It seems to be a new bug that only affects older models. I've read of people whose Zunes weren't upgraded to the latest 3.x firmware which are still functional. Though, expectedly, there are few of these stories; unless you aren't connected to the Internet or have it blocked via firewall/hosts file/etc., the Zune software won't let you proceed if it and the device aren't upgraded to the latest version.

No big loss?

I'm the type who obsessively backs up all my data just in case of shit like this, so until I find a suitable replacement, I'll still have my laptop to play my favourite music on. 50 dollars = no big loss. Rest assured, though, it will be a cold day in hell before I purchase another consumer electronics device from Microsoft.

My Zune was among the affected. In my defense, I got it from a fire sale for 50 dollars, so either way, no big loss. Farewell, sweet PMP, you were taken from us too zune.

Victim here, I suppose I really should have put more thought into my purchase. Oh well, c'est la vie. At least now I can finally get rid of this Windows partition.

He's a fantasy author who is best known as the author of the Discworld series.

They managed to turn the broken and (even looking past the brokenness) mediocre game Oblivion in to one of my favorite games ever, so there's hope yet.

I really hope that by The Elder Scrolls 5 they are able to take the hint and get rid of the level scaling. If the world around you levels up with you, why even have leveling? Why not just drop the stats all-together and have a mediocre adventure game? At least that way, you won't have to worry about your character being useless by level 20.