John Grimes

Great. That should pay for about a month of more misadventures in Iraq.

Ok, this is just silly. An online service that exceeds Xbox Live. You have to be a fanboy drunk on Sony Koolaid to believe this one. So Sony is going to pull an online service out of its ass that is magically better than Live when Live is the most advanced online service for any hardware platform anywhere (beyond iTunes, I would say, since iTunes is simply a download service)? How is this going to happen? An online service is about software and being able to manage a large online service, something msoft might know something about given they are a software company and have a little service called MSN. I think Live is pretty elegant (if you say its not, your a blind Sony or Nintendo fanboy who hasn't tried it). And msoft is just rolling out the 360 version. You don't think they have some bullets in the chamber for when Sony launches their's? Wake up, and lighten up on the Koolaid, it's killing your common sense.

# 25: There's a very simple reason for the conservativies being in the crosshairs: They run the government. The simple fact the Repubs run every branch of government (and prove, ironically, that they are inherently bad at governing while exceedingly good at talking about how great they are governing), it's fairly natural that a comedy show would largely lampoon them. If Clinton were still in power, the majority of jokes, I have a feeling, would be targeted at him. It's cyclical and largely dependent on who is in power.

conservative versions of funny:
-Rush Limbaugh
-Ben Stein
-Dennis Miller
-Bill O'Reilly
-South Park

Liberal versions of funny:
-Jon Stewart
-Steve Colbert (satire challenged conservative folks: that is satire, and he is NOT siding with you)
-Al Franken
-South Park

The only funny thing on the conservative side is South Park, and that's because they rip on both sides. Just face it, liberals are funny, while conservatives are just strident and shrill. And oh yeah, washed up and decidely not funny (re: Dennis Miller).

RE #20 - uh, the cost of making chips is the years of development, not necessarily the marginal cost per chip; and don't think they didn't have to spend to get a fab up to build the chip. All that has to be factored into the cost. Some would say outsourcing chip making to a TSMC is actually cheaper, which is a component of the Msoft strategy (they are also using IBM fabs, as in Sony).

I think these estimates are all guess work. I think there are deals made on costs of components we aren't privy to, and I highly doubt msoft would make a box that cost over $700. Read "Opening the Xbox" by Dean Takahashi and you'll get an idea of the scrutiny msoft puts on these things. I am sure they learned something from their last experience, so they knew some things going in they didn't last time.