Topics

16

Unwashed Village / Xbox Death

« on: August 15, 2008, 05:59:27 PM »

So my Xbox 360 started freezing right in the middle of playing the new fable pub games.

From everything I've read, I've had a defective unit for some time, I've just been dealing with it. I get random CD read errors, even when my discs are 100% clean. It hangs on startup from time to time, the disc tray won't open without me pushing really hard on it, and it's always been unreliable in the aforementioned ways. It just now started locking up. So I looked into it, and since it's not giving the three red rings, I can get it fixed but it'll require a fee of $99.

People have recommended that I wrap the thing in a towel and leave it on all day to force it to lock down with three red rings, so it'll be covered under the now-extended three year warranty.

My questions are the following: does this work? If so, should I take the hard drive off first to keep it from frying? Also, when I send it in for repairs do I send the whole thing out or do I take off the HD and they just send me a new console I plug it into?

Any info anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated.

17

Unwashed Village / My job

« on: June 30, 2008, 10:17:24 PM »

And probably a lot of other people who work here.

http://thewebsiteisdown.com

Some language may be nsfw, but I wear headphones. Also an image or two apparently, but I doubt anyone will catch it.

18

Unwashed Village / Need help on breaking a lease

« on: June 25, 2008, 03:53:05 PM »

So good news and bad. I got a new job, which pays far more than the old one did. And I want to move to an apartment that is like ten minutes from work.

As luck would have it, i signed a one year lease that is about halfway through. But here's the kicker, our A/C unit leaked condensation while we were asleep and caused the carpet and wall to become wet and moldy, so we called our landlord. They sent out a maintenance guy who (I shit you not) sprayed Tilex on everything and left.

Then they called in the carpet cleaners, who took moisture samples and said they couldn't do anything. They claimed the floor was probably rotted through and the wall needed to be cut. Then the maintenance guy came back and claimed it was no big deal.

This was Friday. I called the landlord asking them to do something about it, and they said the maintenance guy wanted to "wait the weekend for it to dry out."

At this point, it's Wednesday and no one has come back out, and there's still mold in my closet and on the floor and wall. Do you think I have a case to break the lease for health reasons?

I did some research and it looks like there are no federal standards for mold, but our state (Texas) has a process where we can contact the county health department and they can do an inspection and then send a notice of violation to the property owner for allowing unlivable conditions. I'm trying to be as peacable and nice as possible with our landlords but I think the claws need to come out for us to get out of dodge. Our neighbor (we live in a 4plex) had the same problem, and is doing the same thing, so I think we have a case if it comes to that.

Any tips, advice?

19

Unwashed Village / Normally I don't play drinking games...

« on: June 23, 2008, 04:09:35 PM »

but this is nerdy enough for me to play

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wisest+Wizard

20

Unwashed Village / 9/11 truthers define irony (thread is clean, link maybe NSFW)

« on: June 19, 2008, 03:54:42 PM »

It's not news to anyone since it's been awhile now, but someone in the office was watching this video, and this is the first time I'd seen it with subtitles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5BJzEshMes

9/11 truthers are interrupting Bill Maher's show by being douchebags. This is not bleeped so probably NSFW, especially when Maher starts yelling.

What I think is funny is that the truthers keep yelling "Don't taze me bro." Which is universally used these days to make FUN of people who do that kind of crap.

It's like someone going on the WoW forums and saying "I'm a giant basement virgin!" to get their point across.

21

Unwashed Village / Mad Magazine Fold-ins

« on: June 17, 2008, 05:25:10 PM »

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html

yeah it's the times, but it's neat. : )

22

Unwashed Village / Hardware savvy villagers, need your help

« on: June 13, 2008, 06:34:52 AM »

So my wife's laptop (actually a tablet) is a Toshiba Portege M200.

Recently, on bootup the screen makes a rather strange looking collection of colors. Plugging an external monitor into the VGA port in the back confirmed that it is the video card or motherboard that is screwing up. I talked to some local techs, and they all told me that the price for them to order a new motherboard and replace it is about the same as a used M200, so I would be better off buying a new one and swapping the hard drives out.

