Eric Sheline

I just went to the 2007 Austin Maker Faire, tons of interesting stuff there. It was really great overall, there was everything from a human powered ferris wheel transportation device (see picture above) to a fire hydrant made into a flamethrower, and everything in between. The only bad thing about the day was that they stole away all our water bottles, forcing us to buy overpriced water inside. Shame on you, Make magazine, don’t let yourself stoop to the level of common sporting events!

Well, 3 days after I reported the Xbox 360 hardware error – otherwise known as a Red Ring of Death (“RROD”), I received Microsoft’s pre-paid return packaging (also known as the “coffin” – look at the picture). I sent it off the next day, and since I’m in the same state as the repair facility, it arrived the following day.

In all honesty, it doesn’t bother me too much to have it gone. I like the 360, but I mostly just use it to play single player, with the occasional online match. My 360 held out just long enough for me to finish Halo 3, which is just fine with me! (Microsoft better have a replacement to me by the time Mass Effect comes out though…)

Yahoo! Autosync is basically an easy way to upload your Microsoft Outlook contacts to an online contact manager (Yahoo). Since my iPhone supports yahoo contact synchronization, and I am trying to switch away from using the Microsoft Office suite, I decided to give it a try. It worked really well, once the program is downloaded, it’s a simple installation. You then enter your Yahoo ID and password, select what to synchronize, and it works! The problem is, to get the program in the first place you have to go through yahoo mail “Classic” – the old version! (or use my link below!) The newer, supposedly better (finally out of beta!) version directs you to a third-party synchronization service called trueswitch.

I only used it to synchronize my contacts, but the program is also supposed to synchronize your calendar, tasks, and notes. Once the contacts are online, they are easily editable through both the Classic and “new” Yahoo Mail interface. The only problem is that just like during importing, to export them you must switch back to the Classic interface. They can be exported to an Outlook CSV, a Netscape/Thunderbird .ldif, a Yahoo CSV, or zipped vCard files.

Hopefully in the future Yahoo will not discontinue the Classic interface, or if they do, at least bring useful tools like this to the new interface!

[Autosync via Yahoo Downloads - Windows only, Yahoo account required]

Or in other words, an Xbox 360 “Red Ring of Death” (hence, RRoD) . This particular 360 is very close to a launch model, with the production date in December 2005, so I guess I should have been expecting a problem, but it’s worked great so far!

Just yesterday, I was playing Halo 3 and finishing up a blog post about the game and it was working fine. The console was shut down after playing Halo for a couple hours, then I turned it back on to watch a DVD – and got the RRoD. Microsoft has been kind enough to extend the warranty for RRoD’s to three years, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that to get a working Xbox. I’ll log everything I do to get a replacement, and you can track it all through this blog.

UPDATE 5PM: Talked to “Mark” on the phone, I should receive the return mailer within the week, and then it will take weeks (!!) to get a replacement/repaired Xbox. Mark claims “it usually takes less time than that” – which I hope is true because 4+ weeks is a long time for a replacement!