Chris Kirby's Inner Monolog : Hardware

The Red Ring of Death, how festive...

Chris Kirby — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:43:24 GMT

Dear original 360 owners, if you have a pre hdmi Xbox 360, then your console is basically a ticking time bomb that will die at any time. Fortunately for me, it lasted just over 1.5 years before it finally fried. All it took was a 6 hour session of guitar hero III for mine to experience the warning signs (consistent game freezes) and finally detonate. Nearly everyone I know with a 360 lately has had the same issue...which can probably be attributed to the latest crop of games exploiting the full horsepower of the console. The one good thing out of the whole experience is that Microsoft will still repair this particular issue free of charge, in or out of warranty; which, in my opinion, is their rightful obligation to do so. Also, on the upside, it only took a total of 2 weeks (1 week just to get the box) to receive the repaired unit back...which was considerably faster than the estimated 6 weeks. And they threw in 1 month free of Live Gold, which was a nice bonus. Though, I had already purchased a new Elite, since I am the Zen master of patience...so time was less of an issue for me. If you do have a pre hdmi 360, don't bother with the cooling units either. Most forums on the subject suggest that using a cooling unit may even have the opposite effect causing additional strain and possibly voiding the warranty.

Zune battery drain issues

Chris Kirby — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:18:16 GMT

I just recently noticed this issue discussed on engadget, primarily because I leave it connected to the syc cable all day which keeps the battery topped up. I also wonder if its related to the reports of the much shorter than advertised audio playback battery time. The review shows only 22 hours of real world playback time with wireless off, which is far less than the 30 advertised. I've not verified this myself, but I'm sure my experience will be slightly different given that I use a set of Bose headphones in place of the included premium in-ears.

I'm sure both these issues can be worked out with a new firmware release, I just hope its soon. Until then though, MS recommends you manually power down the device by holding back and down. And, I would leave the wireless adapter off until you intend on using it for sync or social.

Why I chose the new Zune over the iPod touch

Chris Kirby — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:45:00 GMT

Seems crazy right? I thought so at first considering that the iPod touch was probably the coolest gadget I've held in my hands to date. Not only was it thin, small, and of high quality build components but also had a revolutionary touch screen interface originally available only on the iPhone. With all that said, there were some things that just didn't work for me and my Windows centric lifestyle, and I ultimately decided to return it.

iTunes.
Is there a more bloated and clunky media application for Vista? I think not! it totally pukes on a library as large as mine (16,000 songs) and continually created system instability and crashes. I've literally spent countess hours uninstalling and reinstalling, trying to figure this out, but I think it simply comes down to poor support for a large network library of music (all my songs reside on a local file server connect via gigabit LAN). Previously I used alternative software like Anapod, but there is currently no support for the Touch. And even if it did, doesn't support podcasts and store bought music.

Windows Media Support.
The only way around this is was to literally have iTunes convert all of my wma tracks to aac audio files. Now, initially that wasn't a deal breaker for me, but considering I have over 4,000 wma files in my library, it turned out to be quite an overwhelming task. That, and I'm stuck with 4,000 duplicate tracks needed only for iTunes and the iPod. Third, its overall inability to integrate in to my tech lifestyle. Since the iPod touch is Internet enabled via its built-in 802.11 b/g, it has a couple of the killer iPhone features such as safari and YouTube. While initially great, this created too much gadget crossover for me since I already carry with me an 802.11 b/g and 3g enabled window mobile 6 smart phone which can do both of those things, though admittedly not as well. In addition to that, it has no support for my Xbox 360 (and I'm not talking about the crappy library sharing via iTunes, which does not work with network tracks btw) and no glimmer of future support for a subscription music service via iTunes or the wireless store on the iPod.

Storage And Cost.
The device itself was limited to about 14 gigs of flash storage and cost $400 bucks. At the end of the day, it was just too little and too much to justify.

Now on the the new Zune. I snagged one of the rare 80gb models last Tuesday at a Target near me, and have been very pleased with it thus far. For starters, its a LOT smaller that the old 30gb brick, with nearly 3x the storage capacity, and a cost of only $249 bucks. So already its off to a better start.

