My 360 RIP, part III

I got another reply today. Hello Andy, Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support! I understand that your “Viva Pinata” and “Eternal Sonata” game discs got scratched even if your Xbox 360 console was not moved in any way, and now your disc won‚Äö?Ñ?¥t play properly. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience that this might have caused you. Andy, we are very sorry to hear about what happened. Movement of the console or strong vibration while the console is reading …

A coffee? In a pub?

Yes. That is correct. Let me use this strange opportunity to inform you that my site is scheduled to vanish from the internet at some point late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Not forever though, so worry not! My provider is upgrading things or something. You’ll just have to do something else for those 15 minutes. Like have a wash – you bloody stink.

How to install XP on a Philips Freevents laptop

We got a couple of Philips Freevents 11NB5800 laptops at work this week, and they’re actually very nice. Of course, they come with Vista installed, so we had to remove that. Problem #1 There are no XP drivers for the Freevents 11B5800. There’s nothing in the box (not even a Vista restore disc), and Philips have no mention of any of their laptops on their website. In fact, outside of PC World’s online store, the Freevents doesn’t appear to exist. …

My 360 RIP, part II

Yesterday, I emailed Microsoft with the problems I’d been having. Today, I got this reply: Hello Andy, Thank you for writing Xbox Customer Support! We have received your email and I understand that you found that your game discs got scratched while they were inside the Xbox 360 console. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience. Scratches on a game disc can occur for several reasons. However, scratches do not necessarily prevent the disc from working. If you move or reposition …

My 360, RIP

Like 16% of other Xbox 360 owners, I too now have a dead console. Unusually, mine doesn’t suffer from the “red ring of death”, but instead seems to dislike playing games. You might recall the problems I was having a couple of months ago with Eternal Sonata, crashing and freezing. Well, a couple of nights ago, Viva Pinata Party Animals started doing the same thing. Last night, it froze completely, and will no longer play at all. Here’s what I …

Am I ready to go Mac-only?

I’ve had a Mac mini now for almost four years. I bought it for two reasons: I needed a new Linuxy server, and my wife needed a machine for internet and email use. Since OS X, under the hood at least, is close enough to Linux to allow me to set up the SSH server, Leafnode, Apache and PHP things I used my old (P233) Linux box for, and it was easy to use “at the desktop”, it seemed perfect. …

ActiveSync and ZoneAlarm: Happy at last

I upgraded the free ZoneAlarm a few days ago, haven’t not done so in about 6 months, and was annoyed when it started asking me if I wanted to allow all the programs I’d previously allowed.¬¨‚Ć I thought upgrades were supposed to carry over the settings too? However, I’d noticed this morning that ActiveSync, which I use with my PDA/phone, wasn’t able to fully connect. It’ll see the phone when I plug it in, but can’t sync. Looking in ZoneAlarm’s …