KEY POINTS:
The website 8bitjoystoick.com has a very interesting article up that's based on what is claimed to be an authentic interview with an insider in Microsoft's Xbox 360 camp.
Microsoft has been plagued with reliability issues with its Xbox 360 consoles, with a high failure rate - 8bitjoystick's source claims a staggering 30 per cent failure rate. Says the source:
"A good unit may last a couple of years, while a bad unit can fail in hours. I have a launch unit and have not had a single problem with it. And it's used a lot. But I don't know anyone else with a 360 that hasn't broken, except you now. There's no way to tell when your's might die. But the cooler you can keep it, the longer it will probably last. So stand it up, keep it in free air."
I had an Xbox 360 launch unit until a few months ago and never had a problem with it, though I did experience the "red ring of death" a couple of times. This is when the illuminated ring around the Xbox 360 power button turns from its calming green to an angry red to indicate something has gone wrong. For me it has only ever been a problem with a disc or a loose connection. For many Xbox 360 owners it has meant a fried Xbox 360.
Ironically, says the unnamed insider, the better the video game, the more likely the Xbox 360 is to fail as the greater processing power required generates more heat and the quality of the game means people will play it for longer, putting strain on the Xbox 360! If there's any truth to that Microsoft has a serious engineering debacle on its hands. So how is your Xbox 360 going?
Regulating the web
We knew this was coming and maybe it is not such a bad thing. The Government today released a report that looks at the potential for regulating digital broadcasting and internet content.
There are two elements to this - competition regulation and content standards. It is easy enough to regulate traditional TV broadcasters because it's easy to see what share of the market they have and exactly what they are broadcasting. It's harder to do that on the internet and will be even harder as video on demand and content streaming services proliferate.
The concentration of media ownership in New Zealand across print and broadcasting is extremely high and as newspapers pursue tie-ups with broadcasters and internet publishers it will only increase to be that way. Not only does it lead to a major homogeneity of content for readers and viewers, it erodes competition.
Australia loosened its media ownership laws under John Howard leading to further concentration of media ownership there. Much of this is being driven by media companies scrambling to make the shift to digital content delivery. Just this week Australia's oldest magazine The Bulletin, a bastion of great journalism for decades, was laid to rest. Its circulation had fallen to 57,000 from over 100,000 in the mid nineties.
The other element, content standards, is even harder to handle in the digital world. Currently the Broadcasting Standards Authority has no remit to police content broadcast on the internet or mobile phones. That means the BSA might consider letters from viewers annoyed about crass language on A Game of Two Halves but can't do anything about an Al Qaeda beheading video being broadcast on the internet for all to see. Good luck to anyone attempting to regulate digital broadcasting on the internet. That's one can of worms that is gonig to have to be opened very carefully.
More on UFOs and free Wi-fi
Here's one way to get lots of unsual email - write about UFOs, as I did in a blog this week.
Someone sent me a link to this bizarre video footage supposedly leaked by someone working in Area 51, the US top-secret military zone in the Nevada desert. It seems to have more to do with WW2 than UFOs.
Peter Coleman, an author and scientific investigator wrote to me to tell me about his theory which he believes explains many UFO sightings:
"My theory developed in New Zealand but published in reputable scientific publications posits the existence of what I have termed a "vortex burner". A full exposition of this position is in the scientific paper and my book Great Balls of Fire - A Unified Theory. These vortices are on fire and burning a combustible in mid air. With the dynamic movement of the vortex they present an awesome spectacle. This phenomenon is still little known to the public yet the explanatory power of the theory far exceeds any alternative explanation. In addition is also accounts for ball lightning."
More on that here.
A number of people pointed me towards the Disclosure Project (www.disclosureproject.org), a website that catalogues the witness statements and insider accounts of hundreds of overnment contractors, ex-military, pilots and who are trying to force the Government to open up its files on UFOs.
"These people are high level and not something naysayers and sceptics can simply blow off as charlatans and loons," wrote Seb.
And just a day after my blog about Telecom's free wi-fi for Xtra broadband customers and whether the free ride will end in March, AT&T comes out in the US with a deal to give its broadband customers free access to its US network of 10,000 Wi-fi hotspots. Maybe the free Wi-fi as an add-on to a telecoms operator's broadband business has legs after all. With the iPhone and free Wi-fi hotspots, AT&T customers now have some pretty good options for surfing the web while out and about.