The Software.
The new Zune software is a significant upgrade from the original. The interface has been totally redesigned for the better and looks and acts as I would expect a Microsoft developed WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) app to, even though it unfortunately is not WPF based. The navigation is a clean as it comes, and actually reminds me of the iPod touch interface experience quite a bit, less the touch screen of course. The new features included with the software are complete podcast subscription support via Collection or the Zune Marketplace (finally!), integration with the new Social, and wireless synchronization over your local wifi network. The podcast support is great, as of now they have a growing catalog of choices via the marketplace, or you can add the rss feed directly in the podcast section of your collection. Best part is that all iTunes podcast feeds designed for the iPod will work natively on the Zune, no transcoding necessary! The Social has been beefed up as well, which now has a built in messaging system, a new Zune card which shows all your recently played tracks and music prefs to your friends, and has even tighter integration with my Xbox live gamer tag...e.g. friends list and shared MS points. All of that combined point to some pretty amazing things on the horizon for Zune and 360 owners...I'm already envisioning full marketplace and social integration with Xbox. Just imagine being able to stream your subscription music or Zune radio channels on your Xbox while playing some Halo 3! The wireless sync is a very nice feature as well, though when I did it for a fairly decent size sync, it ate most of my battery in the process.

The Hardware.
This time around its got some significant improvements. The most notable are the size and construction, the new touch sensitive dial, and the incredible premium headphones. The size seems half the foot print of the original, and Microsoft used some higher quality components on the exterior. Primarily the change to a glass screen instead of plastic, the extra .2 inches of screen real estate. On the inside they added chip support for MPEG-4 and H.264 a/v an updated wireless adapter which now supports wpa2 security, and a new hard drive that's smaller and allows for 30 hours of audio playback on one charge. The touch sensitive dial is a very nice addition as well, it works just as you would expect sliding in the direction you wish to navigate. It's also a convenient way to adjust the volume when playing music and video...you even have the option to turn it off if you don't care to use it. Lastly, the new included premium headphones were the real surprise for me. They are hands down the best in-ear headphones that I've ever seen included with a media device...and I've bought a lot of music and video players over the years. The earpieces themselves come with 3 sizes of ear fittings and magnetically stick together for storage, which is even more convenient then you would realize. Also, the cord for the headphones are wrapped in a thin rope vs your typical plastic casing, which makes them considerably more durable. Granted, they will not take the place of my uber expensive Bose noise canceling headphones, but they are an excellent and more portable alternative for certain situations.

Final thoughts.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with my decision. Not only did I save $150 bucks, but I now have a music player and software that tightly integrates with the OS and gaming platforms that I already use. And, as much as Apple has done to make the iPod at home on Windows, it just isn't enough to compete. And honestly, I don't think they care. They would much prefer and have certainly designed for their devices to function in their world of the Apple desktop and the Apple TV, which is fine considering the Zune is equally targeted to the Microsoft universe. Though, i would love to have one of those 17" Macbook Pro's running Leopard and Vista, they truly do make some, usually unrivaled, hardware.

Alienware, The Suckers OEM

Chris Kirby — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:33:00 GMT

Want to pay top dollar for a brand new partially working gaming pc with a voided warranty? Or better yet, would you like to pay $4,000 do get kicked in the balls? oh yes please!!! Then Alienware is the company for you!

Some background...I've been building my own PC's for some time now until about two years ago when I decided to go with a fully pimped out Alienware gaming PC. I was at the point where I could afford to pay a boutique shop (at the time) to do it all for me with a warranty and the whole nine. My initial experience with them was average at best. My order took longer than expected and when it finally did arrive, it was missing the software disc containing all the drivers and the radiator for the liquid cooling system was mounted improperly. For the disc, which I absolutely needed since it contained the retail apps for my x-fi sound card, it took several support chats, a 6 dollar shipping fee, and 2 weeks to arrive at my door. As for the radiator, I was able to rig it properly using my past experiences in building my own over the years. Needless to say, a pretty rocky start. However, given all that, the machine itself has preformed decently for me over the past 2 years...enough so that I recommended them to a friend. Which brings me to today.

