There were few cars on the road, and the sky was cloudy, an ominous sight in a city that gets only seven inches of rain per year.

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"Right now the future is looking kind of cloudy, " said a sales representative at a San Francisco Bay Area Circuit City when asked about the HD DVD format on President's Day, despite a pitch for the format blaring from a big-screen television on the other side of the store.

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"Right now the future is looking kind of cloudy, " said a sales representative at a San Francisco Bay Area Circuit City (nyse: CC - news - people ) when asked about the HD DVD format on President's Day, despite a pitch for the format blaring from a big-screen television on the other side of the store.

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