Halo 2 Xbox 360 Faceplate Has Been Installed!
I just got my printer calibrated correctly and was able to print my first custom faceplate for my Xbox360 using a product from NYKO called GameFace 360.
It's nice to see a company that's not ignoring the Mac community. Their software to print custom faceplates is for PC and Mac, but it's not all that sophisticated. It has an alpha layer outline of the 360 faceplate and you can place image layers underneath. The program saves the file as a *.pict, so nothing special there either. When it came down to it, I didn't really use the software because everything was laid out in Fireworks and printed with Preview using a custom paper size and margins.
And here's what you've all been waiting for: the pictures of my new 360 faceplate. (Click for higher resolution)
First *REAL* Xbox360 Hack is in the Wild!
This morning I was greeted by a nice little message in my newsreader about the Xbox360 DVD firmware hack finally being released into the wild!
This is major news because it is a total firmware hack. Based on the security papers that I've read on the 360, the DVD drive encrypts data flowing over the IDE cable to the motherboard (and ultimately to the CPU). The motherboard has a private key and the DVD drive has a public key that it uses to encrypt the data so that it is not interceptable (learn more about public/private key encryption here).
Aparently, this new firmware hack makes it possible for the 360 to boot original games, "backup 360 games", original Xbox games, and "backups" of original Xbox games. Keep in mind that if you apply this patch, only Xbox games that are backwards-compatable with the 360 will work in emulation mode, but a "backup" of an Xbox game like Halo2 will boot and play like normal.
What about Xbox Live you ask?
Of course ... try all this at own risk. Your warranty will be broken, it's certainly possible to break your Xbox 360 if you don't know what you are doing. Chances are also high MS will very fast find a method to detect this firmware via LIVE.
...so they probably can't detect this yet but are probably already working on a way to do this.
Halo 3 Has Been Announced
I'm totally stoked because they ('they' being Microsoft/Bungie) announced Halo 3 the other day. The trailer was posted to the Xbox Live Marketplace as well as Bungie.net.
I can't wait to play it. I'm wondering if there will be a playable demo for it like a lot of the other games on the 360. The trailer look s wicked. Apparently they have a whole new graphics engine for the game and it can render up to 13 miles (game-visualized/perceived miles).
Can't wait for this one to come out... too bad it won't be till sometime in 2007 
Look! It’s a Tivo, It’s a DVR, no: It’s Windowx XP MCE!
I thought I was done with Microsoft when Dana got her new iMac. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
I took her old PC and just turned it into a DVR for about $200. No monthly subscription fees. How'd I do it?
- Old PC (well, it's not really old since it's 2.15Ghz) - Already Owned
- OEM Copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition - $109.99
- Xbox 360 - Already Owned
- TV Tuner compatable with Media Center Edition - $99.99
Total cost of my new DVR: $224.68 (including tax)
It's neat because the Xbox360 interfaces with the PC and i can watch live TV, rewind, pause, record, and schedule recordings (including season passes like Tivo) all from the living room with a remote.
If it weren't for the monthly subscription costs of a Tivo, I probably would have gotten one of those already, but this is a more cost-effective solution for me.
My First Enrty to Woot! Contest
I've always looked at the contests at Woot! but I never entered them. Well, here's my first entries side by side with the originals (click for full size):
And Here's an ORIGINAL One:
David Weiss: A Tour of Microsoft’s Mac Lab
A Tour of Microsoft's Mac Lab!
There's a really cool photo tour of Microsoft's Mac business unit. They have every type of hardware configuration that Apple has ever made and an array of over 150 mac minis!
Check it out for a look into one of the most hated companies in the Mac community!
Six(ish) versions of Vista?
You're kidding, right? Microsoft is planning on releasing 6 or more versions of vista. Are you freaking kidding? There's already enough consumer confusion in the market right now (try searching Amazon.com for "5 megapixel digital camera"). Do we really need this many versions of an operating system?
- Vista Business
- Vista Enterprise
- Vista Home Basic
- Vista Home
Premium - Vista Ultimate
- Vista Starter
Just another selling point for Apple: 1 version of the OS. You get everything with one purchase. No upgrades and whatnot. Oh, and then there's the "Family Pack" where they give you a discount for buying 5 copies, but that doesn't really count as a different OS with different features.
(Via Download Squad.)
Recommended Reading
- Cool mod: iPhone as digital microscope
- http://i.imgur.com/Bm5Ip.jpg
- Don’t Like iTunes New Gray Look? Easily Add The Color Back (and move the Widgets Too!)
- Free Demo Version of Epic Citadel
- General Web Content: CAPTCHArt
Nike+ Running Stats
- Total runs: 175
- Total distance: 305.50mi
- Total time: 89hr 23min 36sec
- Total calories: 40,864
- Avg pace per mi: 17'33"
- Avg distance per run: 1.75mi
- Avg calories per run: 233.51
My Records
- Farthest Run: 6.43mi
- Fastest Mile: 8'40"
- Fastest 5K: 32'10"
- Fastest 10K:2hr 16min 12sec
My Recent Runs
- August 25, 2010, 11:06pm
- Distance: 0.46mi
- Duration: 31' 22"
- Calories: 61
- August 25, 2010, 6:02pm
- Distance: 1.20mi
- Duration: 21' 6"
- Calories: 159
- August 24, 2010, 4:39pm
- Distance: 1.12mi
- Duration: 19' 58"
- Calories: 148
