Every place I've ever worked at in a technical role reminded me of BoFH. The tech manager either had no technical skills or they were 15-25 years out of date, yet he wanted a role in the tech side.
I agree with the "tech leadership" role, which is almost the role I take here. While my business partner handles most of the managerial side, and I handle most of the technical side, I still work hands on with our in shop tech staff. But when it comes to on site large clients, I take the full technical role, because I want to make sure it's done properly the first time.
The fact that I own 50% of the business shares would prevent that from happening. Like I said, while he takes care of the management side of things and I worry about the tech side of things, I still have business experience and am not going to dig myself into a hole I can't get out of.
I work with another company who, again, has two owners both at 50% each. They hired a manager to run the business, which also includes telling them where they need to be. You need to play your strongest hand each to make the business successful.
Also, as a small company, if I didn't play my role, he wouldn't be able to play his to grow the business. We aren't large enough to hire someone with the technical expertise that I have, so if I don't play my role and deal with our larger clients issues, we don't have any income, and we both starve.
I have to agree with this. I'm a business owner, with a partner. I'm the hardcore techie here, while my business partner has a background in video production and marketing. He tends to take on the true management role here while I worry about actually getting the work done. It works out well as I'm not a great manager but I can get the work done when it needs to be.
The thing I have noticed is that a lot of people in a more technical role feel that they would be better in charge but in reality would probably just hate the position. I love being in control (hence owning my own business) but at the same time I'd rather leave the more managerial duties up to my business partner while I really worry about the technical side of things.
I have been a manager at a few places and while I did a decent job and my staff liked working for me, but I didn't enjoy the role as much as I enjoy being in the forefront with my technical skills. I did learn a lot about running a business from these positions which is a benefit now, though, and don't regret having been a manager. I just didn't enjoy it.
I'm in the same boat you are most of the time. Most of the companies I contract for are running Windows exclusively, with a few companies having one or two Linux boxes. I don't run Windows on my personal hardware, but when it comes to paying the bills, I better damn well know it.
We did at one point have the borrow policy, but we only did it when there were enough games to sacrifice one or two to the defective bin afterwards. We ran a really tight ship, though, and the staff was a bunch of hardcore gamers (and collectors) so we tended to be a bit anal about how we took care of things.
The biggest problem, even before Gamestop bought EB, was that we had to really push things down people's throats and meet our quotas. At first it was easy, a $10 discount card on used games that came with a free magazine subscription (and usually people that bought it saved more than $10 on the purchase at the time, so it ended up being free, really) but after awhile it became a game of the month type thing. And the game tended to be crap. From what I've seen, it's gotten a lot worse since Gamestop entered the picture.
I still prefer brick and mortar stores, but we luckily have two locally owned ones (one being a single location, the other having multiple now) that have the same or better prices, better selections, and a more helpful staff (many of them ex-EB employees from my time with the company.) Luckily for me, it was just a job to pay the bills and not my career.
I used to work for EB Games before Gamestop purchased the company, and we didn't sell used games as new ever. But what we did have to do was open a ton of copies of the new/hit title and put them on the shelf for display, so the discs would be put into a baggy with the manual. On average (at my location at least) we took great care of them, so they didn't get damaged. But I saw other EB's just toss everything into a box, where the discs were scratched up, manuals damaged, or whatever mayhem could happen to them. The policy appears to be the same for Gamestop, from people I know that still work for the company.
That's still commercials, even if it's limited to channels provided by Clear Channel. Sirius only has them on the talk stations, the music stations are completely commercial free. The fact that Clear Channel is involved with XM is enough reason for me to stay away, another reason this merger I'm not too found of this merger. I just received my own Sirius unit this holiday (we've had one at work since the service started) and if Clear Channel starts to get a say in the programming of the stations, I'll be canceling my account. The metal station Sirius has now is actually pretty good, and plays a lot of hardcore and I don't want to lose the quality programming that could easily happen if Clear Channel gets a say.
Sirius has commercials on talk stations. XM has commercials on all stations. Also, XM plays them more often. The thing is XM said they were going to be completely commercial free and went back on their word, while Sirius never claimed that. They said that music stations would be commercial free, and they are. I'm worried about this merger, I like the commercial free music stations.
The problem is trying to buy a new computer without getting Vista. My dad needs a new computer and plays strategy/role playing games and how do I explain to him that his high-end Dell computer with Vista is going to crash playing some games. Talk about bleeding edge.
