I'm surprised that nobody's suggested a netbook yet. I bought a refurb Asus Eee 900a for about $150 (woot has them pretty frequently, although I got mine from mwave) and then maxed out the RAM and SSD for about $50 more, taking it to 2GB RAM and 16GB SSD. It has a 9" display that I have set to turn off when I close the lid, but even with the LCD on max brightness it only draws around 12 watts.

There's a SD card reader built-in that you can install linux from, or use one of the USB ports. You could hook up an external drive or use the SD card slot for additional storage, but since all I'm doing is network services (ssh, http, tinyproxy, etc) the storage isn't much of a concern. Going wired instead of wireless would save some power as well.

Best of all, it has it's own built-in UPS :)

I evaluated taking a consumer NAS device and repurposing it, but the hardware specs you can find in a comparable price range aren't nearly as good (except for the drive, obviously). The SheevaPlug is interesting, but it is nice to have a display and keyboard integrated. It makes for easier setup and debug when something is going wrong. Plus, at the time, they were in short supply.

I think that age does have a certain amount of effect on how excited a console launch gets you. I remember wanting a SNES really, really badly. I was a real ass to my parents that year, but they still got it for me. Since then, though, I've lost some of my passion for it.

I got a N64, but after a year or so had passed. I own a playstation 2, but I got it at a pawn shop. I also have a GC, but they became so cheap so quickly that it wasn't much of an investment.

This time around, I don't think I'm likely to buy until a year or two has passed, and even then I'll probably stick with used. It isn't like the games are going anywhere, they'll still be around by the time I pick up a console. Plus by then there will probably be some better games out.

Needless to say, I buy most of my games used, and I love GameFly. Plenty of gaming experience for my buck.

I even won tickets to Xbox Zero Hour, and I don't care! I would go if they were giving the console away, but I'm not flying from TX to CA so that I can be blessed with the chance to buy a console before launch. What BS.

I feel sad for those people who wait in line the night before. I'm going to get the same gaming experience later on, and pay half price if that. All I have to do is be paitent.