All posts tagged microsoft

Xbox DEAD

By | 31 January 2011 | Video Games | 6 Comments

Apparently Microsoft’s XBL division is built upon the backs of gamers. I think that the last time that I renewed my account I must have used a credit card (defying all reason), which put me at Microsoft’s tender mercy. At some point XBL changed the terms of service making you opt in to auto renewal automatically upon give them a credit cart. Also, they removed the ability to disable this “feature” from the console, or web browser. The only way to disable auto renewal is to call XBL support can cancel it. I could have sworn that I did place the call, but I am sure I must have fallen for some other trap that automatically flipped the renewal flag on for my account, they make it pretty difficult to identify when it will happen.

My problem relates to auto renewal. Recently my XBL account expired, and I got the notice about the account expiring. So, I went down to Best Buy can cash in a couple of reward zone certificates to get a renewal card. I then went to xbox.com to redeem my card. Low and behold it wouldn’t let me. It kept forcing me to the billing information page to change my credit card information. With a message stating that the card would be charged $59.95 immediately upon being updated. I said screw that.

After speaking to one of the XBL reps the details of the scam were unfolded. Apparently, since auto renewal was turn on, they did not immediately shut off my account, instead they kept slamming the expired card while leaving the account active for a about a week. As a result, my account is now suspended pending paying an extortion fee to XBL. Since they allowed me to use the service for a week that basically constituted some kind of agreement to pay for the next year at their fully marked up price. Lame.

They will not even let me redeem the points that are already on my account, I’m pretty pissed. At this point I have two choices, I can either pay the extortion fee, or I close my account and start from scratch with a brand new account (losing the $20+ worth of point on my account).

XBL–

UPDATE: Well, I paid Microshaft’s blood ransom. And, my account status have changed to “active.” Now I just need to remember to disable the auto renewal before they obliterate me at some point in the future.

Good Bye Halo 2

By | 14 April 2010 | General | 1 Comment
IMG_2210

vanlandw and I play our final rounds of Halo 2 together

Today, I played my final few rounds of Halo 2 online. I seriously cannot believe they are canning XBL support for all Xbox games. It looks like Bungie knew some people would be coming back for a last round so they flooded the “Did You Know?” tips with amusing little snippets.

On the flip side, I honestly don’t think that I’ll miss it. We played several matches, only won two. And, I played just abysmally. I sealed the night by receiving an ass kicking in Big Team Battle. Yup, that pretty much sums up my entire Halo 2 experience.

Check out the miserable abomination that was my Halo 2 career

How Not to Price Your Upgrades

By | 25 June 2009 | General, Technology | No comments

This year, both Microsoft and Apple plan on releasing new versions of their OS’. Both Windows 7, and Snow Leopards are essentially the same as the prior releases except the fix problems in the previous version, and do some optimization. So, since these are not revolutionary upgrades I would expect them to be offered at a discounted rate.

Early this month, Apple announced that owners of Leopard will be able to purchase Snow Leopard at a discounted rate of $29.99. That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Today, Microsoft announced that owners of Vista will be able to purchase Vista 7 for a full blown $219.99. What a deal. To put this in perspective, the full version of Snow Leopard will be $129.99. Microsoft => FAIL.

Microsoft Hates Web Developers

By | 26 March 2009 | Technology | 3 Comments

I officially squandered and hour of my life updating my xp install under vmware fusion, and fiddling with ie to get 6, 7 and 8 all working along site each other so that I might have the displeasure of testing websites in all fucking three of the browsers.

After getting all the versions of ie installed, I took the new ie8 final out for a test drive. And, low and behold it still sucks, not surprise there though. I love how they don’t care about standards, and just keep introducing more fucking bugs for web developers to deal with. I can’t wait until the next site that I have to add yet another ie version specific stylesheet to. I mean seriously, I have one file for every other browser on the planet, but I expect to have to have three stylessheets just for ie.

I am seriously considering instituting a $1,000 surcharge to make sites ie6 compliant, but it seems absurd to me to devote such a huge portion of project development to debugging issues for a single, very obsolete, browser. Am I wrong? In the not too distant future I plan on modifying this site so that ie6 users are sent to a static page with download links to modern browsers, they will not longer be able to get to the actual blog and send me annoying messages about rendering quirks.

If you are viewing this post in internet explorer: what the fuck? Get with the program, and drop that piece of shit.

I could site here and rant about how awful internet explorer is, and how it takes years off my life, but it is getting late and I really should be sleeping, not venting. But, I won’t let that stop you from venting.

Anyone reading this is more than welcome to post a comment expressing their hatred for internet explorer. Any version is fair game, as they all suck.