I'd say the answer is to not buy a Dell and find a company that won't force Vista on you. I own PC shop and we deal mostly in Windows based machines (but will go without an OS or Linux if someone wants it.) We've sold one Vista machine, but the customer was a bit more savvy, not a gamer, and understood the risks. He's had no issues so far. For everyone else we've still been selling XP. Even our most non-technical customers have read articles about Vista, even if it's just in the local paper, and they aren't willing to take the risk until it's been out and patched a bit more. We give our customers the options to go with what they want, and explain the upside and downside to each OS. And they've been choosing XP over everything else.
Sadly, many of them haven't even heard of Linux and many that have don't really understand what it actually is. But we're a VAR, not a big box, and are always around to help explain and educate anyone that needs the help.
I would see if there's a local shop by you that will meet your dad's needs more than the big box companies forcing Vista down your throat.
I have a Westinghouse in my bedroom that does 1080p, but it's still a bit larger than you're looking for at 32". I wasn't too sure because of the brand, but the picture on that TV is amazing. My main TV is a Sony 54" HDTV, but that only does up to 1080i (and I bought it before DLP was standard.) But it's also the TV with the game systems hooked up to it, and it doesn't look too bad at all.
That makes me glad the only reason I'm getting a Wii is the wife wants one (and that just comes along with the benefit of being able to play it myself.) And she isn't a gamer, hasn't played them since she was a kid on her NES. But bowling won her over.
I've never really looked at it that way, but it does make sense. The/. crowd in particular tend to be much more science minded, so the fact many people here don't understand the complexity in switching is reflected in the way we think. I agree completely that I look at measurements as a system and not necessarily the "natural" way to do it. Just a different mindset, one that not everyone has.
Actually, as students in the U.S., we're all taught the metric system at a very early age.:-/... so it's not like we know nothing about the metric system, as some try to point out. We also always use the metric system in science-related classes; we tend to not use the imperial system.
I was just thinking about using only metric in science classes, actually. I tend to think of temperature in metric while using imperial for most other things. But I can go back and forth without a problem, we learned both from the beginning. Almost all my tools (if not all) that have measurements on them have both =/ I know the US gets a bad rap deservingly for a lot of things, but not understanding metric at all shouldn't be one of them.
I'm in Syracuse right now, and I can pretty much go anywhere and buy a PS3 without a problem. Can't find a Wii anywhere, though (I went into a local EB to buy a 360 game right after the holidays, and they had a backroom of them. Just a few days ago, the Best Buy at Carousel had a ton in stock.)
Sure you couldn't get them right before the holidays, but now the story has completely changed.
I believe they're only allowed a certain amount of points per game (with it being less for the Live Marketplace games.) So even if they make it super easy to get them, they can't make the game have 10,000 points. So there's at least a little bit of balance. The hardcore achievement points people are going to buy/rent the games anyways, some of these players going as far as to have an import system also so they can play games not available in their area (you can have your live account on more than one system, and points don't seem to care about region.)
For me, I have next to no points. I also have next to no games.
We actually weren't allowed to do this (it was brought up to the district manager.) They felt that if you came into the store to ask, and we didn't have any, maybe you'd buy something else. And it seemed to work. A lot of people came in looking for a PS2, and would leave with a few games for their older system instead. I didn't like the policy, but at the time I needed the job. I no longer work for the company because of their policies and instead have my own PC store now.
While it's a simple question, the answer normally isn't that simple. The stores want people to come in. Posting a sign would be counterproductive, because then people would know you don't have any already, and just move on. Even if the sign is in the store, many people will just look at it and turn right around. By forcing them to ask, they were engaged in conversation, which was the point of the policy to begin with. It doesn't make it any less annoying, though. I'd imagine most stores feel the same way about bringing people in. Especially the bigger stores like Best Buy, because even if they don't have the game system you want, maybe they have the CD/DVD/thingimajig that you were also looking for.
I also bricked my unit, which was not modded. MS first gave me the payment line, but I called back a week later and they fixed it for free. But my unit came back with a white dvdrom instead of the shiny silver one I had. It's a minor bitch, but the unit sits in my living room, and it looked a lot nicer with the shiny silver front.
