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Author: Alan

Doing it right on the first day

Doing it right on the first day

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I started my new job as Senior Developer with ExpressDigital yesterday.  I’ve had some great jobs in the past.  I feel spoiled that for most of my career, I’ve actually looked forward to going into work.  I could tell ExpressDigital was going to be one of those places.  I love their products and their software is right up my alley.  They have the intangibles down too.  They arranged to take me out to lunch the first day, and even toasted me!  Talk about feeling welcomed.  I never understood why companies often ignored the little things that make coming to work a joy.  Maybe I didn’t get an Aeron Chair,  but I did get my own office with a beautiful view of Lake Austin and the 360 bridge. Sweet.  I’m looking forward to helping make ExpressDigital even more successfull than they already are.   Expect a lot more posts about them here.

I fixed my first XBOX

I fixed my first XBOX

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This summer we took our second XBOX to South Padre.  I debated whether to take it at all but I’m glad we did because the first day it rained all day.  David and I finished the Halo 2 campaign in cooperative mode.  The next few days, the XBOX had trouble reading some of the games. By the end of the week, it couldn’t read any disks.  Don’t know if it was the humidity, the car ride, fine sand that got inside?  At home it continued to fail to read ANY disk including DVD movie or music CD.  I could, however, get online, and view game saves on the hardisk.  It seemed like a DVD drive or laser problem.

Halogoldcampaign

Tonight I finally got around to trying to fix it.  I followed the instructions here to open the case and then  did a thorough DVD drive cleaning as described here.  I was setting my expectations low, but low and behold, it worked!  After disassembling the XBOX, using a $3.50 can of compressed air to dust the inside and the laser components, then reassembling it back, it fired up!  David and I celebrated (past his bedtime) by playing a level of Halo2.  This was the XBOX where we finished the campaign so we jumped directly to one of our favorite levels: The Great Journey.

We’ve missed having the second XBOX and playing XLINKed games.  It will also come in handy for our XBOX Nights.