Way to go, Redmond.

Why doesn't anyone ever write about how clever the folks at Microsoft are, and how well designed their product support systems are, tailored from the hardware through the resident software, third-party applications, and networks to the warranty department?

My Xbox 360 console died last week. At 2:30AM, in the middle of some work (work for the console, play for me), the graphics processing areas of the system fought their demise proudly in a spectacular display of nonsense before ceasing to function entirely. Says xbox Live, the box was running, and announcing my being "online" to the world, to everyone but me. Google it, lots of people describing the problem perfectly along with their lengthy conversations with service techs say it's toast. It's 6 years old, bought used, no warranty -at all-, so I'm replacing. Knee Jerk: "FUK U, MIKRSFT!", but really, whatever; thing's pretty old and has had some long days.

What am I in for? I figure $200 replacement, and a bunch of time transferring licenses, setting up the new box: you know, a little digital moving day. I knew most of my stuff lived on the detachable HDD, but I figured like any other device there'd be a little work to do in a maneuvre like this. No dice. Popped the HDD out, put it in the blank slot that came with the new one (an "arcade" bundle which comes with nothing), and powered that shit on. It was my old xbox! Absolutely, to a "t", as if I had simply repaired the old one by way of some magic or other. Thanks dudes, for going to the otherwise not-profitable cost in time and money necessary to make that future process seamless.

In other news: I'm still sane, and angry about buying HDD storage at fairy tale giant sized margins, and paying a $10 tax on xbox games for living in Canada. Furthermore, my original Xbox is running fine after living two full lives as a retail console (50+ games to completion), emulator (played, a lot, man), and some years in its current iteration as a media workhorse. Don't get complacent.