To The Metal

Get in the door at the office around 7:30am… first problem report comes in at 8:20, a user can’t access their voicemail. Most likely our antique’s roadshow quality voicemail server has gone toes up again. I follow SOP and notify my users by email that the phones will definitely be down for a few minutes as I fix the problem.

About a minute later, I get an IM…

Them: Phones are down.
Me: CYM
Them: What?
Me: Check Your Mail
Them: for what

At this point, blood pressure goes up since this fella has a knack for evoking such a reaction, so I proceed to start fixing the problem… then another IM comes in about a minute later…

Them: are you aware of this?
Me: YES

So I figure out the problem, fix it, and send an email out notifying my users that the problem is fixed…

One minute later, I get an IM from the same user…

Them: phones are back up.

*thud*

A long time ago, most decent websites decided – like everyone else – that popups were evil, and generally stopped using them, or at least used them a lot less. Personally, when I go to a site, I want to see what I clicked for, not get inundated with a bunch of crappy popups.

Since the browser industry got wise and came up with effective popup blockers, some sites have had to resort to other, even MORE annoying tactics. My favorite? I click a link, start reading the content, and within a few seconds a box appears DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF WHAT I’M READING. Sometimes its obvious how to close these boxes, other times it is not. Better yet are those damned ads which take over an ENTIRE SCREEN.

Look, marketers. I don’t care what YOU think I should look at. If it was so impressive, I would have followed a link to get there. The fact that you feel the need to obscure whatever actually brought me to your site with CRAP means that I’m simply going to X out of the page AND NEVER RETURN.

So the fix lasted until I got home last night.  Initially the system worked fine, but then it started locking up.  It installed an update from Micro$oft, but eventually I had the 3 lights RRoD again.

Solder problem still exists, tried the towel trick – no luck.  Going to pick up the 360 Slim today, and if I can get the old one fixed, donate it to a needy gamer… lol

Figure I’m going to pop the old one open again, visually inspect the solder points and see if there’s anything I can do there, reseat the heatsinks again using actual arctic silver instead of ceramique, and then see what happens.

I’m on my second Xbox 360, the first was replaced after several years of use, for free, by Microsoft due to the Red Ring of Death problem.

Long story short, the Xbox 360 was poorly designed from an airflow standpoint, which allowed the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to overheat, which caused soldered connections to come undone, then a RRoD.  Originally, there was a single heatsink below the DVD drive for the chip.  Microsoft improved on this design (barely) by adding a second heatsink as well as a heat pipe to transfer heat from the main heatsink to the smaller one that has indirect airflow from the system’s cooling fans.

It could be improved vastly by adding more direct airflow, better fans, using non-conducive ceramic based heat sink grease in a smaller (read: not globs) amount, as well as not relying on the tension of so called ‘X-Clamps’ to maintain pressure on the heat sinks as well as pressure on the processors to keep them firmly planted in their seats.  From what I hear, even the new slim Xbox 360 has the same faults.

So last night the RRoD popped up while using Netflix Instant.  I shut the system down, turned it back on, and it worked.  Later on I went back to use Netflix again, RRoD.  I shut it down, dusted it, unplugged it, nothing worked.  Same thing this morning.  So I get to work with the simple goal – fix it myself.  Microsoft wants $99 to fix it.  There are various companies online which sell kits to replace the X clamp, add the modified heatsink, etc… still – why spend money why I don’t have to?

I followed the directions posted at llamma.com to the letter, and chose their method over others as their method maintained the secure mount between the mainboard and the case.  The other examples I saw had you bolting the heatsinks directly to the motherboard, which will cause strain and eventual failure of other components.

Everything was fairly straightforward, a few modifications though… you are going to be re-seating and replacing the X clamps on both processors, so you will need 24 of the M5x1mm washers, 16 of the Nylon M5 x1mm washers, and 8 M5 Cheese head 12mm screws.  The online kit will run you $5 per processor, plus tax and shipping.  The heat sink paste will run you another $5 at least, plus tax and shipping.  They also recommend using the Arctic Silver ArtiClean heatsink paste remover at a cost of $6, plus tax and shipping, it works, but rubbing alcohol is abundant and generally most folks already have it on hand.