I used to work at an EBGames, and most of the time (this was when the PS2 was launched) we really didn't know when more were coming in. They'd show up a day before they arrived sometimes in our shipping logs, but that was about it. And many times they just showed up. I think the disdain is because you get asked that question every 5 minutes. I know it's not a valid excuse, but it can be a bit frustrating:) I don't know if the EB/Gamestops still do this now that they're the same company, but EB also used to still take money down for shipments (basically, pre-order for the next few shipments) after launch, which meant we really had none for walk in sales.
I'm pretty sure this is astroturf. Just like for movies, publishers pay people to form queues and get on the TV news.
Anyone who really wants a PS3 that badly would have pre-ordered.
I'm getting a Wii on Euro launch day, and I fully expect to queue for no more than 5 minutes, wave my preorder receipt at the attendant, and walk out with a Wii.
Exactly! I have a buddy who buys pretty much every system at release. He pre-orders everything, and has never really had a problem waiting just a few moments to get in, wave his pre-order slip, and walk out with his new system. I know he already has his Wii payed for, and every game/addition that will be out at release.
The thing I find hilarious is he ISN'T getting a PS3 at release. This guy even bought a Jaguar the first day. He pretty much works just to pay rent and buy video games. He said that he's not that impressed with the offering so far. He plans to keep his next gen gaming to just his Xbox 360 and Wii, and maybe buy a PS3 after a few price drops in a few years. And he's one of those those adults that you wonder what's wrong with them when you notice he has a DS and a PSP with him at all times, usually with another bag slung over his shoulder containing at least his 360 and a pile of games.
I completely agree about Nintendo's quality. I've seen some Gamecubes get abused practically beyond recognition and still work fine. I normally don't buy systems at release, but the 360 was actually a gift, so I couldn't complain. I've really enjoyed the system so far, and even though I don't have a ton of games for it, I also don't have a ton of time to play anymore. A 20 hour game will easily last me hours. And the Live Arcade is great for a cheap diversion. Uno is strangely addicting and Street Fighter II is one of my all time favorite games.
That is the problem in most cases, and retailers tend to advertise them like they are a straight replacement. I know the company I worked for told us to tell the customers that they would "be given a new unit right there." The unit was maybe new to them, but it was just some barely working refurb. Of course, there's was shipped off and the process started all over again. I think the people "repairing" the units for the company just checked to see if they turned on, but never actually tried a game in them. We used to test the refurb units before even giving them out (we weren't supposed to do this) and most of them were completely defective.
I have a feeling a large part of it is the retailers pushing them to have a limited warranty. I worked for a game retailer years ago, and we were told to push the warranty. And the result of having bad numbers was normally being fired. The warranty we had to push was pretty much crap, too, as they would replace the system with a refurbished one. This is when the PS2 was new. The refurbished units normally didn't work right out of the box.
Because of this I'm very cautious when it comes to extended warranty offers. In this case, MS did the right thing by extending the warranty on the 05 systems which they know to be faulty (Madden and Saint's Row push the system enough to show the flaw if it does have a defect.) I owned an original XBox also, which I gave to a family member when I purchased the 360. This unit hasn't had a single problem.
The thing I will say is they handled the repair excellently. They sent me a box to pack it in with a shipping label, and all I had to do was called for pickup or drop it off at a UPS location. I sent the unit on it's way, and in about a week a new unit was delivered right to my door step. The entire process took me about 10 minutes on the phone and 5 minutes unhooking and packing the unit. I had looked up the error code on the unit before calling, and just told the rep this. They didn't force me to troubleshoot anything (already did the work for them) and they just asked my address. I've dealt with other warranty repairs and have had a nightmare, so this was actually refreshing (they never accused me of breaking it, which I've seen way too many other companies do.)
We put up with it because we don't have that much of a choice. As a PC reseller, though, I don't sell any systems that come with less than a 1 year warranty. All the desktops we sell come with a 3 year warranty by default, though. But as a consumer I don't always have that option, unless I'm willing to shell out more money (sometimes easily in the hundreds) for an extended warranty.
If it's less then a year old, and just guessing that the warranty on the xbox360 is atleast a year . . . then what'd this guy do to void his warranty?
The warranty is only 90 days unless you buy as extended one. But they did extend the warranty on units produced in 2005. My unit was giving me the 3 light error over a month ago, and I called MS and they told me it was out of warranty. I called back about a week later on a tip from a local EB Games employee, and they did say the warranty had been extended on these units, and my box to ship it back would be arriving soon. The repaired unit also has another 90 day warranty on it.
