arghyle

So Muxtape is down thanks to an apparent run-in with the RIAA. Sounds like bad news to me… but the company says it’s just temporary.

This week Lian Li announced a very cool replacement case for the Xbox 360. It’s called the PC-XB01. Since the Xbox 360 is basically a computer and it has all the problems of a small form-factor system (overheating, cramped layout, etc) this is actually a pretty cool move. Plus the case is just as great looking as all over Lian Li’s gear.

Improved thermals, quiet operation, better looking, nicer design… so what’s the problem? Why not put your 360 in a cool aluminum case?

1. You have to completely take apart your Xbox 360. Not just remove the case either, but completely dismantle it. Here is page one of the five pages of instructions. You better have a Torx 6 handy, as well as an hour or two.
2. In case there was any question about it, this will void your warranty. In fact, this is the warranty-voidingest thing I can think of that does not involve purposefully destroying the console.
3. The case looks pretty big, so forget about putting the Xbox next to your TV or on a tight shelf.
4. Like many of Lian Li’s more open cases, this looks like it’s a dust magnet. You will definitely have to open it and do some cleaning every few months, especially if you use your Xbox a lot.
5. The case is $150, so that about half the cost of a new 360.

So who, aside from hardcore modding fans, is going to buy into this? I’m not really sure, but the only people I could see going for it, is someone with an older Xbox 360 that has not died or RRoD’d yet. The improved cooling could save your Xbox and if the warranty is already up than that is not a factor. The 360 has been out long enough that there is a significant number of people that fall under this category, but the number of them that will want to roll the dice and piece apart their console is probably not very large.

So it’s a cool move for Lian Li, and it’s great too see some carry-over from the PC world into consoles (which are becoming much more PC-like every generation), but I’m not sold on the idea. If it came with a warranty (would require a factory installation) and was, say, $100 over the price of a standard Xbox 360 Pro, I could see myself going for it, but considering that the new units are running cooler and quieter I probably won’t be making the upgrade to the PC-XB01 any time soon.

Anyone out there-

Any thoughts on Intel’s DP45SG motherboard?

Looks like a solid product, but I can’t find any coverage on it. It’s not even on NewEgg…

It used to be that if you wanted a great pen or pencil, something with some heft to it but also something durable with a very clean design, but you did not want to spend a lot than the Rotring 600 was a great choice. If you were a bit more picky than you could opt for one of the original models (with the knurled grip). If you were a bit more picky than you could upgrade to the gold series. If you were a real Rotring connoisseur you got yourself a gold series with the the twist action.

These twist (retractable) models have always been hard to find, but lately the prices have been insane.

Check out this eBay auction- $219 for the pen! At retail this pen was probably no more than $50 (just a guess) but now they appear on eBay a few times a year and always go for over $175. The same goes for the less desirable pencil…

Somewhere there is a cartographer crying over this…

New York City is generally easy to navigate, thanks to a grid of streets and avenues in most of the city. The grid uses numbers and a few simple rules in order to make it easy to figure out where you are, but in parts of the city, especially downtown and the east/west sides the numbers are not always used. This means even New Yorkers get turned around when, say, visiting the West Village.

Things get really interesting though when you have to visit part of the gridded area, but get thrown a curve ball. A good example is pictured above, where 12th Avenue and 11th Avenue each become the West Side Highway, and just for good measure it’s called the Joe DiMaggio Highway as well. You rarely hear the highway referred to as 12th Avenue and then, for us downtowners, it’s sometimes labeled as 10th Avenue below 14th St. or so.

Anyway, just a bit of trivial for the map fans out there…

Over at ExtremeTech Loyd Case has posted two great articles (The Install and One Month Later) on his experience with adding solar power to his house. I don’t own a house or have the $40K+ that is costs to do a job like that, but the articles are still fascinating and he does a great job of explaining the decisions he made and the technology involved. Definitely a must-read for anyone curious about solar technology or home-gadgetry.

The only disappointment I had with the article is that it does not get into how long it will take for the solar panels for buy themselves back. Obviously the job is about helping the environment and it improves the value of the house so Case won’t have to live there for years and years in order to get his money’s worth, but it would have been great to see this math. Maybe a third articles is on the way?

We do know that in March the Case household spent $350 (rounded) on electricity and in their first 19 days they spend $11 (the articles says to expect $16 on the month). The $16 month was June, a peak month for solar power in Northern California.

Just to so some quick math…

Yearly, no solar= $4200 (350×12)
Yearly, solar= $192 (16×12)

At this rate the panels would take about 10 years to buy themselves back given a price tag of $40,000.

Let’s guess-timate a few factors including- a panel or two breaks, the panels become less effective over time, you get less intense sun in the winter months as well as shorter days, you get a a number of rainy, dark days every month, and so on. So according to my math maybe the panels take 12-15 years to pay for itself, depending on how conservative you want to be. In a state were power costs less or you could sell power back to the energy company this could be very different.

Overall, the initial investment is more that I thought it would be but given the long-term prospect I’m more impressed with solar power than before reading the articles. Once these panels start to cross the 25% mark (give it a few years, from want I understand) it is going to be something we see a lot more of…

Jason Calacanis gave up blogging and I couldn’t resist joining his email list. He just sent out the first email today and Techcrunch has it posted in it’s entirety (it’s not like they can link to it).

Honestly, not a bad job. This hit a little to close to home though (bold added):

In a word, intimacy. This message will go from my inbox to your inbox,
perhaps from my Blackberry to your iPhone. From my sleepy garden
office in Brentwood to your laptop perched on a desk in some high-rise
hotel in Shanghai or your crummy little studio on the LES.

Kidding aside, it was a pretty thoughtful email. Ultimately not much of substance was said and while blogging is changing no one had yet to make a convincing argument that it’s dead. Verdict: long, not very convincing, but worth the read.

How about this theory: some people who have been doing blogging for the better part of a decade are tired of it and are blogging less and trying other things. Some bloggers are spending more time away from the computer, some are working with video, and Calacanis is taking the email route.

The blog may have moved from the small, personal communication tool that it started out as to something much different, but it’s still alive and well. And for every A-lister that is dropping out there are lots of new people gaining recognition and even more starting out.

There is definitely one flaw with moving communications to email though- the only thing I need less than another RSS subscription is more email…