Xbox 360 failure

My 360 has gone to the crapper. It is experiencing the "Three red lights of death" as described in the link in the title...

For those of you who don't know, Xbox 360s have some fundamental design flaw that causes a large number of them (rumored to be every single one of them) to fail. Microsoft has really stepped up to the plate, however, by extending the warranty by 3 years on all 360s.

I guess I am lucky in that mine failed when it did, hopefully I can get it repaired and back before Halo 3 & GTA 4 come out.

So I called up customer support and you know right off the bat that this is a huge problem because they have already worked the 'three-flashing-red-lights' problem into their automated messages. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, I got through to an agent who helped me arrange for my prepaid shipping box to send my 360 out for repair or replacement. ETA on the shipping box is 3-5 days. I read online that some people got their box overnighted, we'll see I guess... ETA on the repair is 3-4 weeks (Yikes). I guess this gives me an opportunity to catch up on some house projects.

For my troubles, Microsoft is giving me a free 30 days of xbox live (a whopping $5 value). I guess they are hemorrhaging too much money on the shipping for all these defective consoles. Not to mention they lose money up front on every console they sell.

Believe it or not, this has not turned me off from the 360 nor Microsoft. I think they're really making of effort to correct their mistake. And I'm still over-all very impressed w/ the 360. After working in hi-speed circuit design now it's a no wonder they didn't get everything exactly right on the first try, that shit is tough :).

Btown and the mob

Check the link. Watch out down there Mousseau's. The New York mob may be paying a visit to ya'll. If you catch any heat just drop my name, you will be good.

Nick D

Show me the money!!

So as many of you know, I have spent the last year kicking-ass at my job at Capital Markets, and it finally paid off. Anyway, I had my 1 year review last week and it went exactly like I wanted it. I got top marks across the board and a ridiculous 20% bump in my salary! Just figured I'd share because I'm super excited. Oh, and I also started trading, so I'm officially a securities trader now!

PS. I'm hoping to get some pics of the office soon, just to show you all where I work.

This has got "bad idea" written all over it

Pic of my next-door neighbor & his son.

Brew Sack Legal Defense Fund

Check out the link. I used to send her more than 500 e-mails during my last job. And just to clarify, nothing I sent was at all related to what she testified about. But none-the-less in the near future I might be asking for donations to my Legal Defense Fund, Rory graduate law school very very quickly.

So I Installed Vista Yesterday...

I installed Vista yesterday, and I was wondering if anyone else had it installed and what they thought about it. I really like it, I think it's a nice upgrade from XP. It's not as much of a memory hog as I've heard, it looks great, and everything runs very smoothly. The new sidebar, photo gallery, dvd maker and upgraded media center are great and immediately usable to me. I haven't had any problem installing any of my old programs with the exception of Nero 7, which doesn't support Vista (but I can write dvd's from Vista now anyway). My only beef as of now is that it doesn't seem to let you run unsigned (or unapproved I guess) programs at startup. I have a feeling there's a setting somewhere to change that, but I haven't found it. So for now I have to tell it to start the one program that doesn't at startup. Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

Hippies - I hate them so much

God damn hippies are killing our society. I blame Al Gore and all those people who think ethanol is good. They are killing America.

Happy 4th of July

Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July. We grilled some burgers and brats with the family and watched the fireworks at Heritage Harbour, a good time was had by all. Earlier today Christina and I went to see Transformers, and I must say the special effects far surpass anything else that has ever been done, and it was a good movie to boot. I highly suggest that all of you see it in the theaters asap. I've included a video of the last few minutes of our fireworks, it was a pretty good show.

ESPY Voting

Just want to reminder all the Gator fans to log onto the ESPY website and vote for the Gators! We are up for best team (Basketball and Football), Best Upset (BCS Championship game), and Bestr Coach (Donovan)....I think thats it, but not sure.

Army of Two (hopefully online co-op)

Advice on living arrangements

I thought I would ask for y'alls opinion about living situations. I have two options I am considering heavily. One is a 3 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment with a kitchen and living room, and it was just remodeled. Downside is there are no washer/dryer hookups, but they have laundry rooms at the complex. The other option is a house that is 3 bedrooms/2.5 bathrooms with a fenced in backyard. The apartment is $550 per month and the house is $700 per month. I can keep my dog at both of them. The house is in a nice area of town and the apartment is in a nice area, but it is getting closer to a bad area of town. The house is about 10 miles from work and the apartment is only about one mile away from work. I am leaning toward the apartment right now because of the financial aspect.

Which one do y'all think would be better?

Btown what

Anyone else in btown this weekend? Cause I am.

1080p help!!

Ok, I am supposed to be study for my immunology final which basically means that I have been researching HDTV's. I know I had posted stuff about this earlier but I have hit a wall and no one I know in Boston cares about crap like this.

My main question is if it is REALLY worth it for a 1080p LCD.

After listening to Chris, I looked at some DLP but they were freaking huge and the most my apartment will fit is a 42 inch set. Costco has the new Vizio 1080p but it has a shitty contrast ratio of 900:1 standard and 1800:1 dynamic, which worries me. It is under $1,000 which is where I need to be and there aren't really any other 1080p sets that cheap. I could, however, get the Vizio 42 inch plasma for only like $800 if it is still on sale. I like the 10,000:1 contrast ratio of the plasma and they seem to get higher ratings for trueness of color and sharper images.

Ok, so if anyone has anything informative, I would appreciate it.

Vet shortage

Alex, just saw on the local news that Arizona has a vet shortage. Based on the laws of supply and demand, that means more $ for you if you come out :).

No More Stealing...

I finally ordered internet today from Comcast because they are running a great special of $19.99/month for 6 months. So XBOX LIVE here I come!! Post up your tags if you got one! I should be on sometime next week.

First choice said yes!

First I would like to say congratulations once again to Eric and Christina (Hooray, I get a sister! Hugs all around!). Secondly, I am proud to announce that I got my official acceptance letter to USF, providing I take undergrad biomechanics in the fall. I registered this morning, so it feels real enough for me to go ahead and let everyone know I'll be starting August 27th. From there it'll be about 5 semesters or so of seriously busting my ass and I will have my M.A. in Physical Education/Exercise Science. I'm also heavily considering a relocation closer to Tampa, but nothing's definite yet. I'll be sure to post with future news of my becoming a grown-up :o)

Big Announcement!

Christina and I got engaged on Saturday! I proposed on the secluded north end of Whitney Beach on Longboat Key (that's one of the uprooted trees behind us in the pictures). Yesterday we had both families over for a Father's Day dinner / mini-announcement party. Expect a date around Fall 2008!

New TV

The rents surprised us yesterday w/ a trip to Costco (under the guise of a seafood purchase) to pick up this 46" Sony Bravia 1080p LCD behemoth.

Hooked it up in all of about 4 seconds and took a look at my first HD content on the 360.

mmmmmmm, pixels...

Cleaning the house

I'm throwing out all my old school stuff, any of the old roomates have any use for my Micro-p board? Also I found a 1 month free subscription to xbox live, first to claim it can have it.

Along those lines...

Did anyone else see this article on the first zero-emission home? Those crazy brits get all the fun.