maple's.fortunes

iPod Mini and XBOX

So I know this blog is turning into a place where the world can learn about all the things that seem to go wrong in my life, but my life really isn’t too bad! Well, we’ll save that story for another day, another post. Right now I am going to tell you about my tech problems that I seem to have. Don’t worry you non-techies out there, it won’t get advanced.

So I saw a segment on The Screen Savers, for those of you who don’t know, its a techy TV show, anyways, they had a segment on how to build your own iPod battery. And me being the nerd I am, went out and bought all the supplies to build my own iPod battery in an Altoids tin, for my iPod Mini. This turned out to be a BIG mistake. I bought all the crap, got the instructions off the internet and started building. This required a IEEE-1394, (Firewire port) to be affixed to the outside of the tin. I drilled a hole, stuck it in and soldered it in place. I then finished up the project, and it worked fine. I then plugged it into my iPod and it seemed to work, so I closed the lid, then I noticed it getting really hot. I disconnected it, only to discover it was too late, my iPod mini was gone. I figure that when I closed the lid, the wires short circuited, causing too much voltage for the iPod and it fried. A few days later, I phoned Apple, not telling them what I had done, and arranged for a box to be sent. I got the box, and sent my iPod to them. I got a new one back on Monday. I am so happy to have my iPod back! A warning to anyone thinking about this, its not a good idea, don’t risk it! By the way, I still watch The Screen Savers everyday, and I love that show. I would definitely recommend watching it. I have included some pics of my creation, but I am not saying do it, in fact I am saying DON’T DO IT!

Well, now on to my other tech problem, my XBOX. I bought my XBOX back at the end of August, 2004. In about October it had some troubles reading discs, so I contacted Microsoft, and they gave me a list of what to do. I did them all and one worked, so I figured nothing of it and moved on. A few months later, December, I thought otherwise. It started acting up again, but this time no solution was going to make it work. It just died, well not exactly, but pretty much. It wouldn’t read any of the discs, NONE! So once again I contacted Microsoft, and they again gave me the list. I then phoned them. They said there was nothing they could do, as it went out of warranty about a month ago. Yes that’s right and XBOX has a 90 DAY WARRANTY!!!! So, I wrote them a nasty little email, and got a gay response. They didn’t even care! So I took my XBOX back to Costco, and they took it back with no problem, I didn’t even have a receipt. So I was going to wait for Costco to get some more XBOXs in, but I just couldn’t wait that long, so today, I went out and bought one from Future Shop. I got all whole bunch of cool stuff with it this time.

Well, as you can see I seem to have a problem with my technology. Its funny, because I am not one of those clueless wienies about technology. Oh well, what are you going to do right? Oh and I think all of my zero readers should check out my new site. Yes I have designed and done another one. This one is on the History of BMW. You can check it out here