My friend ordered his $4,000+ rig just a few months ago online. The estimated delivery time was roughly 4 weeks, but it took over 6 weeks to arrive. And that was after server phone calls, getting a separate excuse each time to explain the delay....and no, their online order status system has not improved one bit over the two years, it literally stayed at the initial payment received phase for over a month. Now to the guts of the story. The computer arrived and my friend did a clean install of Vista Ultimate followed by all the accompanying drivers and applications that came on the Alienware system CD. During the first days of operation things just weren't working right, the sound wasn't working, the Alienware configured Nforce raid 0 array was notifying him of read and write errors, and the computer was randomly rebooting and/or blue screening. Now, given that I've been a windows user since 95, the very first thing you do in a case like this is to check and update all your drivers. And, as usual, nearly all of the drivers provided on the included cd had a new update available from their respective manufactures web sites. Including Nforce chipset drivers, Nvidia graphics drivers, new x-fi drivers, and even motherboard bios updates. Now, none of this is new to you if your a PC owner...to keep windows and especially games running in peak condition, we have to do the update rounds quite often. Ok...so all of that was done, and there still seemed to be something wrong. At that point, he was still receiving some read/write errors from the raid array and getting the less frequent random reboot. Now, given that all the software was as current as it could be, he turned to hardware as the possible culprit...specifically a memory module (4x1gb) or a bad hard drive (2x150gb raptor's) given the symptoms. As of this point in the story, my friend was about 45 days in and beyond the 30 day money back guarantee, but he really had nothing to worry about since he paid for the upgraded 3 year full boat warranty which would cover any hardware problem over the duration. So, he finally had no choice but to call up Alienware support, which was where it all went horribly, and almost criminally wrong. He proceeded to tell the support tech about all the trouble he had been having and what he had been doing in attempts to resolve the issue...then he gets to the part where he said that he upgraded the bios to the latest version, and the tech completely shuts down. "Sir, there is nothing I can do since you've upgraded your bios. You warranty is now void and we have you recorded saying that you did it" ... let me repeat that, His warranty was now VOID, his $300 cash upgraded 3 year warranty, is VOID, because he update the bios to the latest version!! Un-fucking believable to say the least...what gamer or pc enthusiast on the planet would not update his/her bios to get the latest fixes and features out of THE main component of the PC? To make things even worse, the tech even refused to help or provide support in any way after that...meaning that not only are they out to screw you out of your warranty, but they have no interest in even supporting their products or their customers, in or out of warranty. Not to mention that MY Alienware, that sits below me as I type this, was in fact never under warranty, since the very first thing I did when I got it was to update the chipset drivers and the motherboard bios. Thanks for nothing!

I'll tell you this Alienware, you've made a very motivated and relentless enemy here, since I've now made it my mission to tell as many people as I can about this outrageous and shocking experience. And I think it goes without saying, that neither I, my friend, or anyone we know, meet, speak to, wave at, point towards, or write about will not even consider buying an Alienware PC, Server, Notebook, Media Center, Monitor, Mouse Pad, Mug, T-Shirt, Sticker, Talking Yogurt Doll, or Flamethrower!

Guitar Hero III...I don't want it, I just need it!

Chris Kirby — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 01:20:00 GMT

I've only had the game for a few days now, but I'm already hooked. Granted, I suck something horrible, but that hooks me in even more ;) Any game where you get to battle the devil playing the "Devil Went Down To Georgia" is a guaranteed hit in my book! I especially love the 4 skill levels so a noob like me can get in to it right away on easy, and work my way up...though, I can't even fathom handling expert mode on any song, that's just pure insanity. I haven't check out the xbox live stuff yet, but I plan too as soon as a soon as I can hold my own a few of the songs at a higher skill level. I get pwned enough in H3 as it is ;)

Though, with that said, I was utterly shocked and demoralized when I saw this video below. All I can say is hallelujah, and holy shit!

Spore lives!!...for the Nintendo Wii

Chris Kirby — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:05:23 GMT

In an interview with The Guardian, Will Wright confirms that Spore, the god game dealing with species evolution, is being made for the Nintendo Wii. In February, executives from EA confirmed that it was being made for the Nintendo DS too. He talks a little bit about the Wii and DS, and says that he loves Advance Wars. Nice. View on Digg

Looks like Spore is not dead after all! I've been waiting for this game ever since it was announced and demoed several years ago. Though, I'm not entirely sold on publishing it exclusively for the Wii, due to its unimpressive graphics performance and lack of hard drive...but I suppose only time will tell. Once thing is for sure though, we're in for an infinitely more interesting interface given the Wii's capabilities.

Xbox 360 spring update...best yet

Chris Kirby — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:52:00 GMT

The 360 is finally getting some key features that I've been waiting for! Next months update (5/7) will include all the goodies in this press release... among them, live anywhere support via live messenger integration and, from the "its-about-time-department", H.264/MPEG-4 video support. With this announcement and the upcoming arrival of the 120gb drive (separately or on Elite system), there really is no better time to pick up a 360...not to mention the IPTV service thats slated for later in the year, no iTunes required ;)

First day with the Zune

Chris Kirby — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:08:00 GMT

I was planning on getting a Zune sometime next year, once they beefed up the software/firmware a bit, but to my surprise, Santa decided hook me up with one on Christmas morning! I guess those cookies and Jager I left for him paid off...

