writ. dodging classification

check out pownce.com

my id on there is iammike

I don’t have anything up yet.. but if the site interests you drop me a line.

R.I.P my v1.0 xbox 12/2001 - 03/2006

Well i had a few problems at the start of the mod, since i have a v1.0 XBOX i bought it shortly after launch. Its given me a good run, a very good investment to say the least. I guess that sounded like a eulogy for the thing. Well its not… at least not yet. Currently the box is totally disassembled. The biggest problem i had was I needed to de-solder these LPC holes. in later versions of the XBOX these holes are conveniently clean. Not exactly sure why MS would make it easier to m0d in later versions, but whatever, screws me up since i have a v1.0 xbox anyways. It was a frustrating long process, and my holes no longer look very good. In fact i have no idea if anything at all let alone the mod chip will work when I get the thing all back together and turned on. I’m sort of just hoping now. I’m just proud of getting it all out. I’ll take victory that i cleaned out all the holes, even if it got fried in the process. Anyways.. currently the mod is soldered in good to the board, and the only steps i have left is to put it back together and turn it on, then load whatever i need to load.

Here’s hoping it actually turns on again, Let alone the mod works. Keep at watch out for future posts about the progress, whether it be victory or death cert for the xbox.

(i figure if it doesn’t work it just gives me some grease to getting an XBOX360 muhahaha)

just waiting for my mod chip to come in the mail.

1. I’m going to put the mod chip into my xbox.
2. step left blank intentionally (something involving bioses or whatever)
3. Then put Xbox Media Center onto it. This is a cool free project people have put together for people with modded xbox’s to play movies, music and pictures off cd’s, the hard drive, and even off your home network, on your XBOX to be shown on your tv. I figure this is a far more fun and cheaper way to buying a media center PC, or trying to hide my old Mid-Tower computer in my living room.

I figured a large beige rectangular box just didn’t really go very well with the rest of the stuff, and since the XBOX is already there, I might as well get more use out of it.

Basically all the following links are about $ony’s “guerrilla” style marketing campaign for the PSP. Here’s the basic idea. Sony, a major international corporation, paid ad artists, to go around in major cities and paint PSP ads, that look like graffiti. These ads were 1. not paid for 2. painted on other people’s property and 3. vandalism basically. But still i think they figure since they’re a big corporation, they can just go around and put stuff on other people’s property just because they feel like it. This for some reasons sounds a lot like the Sony DRM scandal, which resulted in Sony recalling a whole slew of Sony BMG CDs, because they basically installed a malicious program onto peoples computers and made it hidden, so you wouldn’t even know it was on your computer if you had it. Even more so, removing this thing could break your OS.

It just really disturbs me that some big company has this blatant disregard for personal property, when on the other end of things they are hyper-concerned with people copying their own copyrighted work (which can actually be copied legally for limited use. Even more so they’re trying to block this legal copying anyway).

Well either way. Philadelphia has actually fined Sony corp for putting up these illegal advertisements. Go Philly.. i love my hometown ;).

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/13513545.htm

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/13524305.htm

http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/la-na-graffiti2jan02,1,7831128.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

I’ve seen graffiti that actually looks cool… this stuff looks stupid.. its as bad as some idiot painting Dude! on the overpass of the highway (and at least i can give that guy credit for having the ingenuity, or stupidity, to figure out how to hang down from the overpass over a highway to write that.)

Here’s a couple cool firefox extensions i found lately:

ForecastFox - It puts a little weather forecast thing in your firefox browser and automatically updates from Accuweather.com Simple easy, no stupid annoying adds or spyware. YAy!

L33t Key - This is just funny because it lets you convert text you highlight into different encodings. Like L33t speak or hex code. My personal favorite is the function for Morse code!!!

-.– — ..- …. .- …- . .– .- -.– - — — — ..- -.-. …. - .. — . — -. -.– — ..- .-. …. .- -. -.. … .. ..-. -.– — ..- -.. . -.-. — -.. . -.. - …. .. … -… -.– …. .- -. -..

