Original Xbox Games

Sometimes I feel abandoned when I realize that no one is making new games for the first generation xbox game console. The old xbox sold about 24 million units before production stopped early 2005. Shortly after that all the game developers stopped creating new games for the system and redirected their efforts toward the xbox 360. The last time I checked the xbox 360 has sold about 20 million units.

I hate looking at the new game ads and seeing versions for the 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, and the Wii. It surprises me that the Playstation Portable is still as popular as it is. Sony continues to release updates with new features for the PSP's operating system and there isn't much else to choose from if you want an advanced hand-held game system with lots of games and wireless Internet capabilities. The only good news for people still playing the old xbox is that used games are cheap and plentyful. If you don't like paying sixty bucks for a game and don't mind non-hd graphics, the used game market for the old xbox is still going strong.

Ever-Green Services Update

I uploaded some new landscape photos to one of my client web sites this week. Ever-Green Services is a full service lawn care, landscape, and lawn irrigation company located in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. I invite you to visit their web site to see some of the great landscape work that these guys can do for you.

Budget Homepage - Small business web design

In my home this week I installed new carpet in two rooms. I was worried about doing it myself, but the rooms were small and anything would have looked better than the old stuff. Here are some photos of how the rooms look after the job was done:

Dead Dell 2350

This week a friend had me look at his Dell 2350 that wasn't working. This model is about five years old and did not give any signs of trouble prior to this. If you plug it in and press the power button nothing happens. The only sign of life is a little green light next to the power plug on the mother board. We ruled out the power supply by plugging it into one from another system. This made the mobo look like the source of the problem. Searching the Internet produced a long list of 2350 owners with similar troubles. But no one seemed to have a cure.

Replacing the mobo looked like the only option. Unfortunately I found out that a refurbished system board for a Dell 2350 goes for $250. That's a lot more than most people are willing to pay to keep a piece of outdated technology working. I paid about $90 bucks for an ABIT system board two and a half years ago that could run circles around a 2350. So why are they charging $250? Dell must have tight control of their spare parts supply chain. Their devious plan seems to be working because now my friend has to go out and buy a new computer. But, this time it probably won't be a Dell.

Student Loan Settlement

This week, after years of trying to negotiate with the US Department of Education, my girlfriend finally reached the deadline for payment of her loan settlement. We managed to scrape together the money without the help of anyone. It gave me the sense of how truly alone you are if you are in debt. Absolutely no one from her family stepped forward to help.

The most frustrating thing is that the loan should have been discharged because she did not get proper testing. A lady with a similar twenty-year-old student loan situation recently told us that she did get her loan discharged, so I suspect that my girlfriend is being punished by the Department of Education for her lack of understanding on how things like this work.

We are going to be on an extremely tight budget for the next six months trying to recover from this financial setback. I do plan on creating a video to tell her student loan story. The hope is that other people won't end up in the same situation. My advise: don't get a student loan. And, if you do have one, ask for a settlement, and do whatever it takes to pay off the loan as soon as possible.

AT&T sbcglobal DSL problem

I have been trying to help a client get to their web site, which mysteriously can't be reached from their location on the other side of the state. It was working fine for them earlier in the week. I can get to the site and the host server shows no problems and 100% availability. After doing a search, I found other sbcglobal.net customers who are having the same issue.

It looks like a DNS problem and I suspect that many DNS servers are being patched to fix the DNS flaw that was discovered recently. It's possible that we will see a few unreachable domains while all of this patching is taking place. Saying that doesn't help someone who can't log in to read their email. Sbcglobal DSL customers seem to be having more problems than others right now, so it could be a configuration problem on their servers. I haven't experienced any trouble with Charter for quite a while now, but for the price, you come to expect a high degree of system performance and availability.

Summer Lake View

Have you ever wondered what those people who own homes along the lake get to see when they look out their back windows? I was visiting one of my clients recently and snapped this photo from his patio overlooking Lake Altoona. His home is rather small by today's standards, but I can see why lake front property is so valuable.

I spent most of this week getting ready for our garage sale. It's always interesting to see what people will buy. Our books and dvd's where selling well all morning, but then late in the afternoon, someone came and bought a whole box full at once! Tools are another good seller. I had a welder that went in the first hour. I found an old chimney sweeper in the garage and someone bought it about fifteen minutes after I put a price tag on it. Clothes seem to go slower, mainly because no matter how low the price, it still has to fit and appeal to the customer. I'm afraid to sell any old computer parts to the general public, just because I know how fast they go obsolete.

Craig's list has been a great source for customers and I will probably be using their web site to advertise items in the future. They allow you to post items for free and have a simple location/category based layout, so it's easy to find people who are selling things in your area. Check it out if you've never been there. That's my tip for this week.