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Every place I've ever worked at in a technical role reminded me of BoFH. The tech manager either had no technical skills or they were 15-25 years out of date, yet he wanted a role in the tech side.
I agree with the "tech leadership" role, which is almost the role I take here. While my business partner handles most of the managerial side, and I handle most of the technical side, I still work hands on with our in shop tech staff. But when it comes to on site large clients, I take the full technical role, because I want to make sure it's done properly the first time.
The fact that I own 50% of the business shares would prevent that from happening. Like I said, while he takes care of the management side of things and I worry about the tech side of things, I still have business experience and am not going to dig myself into a hole I can't get out of.
I work with another company who, again, has two owners both at 50% each. They hired a manager to run the business, which also includes telling them where they need to be. You need to play your strongest hand each to make the business successful.
Also, as a small company, if I didn't play my role, he wouldn't be able to play his to grow the business. We aren't large enough to hire someone with the technical expertise that I have, so if I don't play my role and deal with our larger clients issues, we don't have any income, and we both starve.
I have to agree with this. I'm a business owner, with a partner. I'm the hardcore techie here, while my business partner has a background in video production and marketing. He tends to take on the true management role here while I worry about actually getting the work done. It works out well as I'm not a great manager but I can get the work done when it needs to be.
The thing I have noticed is that a lot of people in a more technical role feel that they would be better in charge but in reality would probably just hate the position. I love being in control (hence owning my own business) but at the same time I'd rather leave the more managerial duties up to my business partner while I really worry about the technical side of things.
I have been a manager at a few places and while I did a decent job and my staff liked working for me, but I didn't enjoy the role as much as I enjoy being in the forefront with my technical skills. I did learn a lot about running a business from these positions which is a benefit now, though, and don't regret having been a manager. I just didn't enjoy it.
I'm in the same boat you are most of the time. Most of the companies I contract for are running Windows exclusively, with a few companies having one or two Linux boxes. I don't run Windows on my personal hardware, but when it comes to paying the bills, I better damn well know it.
We did at one point have the borrow policy, but we only did it when there were enough games to sacrifice one or two to the defective bin afterwards. We ran a really tight ship, though, and the staff was a bunch of hardcore gamers (and collectors) so we tended to be a bit anal about how we took care of things.
The biggest problem, even before Gamestop bought EB, was that we had to really push things down people's throats and meet our quotas. At first it was easy, a $10 discount card on used games that came with a free magazine subscription (and usually people that bought it saved more than $10 on the purchase at the time, so it ended up being free, really) but after awhile it became a game of the month type thing. And the game tended to be crap. From what I've seen, it's gotten a lot worse since Gamestop entered the picture.
I still prefer brick and mortar stores, but we luckily have two locally owned ones (one being a single location, the other having multiple now) that have the same or better prices, better selections, and a more helpful staff (many of them ex-EB employees from my time with the company.) Luckily for me, it was just a job to pay the bills and not my career.
I used to work for EB Games before Gamestop purchased the company, and we didn't sell used games as new ever. But what we did have to do was open a ton of copies of the new/hit title and put them on the shelf for display, so the discs would be put into a baggy with the manual. On average (at my location at least) we took great care of them, so they didn't get damaged. But I saw other EB's just toss everything into a box, where the discs were scratched up, manuals damaged, or whatever mayhem could happen to them. The policy appears to be the same for Gamestop, from people I know that still work for the company.
That's still commercials, even if it's limited to channels provided by Clear Channel. Sirius only has them on the talk stations, the music stations are completely commercial free. The fact that Clear Channel is involved with XM is enough reason for me to stay away, another reason this merger I'm not too found of this merger. I just received my own Sirius unit this holiday (we've had one at work since the service started) and if Clear Channel starts to get a say in the programming of the stations, I'll be canceling my account. The metal station Sirius has now is actually pretty good, and plays a lot of hardcore and I don't want to lose the quality programming that could easily happen if Clear Channel gets a say.
Sirius has commercials on talk stations. XM has commercials on all stations. Also, XM plays them more often. The thing is XM said they were going to be completely commercial free and went back on their word, while Sirius never claimed that. They said that music stations would be commercial free, and they are. I'm worried about this merger, I like the commercial free music stations.
The problem is trying to buy a new computer without getting Vista. My dad needs a new computer and plays strategy/role playing games and how do I explain to him that his high-end Dell computer with Vista is going to crash playing some games. Talk about bleeding edge.