So today I got my car in for some warranty service at the BMW dealership. Whats cool about that is that I get a “loaner” car for the day. Yep since my service is going to take a good portion of the day, they let me take a brand new 330i for nothing, just part of the warranty service. I’m really not sure how I like it yet. I’m not sure I’d buy a 3 series, especially these 2006 ones, I’m just not as big a fan of the look, plus the insides I can see are a little not too my likely… but its OK. Hell who am I to complain. Its definitely a smooth ride.

Oh so here’s the other sorta interesting and kind of odd things about it. Below is a picture of the key for this thing:

Oh, uhm yeah that key, is just that, an electronic little key with some short range frequency in it. It doesn’t flip out to produce something more traditionally “key” looking. Its just that thing and you put it in a slot and hit a start “button” to get the car to start. Sorta funny little thing actually.

anyways that is all for today.

Yes its a post just about how i finally got a random top banner working so its not the same picture all the time. I plan on putting up a bunch more if I can.

http://fromthebleachers.iammikesdomain.com/

Ok. So the look of the site is far from completed. Due partly to my own laziness and lack of time to work on such things. But the first post has gone up so I figure I’ll say something about it here. The writings that you can enjoy from the above linked site will be authored by my roommate, known as Boehm, unless he wants to identify himself otherwise. The idea sort of grew out of an offhand comment he made about how sports writers just aren’t trying anymore. He basically said he could do it himself, and it kills him to read crappy sports writing. So i said why don’t you? Make a blog, hell I’ll host it on my site for you. So here it is. I set it up, its fully functional for him to start posting, and in the coming weeks the look should be updated to something a bit less generic, but fitting to the spirit of the site.

Its opinion, its a blog….. its rantings on sports. Read it, think, comment, maybe even laugh.

Made some new music acquisitions:

Weezer - Make Believe: I haven’t listened to the album yet. I did hear a good portion of it on the myspace preview webcast of the album though. I like it so far. In fact I’m just about to throw it in my CD player here at work and listen. Really its Weezer, i know I’m going to like it, thats just the way it goes.

Travis Morrison - Travistan: I bought this disc pretty much on a whim, and for my fascination with finding more and more stuff that isn’t quite in the mainstream. Well ok the more real reason is that Al mentioned at one point that the song “Born in 72″ off this album makes a reference to “Break” from Fugazi. That sort of intrigued me, and since Al is how i got into Ted Leo, who’s just awesome, i figured I’d give the T-Mo ( i just made that abbreviation up) a chance. I like it so far. Its a little different. Wasn’t exactly what i was expecting, but then again i really wasn’t expecting anything. And sure enough there was the Fugazi’s ‘Break’ reference, working the only lyrics to ‘Break’ into his own lyrics in the song.

Shellac - At Action Park: This is just a gem of a record. You just got to hear it, and make your own determination. Really not for everybody but its right up in my neck of the woods. Pretty heavy, stripped down rock, metalish stuff. But its subdued, almost reserved in a way. Or i could just be talking out my ass. I first heard shellac from some live recordings that are EQ’d up by some guys who just like doing it and putting it on the Internet, at Transmission3000.com. I had heard of the band before through other means, and when i saw the live recordings on that site, i gave it a listen, and ended up thinking it was pretty cool. Mat suggested At Action Park, so now I’ve got it. Good stuff.

Amongst all of this Jason asked me if I knew if the new Gorillaz album was out. To which I’ve found out .. its not out yet … but its coming out May 24, 2005. The album is called “Demon Days” and the new single is “Feel Good Inc.”. Single is currently out if you like that sorta thing.

In other news, I’m about 10 photos off of finishing my first Lomo LC-A roll of film. I have a second roll ready to go if i use up the film and have more pictures to take. But most likely after this weekend i should be done with the roll, and getting them developed early next week.