My first impression of the Zune and the companion software was very reminiscent of hooking up the 360 or more recently, the Wii for the first time. In that, that hardware seemed solid and full of potential, but the software was nowhere close. I believe that this is both a good and a bad thing. The good being that you now have a device which is capable of achieving a countless number of additional features, given its unique hardware features. Specifically the onboard wireless and the windows live integration. The bad being that this potentially great device is quite limited for the time being, and may not be up to the standards of the veteran Creative players or even the iPod. Which, unfortunately, has become common place in this 'beta' software age we now live in.

With that said, I think there are some specific things Microsoft will need to do to in order for the Zune to be successful. First, it needs to ride on the coat tails of the Xbox 360. Meaning that it should have wirelessly integrated with my 360 out of the box...giving all 6+ million 360 owners an immediate need to ditch their iPod and pick up a Zune. Second, clean up the DRM mess. Do i use Urge or Zune marketplace? Why doesn't my Zune work with Windows Media Player 11? What do i do with my PlaysForSure tracks? Will it DRM uninfected tracks share via wireless? Finally, get me the features that will bring the Zune up to par and eventually set it apart. We need podcasting support, games, and a video marketplace just to catch up to the competition...and real wireless functionality with tighter live integration to surpass it.

So, buy one or not? Well, for me, the potential and the quality of existing features was enough...but i'm not conviced that its ready for the masses just yet. Afterall, its the hardware that sells it, and the software that keeps it.

Wii has landed.

Chris Kirby — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:48:00 GMT

I was finally able to secure a Wii, thanks to my friend Brian. I did end up paying a littler over retail, but it was definitely worth it to snag one before the holidays. My wife really wanted one so I was tying to come through as a nice surprise...I also picked up Zelda for her because she is an avid fan of the entire series. Now, the mission is to locate a few more remotes, because beating the computer at tennis and baseball just doesn't' seem to satisfy my competitive spirit ;)

My first 24 hours with the Wii wasn't all sunshine though. For some reason, it refuses to connect with my Linksys WRT54G wireless router (most popular router on the planet)! I do have WPA encryption enabled (which Wii supports), but i can't even get it to connect with no encryption at all...finally, i was able to get a connection to my neighbors Linksys router...which is the same brand/model !?! And to top it all off, i don't even have the option of running a hard line to it...now that just wrong!

Vista's all gowed up

Chris Kirby — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:32:53 GMT

Its official...November 30th launch for Vista and Office 2007!

I think i'm going to go for the install right away, but dual booting only to start. I have over 100 apps installed on my primary workstation workstation, so an upgrade is definitely out of the question. And, its unclear from nvidia's site whether or not they will be ready with release drivers at the time of Vista's business launch. As of now, they have beta graphics drivers for Vista RC2 and beta nforce drivers for Vista B2. So, until they release nforce support for rc2 or higher, i'll probably have to hold off...can't do much without raid or network drivers.

My dell widescreens go vertical

Chris Kirby — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 18:35:02 GMT

I may be marginally insane, but once i saw this stand, I had to have it.

Sometimes these 20" widescreens can take up a little too much horizontal real estate...So, what better solution then to stack em' high ;) Now I guess its time to add that 24" widescreen in portrait mode to the right!

Virtualization showdown

Chris Kirby — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:25:00 GMT

I've been a huge fan of virtualization over the years. Its definitely the best way to maximize any workstation or server environment. I've always used VMware workstation on my desktop to test and demo software...and its especially great for demoing Linux environments on windows. I also heavily utilized virtualization on my Windows 2003 servers...so for the past year or so, i've been running Microsoft's free virtual server technology, Virtual Server 2005, to run additional web, mail, and database servers on my network. But, since the arrival of the first VMware server RC, I've been using a mixed virtual environment. Some servers are running VS 2005 R2 and some are running VMware server 1.0. The reason for this was to basically see how both tech's stood up to one another when it comes to management, deployment, performance.

