Are professional market researchers extortionists?

It is my belief that insurance industry is little more than converted and legalized mafia. In light of this, a new data point on marketing research purpose and nature can be seen here. Really, what does it mean that IntelliJ IDEA, arguably the best Java development tool on this planet (not considering Visual Age for Java as it's been EOLed by those suckers), is not in the list of contenders? My speculation would be, it is because the company making the research tries to double-dip, extorting money from companies whose products get reviewed and charging money for review results as well. Problem is, without IntelliJ in that list, the review has little credibility. Situation is quite hilarious as such. And those companies that chose to participate had their money wasted (not surprisingly, with IBM taking the crown for paying 3 times for their three entries, twice directly and once through Eclipse frontend!). Oh, look, Eclipse is pitted against PowerBuilder (and manages to lose!!!)! My advice to JetBrains: stay away from this brainwashing machine, you can afford it still.

Samsung HDTV: needs repair again

This is going to be the third... This time I even managed to shoot it on video camera, how the TV, after just being turned on, would first shut the picture off, 5 seconds later sound goes too, and the infamous "three lights of death" would start blinking. I've a suspicion it has to do with sound subsystem, as it usually occurs when channel is switched, and the new channel is loud all across the sound spectre (such as World Cup transmission). Not sure if I sould take any more repairs or is it time already to demand a new device.