DirecTV has somewhere around 20 million subs (and net gains each quarter of about 250,000). While Sunday Ticket is a great differentiator, there are only about 2 million subs for the package.

Losing the exclusive content will result in a net loss of subs, but the ST is at best a break even for DirecTV. They wouldn't be as hurt as it might seem. (Other than the bragging rights for the winner.)

I've lived north of Santa Fe for 10 years and have never bored of the drive to or from work. I was surprised to see the pano and instantly recognized it. I pass by it twice a day and love the shot. So are you a fan of red or green?

The problem is that unless a lot of investors choose to press MS on the failure rate, we will never know the numbers.

I absolutlely love the 360 experience, but by the same token, I am on my 5th 360. My first 360 died on 12/25/06. It was replaced and began to die in May 2007. The disk drive noise was unbearable. I decided to replace it with a core (since the replacement unit was only warranted for 90 days). The first core I bought (360 #3) was DOA. #4 began getting disk errors after about 30 minutes. #5 has been running fine for 2 weeks now.

On a site that I frequent, one of the guys sent a note to all his friends list friends (>60) asking how many 360s they have bought. Over half have had their original 360 die. Many had multiple problems like mine. We will probably never know the real ratio, but even 5% is impossibly low.

A friend of mine says that when he sent his 360 'coffin' back to MS for repair, the UPS counter guy said the get around 20 per day. He instantly identified the coffin as such.

I see the irony that after all the advances in video gaming over the last 25 years, Microsoft is back to playing Lemonade Stand with failure rates. Yes, I thoroughly enjoy my 360, but only when it works. I just think of how much better it would be if there were 'ring of death' was not such a part of 360 gaming.

Great story. I took a social stats course 25 years ago that was taught from exactly this view, perceived vs. actual risk. Reviewing at the end of the semester, it was amazing to see just how much media coverage (even back then, it's only become worse) was on things that have absolutely no affect on people's everyday life.

"Can a common toy in your home kill your child ?"
"Is something you drink everyday, toxic?"
"Is something in your kitchen poisoning you family ?"

all followed by the inevitable:

"Join us at 11 (or 10 inyour area) to find out"

when it finally airs (at 11:25) you find out to not allow your kid to swallow slinkies, or that if you drink 500 gallons of coffee a day, you can die, or scratched teflon pans are dangerous.

People need to focus on solving issues that matter, not wild goose chases on causes that don't really apply. The best correlation between a child's behavior and their upbringing is the amount of time that the parents spend with the children. The more time, the better chance the kid has of being a productive citizen (even with playing some shooter type video games). But that solution is just too obvious.

Hook it up to my 360 w/ HD-DVD drive and soon to be Wii (hopefully)

Wow, how about a game console that just plays games. What a novel idea. I have watched a total of ZERO dvds on my 360. I do like ripping my music to the HDD, but with WMP 11 on my XP desktop, I can stream the music and WMV video from my computer.
Now I realize that the console makers are all stuck in a game of keeping up with the Joneses, but the 360/PS3/Wii will not become a media center in most households. The only place I see that is in single person households. Otherwise you get the conflict of someone gaming while someone else wants music while someone else wants to watch a movie.
But then, I tend to prefer single function devices. I have never owned (or will own) a printer/scanner/fax. If one function breaks you either have to replace that function, live without it or lose all 3 when you get iti fixed.

Kbadone, it could be the heat, check what your Tivo's temp is in the system settings area.
I agree with the external mount option, if nothing else, it keeps the airflow in the case from being obstructed and can pull air better than pushing it through the grills.
It will also prevent those that lease from needing to open their case.

How ironic.

EA is selling a PREVIEW (nonplayable, yet) of a football game for the same price as their last real competition, NFL 2K5.

Freakin' Vampires.