I already had ceramique (free), and rubbing alcohol (free).  I paid $2 for the 8 screws, $2.64 for the metal washers, and $1.76 for the nylon washers.  I also had to spend $27 on a toolkit (torx bit) as I didn’t have a #8 torx bit, which is necessary to remove the X-Clamps as well as the daughterboard on the front of the 360 that controls the power button and idiot lights.  At most, going the hardware store route, you’re going to spend around$15 if you have the tools already.  Take the online route, you’re looking at a minimum of $21, plus tax and shipping.  Your call – still costs less than the $99 that Microsoft wants to ship a refurb with the same flawed design that will eventually RRoD on you.

The other change I made to the way they suggest doing it – is not using metal washers at all above the motherboard, a single 1mm nylon washer will offer enough clearance to adequately torque down the heat sink as well as ensure that the heat sink is making full contact with the die of the processor.  Initially, following their design to the letter resulted in an immediate system shutdown due to overheating.  Once I removed the metal washers and left the nylons ABOVE the motherboard, everything worked fine.

I also attempted to overheat the system without luck.  Overheating is key to the fix as it softens the solder around the GPU enough to allow it to securely reseat.  I may be in store for another RRoD, if thats the case I’ll use the towel trick to overheat the system.

I love the 360, and now that I know how to repair its most glaring problem – am satisfied that this machine will last long enough for me to pick up the next generation in a few years.

Cheers!

Two weeks ago I decided to put my ‘casual’ smoking habit on hiatus indefinitely. Every once and a while, I crave a smoke. I’m lucky in that I can smoke a cigarette, or a pack of them, and then not be bothered with them sometimes for weeks or months on end. Still, each time I have one, I’m risking cancer, COPD, etc… Generally the whole ‘lack of oxygen’ thing bugs me too.

A while back, a friend had picked up a pack of Blu Cigs, I tried them – and to my surprise they worked very well. Back to two weeks ago, I ordered a starter pack. The pack itself is a charger, holds 2 batteries, 2 atomizers (what makes the “smoke” aka water vapor) and 5 spare cartridges.

The way it all works is pretty neat. You press a flavor cartridge onto the atomizer, screw both onto the battery, and puff away. The flavor cartridge is nothing more than water, flavor, and nicotine (non-nicotine varieties are available). When you inhale, the atomizer heats up, turning the flavor into vapor, and you get your fix.

It hits like a cigarette and drags like one too. Depending on the type of drag I take, I can get anywhere from a day to a half a day out of a cartridge. A normal drag results in a fair amount of vapor, a longer lasting cartridge, and a longer lasting battery. Slow, steady drags will result in a more authentic heavy puff of smoke, but it wears out the cartridge quicker, and also drains the battery quicker.

It satisfies the habit, the oral fixation and sensation of smoking. It also satisfies the craving for the stimulant, nicotine. Inhaling it in this method IMHO results in a more pure shot of nicotine, since you’re not having to deal with the tar, chemicals, filter, etc… in a normal cigarette.

Another perk – for those of us who are idiots and smoke when we have a cold… You’re essentially sucking on a vaporizer. My usual cold that my step-daughter brings home and results in me getting bronchitis hasn’t really kicked in as hard since I’m getting healthy doses of pure water vapor on a regular basis.

The benefits don’t end there though, another thing you will NOT get from these, are the smell, the light-headed sensation from the lack of oxygen, the yellow teeth, the stigma of being a smoker, and God willing no cancer.

The starter pack runs $60, and flavor cartridges can be had for anywhere from $25 to $80 depending on how much you want to order. One pack has 25 cartridges which should last you at least 1 day per cartridge (results will vary depending on how much you use them). With the cost of a pack in New York being $10 minimum, a pack a day habit will cost you $300 a month. A pack a day habit of Blu’s? $25-$50. Yeah. It’s a no brainer.

The pack and the cigarettes themselves can charge off of a USB, and the pack itself can also charge off of a wall outlet. I just ordered my fiancee a starter kit, and my brother in law will get his soon as well. Personally, I started at the ‘light’ variety with 12mg of nicotine. My next order will be for 8mg, and after that, 0mg… I’ll just be inhaling flavor and water. Even if you’re not going to kick the nicotine, from a health and cost standpoint – how can you not use these things?

My assistant was out yesterday, so after I was done with my work, I decided to play a little prank.

His PC is a standard XP desktop, flush against the wall on his desk, wires neatly routed behind it.  He’s also a neat freak, so everything on his desk is where it needs to be.