On the management side, both offer excellent (and free) tools for managing the various virtual machines on a particular server...though, each take a slightly different approach. VS 2005's server/machine management is entirely web based (including remote control), with the exception of a very basic, remote desktop like client, that can directly connect to vm from your desktop. VMware also has a web based app, but it can only be used for monitoring the server/machines and changing some basic options. For complete management, its best to used the virtual console provided with the server install. The console is nearly identical to the vmware workstation interface, which allows you to manage multiple virtual machines at the same time as well as all of the available server settings. For me, the overall winner so far, is VMware. The desktop management interface is really in a different league from anything Microsoft currently offers with VS 2005. Though, I will say that VS 2005 has one significant option that stands out when running multiple vm's...In the web management there are a series of settings that allow you to set processor utilization caps and percentage base processor priorities on a server or machine wide basis. Now that is something that VMware server should have definitely included in this release, though the support for multiple virtual processors makes up for it, for the time being.

With deployment, neither one really stands out as far as functionality. Meaning, that I belive both do well at this by supporting the concept of Virtual Appliances. Virtual Appliance is a term make popular by VMware that basically describes a virtual machine which is ready to go with little to no configuration after startup. Now, technically, VS 2005 doesn't have tools to specifically support this concept, though Virtual PC 2004 can be used with a few exceptions or you can just create a new virtual machine description on the server and attach an existing (cloned) disk to it, which already has the server os installed and configured. With VMware, there is a more integrated approach to creating and viewing virtual appliances. The recommended approach is to create them using VMware Workstation and then simply deploy (copy) the vm/appliance to its hosted location. If you don't have workstation installed, then you would just use the Virtual Console to accomplish the same thing. VMware also has an excellent free app called VMware player, which allows you to view and interact with appliances on the desktop. So, on the free side of things, both are pretty even...though, once you jump in to the realm of paid deployment tools, VMware currently has VS 2005 beat. With their newly available Virtual Center 1.4 product for Virtual server 1.0, which allows the centralization of management and deployment across the network. Though, to be fair, MS has announced the upcoming beta of System Center, which will be direct competition for Virtual Center in late 2007.

Finally, the preformance comparison between VMware Server and VS 2005 is really too close to declare a winner (in single proc mode)...Now, that definitely wasn't the case during the VMware server beta, but now that 1.0 is out, the performance is very solid and up to par with VS 2005 on both the server and management side.

So, with ALL of that said. I will most likely phase out the rest of my VS 2005 vm's and import them into VMware format in the near future. Though both servers are very close in comparison, VMware still came out on top, showing that their still the best at what they do...and now that there stuff is (mostly) free, there's really no reason to for me use any other tech. Now, if they would just release a version of VMware workstation for free ;)

Wii don't care about winning

Chris Kirby — Thu, 18 May 2006 23:08:05 GMT

<<Iwata: 'We don't care if we beat Sony or Microsoft'

It must be frosty in hell and there will be a shortage on bacon this summer because pigs have definitely taken flight. I dont' believe for a second that Nintendo is in the console business for the fun of it. If they didn't want to take out Xbox, then why thow all of that r&d into designing a totally new gaming interface? I say that nintendo is in it to win it, so we'll see if they change their tune once consoles start flying off the shelves. My prediction is that the Wii will outsell both the 360 and the PS3 this fall in the US & Europe, but Xbox will be the champ in the long run. It will be hard for the other consoles to compete with Live Anywhere, especially once vista hits the shelves.

VoIP woes

Chris Kirby — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:38:00 GMT

Well, in an effort to save some monthly cash, I opted to switch from my current VoIP provider, Vonage, to a relatively new company called Sunrocket. On paper, the switch looked like a no-brainer; Sunrocket offers an unlimited 12 month plan with 2 incoming numbers for only $199 bucks (includes taxes). Now that beats vonage by just over 200 dollars a year based on comparable features, so you would be stupid not to switch...right? Wrong...After about 2 weeks of experiencing major technical issues, I was forced to cancel. Not only were the incoming calls nearly inaudible, but several of their advertised features didn't even work properly. For example, the free signature number they give you did not even show caller id or function at all when forwarding was enabled. Technical issues like those, seemed insurmountable, even to their highest level of technicians...so, heed my warnings, an don't take service reliability for granted... for some reason, hearing every word vs. every other seems to make quite a difference in a phone conversation ;)

Apple legitimizes dual boot...Time to buy?

Chris Kirby — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 18:50:00 GMT

<<	Apple Boot Camp Public Beta Announced, Part of 10.5 Leopard

I didn't see this one coming. I'm starting to think Dvorak was right on the whole Mac switching to Windows thing. Apple definitely has to do something to stabilize or even increase there market share, and I think this might do the trick...Its even got me thinking about buying a Mac ;)