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Anandi’s Thoughts

Random stuff (mostly) about working as a Program Manager at Microsoft
Been a long time

It's that time in the afternoon, a couple of hours after lunch, when it's hard to stay awake and focus.  I thought I'd switch my focus to something a little less mentally taxing, especially since it's been a while since my last post. 

So the big news around here is the XBox 360 launch.  Last night when I was driving home, I saw someone setting up a bunch of green spotlights and scaffolding on our soccer fields.  Maybe for some sort of launch party on campus last night or today?  Also, it turns out that Bill Gates was at "my" local Best Buy store selling the first Xbox 360 consoles.  Which is pretty cool.  I wish I had gone down there just to watch the spectacle.  Plus my parents are in town visiting, and they would have had fun with that.  Except for the fact that it was at midnight last night. 

Now might be a good time to start scanning our company newsletter for the older Xbox so I can get my DDR fix.  I've played it a couple of times in the arcade (only in towns that I don't live in, to avoid major embarassment) and it's strangely addicting.  Some of my other friends who played too, and shall remain nameless, also agree. 

So are YOU going to buy the new Xbox?

Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 3:03 PM by anandi

Comments

Marshall Harrison said:

Buy an xBOx?

No way. I'm too busy writing speech applications to play games. Besides MSS is more fun.
# November 23, 2005 8:25 AM

Chris Bardon said:

Damn right I'm going to buy a 360...eventually. I just have to save the money to afford one first. 500 bucks (CDN) just for the console, then 60 bucks a pop for extra controllers, extra for a WiFi adapter, and then you have to buy games on top of that. Not to mention, of course, that the 360 practically begs for an HDTV, so there's another few grand for that... I have a house to pay for too you know.

Unless, of course, one of the wonderful Microsoft people wants to hook me up, I'm probably going to be 360-less until next year sometime. No matter though, I probably have enough original Xbox games sitting around to last me for quite a while.
# November 23, 2005 9:30 AM

Jeff Parker said:

Maybe, I am not much of a gamer. When I am in the mood for games I still play the original Age of empires or Civilzation Series. Sitting there playing a fast paced shoot em up game with super cool graphics just isn't my thing. Now I remeber seeing a friends Xbox that was Modded and I thought that was one of the greatest things since sliced bread I would have bought it for all the features the modded version had which went well beyond games. Playing games on it was just a feature then.

I am going to sit back and let all the dust settle. I have two friends that got one already and I am going to see how it goes with them. Right now one guy has the crashing problems being reported. Another one can't transfer his MP3s over it wants you to re rip them. Which for me a lot of my MP3 are ripped from casette tapes using this sweet little device http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/7a8d/ Hey, I am an older guy and many of my tapes are out of print so i can't buy the CD's. Anyway I don't know what the deal is with the media parts not quite working. If it is just a glitch or what. So like I said I am just going to sit back and let the dust settle and see how it all goes I would buy an Xbox not for the games but for some of the other features. If the other features turn out not to be all that great then I saved myself some cash.
# November 23, 2005 10:37 AM

anandi said:

Marshall - Great attitude - that's what we like to see in the TAP :)

Chris - I hear you about the price. We're having the same debate about getting a Media Center PC. When we got to the thought of "then we should replace our TV with a projector and screen" is when we decided to stop pondering it :). And wrt "hooking you up" with an XBOX, *we* don't even get a deal or even an opportunity to purchase the console, we just have to go to Walmart and hope they still have one.

Jeff - it sounds like a good plan to wait and see how it goes. At any rate, the price might probably come down after Xmas sometime. I had no idea you could rip MP3s from cassettes. Makes me wish I hadn't thrown away all my cool 80s heavy metal tapes!
# November 28, 2005 12:59 AM
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