By CrunchGear, on 2009.11.23, 04:03.04 pm
You’ll recall that Microsoft recently banned a bunch of people from Xbox Live because they had modded their 360s. Modding is against the rules, don’t you know? Microsoft told VentureBeat not to believe the numbers being thrown around—the number most relayed is 1 million banned 360s—because it never releases numbers to anyone.
Again, the larger debate is: should you be allowed to mod your console? I think so, but that’s probably because my opinion on every single issue is, “So long as you don’t bother me in any direct way, do what you want.” You bought the hardware (the 360 itself) so if you want to whip out a soldering iron or flash its DVD drive with a custom firmware, be my guest.
At the same time, Microsoft has the right to say, “Look, Xbox Live is a service that we’re trying to keep as clean as possible. If you’re playing a game on a modded console, it’s much harder for us to ensure that the service is as clean as possible.” (Where “clean” means free from cheating, hacks, etc.) Plus, why should someone be able to play a pirated copy of Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox Live when everyone else paid for it? It’s not “fair,” if you will.
That a law firm is possibly looking to start a class-action lawsuit over the bans is sorta silly. The law firm may have something when it comes to Microsoft owing some of these people money for the remainder of their Xbox Live contract, but I don’t know what the EULA or TOS for Xbox Live says about service termination. If you’re banned for being a jerk, are you entitled to any money left over on the contract?
The moral of this particular story is, no, Microsoft didn’t ban “1 million” Xbox 360s.
A surefire way to avoid being banned? Don’t use your modded Xbox 360 on Xbox Live.
By CrunchGear, on 2009.10.15, 12:00.22 pm
 Before I reveal the winner of the HP Envy 13, let’s go over the contest one last time. We hid seven words in seven posts over the last seven days. To be entered into the contest, you had to find all seven words, paste them into an email and send it to us before midnight last night. The first word, PACKARD, was in the initial contest post. It was then followed up by AUTOMOBILES, RENDERED, FORDS, OBSOLETE, TURF, and then finally yesterday, WARFARE. Out of the 1,300 correct entries, we randomly picked one winner and that person is…
…Marie T. from Maryland! Won’t you all join me in congratulating our winner!
No? You’re going to be like that, eh? Fine. I see how you are. You didn’t win a $1700 notebook and now you’re going to be a jerk about it. Well, I’m glad you didn’t win then. Marie would have probably congratulated you. She sounds like a very nice person so be happy for her. Maybe you’ll win something else in the future.
By CrunchGear, on 2009.10.12, 05:30.19 pm
 I knew when I got to the Neighborhood watch meeting last week, that guy from down on the corner was talking about me again. I saw him outside, standing next to his car. Of course I take security a little more seriously then the rest of the people who just like to *say* that are protecting our neighborhood. Next time though, I’ll be able to hear him. I just bought the new Spy Monocular & Long Range Sound Recorder.
I know that jerk was talking about me. I know it. And if he thinks he’s going to get away with this, he’s in for a rude awakening. I know he’s been talking to the watch leader. Excessive use of force. Those damn kids in their hoodies deserved everything they got. Besides, I used a bag of oranges, not a pillowcase full of door knobs.. yet.
I’ll fix him next time. I’ll be watching and recording using the new 8x monocular with a parabolic dish from Brando. I even got a great deal on it, $44.00 plus shipping.
By CrunchGear, on 2009.10.05, 04:00.32 pm
What’s wrong with sites like Hulu? Well nothing, per se, except for the fact that they can’t be used anywhere outside of the Unites States. As if other countries don’t want to watch… um, really great shows like “Extreme Makeover” and “The [American] Office”! Perhaps that’s why, then, BitTorrent site EZTV has seen traffic double, mainly from non-American IPs, in the past year? For whatever reason, people want to watch these shows, but since there’s no legal outlet to do so, well, it’s not exactly hard to configure uTorrent or Transmission, now is it?
The problem goes back to a time before the Internet ruined Hollywood’s business model. Back in the day (and still today, actually) people in other countries had to wait months, if not years, for “American TV Show” to show up on their local TV networks. That wasn’t much of a problem before the Internet, because how could you get jealous in London that a new season of The Simpsons started when all you had access to was whatever the hell Sky put on the air? You can’t want to see something if you don’t know it exists.
With apologies to alt.tv.simpsons, where I used to hang out for a minute.
But now you can’t visit Digg or Facebook without seeing your online, American buddies chatting about “30 Rock” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm. These shows won’t show up on your local TV stations for months, but that’s why there’s BitTorrent!
It’s like this: would you rather wait months and months to see “Whatever” when you can download it in seconds from EZTV? That’s what I did when I was in Barcelona and wanted to see “Generation Kill.” I downloaded the episodes a few minutes after they made their way to whatever site I was using at the time.
Is that piracy though? I mean, I guess it is, but what are you gonna do? Wait around like a jerk for Local TV Station to pick up the shows?
What the studios should do, but probably never will, is either A) eliminate staggered release schedules or B) set up international versions of sites like Hulu. I mean, why do they do that staggered release nonsense anyway? To protect the local market from imports or some nonsense? One World, baby, so treat it as such.
And why can’t a Web site be set up where my BROTHERS FROM ANOTHER MOTHER~! can stream “Family Guy” from the comfort of their home in Vienna, Melbourne, or Rio? It’s a stupid, Old World restriction that no longer make sense in this environment.
And yes, I know you can merely use a U.S. proxy, but that’s not the point, now is it?
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