ThunderPeel2001

I think it's been an issue for about five years, to be honest. There was a whole spate where we didn't even have our Thumbs (). That took some nagging to get fixed! I'd recommend using Firefox, because they way you don't see any ugly "missing picture" icons. We lost the "YouTube" icon and the who wrote which forum tags in the last upgrade, I believe.

I know, I know. You're right. But the last fix they did for me has lasted several years... and I'm possibly naive enough to believe the next refurbished model I get will be newer, and less prone to RRoDing. Also, I just bought a Madcatz Street Fighter Joystick and a copy of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade, and I kind of want to play them. *sob*

Well I've done more research and it seems that my particular RRoD error code (0110) is a particularly annoying one. The only way to fix it is to "reflow the RAM", and often that doesn't work... which leaves the only option of binning the whole console. I may just pay MS after all... but I'm tempted to try the towel trick, first. Just incase. I wonder if MS get upset if they think you've "towelled" your console and then asked for a repair? :-/

Yep, an adventure all right Could be fun. Plus there's sense of satisfaction of doing a job yourself. I've drilled down to my secondary error code (who knew?) and apparently it's specifically this: http://www.xbox-experts.com/errorcode/E20/0110/ I'm a total layman, but it seems that the "towel trick" might be a somewhat legitimate way to reflow the RAM. Hmm.

I picked up Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution and so far I think it's going to be just about everything I wanted Rogue Leaders to be. The history ends in 1986, but Noah Falstein, David Fox, and Ron Gilbert were around by then. It's a crazy technical book, and the general theme seems to be: LucasFilm Computer Division created everything! It was written by someone who was there, so the recollections and details are really vivid. Enjoying it so far

I'm playing this at the moment. It's pretty good, but I can't forgive the trial and error learning. Most infuriating!

Other options are for me to try and repair it myself. There's quite a few guides, like this one: ZayE6SDudXk

I watched the Super Delicious Awesome Marigold Hotel (or whatever it's called) and I have to say: The trailer looked AWFUL, but it's actually a decent, heart-warming film.

Lol. Right! I just checked and if I pay the £60 ($100) to get my 360 repaired, it's only under warranty for 90 days! If I get another RRoD, it's another £60. And so on. This blows. Looking at a new Slim 360 with a 250GB HD: £178 ($280). All so I can have what I already own... I can see MS losing customers this way. I knew I should have bought Super Street Fighter IV Arcade on Steam

Oh no! I thought I'd found a place selling "new" Cores, but it turns out they're used... Damn. Not going to buy a second-hand 360. Back to square one.

Thanks for that. It helps a lot. I think it makes sense just to buy a new Core. The HD will work. It's cheaper. And I get three years of RRoD protection. I can't see what benefits I'd get from buying a Slim now I think about it.

Huh. That's pretty fricking annoying! I can't believe they make you buy a new HD - to replace a perfectly functioning old one. That's actually quite shocking. Edit: Apparently there are some ways around it... kind of: http://flicktitio.us/how-to-replace-the-hard-drive-in-an-xbox-360-slim-4gb-arcade

Bah! My 360 just RRoD'd on me. Second time -- first time was in warranty and it was replaced quickly. This time it's apparently it's outside the warranty, so I have to pay to get it "serviced" -- a mere £62 GBP ($100 USD). Except I can buy a new "Core" 360 for £55 inc. delivery! Will my HD transfer smoothly over to a new machine? I'm wondering if I should splash on an new S Console (sans HD) for £129. Does anyone know if the RRoD is exclusive to the original consoles? Did they fix it in the new 360?

Because they're representing the ultra-rich. Or rather the conservative ultra-rich. The ultra-rich don't like the fact that they pay such high taxes to provide services for people they don't care about (and usually have a disdain for -- "Why should these (lazy) people pay less taxes than me, and get things I'm paying for, for free!?"). If things are privatized then there's less need for government spending, and so taxes can (in theory) be lowered. Governments try and justify this to the masses with the theory that capitalism/the market "solves everything": By adding "competitive" forces, prices should be lower, and so the privatised versions should be cheaper for everybody. What happens though is this: Cheap ass companies make insanely low bids in order to get these "water tight" contracts from the government -- Water tight meaning that they're guaranteed public money for a set number of years, no matter what they do. They then go about trying to satisfy their contracts in the cheapest, half-assed, manner they possibly can, because they're money motivated -- like a normal company. They only care about making government targets for the cheapest way they can, in order to maximise their profits -- Unlike services run by governments which are motivated by results felt by the public, so that government can get voted back in. The quality of these services usually suffers massively, and is felt by those that rely on them the most (the poorest and neediest). The government's promise that market forces will lead to better quality services never seems to happen, probably because of the completely atypical way in which this particular "market" is run -- guaranteed contracts that sometimes last for decades, nothing like a normal market. Meanwhile the ultra-rich can afford their own private services, and so aren't affected by poor quality "public" services, and now their money is being spent on themselves and their loved ones, and not the unwashed masses. They can then donate to the charities of their choice, if they feel like it, but at least the government isn't taking it all. Then what frequently happens is that these privately own "public" services fail to make good on the promises they've made in such a big way, that the government is forced to step up and give them public money to help them out, anyway... just to try and save face. But the privatized companies only care about ticking boxes in the spreadsheet so they still get paid (e.g. "Our walk-in health centre serviced 500 per week for three months" -- no measurement of quality of service, because that's too vague). And so it goes around and around... All because the rich want to pay less taxes. A few scary things: The current economic crisis has allowed the conservatives (aka Republicans) to push all these changes past the public, because the public is buying into the fact that "something must be done". The fact that the conservative government is just pushing through all the things they tried to do in the 80s and 90s, and have always wanted to do, is being lost in the worry. In America, a lot of people have lost all trust in their government, and have more faith in companies... even though the public controls the government, and big companies are invariably run by people with no ethics whatsoever -- and the public has no control over them at all. As my conservative housemate put it: It's a company's job to make money by ANY means necessary, with no concern for ethics. It's the government's job to put laws in place to stop them from doing unethical things, and to protect the public. A pretty horrible point of view, but it shows how worrying it is when a nation starts to lose faith in their government!

I believe so... but I can't find it.

That sucks. I'm surprised there isn't anything in the game to combat that. I know some people liked it diehardz, but a lot of us are looking for fun.

Yep, completely privatized healthcare in the US has led to it having the highest infant mortality rate in the first world.[Link] And because of their privatized prison system rich people can pay to go to nice prisons! (So provided you've got enough money, crime needn't be the risky venture it used to be ) Also, here in the UK, we have privately owned prisons, too. One of them, run by Group4, was mired in so much controversy that it was taken permanently into the public sector.[Link] Guess who's up for the government contracts to take over our police?

It certainly used to be. I doubt it's changed now. MicroSoft, Nintendo, and Sony all make money on software sold for their system, so it's in their interest to make the user base as large as possible.

I've been predicting this for years. Here's a glimpse into the future: Rich people will be able to afford better police that poor people. I hate this government so much.

You're willing to BURN Elmuerte's weekend?

Well seeing how it's very easy to make a mono version from a stereo one, you could never "ruin" the podcast. Even if the stereo version did turn out to be an aberration, a mono version could still be made from it.

Well if they don't already have three microphones, I'm pretty sure they'll be the first thing they buy with the money.

I did enjoy it. Maybe bland was the wrong word. Interesting to hear that it's apparently very factually accurate.

I hope so. Re: ADM. I did enjoy it, but I thought it was a bit bland. Good performances, to be sure. Maybe I was too hard on it.

Is this what you're referring to?