Xbox LIVE

Xbox.com | Support

Xbox LIVE Service Status

Status: Up and running Users may experience issues performing transactions dependent on Windows Live ID availability including but not limited to Xbox 360 and Zune account creation, renewal, recovery, all DMP transactions, and logging into or creating Windows Live ID accounts. Users will experience intermittent issues including but not limited to: Tournaments, Storage Downloads, Gamer Tile, Statistics through Arbitration, Match Making, and Messaging. Additionally, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 users may experience issues joining matches or posting statistics. Customer Support may also experience issues referencing customer data. We are aware of the issue and are currently working to resolve it. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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The above is taken from the Xbox support site which is reporting on the status of Xbox Live. The above is complete bullshit, considering I can't even log in to my fucking account on my Xbox. But for some reason the website works fine (except for obvious Microshaft related issues). Why would they say the system is up and running if all that shit is happening? Plus of course what's happening to me. They should be saying that service is extremely patchy. And most importantly, they should hurry the hell up and fix it. You'd think they would have prepared for the post-Christmas rush. But no, that would make waaay too much sense for something Microshaft would do.

i absolutely hate iTunes

So, it's taken me like two hours to get songs on my iPod, not including transferring from my old iPod. Most of the problem has to do with the lack of ability to select a large amount of songs to click and drag to the iPod and transfer. It would be very simple if it just used the Shift+click command that most computers use, but they decided to make it really stupid. It took me 1.5 hours to get the songs to start synching to my iPod (the first half hour trying to get the fucking songs in the library).

Another really annoying thing is the fact that you "register" your iPod through iTunes. As usual, it's proven to be a completely unreliable vehicle for such a transfer of information. I have been getting the ridiculously vague message "We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later". As a result of not being able to "register" my iPod, it will not allow me to view the music on the iPod, and therefore, I cannot verify that it's all there.

I have also been experiencing very sporatic messages on the actual iPod as to what it is doing. Right now, it is syncing, according to iTunes, but according to the iPod, it's not doing anything. Do I sense a bug? Or is it just the fact that my iPod isn't "registered"? I'm not sure exactly how many resources sending information to the Apple server would use. The only thing iTunes asks for is my Apple ID and password, which would give them all the other information.

I have a lot of respect for Apple. The iPod touch is absolutely brillant. But someone in the iTunes department needs to be fired. Possibly multiple people. Especially the people who decided the iPod needs to be synced with iTunes, or else your life will be made a living hell. Or they at least need to make it so that you can sync the iPod in a Windows based program.

Christmas

I am posting from my new iPod touch. it is sexy but not as easy to type on as a hard keyboard. I also got other fun stuff. But more later.

They're watching me

So, I got a message on Youtube regarding the videos I took off the biology textbook site. It was a warning saying that posting these videos violates copyright laws. I don't understand why. Am I profiting at all? Am I degrading the profit of the textbook company? I don't believe so. Isn't the point of the videos to help people learn? I've gotten SO many comments on these videos telling me how helpful they are, and how they saved someone's biology project. Which obviously leads me to believe that there are no good biology videos out there. Unless, of course, you pay money for a certain textbook. But some classes don't use said textbook, and are not exposed to the wonderful enlightenment of a textbook with excellent supplemental material. I'm not posting the other supplemental material from the website either, so I'm not giving away their 'secrets'. There's a lot of other stuff on that website, such as flash cards, quizzes, outside links, virtual labs, and more.

I seriously hope that the textbook companies will leave me alone. Call me ridiculously altruistic, but I am helping people learn. It's a small sample of what the textbook can give someone. It will also help people in my class, because some of them have been having trouble logging into the Mader website and can't view the videos, even though they paid good money for the textbook. Isn't the point of such videos for learning? Isn't having them accessible helping more people learn?

Internet Trolls

Troll (Internet) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who intentionally posts controversial or contrary messages in an on-line community such as an on-line discussion forum or group with the singular intention of baiting users into an argumentative response.^[1] It often has a broader meaning referring to any superfluous troublemaking Internet activity.

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I truly hate internet trolls. Stupid teenage boys who sit behind their computers and say things they would never say to someone's face. Yes, they're pretty much always teenage boys. They lack the maturity, and more often than not, the brains of a mature adult. It's strange though, a teenager would have more neurons than I do, except I seem to have more common sense than them. The less brain cells, the smarter you are? I guess it has to do with the efficiency of the neural connections. In that case, we need to start killing brain cells in our children, because kids and teenagers are getting stupider by the year. I completely understand bringing up a controversial topic for purpose of a mature discussion. But posting something, having people object to what you posted, and then swearing at them and calling names for disagreeing with you; that's bullshit. I enjoy a good arguement as much as the next person, but I do it in a civilized manner. I most certainly do NOT make generalizations or racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise stupid comments. And yes, being racist, sexist, homophobic etc. is stupid. Because how closed someone's mind is is directly proportional to their intelligence. I especially hate when people rally their friends against me. Great, not only am I dealing with one idiot, I'm dealing with multiple idiots. How weak are you to not be able to stand up for yourself? I'm sure there are thousands of people on the internet who identify with my plight. Especially if they're like me, and hurt at the sight of stupidity. Here's to keeping this world as diverse as it should be, and accepting the differences around us.