Month: December 2006

Black 360 Universal Remote Mod

I finally got my universal remote apart without breaking it in half and decided to throw together a little how-to for all the people having trouble getting it apart to paint it.

  1. Here we have the remote, battery cover removed. Notice the screw at the far end of the battery cover. It is normally covered by a sticker.
  2. Use a flat head screwdriver to pry the back tabs up, releasing the battery case.
  3. I used a vice to apply pressure to both sides of the controller. Because of its shape, you’ll need to slide it back and forth gradually as you apply pressure to prevent any blemishes. Also be sure to use a rag to keep the plastic away from the metal.
  4. Pull up at the seam until the side pops out. You’ll only need to get one side loose, the other will follow naturally.
  5. Bottom of remote removed.
  6. Be sure to remove these metal bits before painting, thank me later.
  7. Main board removed. I used masking tape over the IR screen, rather than try to separate it from the gray plastic before painting.
  8. Remote fully disassembled. Be sure not to lose anything!
  9. Check out Alcaron’s tutorial for painting tips.
  10. Close ups of the individual parts after painting. I painted in the dark, which was a major mistake. Always paint during the day.
  11. And our finished product. Notice the awful paint job which I’ll be sanding down and repainting tomorrow. I just wanted to get this up today. Hope you all enjoyed!

Please, let me know if you give this a shot, I really love the look.

Black Controller Mod

I’ve been a busy little bee this holiday break and decided to modify one of my xbox360 controllers following this guide by Alcaron. It came out way better than I thought it would, the only issue I had being that the battery compartment button didn’t hold the paint, so it’s starting to scratch off. Other than that one (easy to fix) blemish, I think the whole project worked well, and I’ll be repeating the process for my other controller and all my accessories soon… If only I can figure out how to get that damned universal remote apart. Here’s the pics! Enjoy!

Dead End

Tomorrow I’m going to the end of the road to find something I’ve desired for so long. Will it be there? Will it be all I had wished of it? I can only hope so. Please be there, please be mine.

New Congress, Save the Internet ramps up again!

As I’m sure my American readers know, there’s a new Congress on the way in, and they’re going to need to be trained like the baby animals they are. Please help spread the word on Net Neutrality by watching and then forwarding this video from savetheinternet.com on to all your friends. Your children with thank you one day, and you’ll thank you one day soon.

Untitled short story Part 1

"Stay back."

"But I can help!"

"Enough blood has been shed today. I don’t need yours on my hands too."

Hearing that, Tal fell to her knees, sword falling from her loosened grip to the ground with a thud. "Please be careful."

"…I won’t need to," he sighed, then paused for reflection on the coming battle.

"Giving up so soon?" flowed, singsong, up the hillside to meet Sunder’s ears.

"If only…" he muttered to himself, squaring his stance and preparing to charge into the waiting group. He took one last breath of peaceful air, crouched low, and launched himself forward, leaving impressions in the earth where his feet once stood. He was not an exceptionally large man, standing just six feet tall, but countless modifications left his body dense with synthetic compounds. Each system in his body replaced, one by one, and individually programmable by thought alone. His blood was now a superfluid, traveling his superconducting veins and providing raw energy in the form of high energy, easily broken hydrogen compounds. Excess hydrogen and other compounds followed the veins back to his torso, now a mass of nano-complex systems designed to fuse the excess, creating power to drive all the other systems of his body.

Sunder is alone in this world. There are none like him. His family passed on generations ago, all having been killed in the initial invasion. He alone survived the initial prototype run of 12 in the risky operation to save humanity. As he flashed down at the hulking masses of the warrior class in their exoskeleton battle suits, he wondered if this 500 year war would ever end.

Double space

I have decided to stop using two spaces between sentences. This feels very awkward, but everyone with whom I have spoken says it is proper now, including the internet. Who am I to argue with the internet? Argh, I have had to go back in every sentence so far this post and get rid of the nbsp. This is ricoculous.

In other news, tonight I am going to see The Fountain. I have deliberately avoided hearing about it so I will get the full experience.

My car, the RX-8

Facts:

  • I drive a 2004 Mazda RX-8.
  • I love my car.
  • When driving my RX-8, I can feel everything.

Now, let us examine this.  If I run over a pebble in the road, I feel it.  This has the distinct advantage of keeping me aware of driving conditions I may otherwise have gone completely unaware of.  I can thus drive at high speed and know exactly when my tires are about to lose traction over light gravel and compensate accordingly.  This adds a whole new layer of fun to driving for me, since I needn’t worry about dangerous conditions such as ice or snow, since I’ll be aware of any particularly dangerous patches just before I hit them.  I’ve been known to drive almost completely sideways around a corner over ice and never once have I felt out of control.  I really don’t think this is me, I believe the car is the reason, as my last two cars would not have afforded this luxury with even a semblance of safety.  So what makes me decide to write about my car today?  Well, just now as I’m driving down the highway home from work, I noticed myself casually avoiding cracks in the road, so I tried just following the car in front of me, letting my tires go wherever theirs did.  Awful!  Never again will I make that mistake.  Never

Beryl-Project.org

The Beryl Project is a community run branch of Novell’s Compiz, which I have used extensively.  Beryl has eschewed such things as stability for the way more fun WOW factor that makes people really want to try it out.  The current development is still really stable for me, both on Intel and NVIDIA graphics hardware, and the performance is top notch.  I’m running on Ubuntu with custom packages built nightly, but the packages available from the Beryl Project website work great.  I think they’re about due for a release soon, so if you’re looking to try something new and exciting on your Linux desktop, get ready for an experience like no other with Beryl.  Under Ubuntu 6.10 I had no difficulty installing at all following the advice from their Wiki.  You can also get support for Beryl under Ubuntu in the #ubuntu-xgl channel on irc.freenode.net.  Give it a try, and if you like it, consider donating.  The entire Linux community will thank you!