Speaking in a recent interview with PC World, PlayStation Network director Eric Lempel weighed in on the infamous PS3 clock overlay glitch that cropped up when in-game XMB functionality was added.

For those not clued up on the situation at hand, when pressing the PS button while in-game the battery indicator overlaps that of the clock overlay for a couple seconds before fading out of view. While far from a crucial issue, it is rather embarrassing for Sony as this particular bug has stuck around for over a year now. People often crack jokes in reference to whether it was fixed or not whenever a new firmware update hits.

For those clamoring for a fix, Lempel assures one is coming. Sooner rather than later, we hope.

I personally don’t like that either, and it’s something that’s definitely being corrected. You can put me in the angry camp.

All we can say is: it’s about time.

Eric Lempel Weighs In On PS3 Clock Overlay Glitch, Says Fix Is Coming - [eXophase.com]

It’s true, apparently. The entire PSP and PS3 XMB interface, otherwise known as the Xross Media Bar, was made a reality by a single person — Japanese-based UI artist Yasuhiro Yamanaka, according to the man’s LinkedIn profile. In it, he claims he “designed PSP and PS3 User Interface all by myself.” Yamanaka is also in charge of all on-screen localization, meaning all those dialogue pop-ups and menu item descriptors were written by him.

Pretty impressive. With products such as the PS3, companies usually have at least a few people working on planning and laying out a design template. Clearly Sony was trying to cut costs here or more likely, they were fascinated with the XMB interface and just went ahead with it, without having others collaborate. For what it is, I think the XMB works well, so I’d say he did a great job. But there are others out there that are bound to disagree. And well, if you are one of those people, now you know who to blame for the monstrosity.

superannuation [Superannuation]