The weekend before Thanksgiving, my Xbox 360 once again died with the dreaded three light Red Ring of Death hardware failure. This is a problem that has plagued the original Xbox 360 and is the third time my Xbox has failed since 2006. It's been such a problem for users that Microsoft extended the Xbox 360 warranty to 3 years to deal with these issues.

I've never really worried about warranties for electronic devices mostly because by the time they break, they're already obsolete. In most cases, they're pretty much disposable.

However, in the case of the Xbox 360, the game console industry has changed. The Kinect accessory has given the Xbox 360 new life and is unlikely to be replaced any time soon.

Because of this, I faced the choice of purchasing a new one or having the six year old Xbox 360 fixed.

Because the Red Ring of Death is so pervasive, a number of Xbox repair places have sprung up on the internet. I chose a place  Videogamerepairservice.com and decided to try it since it was very low risk- only $49.99 for repair with free return shipping and a one year warranty.

I purchased the repair online and shipped it to them in Pennsylvania on Monday Nov. 21st and received it back yesterday Nov. 30, nine days later. Nine days is incredibly fast because it includes four days of transit and the Thanksgiving weekend.

I plugged Xbox in and it works! We'll see how long it works, but I was very impressed with the speed of service I received from Videogamerepairservice.com

ReelSeo.com: Take This Lollipop, Interactive & Personalized Video Will Creep You Out

Take This Lollipop is an interactive video that once you link it to your Facebook account incorporates it into a creepy stalker movie.  If you visit the link in the article above you can see an example video. The technology behind this is very impressive.

Watching and reading all the tributes to Steve Jobs, I found that nothing moved me more than his own words.  From his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Steve Jobs was an inspiration to me and my generation, showing that it's possible to start from humble beginnings and achieve greatness.  Steve showed us that technology should be beautiful, functional, and easy to use.  And because of this, Apple products have permeated and changed my life.  But, in death he reminds us that life is short and that we should not waste it by not doing something we love.

If you have not watched Steve Jobs's Stanford Commencement Address, I highly recommend it.

Toucharcade.com: Disney Mobile To Integrate Toys In 'Cars 2' App

Now, in addition to having tiny fingerprints all over your iPad, you can now have tire tracks. It's a pretty cool integration of a physical toy car and the virtual world on the iPad.

Just a few years ago, next to my desk you'd find a stack of CD-R's or DVD-R's that I would use for backup  Today, it's a stack of Internal hard drives.  I initially purchased internal hard drives's for use inside my Mac Pro, but since I've discovered USB drive docks, I've been using them to back up all the computers in my office.  They're not ideal for long term archiving since every hard drive will eventually fail, but right now nothing matches the cost, storage size, and convenience of hard drives. 

Because hard drives are relatively cheap, I keep two backups of my most valuable data- things that can not be replaced, pictures, home videos, important documents etc.


Seagate Barracuda LP 2 TB 5900RPM SATA 3 GB/s 32 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Hard Drive $79.99
or
Western Digital 2 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive $79.99


Use the a drives with a dock like this:

Thermaltake Sata HDD USB Docking Station $29.50

If you're looking for an excellent entry level SLR, here's a great deal for the Canon Rebel T2i and a telephoto lens at Amazon.com.  I recently picked one of with a similar deal on Black Friday. 

For about $800 you get the Canon T2i, TWO lenses, and a 4 gig flash card.  The lenses that you get are the 18-55mm kit lens and the 55-250mm telephoto.  Both are image stabilized lenses which helps prevent blurriness when zoomed in.

To get the deal go the Canon EOS Rebel T2i + Telephoto Lens page and add the T2i and the 55-250 lens to your cart.  The 55-250 is a much better lens than the 75-300 lens that is also listed because 55-250 is image stabilized while the 75-300 is not.

Add the Transcend 4 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card to your cart and you get it free.

I've been playing with my new Canon Rebel T2i for a day and it's nice.  It's a huge upgrade from my original Digital Rebel.

GamaSutra.com: Angry Birds Dev Announces 2M Android Downloads

The Android version, which Rovio said achieved 1 million downloads in its first day, is ad-supported and free to download. Rovio said via Twitter that "paid apps have not done very well on Android," but the company also tweeted that the Android version's next update will introduce a "paid ad-free version."

Paid apps don't do well but free ad supported ones do well?  I think Google could care less about paid apps since their whole business model is about selling ads.

Cult of Mac: John Sculley On Steve Jobs, The Full Interview Transcript

I remember going into Steve's house and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a  Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn't believe in having lots of things around but he was incredibly careful in what he selected. The same thing was true with Apple.

A fascinating interview with John Sculley, former Apple CEO about Steve Jobs.  Great insights into how Steve Jobs and Apple does business.

NYTimes.com: Nokia Profit Falls on Tough Smartphone Competition

"We believe that the Nokia N8, the first of our Symbian 3 devices, will have a user experience superior to that of any smartphone Nokia has created," Mr. Kallasvuo said. The new handset, he added, will be followed by others that will "give the platform broader appeal and reach, and kick-start Nokia's fightback at the higher end of the market."

Not superior to the iPhone or Android?  This is a case of doing your best isn't quite good enough.

Got my iPhone 4 about an hour ago.

My initial impressions:

• The iPhone is an absolutely beautiful phone.  Extremely solid with a finish that makes every other phone I've owned feel like a toy.
• The screen is incredibly sharp.  Must be seen to really appreciate how clear everything looks.  The screen is closer to the top glass so images look like they're on the surface of the glass.
• The internal memory seems slightly smaller or iOS4 is bigger as I'm having trouble copying everything from my nearly full iPhone 3GS on to the iPhone 4.
• The main camera is super sharp.  You can also take pictures with the front facing camera.
  

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