However, they all priced the motherboard at around $250-$300 USD, and I've found it online for about $167. They place labor at around $100-250 for a motherboard replacement.

So... I looked up a guide that explains how to disassemble a Toshiba Portege M205, and I think I can use it to take apart the M200 and replace the motherboard. But I was curious if anyone knew the relative risk factor of someone doing that, and whether the M200 will be the same as the M205 on the inside.

Keeping in mind that I've built around 30 PCs at this point by hand, but have never cracked open a laptop.

Additionally, my Toshiba Qosmio may need a fan replacement (kept bluescreening until it finally takes an hour to give me a false startup). How suicidal would it be to try to replace that?

Thanks for any input you guys can give me.

23

Unwashed Village / Semi-published

« on: June 05, 2008, 04:28:57 PM »

http://www.americanfiction2.xbuild.com/#/nathanpierre/4525148025

They have some retarded flash interface and use frames to hide the source of the page, so this is how I have to direct link it. You can just go to americanfiction.org and find my name (Nathan St. Pierre) at the selected works thing.

First short story I've gotten published so far. Some of you might remember me throwing it up here about a year ago for notes.

So thanks for the notes!

 

24

Unwashed Village / Some stuff you might not have known about Owls

« on: June 05, 2008, 04:02:12 PM »

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Owls/

25

Unwashed Village / Most Awesome Presidents and Scientists

« on: June 02, 2008, 08:24:33 PM »

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_16301_6-most-badass-stunts-ever-pulled-in-name-science.html

Might be NSFW, depending on if the word "boning" is acceptable at your place of work. Nothing inappropriate other than the raw, seething, fucking truth.

I also got a new motto with which to live my life:
This quote actually comes from a fellow politician at the time of Roosevelt's death: "Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake there would have been a fight."

26

Unwashed Village / Grammar Crusaders

« on: May 22, 2008, 03:17:09 PM »

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-typo-guys-0521may21,0,701362.story

I'd say Nazis but they're more like vigilantes.

My hero's.

27

Unwashed Village / Energy Non-Crisis

« on: May 20, 2008, 10:58:24 PM »

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147

I'm looking into the truth of this now, but either way, it's interesting to see it.

/edit below this line * * *
 jeez this guy goes on an on.
If they could edit it down to about 30 minutes it'd be good. But he says some shocking stuff in here anyway. If you have a lot of time check it out. Otherwise, the *facts* he's giving are as follows.

• there is enough oil in Alaska to use in the US the next 200 years
• crude oil was chosen in the 60s as a method of controlling the world
• gasoline could be less than 1.50/gallon within the next year

He says a bunch of alarmist stuff, like America will crumble in the next few months if we don't do anything (this came out last year so HA), but from the research I've done, the numbers he's giving for the oil production are all true.

28

Unwashed Village / So now I hate Detroit (and Brug) more than ever

« on: May 20, 2008, 02:57:36 PM »

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20072008/GS030326.HTM

At least Turco finally won a game in Detroit.

29

Unwashed Village / Windows Music

« on: May 15, 2008, 10:19:45 PM »

I have seen a lot of different versions of this, but this is the first one that I believe is made only using windows default sounds and sounds good at all (although they are HEAVILY processed to sound this clean).

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8aowKiNZTTM check it out.

30

Unwashed Village / BC, I need some of your Finnish Magic

« on: May 15, 2008, 06:19:49 PM »

So apparently some Gypsy cursed me.
On the plus side, the wife has finally picked career field, but it involves her quitting her job to get her teaching certification. Which is cool, we can tighten up the belts a notch or two, but then i get a speeding ticket (which I'm contesting) and the regulator for my passenger's side car window broke so now I have to replace it, and I also had to replace the battery last week. Also, my cousin destroyed a section of our carpet so we have to get that replaced. And also, I'm allergic to this entire time of year, and just stood in line for three hours to get Claritin D.

Which one of you is a Gypsy, and why did you curse me? Also, I need some of your tears for protection.