XBox 360 Hard Drive Upgrade

I held off on upgrading the “OS” of my XBox 360 to the new Avatar-centric version that came out in November until after I upgraded its hard drive.  My unit still has an original 20Gig HD in it, and in anticipation of downloadable/streaming movie services like Netflix, I decided to go for the larger 120Gig drive.  The old disc was almost full of downloaded trailers, games, CD rips and the like, so it was time.

My son and I decided to film the process to give other potential upgraders some insight on what to expect.  We also filmed the XBox OS upgrade process as well and will post that soon.  I uploaded the videos to the new Silverlight Streaming service I uploaded the videos to YouTube and am linking to them for this particular post instead of uploading to YouTube or SoapBox or the like as an added experiment.  (Note: Switched to YouTube as the Silverlight Streaming would start downloading them upon entering the page, bogging down viewing the Spaces Blog page).  Enjoy the rundown on what’s needed to do the upgrade.

XBox 360 Hard Drive Upgrade Part 1 – moving your files over:

Xbox 360 Hard Drive Upgrade Part 2 – A lap around the Media Center functionality :

Enjoy!

Doug White

Lightship Overfalls Heads Out for Refit

The Lightship Overfalls – a historic landmark in Lewes, Delaware, started its journey south to have the hull repaired below the waterline.  Info on the Overfalls and the "Saving the Hull" progress is available on the Overfalls Maritime Museum Foundation website.  Here are some pictures taken this morning as she departed Lewes…

Doug White

Time For Some Campaignin’

The latest JibJab video pretty much says it all.  Enjoy the campaignin’ in the weeks ahead and decide who’s going to come through for you and who’s blowing smoke (at least more smoke than the other guys ;?)

Doug White

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 Available for Download

Microsoft is now making "Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008" available for download.  Unlike the Hyper-V role-based virtualization that’s available under Windows Server 2008, the Hyper-V Server product does not require a host operating system to run under.  This puts it more in-line with products like VMWare’s ESXi product, also a free download.  Neither requires a parent (host) operating system to run under and both are administered via remote management interfaces now.

According to the Microsoft site, Hyper-V Server 2008 is ideal for "basic server consolidation, branch office consolidation and hosted desktop virtualization (VDI)".  It’s pointed out that customers wanting large memory support (>32GB of RAM) and more than 4 processors on the host server should use Windows Server 2008 + Hyper-V.

I’ll go through the motions of installing the new Hyper-V Server on a dev box later on and try to post a webcast of the process.

Doug White

International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge 2008

Awesome visualizations in this years International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.  Take time to scope out the slideshow (I especially liked the video in #16). 

MSNBC also has a page with tons of other "Science You Can See" links and resources.  Another great resource both for your own amazement and for use in the classroom.

Doug White

Belkin Mini Surge Protector

I just picked up a handy little travel gadget – a Belkin Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger.  I don’t know how many times I’ve been hunting for an open power outlet in an airport – or even in a hotel room in many instances – and wished I had something like this.  It includes (3) AC outlets and (2) powered USB charging ports.  The power plug rotates so you can either run it horizontally or vertically, depending on the layout of the outlet you’re plugging into.  Having one of these on my travels not only enables me to share the wealth of an outlet with 2 other travelers, but it also allows me to charge up my phone and any other mini-USB-charged devices at the same time.  I can leave those USB wall-warts back at home and just bring some USB to mini-USB cables and I’m all set.

Included in the box are the surge protector (up to 918 joules of surge protection) and (1) USB to mini-USB cable.  Another added bonus is a $75,000 connected equipment warranty wherein (from the verbage on the box) "Belkin will repair or replace any equipment damaged by a surge, spike, or lightning strike while properly connected to our surge protector, up to the maximum value stated".  A handy power adapter plus cheap insurance for less than $20.  I shot a couple of pictures at various angles so you’d get a sense of what it includes:

Doug White

Large Hadron Rap

Okay guys – back to some science content.  Not only is this rap video cool, so is the "LHC" or "Large Hadron Collider" – which is currently being cooled down to an operating temperature of -271 degrees C.  The LHC is the worlds largest particle accelerator and is scheduled to get its first full loop test on Sept 10th. 

If you’ve got extra CPU cycles to spare and want to get involved in some simulation work – sign up for the LHC@Home project – a distributed computing project based on the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing (BOINC).

Doug White

Live Mail Lives!

Yaaay!  My Live Mail nightmare is finally over!

Peter Laudati – a local Developer Evangelist from Microsoft managed to get me hooked up with Stephen Sisk from the Live team.  (Thanks Peter!)  Mr. Sisk took a genuine interest in my plight and stayed in regular contact as the Live Mail guys worked through whatever *issues* the Live Mail servers were having with my account.  (Thanks Stephen!)

My first clue that the issues had been corrected was when my Windows Live Mail client miraculously sync’d the folder structure while checking my mail a week or so ago.  The Inbox began accumulating messages that were received from that date forward, but not any messages received before.  Stephen suggested that I remove the account from the Live Mail client and then re-add it.  That did the trick.  When the folder structure synchronized after re-creating the account, all of the old Inbox, Deleted and Sent items sync’d just as they should – even the older ones.

Many thanks to Peter and Stephen for helping to bring this issue to a happy ending!

Doug

Hands Free Law

I ran across this video the other day that makes fun of the new California "Hands Free" law – wherein California makes it illegal to hold a cell phone and have a conversation.  Ironically, you can still legally text message somebody and drive in California from what I’m told (disclaimer: I am not a legal expert, nor do I play one on daytime TV – so I could be completely wrong about this). 

If you’re going to go so far as to make it illegal to hold a cellphone and talk – why would they (or anybody else) stop there and still allow texting from your cellphone or PDA?  With texting, you actually have to look away from the road while you read over your messages as well as read the responses.  I know of one person who’s 16-year-old son died last year and they determined that he was text messaging at the time of the crash.  Why would that be any safer than talking on a phone?  Come on guys…if anything, texting should be outlawed while driving. 

Doug