Will and Beyond

Curse you, RRoD

Most people out there are familiar with the BSoD, the blue screen of death. It haunts Windows users, inciting fist shaking in Microsoft’s direction. For Xbox 360 players, an even sadder sight is the red ring of death:

The RRoD tells you what type of error it is, depending on the number of lights. Three is the number you never want to see, which indicates hardware failure. I could return it to Microsoft, but since I’ve owned this for about 5 years now, it’s well out of its 1 year warranty, and would cost $119 to fix otherwise.

There is an alternative, unorthodox method to fixing the 360; wrapping the machine in towels and praying:

This actually works sometimes. Essentially, there is a part in the machine which will come loose from overheating. By wrapping it with towels, and leaving it on, you’re forcing overheating, which can reform the connections.

I did it, and it actually worked… for a week. Now it red ringed again, and I need to try it more legitimately, by opening it up and using some thermal paste. Buying a new 360 wouldn’t be ideal, especially since the 720 isn’t far off.

LA

A full 3 months after my arrival in LA, I’m actually getting around to posting this, and maybe finishing off the Dr. Will’s Transcontinental Victory Tour series.

LA was an excellent visit, which was made even more amazing by Andrew’s expert itinerary making skills. This was seriously ridiculously detailed. Amazing.

I started the day wandering around Chinatown, and then explored Exposition Park, including the Rose Garden. The only thing is the Rose Garden was apparently closed, and I only ended up wandering in there by first going through a film shoot, and had trouble escaping. Entertaining. This was mostly killing time until the California Science Center opened, which was filled with tons of cool stuff, most notably, the Endeavor:

After wandering there for a few hours, headed to the Grove and had Umami Burger, mmm. Next up was LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; fun stuff.

Went over to Beverly Hills and wandered around, and finally met up with Andrew for Korean BBQ, and crashed at his place. In the morning I rented a bike and biked around Venice Beach:

After a few hours of biking around, went up to the Getty Center, which had some great art, but the center itself was amazing, in terms of architecture and the view of LA.

Headed down toward Hollywood to wander around, and wow, that is not the glamorous, glitzy neighborhood I was imagining, rather think Times Square before it got cleaned up. Met up with Andrew and we went to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles with Sangwoo. Finally went to the Griffith Observatory. They had a periodic table with samples of each element:

Definitely a fun trip; I can’t see myself living in LA, but a fun city to visit. The tour is almost complete (well, the documentation), only Portland left to go.

Year of Brains

[Igor Morski via Illusion]