‘david’.) While Microsoft and Sony want their machines to be everything to everyone, Nintendo just plays games. And it does it really, really well.

One of my students came to class looking really tired the other day, and said that he and his roommates had gotten a Wii and stayed up until 6 a.m. playing it. Just what I need! Apparently, the motion controller is really good. . . .

Oh, well, it’s showing as “unavailable” too, so maybe I was too hard on Sony, above. Upside: Guess I don’t even have to try to fight temptation!