Strange fix for Xbox 360 Youtube app problems

Just wanted to make a quick post about a weird problem I had with the Xbox 360 Youtube app and the even weirder solution I found for it.

The problem: Xbox 360 Youtube App won’t load.. stuck indefinitely at the loading screen.

Xbox Support’s recommendation: delete youtube app, save file, and updates. clear xbox 360 system cache, reboot, reinstall. This got me back into the app, but only for the first launch(and videos still wouldn’t play)

Actual Solution: Change your gamer picture and personal picture.

No seriously, that is what worked. I found this suggestion in the details of a Youtube video about a different issue with the app.

I have no idea what your gamer picture has to do with the Youtube app, but sure enough this worked.

By posting this here, I hope it will help someone else who may be googling for an answer to the issue.

Life Tip! Use up every cent of prepaird rebate cards!

Everyone knows that mail-in rebates are a hassle by design. They are an unfortunate reality in the world of getting good prices on things, but manufacturers not only want to borrow that money from you, they also hope you won’t ever claim your money to begin with.

And in today’s age, even when you DO claim your refund, you are often given it in the form of a disposable VISA card which might seem convenient, except that you need to know EXACTLY what your balance is in order for the card to not be declined when used at the POS. Even if you know what the balance is, you then have to hold up the line by asking the cashier to run 2 seperate payments for you. Of course, what they HOPE you will do is just stop using the card once you almost deplete it. Even if you leave just a dollar or less, that could easily turn into hundreds of thousands reclaimed by the manufacturer via “maintenance fees” that kick in once the card becomes inactive(considering all of the customers holding their rebate cards)

But, that’s your money and you shouldn’t give it back to them so easily. Tonight, a solution to this problem occured to me that is so simple, I don’t know why I never thought of it before.

Just take that card and use it to buy a gift card at Amazon.com (assuming you are going to be making purchases on Amazon in the future).

This is the perfect solution because Amazon will let you purchase a gift card in any amount(such as the $1.17 I needed to dispose of tonight), they will let you send it to yourself, and you can apply the gift card to your account immediately, where it will sit and wait for you, even if you don’t spend it for years. When you make your next purchase, Amazon will use up your GC balance first and then automatically fall back to your payment method of choice for the balance.

Of course this solution will work at any store that allows you to buy custom priced gift cards and that will hold your balance for you indefinitely. I believe Starbucks would be another good choice if you go there. If you know of any other stores this trick would work well on, please leave a comment.

SRT-4 Intake Manifold Gasket

Following up on the post I did a few weeks ago, I finally got around to finishing up the install of the intake manifold gasket in the SRT-4. Overall it was a fairly easy process.

Symptoms of the bad gasket were:

Loud, High Pitched Whistle while car was running

High idle and sticky RPMs

Slight fuel smell in the car

For those looking to do this and cut as many corners as possible, follow the steps below(with my notes) to get it done without actually removing the manifold from the car. The original how-to that I followed is here, and a followup post with pictures here. Many thanks to the writers of those posts.

1. Remove the plastic fuel rail cover by just pulling up on it.
2. Remove the fuel line on the passenger side of the fuel rail – Have a rag ready because it will leak fuel as you remove it.
3. Disconnect each of the 4 harnesses attached to the fuel injectors – slide the red tab up and then pull the harnesses out
4. Remove the 2 pawns holding the fuel rail on the manifold. – you’ll need a deep socket. Off the top of my head: 13mm
5. Pull on the fuel rail to remove it from the manifold. – if you’re having trouble, focus your strength on 1 side of the rail rather than pulling on both sides equally. Once one injector pops out, the rest will come easily. Once the rail is out, clean out the injector holes as best you can to remove the sand/dirt build up.
6. Remove the 5 10mm bolts from the intake manifold. – A ratchet extension will be necessary for the lower bolts, and a ratcheting wrench will help greatly with the one furthest to the left. A ratchet with an adjustable, angled head might also be useful for this job.
7. Pull on the manifold and you should be able to get about 2″ of clearance from the head – just enough to remove the old gasket with a screwdriver or razor blade. Work slowly and make sure you take the gasket out in 1 piece if possible.
8. Put the new gasket in position, and secure it by installing the outside bolts into the head(with your fingers), followed by the other 3.
9. Set your torque wrench to 16ft-lbs. Start with the center bolt: remove it, apply medium threadlocker, and then reinsert, this time torquing it properly. Work from the inside-out and repeat this for the other 4 bolts. Do the best you can on the leftmost bolt: you’ll probably have to use the ratcheting wrench again, and judge the 16ft.-lbs. the best you can.
10. When you reinstall the fuel injectors, coat the o-rings with some clean oil first. Also note, they will not “pop” in as they popped out. Press them in as tightly as possible and then tighten the pawns and reconnect the injector harnesses and fuel line.
11. Fire up the car and hope it doesn’t burst into flames

Adventures in rescuing a corrupt HFS+ mac volume with Ubuntu linux

Over the years of working with Macs, I’ve often seen cases where a machine will fail to boot past the initial gray loading screen. Occasionally, this issue is easily fixed by booting from a 10.x installer disc and fixing permissions on the boot drive.

..but more often than not, it’s not a permissions issue that’s stopping the system from booting, and trying to verify or repair the filesystem on the drive will fail before it even attempts to fix it.

This isn’t even a huge deal if your data is backed up, or unimportant.. just reformat the disk and do a fresh install of OSX. This wasn’t the case this week when it happened again. One of the users I support had important data on the drive, and I knew I wouldn’t feel right unless I explored every option for retrieving it.

Repairing the thermostat housing on a 2002 Ford Focus

Even before my girlfriend and I met, she’d been dealing with a constant coolant leak in her car. Being that she doesn’t know the first thing about them, she assumed it was a huge problem that would cost thousands of dollars to address and decided to just continue adding coolant every few days. Turns out, this coolant leak is a very common issue on the Ford Focus, and while she was quoted $500 for a repair, it wasn’t too difficult for me to do for her in my own garage.

The main reason I’m writing this up is to clarify a few points on the great writeup I used as a basis for going about the job. Hopefully Google will index this page and it will be helpful for those later searching for tips.

Delicious ribs in a hurry

Up until last night, I’d never ever cooked ribs. Searching the internet, I found so many different ways to cook them, and most of the recipes seemed to take up to 3 hours. I had to cook them relatively fast though, so after a bunch of research I gave it a shot and I’m happy to say this worked and tasted EXCELLENT.

Cleaning an Apple Mighty Mouse

Many many years ago, the computer world collectively discovered that using trackballs to detect movement in a mouse was a terrible idea. Apparently, Apple didn’t get this memo, and decided to equip their only 2 button mouse not with a scrollwheel, but with a ball in order to add the uncommon and unnecessary function of scrolling left and right.

The downside, of course, is that these balls easily pick up dirt, eventually paralyzing it’s movement completely. Back in the day, mice always had an easy way to access the wheels under the ball, but in true apple fashion, the Mighty Mouse is designed to be thrown away when it becomes dirty.

This morning, I decided to look into the feasibility of cleaning it out, and after a quick Google search, located a gallery of images that helped me out.

Tearing up carpet

This weekend the goal was to tear up the carpeting in the living and dining rooms, and to get started painting the bedrooms.

Turns out it takes way longer to pull up carpets than I anticipated. Over the course of a LONG Saturday and an equally long Sunday, my girlfriend and I got the carpet up from both rooms, though there are still some tacks left in the living room which I will have up tonight.