I'd say the answer is to not buy a Dell and find a company that won't force Vista on you. I own PC shop and we deal mostly in Windows based machines (but will go without an OS or Linux if someone wants it.) We've sold one Vista machine, but the customer was a bit more savvy, not a gamer, and understood the risks. He's had no issues so far. For everyone else we've still been selling XP. Even our most non-technical customers have read articles about Vista, even if it's just in the local paper, and they aren't willing to take the risk until it's been out and patched a bit more. We give our customers the options to go with what they want, and explain the upside and downside to each OS. And they've been choosing XP over everything else.
Sadly, many of them haven't even heard of Linux and many that have don't really understand what it actually is. But we're a VAR, not a big box, and are always around to help explain and educate anyone that needs the help.
I would see if there's a local shop by you that will meet your dad's needs more than the big box companies forcing Vista down your throat.
Big, red, and razor sharp on the bottom. I miss that card.
I have a Westinghouse in my bedroom that does 1080p, but it's still a bit larger than you're looking for at 32". I wasn't too sure because of the brand, but the picture on that TV is amazing. My main TV is a Sony 54" HDTV, but that only does up to 1080i (and I bought it before DLP was standard.) But it's also the TV with the game systems hooked up to it, and it doesn't look too bad at all.
That makes me glad the only reason I'm getting a Wii is the wife wants one (and that just comes along with the benefit of being able to play it myself.) And she isn't a gamer, hasn't played them since she was a kid on her NES. But bowling won her over.
I've never really looked at it that way, but it does make sense. The /. crowd in particular tend to be much more science minded, so the fact many people here don't understand the complexity in switching is reflected in the way we think. I agree completely that I look at measurements as a system and not necessarily the "natural" way to do it. Just a different mindset, one that not everyone has.
Actually, as students in the U.S., we're all taught the metric system at a very early age. :-/ ... so it's not like we know nothing about the metric system, as some try to point out. We also always use the metric system in science-related classes; we tend to not use the imperial system.
I was just thinking about using only metric in science classes, actually. I tend to think of temperature in metric while using imperial for most other things. But I can go back and forth without a problem, we learned both from the beginning. Almost all my tools (if not all) that have measurements on them have both =/ I know the US gets a bad rap deservingly for a lot of things, but not understanding metric at all shouldn't be one of them.
I'm in Syracuse right now, and I can pretty much go anywhere and buy a PS3 without a problem. Can't find a Wii anywhere, though (I went into a local EB to buy a 360 game right after the holidays, and they had a backroom of them. Just a few days ago, the Best Buy at Carousel had a ton in stock.)
Sure you couldn't get them right before the holidays, but now the story has completely changed.
I believe they're only allowed a certain amount of points per game (with it being less for the Live Marketplace games.) So even if they make it super easy to get them, they can't make the game have 10,000 points. So there's at least a little bit of balance. The hardcore achievement points people are going to buy/rent the games anyways, some of these players going as far as to have an import system also so they can play games not available in their area (you can have your live account on more than one system, and points don't seem to care about region.)
For me, I have next to no points. I also have next to no games.
We actually weren't allowed to do this (it was brought up to the district manager.) They felt that if you came into the store to ask, and we didn't have any, maybe you'd buy something else. And it seemed to work. A lot of people came in looking for a PS2, and would leave with a few games for their older system instead. I didn't like the policy, but at the time I needed the job. I no longer work for the company because of their policies and instead have my own PC store now.
While it's a simple question, the answer normally isn't that simple. The stores want people to come in. Posting a sign would be counterproductive, because then people would know you don't have any already, and just move on. Even if the sign is in the store, many people will just look at it and turn right around. By forcing them to ask, they were engaged in conversation, which was the point of the policy to begin with. It doesn't make it any less annoying, though. I'd imagine most stores feel the same way about bringing people in. Especially the bigger stores like Best Buy, because even if they don't have the game system you want, maybe they have the CD/DVD/thingimajig that you were also looking for.
I also bricked my unit, which was not modded. MS first gave me the payment line, but I called back a week later and they fixed it for free. But my unit came back with a white dvdrom instead of the shiny silver one I had. It's a minor bitch, but the unit sits in my living room, and it looked a lot nicer with the shiny silver front.
