I have been using the Xbox 360 as an extender for Windows Media Center for a few years now. I have heard alot of people complain that it makes too much noise, but not until recently did I have the same problem. For the most part my 360 has been pretty quiet, but a couple of months ago I really started noticing how much noise the fans were making. Recently it got unbearable. I couldn't even watch TV with the volume turned up fairly high without hearing the fans. The other night I decided to take it apart and see what was going on.

Here is a good guide to help you disassemble the 360.

What did I find out? One word - DUST. I really shouldn't be surprised as I have to clean out my pc every 3-4 months, but the XBox was FULL of dust. I took everything apart and washed everything that could be cleaned with soap and water (top and bottom panels, detachable metal panel, and the air plenum). I also wiped the two fans down and cleaned them with a q-tip. I would highly recommend buying a can of compressed air. I didn't have one on hand, so I just blew or wiped the dust away. Needless to say I made a mess. It was everywhere. All in all it took about 30 minutes to take everything apart, clean it up, and put it back together.

What was the result? Well, I can now actually hear what I am watching. For real, it was a lot quieter. I can still hear it if I am closer than 5 feet, but it is very quiet. So, if you have never taken your 360 apart and given it a good cleaning then now is the time.

P.S. Don't waste your time just blowing it out with compressed air. There are tricky little places that dust gets caught in and you will never get it out unless you take it apart.

I was watching DLTV tonight and I noticed that Robert Herron mentioned the new Media Center Extenders. He got to see some in action at a recent convention. Although we weren't blessed with any pictures, Robert seemed pretty stoked about their features.

I'll have to admit I got pretty excited after hearing Robert drool over their capabilities. Robert mentioned that Microsoft will be showing them off again at the Digital Life Conference. I can't wait for some more information.

Does anyone have any pictures of these new extenders?

I guess I am on a video kick lately. This is a funny little video about the new "Zune Phone", or "Zphone". If Apple can do it, so can Microsoft.

If it runs Softsled, I so want one. Well, maybe not.

And up next it's the Zphone vs. the Iphone.

You might remember me writing about Linux MCE when I first started this site. It looked really nice, but in all actuality it was just too difficult for me to get setup. Well, "it looks" like things may have changed. Take a look at the video below. (For some reason you have to click the play button again after the advertisement appears.)

I'll post more when I have time to check this out for myself.

I am not going to have time to do a proper review any time soon, but in the meantime you can read what digger's had to say about it here. Hint...it's still not positive.

I love the direction that this project is going, but unless you make it simple enough for your average computer user to install and configure, it's not going anywhere. I don't care if you can control it with a 3 button remote control.

I came across a post at thegreenbutton awhile back with the above title. This guy supposedly stumbled onto a softsled like solution using windows vista. Read his post below.

Here's my setup: My main living room PC is the ole' MCE '05 (MCE) equipped with a TV tuner and lot's of storage. In my other room I have a Vista MCE (VMC??) that acts as a client to the living room MCE05 and has NO tuner installed.

I've setup the appropriate sharing and security permission to share my Recorded TV on the MCE05 as per previous guides. On the VMC I started using Vista's sexy new "symbolic linking" (or the mklink command) where you can make vista think that a network share is just a local folder on the machine. So anyway, I did this to the "Recorded TV" directory and it was working for a few months, but then suddenly my Recorded TV on VMC wasn't refreshing with new shows until I did a reboot. I did some troubleshooting and still could not fix the problem. Finally, I decided to share the folder that houses the "Recordings.xml" under "c:\docs and settings\All Users\App Data\Ehome\Recording" on the MCE05 machine. Now this time I decided to also mklink this share to my VMC...and then Viola my recordings started refreshing properly on the VMC machine. BUUUUT, I also noticed an interesting thing, when I would go to the program info page for a show, the "Series Info" button showed up...and it didn't do this before. I could then go into this and change the series settings and even cancel them. But since I haven't installed a tuner on this machine yet I don't have any Guide info and can't do things like look at "Other showings", resolve conflicts, and look at "Scheduled Recordings.

So my question to you guys is: If we were to mklink "Recorded TV", "Recordings.xml" and the EPG data on a client VMC wouldn't this effectively enable sharing the TV shows, series settings, and guide information between two media centers? If this worked we would have pretty much a softsled-like solution with the "Live TV" still lacking.

The only reason I haven't got the guide setup yet is because I presume once this happens I will start getting "Failed Recording" messages on the VMC since there is no tuner. Is there a way to bypass this with a virtual tuner or perhaps the "Recording Broker" program?

Original Post at the Green Button

I am really surprised that it has only three comments. I don't use Windows Vista so I can't test this out. Has anyone else been able to replicate what this user has done?

This post really saddens me. I never thought I would have to mention the word "IPhone" on this site.

The above is just a little humor. I really think that Apple has done a great job with the IPhone. It really raises the bar for cell phone manufacturers.

Anyway, I ran across a nice little post over at lifehacker today about how to turn your Windows smart phone into an IPhone look a like.

I know it's not Softsled related, but hey the news is pretty slim these days concerning that subject.

Microsoft announced today that they will repair the widespread problems with the XBox 360. Microsoft expects to spend over $1 billion in this process.

Xbox 360 owners will be glad to hear that Microsoft will extend the warranty on the console to three years. This comes after a large number of the game consoles broke down in what Microsoft calls a "general hardware failure."

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, said "We don't think we've been getting the job done. In the past few months, we have been having to make Xbox 360 console repairs at a rate too high for our liking."

Microsoft will pay for shipping and repairs for three years, worldwide, for consoles that experience hardware failure, which is usually indicated by three flashing red lights on the front of the console, something gamers sometimes refer to as "the red ring of death." Previously, the warranty expired after 1 year for U.S. customers and 2 years for Europeans.

I know this is not Softsled related, but I would like to say Happy Fourth of July to all of my American readers. Most countries have some form of Indepence Day that they celebrate and today is ours.

I only wished that it had fell on a Friday or Monday this year :). It sorta sucks being mid-week and having to get up and go back to work tomorrow.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.