Ill communication

I just listened to Ill Communication on my way home from work tonight. I left at 9.00p. I realized that it would be a great title for a blog post, so…

I was at work for the second night in a row until 9p, so that’s ill. I have gone just over a month without posting, so that’s ill. If I went a calendar month without a post, that would be ill… therefore, here’s your fluff piece to put a stop to that.

Seriously though, I intimated in the last real post that I’d fill in blanks later, so I guess this is it. I think that blogging during the summer can be a bit tough when you don’t have some regular topic to shout about. I definitely have never had that, so it is here and there. Well, weekends are straight out because the last thing I want is to be in front of a keyboard on a weekend. Weeknights have also been straight out because I have been getting home late most nights and since those are due to work, I have had enough of the keyboard for a day. When not, I want to spend it on the couch in front of the 360 for a game or catch up on summer shows.

Now, I am not complaining about work in any shape or form. I am very much enj... Continue reading »

RRoD roundup

Well, even though it didn’t matter that much, the second go around with Microsoft’s Xbrick 360 replacement program was smoother than the first. For the most part, it was always informative in what was going on and it was certainly a bit faster. That said, I thought I’d post a little wrapup/roundup for the heck of it. I mean, if I end up using it, it will die again and I’ll have a third opportunity to evaluate the process…

Anyway, it didn’t matter as much because I did go out the day after mine died and pick up a newer Arcade model with the Falcon chip and HDMI port. While I don’t think it is any quieter than the older one, it has been nicer with the HDMI, except for the ghosting, but that is only when I turn it off, never in gameplay, and I think that has more to do with now using HDMI over Component cables as I never noticed it prior to that… so, whatevs. This one has a newer DVD drive too, but it seems to spin just as loud as the older, so no change there either. Bottomline, the only difference I have noticed is the HDMI is brighter, but that could just be a need to adjust the TV brightness… which I might have done on... Continue reading »

RRoD

+2

Another one bites the dust.

At first, I thought The Simpsons Game was just glitching when Lisa blew a Saxophone attack and Marge was coming back to health. Then, it froze again on another big, loud event a minute after I started playing again. That was an exploding car. The third time happened about 10 seconds after I fired it up. The fourth power on was greeted with the Red Ring of Death.

Apparently this animal is not in danger of extinction.

Now, the current system was *manufactured* on 2007-08-23, therefore it has the older 90nm Zephyr chipset. It was the replacement for my first Red-ringed 360 last Fall. I have no idea what will be sent back this time, so tomorrow, I am going out to buy a Xbox 360 Arcade system. No, I am not playing GTA IV, I am playing The Simpsons Game (the one that revolves around Marge’s quest against an Itchy and Scratchy game of the same genre ) and Army of Two (with Ed) at the moment, but I am not waiting 3-4 weeks for a replacement given I use mine as a Media Center Extender and unlike last time, there are new shows being recorded that need watching in the living room. (Nice run-on dude.) This is especially true g... Continue reading »

Spambino ale

I prefer my April Fool’s jokes to be something that actually fools people, or rather, me, but that can be pretty hard when you read everything on the day with a grain of salt. That said, some are better than others in trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Anyway, I wasn’t going to follow up my previous aside with anything when I wrote it, but after a night of drinking tonight, I feel the need. So, let me start with what I culled from the internets today, and believe me, I wasn’t looking real hard, or really, at all…

• Google has a joint venture with Virgin to colonize Mars in an open source way named Virgle
• Gmail has a cool new feature to send e-mail back in time called Custom Time
• Closer to home, Poe Ghostal had a less obvious gag — I liked it even if he didn’t — going about his seemingly forever-never-to-be-delivered DC figure
• The Xbox Microsofties got one out there that I ran across today (added 4/2)

This morning, the Sandbox on FNX was playing Great White and I wondered why — I thought maybe it was part of “My Song Is Better Than Your Song” — but I figured it... Continue reading »

No pending repair

OMFG! My patience with Microsoft is being tested to its fullest now.

I logged into their wonderful support site tonight to check on the status of my brick and it states that I have “No pending repair.” Really?