I used to work at an EBGames, and most of the time (this was when the PS2 was launched) we really didn't know when more were coming in. They'd show up a day before they arrived sometimes in our shipping logs, but that was about it. And many times they just showed up. I think the disdain is because you get asked that question every 5 minutes. I know it's not a valid excuse, but it can be a bit frustrating :) I don't know if the EB/Gamestops still do this now that they're the same company, but EB also used to still take money down for shipments (basically, pre-order for the next few shipments) after launch, which meant we really had none for walk in sales.
I'm pretty sure this is astroturf. Just like for movies, publishers pay people to form queues and get on the TV news.
Anyone who really wants a PS3 that badly would have pre-ordered.
I'm getting a Wii on Euro launch day, and I fully expect to queue for no more than 5 minutes, wave my preorder receipt at the attendant, and walk out with a Wii.
Exactly! I have a buddy who buys pretty much every system at release. He pre-orders everything, and has never really had a problem waiting just a few moments to get in, wave his pre-order slip, and walk out with his new system. I know he already has his Wii payed for, and every game/addition that will be out at release.
The thing I find hilarious is he ISN'T getting a PS3 at release. This guy even bought a Jaguar the first day. He pretty much works just to pay rent and buy video games. He said that he's not that impressed with the offering so far. He plans to keep his next gen gaming to just his Xbox 360 and Wii, and maybe buy a PS3 after a few price drops in a few years. And he's one of those those adults that you wonder what's wrong with them when you notice he has a DS and a PSP with him at all times, usually with another bag slung over his shoulder containing at least his 360 and a pile of games.
I completely agree about Nintendo's quality. I've seen some Gamecubes get abused practically beyond recognition and still work fine. I normally don't buy systems at release, but the 360 was actually a gift, so I couldn't complain. I've really enjoyed the system so far, and even though I don't have a ton of games for it, I also don't have a ton of time to play anymore. A 20 hour game will easily last me hours. And the Live Arcade is great for a cheap diversion. Uno is strangely addicting and Street Fighter II is one of my all time favorite games.
That is the problem in most cases, and retailers tend to advertise them like they are a straight replacement. I know the company I worked for told us to tell the customers that they would "be given a new unit right there." The unit was maybe new to them, but it was just some barely working refurb. Of course, there's was shipped off and the process started all over again. I think the people "repairing" the units for the company just checked to see if they turned on, but never actually tried a game in them. We used to test the refurb units before even giving them out (we weren't supposed to do this) and most of them were completely defective.
I have a feeling a large part of it is the retailers pushing them to have a limited warranty. I worked for a game retailer years ago, and we were told to push the warranty. And the result of having bad numbers was normally being fired. The warranty we had to push was pretty much crap, too, as they would replace the system with a refurbished one. This is when the PS2 was new. The refurbished units normally didn't work right out of the box.
Because of this I'm very cautious when it comes to extended warranty offers. In this case, MS did the right thing by extending the warranty on the 05 systems which they know to be faulty (Madden and Saint's Row push the system enough to show the flaw if it does have a defect.) I owned an original XBox also, which I gave to a family member when I purchased the 360. This unit hasn't had a single problem.
The thing I will say is they handled the repair excellently. They sent me a box to pack it in with a shipping label, and all I had to do was called for pickup or drop it off at a UPS location. I sent the unit on it's way, and in about a week a new unit was delivered right to my door step. The entire process took me about 10 minutes on the phone and 5 minutes unhooking and packing the unit. I had looked up the error code on the unit before calling, and just told the rep this. They didn't force me to troubleshoot anything (already did the work for them) and they just asked my address. I've dealt with other warranty repairs and have had a nightmare, so this was actually refreshing (they never accused me of breaking it, which I've seen way too many other companies do.)
We put up with it because we don't have that much of a choice. As a PC reseller, though, I don't sell any systems that come with less than a 1 year warranty. All the desktops we sell come with a 3 year warranty by default, though. But as a consumer I don't always have that option, unless I'm willing to shell out more money (sometimes easily in the hundreds) for an extended warranty.
If it's less then a year old, and just guessing that the warranty on the xbox360 is atleast a year . . . then what'd this guy do to void his warranty?
The warranty is only 90 days unless you buy as extended one. But they did extend the warranty on units produced in 2005. My unit was giving me the 3 light error over a month ago, and I called MS and they told me it was out of warranty. I called back about a week later on a tip from a local EB Games employee, and they did say the warranty had been extended on these units, and my box to ship it back would be arriving soon. The repaired unit also has another 90 day warranty on it.