Red Ring Death = Free M$ Points

Are you one of the many people who got the Red Ring of Death on your Xbox360? Have you noticed that your refurbished 360 lost ALL of the content that you purchased on Live?

If you have a refurb, try this:
Disconnect your 360 from the internet and try to play one of the arcade games that you purchased. It is a demo! You only get the full version when connected to Live.

Why didn't M$ tell you, or hook you up with points when you got your refurb? FUCKING JERKS. I discovered the issue one day when Live was down and fought with M$ for 8 months before I got "compensation."

Here is a trick to get free M$ points if you've had to get a replacement 360.

To get your points refunded, you need to create another profile on your 360 and connect to the market place (get to the screen when you add points and then backout). Having this done before you call support will speed up the process. Also, get a list of all the content that is missing and add up the points.

Call support (1800eatshit) and try to explain that you need points. The techs are stupid, or they are trained to act stupid, so this might be a challenge. You will eventually be escalated to a "supervisor" who will review your case. List all the shit you are missing and how many points you expect to get back. They will confirm everything in "the system" and then promise a call back with redemption codes to get your points. They never called me back, so I kept calling them until they gave me my points (did I mention that they are fucking jerks).

When you get the points, you won't be able to buy the same content you already purchased with your original gamertag (which is the point of the second one you created...) because "the system" thinks you already own it. If you really care about the original content, rebuy it with your new account. If you want to piss in M$'s eye, buy a bunch of new shit with your original account. Now "the system" thinks that your original account has all the old shit plus a bunch of new shit. Next time your 360 fails (give it about 6-8 months), repeat the process and collect more points (original content + new content = fuck M$).

I have confirmed that this works. And I had the rep I spoke with last tell me it was OK to do this. Suckers!

DIGG STORY

The press conference heckler, Jake Byrd

"Anthony J. ("Tony") Barbieri (born August 26, 1963, Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American comedy writer and performer. His work has appeared on television programs such as Crank Yankers and the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. He has gained most fame for his prankish appearances as a character known as "Jake Byrd," in the setting of celebrity court cases."

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Barbieri

Here he is at a recent OJ press conference


And here he is at a Paris Hilton press conference. Noooooo!

Fonejacker

Taking cold-calling to an artform, the fonejacker is a man on a mission. He's addicted to making prank telephone calls, taking on various guises and voices to satisfy his need to confuse anyone at the end of the line.

Audacity + Deezer.com = Free Music on Demand!

Using free software and a dope website, you can get just about any song you want for FREE! The tools you need to accomplish this are supported on Windoze, Macs, and Linux. This probably violates ToS and some copyright laws, so stop reading now!

You are still reading... whatever you do, do NOT try this at home. This information is for educational purposes only. I am not responsible...blah blah blah.

First let me introduce you to Deezer. Deezer.com allows you to stream music on demand with no restrictions! If you listen to music on your computer, then you need to take a look at this site. It is by far the best online music source I have come across. Search for a song and it will play it. Search for a band and Deezer will serve up just about every song they ever put out (at least for the music I like.)


If you have a better source, use it! It really doesn't matter where the stream is coming from, the next tool I'm going to describe will record it too!

Now that we have a source for streaming the music, how do we record it? That's were Audacity comes in. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Download and install Audacity and the LAME plugin (you need to be LAME to export the recording as an MP3). Nothing fancy required with the install, just follow the instructions on the site.

OK, lets NOT record something because that is probably against the law... But here is how you would if you wanted to:
Open up deezer.com (or your favorite site to stream audio) in a web browser and find the song you want to record (don't play it just yet.)

Fire up Audacity. Click View > Float Mixer Toolbar. In the drop down box, select Stereo Mix.


Go back to the browser with the audio stream you wish to record and play the file. As the player begins to buffer the audio content, hit the Record button in Audacity.


When the song is done playing, hit the Stop button.

To save the recorded audio file as an WAV or MP3 file, go to File > Export as WAV or File > Export as MP3.

The only problem I found with this method, and it may be a show stopper for some folks, is that the recordings are mono and they sounded a bit quiet. I fixed the volume issue by going to Effect > Amplify... in Audacity with the track selected. I don't think there is a way to make the track stereo.

HDMI vs. Component - What's The Difference?

Tomsguide.com has a good writeup on HDMI and Component cables. Basically they conclude that there is no real winner in the battle, but 2 standards with their own advantages and disadvantages. I use VGA to connect my 360 to my LCD TV for 1080i gaming. After reading this article, I feel better about picking up a set of component cables (I bought the Core 360 that came with RCAs) to free up the VGA port for a PC connection.