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Dave Coustan shared an idea in Offbeat Guides on December 12, 2008 03:36:
Giving The Gift Of OffbeatIs there a way to gift a guide to someone without building them a whole guide? Like giving them a credit that would let them build and publish one themselves?
Jason Goldman's reply to "May 20: Twitter Downtime" was just promoted to the most useful! Dave Coustan and 5 other people think it's one of the best replies.
The issue that we experienced today is actually not related to the problem we experienced yesterday. In turn, these two problems do not share the same cause with the downtime we experienced last week. At root is the database, but the cause is different.
Essentially what has been happening is that we've been trying to make changes in order to improve the long-term reliability of the service. Those changes have introduced instability in the short-term, however. We need to be able to make these kinds of changes and do so without affecting the service. That's our goal and what we're working toward.-
Dave Coustan started following the question "May 20: Twitter Downtime" in Twitter.
Dave Coustan replied on May 14, 2008 15:59 to the problem "Gray box of Google Reader doom." in Google:
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Dave Coustan started following the problem "Gray box of Google Reader doom." in Google.
Dave Coustan asked a question in friendfeed on April 01, 2008 14:28:
What's the best way to add my Get Satisfaction activity to my FriendFeed?I just up and grabbed the RSS feed from my dashboard page and added that as a "blog" to FriendFeed. Is that the preferred way to get it in to my account there or is there a better way?
Dave Coustan asked a question in Dash on April 01, 2008 00:27:
Is it worth it to buy a Dash Express in a city that doesn't have many?I live in Atlanta, and I figure that since the Dash just launched there's probably not much traffic data here and there won't be for a while. What will my experience be like as a very early adopter?-
Dave Coustan started following the question "I know it isn't released yet, but what can you tell me about Chi.mp?" in chi.mp.
Dave Coustan asked a question in Apple on April 01, 2008 00:16:
What are the options for iPhone car audio?What's the best car audio head unit to use with the iPhone? I've seen lots of decks by Alpine, Kenwood, and Pioneer that claim full compatibility with iPods for music, but I can't tell which of those work the same for the iPhone. I've heard that none of the systems that let you control your iPod (for music) with a nice interface right from the head unit work with for the iPhone. Is that true?
I'd really like to upgrade my car stereo, but am not sure what to rock.
Dave Coustan replied on February 28, 2008 04:47 to the question "Logging in as a different user each visit?" in Twitter:
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Dave Coustan started following the question "Logging in as a different user each visit?" in Twitter.
Dave Coustan marked one of Matt F.'s replies in Saucony as useful. Matt F. replied to the question "What fits most like the Saucony Originals Jazz and Cambridge?".
Dave Coustan marked one of goodwitch's replies in Twitter as useful. goodwitch replied to the question "valentine heart".
Dave Coustan replied on February 03, 2008 16:25 to the question "What's the internal significance of "10 market st, san francisco"?" in Google:
Dave Coustan replied on January 02, 2008 20:14 to the problem "stop deactivate" in Twitter:
Dave Coustan reported a problem in Get Satisfaction on December 26, 2007 20:12:
Button after sharing via Twitter says "cancel", should say "close" or "done".When you share a topic via Twitter, the screen you get after submitting the form just has a button that says "cancel". But really it's a "close this lightbox" kind of button and should just say "close" or something similar.
Dave Coustan started a conversation in XBox on December 24, 2007 05:08:
Xbox 360: Mods, Hacks, and Ideas for Turning Your 360 into Something MoreIt's interesting to see the projects that people come up with to take advantage of the powerful components inside gaming consoles. I've been staring at this project to turn my old Xbox into a beefy media center PC for a while now. I love the the idea of turning something I don't use anymore at all into something that beats the Apple TV in some ways.
There's nothing quite so cheap and functional yet in the realm of alternate uses for the Xbox 360, but I've poked around and found some imaginative projects and uses. Here's a small collection of things people have done with their 360's so far, and also a few ideas for Xbox features you can enable beyond just playing video games:
The Weird
Perhaps the weirdest, an egg fried on the heat sink of an Xbox 360:
In the "because he could" category, there's a 360 made into an alarm clock/tissue dispenser:
Photo via Jordan at Smashsomestuff.com
On the other end of the ambition spectrum, here's a project hardware hacker Ben Heckendorn did to turn his 360 into a classy 17-inch laptop:

Photo from Benheck.com
If you're into this sort of thing, Ben’s breakdown of the task makes for a fascinating -- if excruciatingly detailed -- read. It took him three months to complete. This souped-up 360 is water-cooled and fully functional, but it required all kinds of additional parts, including tubes of JB Weld, a 17-inch monitor, and a customized power brick.
Robotics, The Military, And The Po Po
The 360 controller is apparently the control sticks of choice for UK military spy planes that rain death from above. It seems like kind of a thin marketing gimmick, but I have to admit I'd like to see the military do something similar with a Guitar Hero controller, maybe involving a .50 cal cannon.
It has also been used in research applications, where it's been known to make an ideal control for advanced robotics projects that need lots of programmable sticks and buttons.
The 360 console has also made great trap bait. If you need to lure someone somewhere, you can dangle the promise of a brand-new Xbox 360, like the El Paso police department did to round up 115 wanted criminals.
Basic Ways To Make It Do More
These aren't necessarily full alternate uses, but they're some tips and suggestions for features you can enable beyond playing games and Xbox Live.
- Befriending The Zune - If you have a Zune, you can share music wirelessly from it to your 360 using Windows Media Connect. In fact, you can use a similar setup to share music and videos between a basic Windows machine and the 360.
- iPod/360 - If you have an iPod you can play non-rights-managed AAC files (i.e. stuff that's in AAC format but that you didn't buy from the iTunes store) from your iPod via a USB cable by downloading the Optional Media Update.
- Your Xbox Screening Room - You can now download and play video files encoded in the high-quality and popular DIVX and XVID formats.
- Make The D-pad Your Own - This one is more advanced and requires some hardware hacking. If you're into classic arcade games, you might want to modify the D-pad on your controller to improve the control in titles like Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter 5. This video shows how to make some mods using a Torx bit, a #1 and #0 phillips screwdriver, sandpaper, and/or a Dremel tool:
How about you? Have you seen any modification projects or alternate uses for the 360, discovered any interesting non-gaming features, or thought about doing anything to yours?
I've got my eye out for a project that shows how to make some kind of useful home security tool out of the Xbox Live Vision video camera add-on, but haven't found anything so far.- Befriending The Zune - If you have a Zune, you can share music wirelessly from it to your 360 using Windows Media Connect. In fact, you can use a similar setup to share music and videos between a basic Windows machine and the 360.
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Dave Coustan started following the question "Xbox 360 Failure Rate: Will My Christmas Present be a Dud?" in XBox.
Dave Coustan replied on December 10, 2007 15:53 to the idea "How to get your hands on a Wii before Christmas" in Nintendo:
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