I have defied the odds for so long considering that I had an original launch XBOX360 console from 2005 that was still working perfectly and has been used exhaustively this entire time (about 20 hours per week). Last week I started to experience a strange problem while playing Dead Space. In the middle of the 7th level when I entered a certain corridor the screen went jumbled and all the colors appeared malformed. After rebooting several times and getting the same result each time I put in a Fallout 3 and after the opening cinematic the screen went black. The lights were still green and everything looked like it was working except there was no visual. After the next reboot, Red Ring of Death. Since then I have allowed the system to sit several hours and it will boot up but after 5 minutes or so it will go black and RRoD after any reboots.

It looks to be a heat issue and I'm pretty certain I could hack at it for a few days and resolve the heat issues, if the components aren't burnt up. I decided to set it aside for the time being and dust off the Playstation 3 and use that instead for a few months until I decide whether or not to bother repairing the X360. 

For the last 2 weeks in my spare time I have been working on a desktop recipe management system which can be used to synchronize with the web system. My wife spends hours each month browsing our recipes and creating ingredient shopping lists and monthly menus. The kitchen kiosk web site is great for ogranizing recipes and sharing them with friends but it lacks that great user experience that can only be accomplished with desktop applications. The Alpha is completed and I hope to be in beta in a few weeks. When it's in a stable beta I will post it on nealosis.com

 Ok, so I occassionally watch a video game show on G4TV called XPlay and they run a segment called The Will Wright Minute. Will Wright, of course, is the legendary game designer who created Sim City and The Sims. In any event the XPlay folks have created a very clever opening song to introduce Will Wrights segment and as soon as I heard it; I wanted it as a ringtone! Watch the embedded video below (the beginning) to see what I'm talking about.