you're right. Here we go again. It's not even worth replying to some of this. Remind me why people review anything for slashdot?

edit:
Just read your post Hybrid. bang on!

I see a lot of "I can build/buy something to do that for $xx" Umm.. Yeah. Do it. Make a bunch of them and sell them. Come back to me when you're done.

And you can bet that when they did finish, they sure wouldn't publish the results on /. coz they'd be shot down too.

Clearly if SONICblue was aiming for the /. market, as I've mentioned before, this thing would be built into a shoebox (a real cardboard box) with wires sticking out of it. You'd have to build your own hard disk out of tin foil and fridge magnets. Or the other solution is to put a cheap PC in a cardboard box spray painted black with a cut-out on the back for maming your various connections.

Brilliant! I expect to see the blue-prints in the morning!

As one guy put:
Because some people don't want a big ugly beige box sitting next to their stereo rack?

Maybe these people have a single room house and their computer is their entertainment unit anyway?