Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote

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I just purchased the Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote to make it easier to watch my podcasts on the TV without needing the TV remote AND the Xbox controller. It also makes it much easier to control the show while I’m watching it.

It’s really nice because now I have one remote that I can use all the time and not worry about where the Xbox controller is.

I’d also like to note that the TV code for the Samsung TXM1967 is 0085. I looked on the Xbox.com site, but they only listed possible codes — and there were about 25 of them. I looked online to try and avoid going through every code, but I couldn’t find anything about the TXM1967. So there it is…

So far it is great. All the TV functions work. The only drawback so far is that I can’t hold down the volume button and have the volume continue to go down, I actually have to keep repressing the volume down/up to get the volume to keep changing. Not a huge deal though

WordPress 2.7 beta Review

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So first of all I’ll say that the most obvious change is the dashboard. It looks great. I was actually a fan of the old way they had it and was a little skeptical when I saw some of the early designs, but this is great. It gives much more space for writing. All the menus are in the left sidebar. All the sub menus are collapsible. The whole sidebar also collapses in a kind of Photoshop sidebar way, leaving small icons on the side and giving even more screen real estate for writing.

The add new post screen is looking good too. It’s a little lighter and simpler than it was in the past. The title and content areas are a little bigger and the right sidebar is right up on the edge of the window. The publish section is right up on top by default followed by the tags and then the categories. If you don’t like them like this though you can move them again. Glad to see that feature back. There’s also a “stick to front page” option that I think was in previous version, but it must have been hidden. I tryed that out and it is very cool. The excerpt box is now right under the post box. I am a huge fan of this, since I use excerpts fairly regularly because of my homepage layout. I have a plugin that does it automatically, but for gallery pages it just gets a big chunk of code and messes up the homepage, so I end up having to set it myself. The sections on the bottom can also be moved around though, if you use let’s say the comments options more than the excepert options.

The last really big change that I see is the comments page. It’s layed out very nicely and really takes advantage of a large monitor. It just really makes everything really easy to read.

Overall this is a great realease and I’m excited for the final release. The next version of the iPhone app is also coming out and has some new features that will work with WordPress 2.7

Mobile Me Review

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After just a week with mobile me, it looks like I’ll probably be subscribing for the full year. I haven’t done a whole lot with it yet, but so far it’s great.

Here’s one example.
I was sitting in class and remembered that I have an NHS meeting this Friday that I can’t miss. I pulled out the iPod Touch and hit October 4th, [+] (for new event), and typed in “NHS meeting” and set the alarms. A few minutes later the MacBook was asking me to add the change to my calendar, scheduling the alarms and everything. When I got home and turned on the PC it asked me to add the change to my Calendar. When I realized that I had made a mistake, the location was actually ‘WHS Rm. 180’ I changed it on the PC and within a few minutes it changed on the Mac and the iPod. I feel like I’m filming the commercial for Apple.

The only drawback that I found in this example is when MobileMe synced with Outlook, Outlook stripped the alarms, causing the Mac to update without the alarms set. I set it again on the Mac though and then they stayed.

I can see this being a very valuable service. I’ve tried to replicate it with other software for free, but it is just not as seamless as MobileMe. Setup is very easy and using after that is even easier, I don’t even have to think about it.

New Macbook

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I finally got the new macbook. I ordered it last Friday. I got it at work today and had to wait until now to set it up. Setup was easy and I got right on the web to post this. So far I really like it. It’s really light. It seems pretty fast too, but I’ll have to see what it can do later. The keyboard seems like it types good. I’ll give a review after I’ve had it for a little while. For now it’s time to go home and finish setting up.

Red Ring of Death

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So it’s been two-and-a-half years and the Xbox 360 decided to red ring. On Microsoft’s website they explain that you should make sure that it is the Xbox and not something else such as the power brick that is bad. I looked at the power brick when I turned the system on, it’s green, looks like it’s working to me.

The next thing I did was to search google for how to get it fixed. Of course there are DIY methods including wrapping a towel around it and leaving it on for 5 hours. Apparently this melts any bad connections and when it cools everything is back to normal. Not wanting to void my warrany I looked for the way that I could just send it back to Microsoft.

I found a link that sent me a Microsoft site. I clicked a button that said ‘Repair my Xbox‘. First I had to register my Xbox. After entering my name, email address and serial number I found that my Xbox was no longer covered by the warrany.

I decided to go on with repair anyway, this Xbox doesn’t do me any good if it’s broken. At first it looked like it was going to cost me $100, but then I saw the dropdown that asked if you had ‘three blinking red lights’ and a note that basically said that if you have the Red Ring of Death that repair is free within the first 3 years.

It doesn’t look like anybody is out of that three-year period yet, nobody will be until November. Anyway, we got ours for that first easter, so we still have a half-a-year.

After going through the process of signing up for repair they tell you to print the reciept and that they will ship you an empty box with strict shipping instructions and to follow the instructions exactly. Don’t ship any accessories with the xbox, make sure you take any disks out of the system, and take off the harddrive if you have one.

Now we’re just waiting for them to send the box. Then we have to wait another 2-3 weeks for them to repair the Xbox and send it back. The whole process is free, including shipping. It also looks like they give you a free month of Xbox live for all the time that it takes them to repair it, hopefully I can extend my subscription with that free month and it’s not just one of those free first month cards that ship with some of the games. It would be pointless for me to start another Xbox Live account for one month, maybe they should send marketplace points.