It used to say something like “Received at facility” or some other such thing last week. Now I have to get on the horn and b!tch someone out I think.

I’ll give them until tomorrow to sort it out. I’m sure it is just another glitch in their carefully thought out site…

Remove your hard drive

But what if that is the broken bit?

I got a follow-up e-mail from the Microsofties today. The packaging to service my Xbox has been shipped (which is a little funny when you think about it). They are sending me a box to box and send the 360 back to them. Ed commented on the way Nintendo is handling their hardware failures and I totally agree with him; they are doing it the right way.

Microsoft should send me a loaner console so I can continue gaming while they fix mine. I’m even losing money on the deal because I can’t use my Xbox Live subscription without a console. I read some posts in a message board that some people are being credited an extra month for longer repairs, but it wouldn’t be an issue if I had a loaner, right?

Now, here’s the kicker: “Once we have received your Xbox console at our Service Center. Your Xbox console will be serviced and you should receive it within 4-6 weeks.” Never mind the poor grammar there (or my own), it says six weeks!

I figured on four, but if it takes them the full six weeks to fix it, then I might not have it back in time to play Halo 3! That ain’t gonna happen though. If... Continue reading »

Rush job

So, I finally put my 360 in for service last night. Lucky for me that my procrastination in doing so resulted in skipping the need to wait on a phone queue for a dimwit service rep to barrage me with useless queries about the state of my box.

Over the weekend, the folks at Microsoft launched a service site for the 360 where you could register and track your console after it gets red ringed and sent in for service. Of course, it appears they rushed it as I had numerous issues using the what should be simple to use site.

The first issue was it did not properly show my 360 after I logged in. Now, I had previously registered it under my xbox.com/gamer profile, so since you use your same Windows Live ID to login, it should have found this, but it did not. I logged in and out a few times, but no joy.

I finally decided to give the “Associate a device you registered on the phone with your Windows Live ID” option a shot. What the heck, I didn’t register it over the phone, but you never know. Well, this presented me with a form to input the serial number along with my first and last name. Yeah, I’m sure you can already guess what happened.

Suc... Continue reading »

Downloadables

Microsoft has gone on a quiet little spree of releasing some good stuff for free downloads over the last month or so. I thought I might provide the links here so that you can update your stuff and be as secure as possible.

• Internet Explorer 7
• Windows Media Player 11
• Windows Defender
• Zune XP Theme

I highly recommend the Defender Anti-Spyware software, so if I had you install the beta, get the final version now. The Zune XP Theme is a long-time coming, it is just too bad they released it about 3 months before Vista is available. It is a mostly black theme that embarrasses the blue, puke green or silver theme you are using right now.

Lastly, if you are interested in an alternative browsing experience than IE, give Mozilla Firefox 2 a shot. IE7 has a much better Anti-Phishing Filter though.

Of course, OB1og looks great in both Firefox and IE!

Rotten Apple

I have been meaning to post on this for a while, I just keep forgetting. Not unusual for me.

Anyway, most folks have seen the latest ads on the telly by Apple. I guess these are version 2.0 of their famous “Switch” ads from a couple years ago. If you haven’t seen them and you are absolutely dying to know what I am talking about, then by all means go and visit the Apple web site and watch them all. I’ll patiently wait here. I got nothing better to do.

Okay, if you are reading this far, you have seen one or left and actually came back! (Thanks)

So, what did you think? How do these ads speak to you? I mean, other than the fact they want you to switch and use a Mac instead of a PC… cuz they said that, right? Did the slacker kid from NBC’s underrated series Ed — wait, wait… you are probably more familiar with his role in Dodgeball — convince you to buy a Mac? You don’t want to be that dork with the specs, right? Just cuz you rock an iPod, like the majority of MP3 player owners, doesn’t mean you are cool unless you have a Mac too, right?

I’ll tell you what I get from these ads and see i... Continue reading »

Quick Charge This

Stupid Microsoft. I’m glad I bought the craptacular Play & Charge kit now that they have released a Quick Charge Kit. Just another way to screw us out of another $30. This is what they should have had at launch and not the other thing, which I finally found out last night only works for my 360 when you plug it in the rear USB port. I guess it likes third input…