I take an old laptop, install the latest release of Ubuntu Linux on it, configure the desktop to look like Windows XP.  I then punch a hole through an adjacent filing cabinet, put the laptop in the bottom drawer under a stack of papers, and run his video, mouse, and keyboard wires to the laptop.  After this in install dummy video, mouse, and keyboard wires on the back of his PC.  Lastly, I run a network cable under the floor molding to the laptop.  At this point, if you move the mouse – a strangely familiar desktop appears.

I then figure – ok, what will he do?  First, check the PC – maybe even reboot it manually.  I setup a shutdown script that reboots the laptop if the PC reboots via an ssh reboot command.  I also setup the Ubuntu box to reboot the Windows PC if it gets reset.   I then made sure to hide the wires, put the file cabinet up flush against the wall, and then make sure that everything on his desk was positioned exactly the way it was previously.

So he comes in today, I tell him that for some reason, a few of the desktops in the office got reset to the default theme *cough*.

He moves the mouse, desktop comes up – ‘WTF?’  Within a minute he starts to ask if I did anything to his PC, to which I reply ‘I swear on my mother I did nothing to your PC’ (technically, I didn’t!)

Pops open the CD drive looking for a boot CD, opens the computer case looking for a second hard drive…

Checks the wires in the back, they all look fine.

Reboots the Laptop, reboots the PC. keeps coming back to the Ubuntu desktop.

Then he grabs one of the dummy wires and pulls it out.  Starts looking at a few extra wires he sees.  Opens his desk drawers – nothing there.

Finally he sees that the extra wires are headed over to this little inconspicuous filing cabinet.  Checks the top drawer – nothing.  Checks the bottom drawer, finds the laptop, immediately starts cracking up.

Yep, I’m going to get punked in return at some point…. heh.

 1[a] Praise the LORD. [b]
       Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
       who finds great delight in his commands.
 2 His children will be mighty in the land;
       the generation of the upright will be blessed.
 3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
       and his righteousness endures forever.
 4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
       for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. [c]
 5 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.
 6 Surely he will never be shaken;
       a righteous man will be remembered forever.
 7 He will have no fear of bad news;
       his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
 8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
       in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
 9 He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
       his righteousness endures forever;
       his horn [d] will be lifted high in honor.
 10 The wicked man will see and be vexed,
       he will gnash his teeth and waste away;
       the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

So after checking out at least 10 cars on the lot, I decided to suck it up and extend the loan term so I could get int something that wasn’t beat.  I”ll say this – the inventory at Bill Kolb Jr Subaru is VAST, a lot of the cars though – various body issues, interior issues – there are gems in the crowd but don’t expect one for under 16k.  My first choice, an ’08 Legacy Elite (dealer package with double-stitched leather interior and moon roof) ran for $15,8k – was driven by a manager, and from far away looked real nice.  Up close though, the front fender had visible BRUSH STROKES under the smooth buffed clear coat, further down the drivers side towards the rear quarter panel, again you had very nicely buffed pits in the paint.  Real shoddy cover up job, plus a bunch of dings.

The next 9 or so cars had various levels of body damage, from scratches, scuffs, to dints, and very ugly dents and deep gouges/scrapes.  These were all cars of varying mileage (15k to 50k) and ranged from 2007 to 2009.  Some were definitely owned by smokers, and had that musty smell that only comes from one thing.  None of the cloth interior cars were too good either.  At this point, I was pretty much ready to call it quits and head over to Mahwah to look at a batch of Ford Fusions.  We were going to check out one last car, a black ’08 with 40k miles when I walked past my car, an ’09 Elite with 17k (now 18k) miles on the odometer.  It was more than I was initially planning to spend, and in the end my monthly payment went up by $3 from what I was paying on the VW – but I have a lot more car that is much more family friendly.

I did good on the trade in, factoring the various accidents I had with it, and in the end also landed a very good interest rate as well as a 6/60k bumper to bumper warranty at cost.  You can’t really haggle at this dealer on the car itself – but you CAN haggle (and save a lot) when it comes to the trade-in as well as the loan terms and interest rates.

Funniest part of all of this – in the end I spent about 5k more than I planned to spend on the fusion, got a newer car with fewer miles.  I just need to have them redo the brakes, as well as track down some new keyless entry keys (for less than the $159 the dealer wanted).  The car’s handling is phenomenal, plenty of power (not a rocket like my old GTI, but for a big car it can move when you want it to). great reviews, great reliability – I’m hoping to get at least 300k miles out of this car – and by then, pass it on to one of my step kids. 🙂