Xbox Live going offline next Wednesday
April 19th, 2004 Leave a comment Visited 56 times, 1 so far today
Microsoft Xbox Live to face downtime for maintenance
Microsoft’s online game network will only be down 24 hours for upgrades, although its promised improvements won’t be available just yet.
Next Wednesday, at 6:01 am Pacific Daylight Time, Xbox Live will go offline. Not for good, though. Microsoft is merely taking the system down for 24 hours as part of the system-wide upgrade code-named “Tsunami.” Once implemented, Tsunami will bring a bevy of new features to Xbox Live, including improved team dynamics, team customization features, new custom-competition options, and MSN messenger integration.
Unfortunately, not all these features will be available after Xbox Live comes back online and users download the obligatory update. “It’s important to note that not all features we have announced will be available after the upgrade,” read a forum post from Xbox Live Director of Programming Major Nelson. “Most [features] will not be visible until game developers decide to implement specific features into their titles.”
Other than saying MSN Messenger would not be integrated right away, Microsoft was vague about what features would and would not be available. In another, lengthier post, Nelson explained “we are shipping these updates SOON…that is about as specific as the developers will let me get.” For now, Xbox Live users will just have to endure next week’s inconvenience and assume the promised improvements are on the way.
Source: GameSpot
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August 9th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
I just setup a Pluto Home system (smarthome + media server, plutohome.com, free open source). Itâ??s really cool. It has a streaming movie server, music server, pvr. Plus it does home automation and controls a/v equipment too. Thereâ??s only 1 problemâ?¦
You designate 1 PC to be the server; they call it the core. It exposes a network boot image for any other PC in the house, so your PC becomes dual purposeâ??normal pc, or net boot and itâ??s a set top box. You control it with Bluetooth mobile phones or web pads. And all the set top boxes in the house work together. Your media even follows you as you move from room to room if you keep the phone on. The problem is I donâ??t have enough media pcâ??s for all the rooms in my house, and buying a full PC for each room is too expensive. Plus thereâ??s no video cards for the PC that have component video outputâ??which is the only way I can get HDTV into my tv.
The X-Box seems perfect as a media director. Itâ??s a PC inside, right? So why couldnâ??t it boot like normal as an Xbox, or net boot as a pluto media director? Then it would be part of a whole house solution that did everything. I could even use the Xbox to turn on my sprinklers if I wanted, and do all sorts of stuff with it. Plus, since Pluto gives it a network boot image, space is no longer an issueâ??all the software could be stored on the main server. And the XBox has component video and itâ??s quiet and cheap.
Does anybody have an idea if it would be possible to use the XBox as a media director like that, doing a network boot? Then I could just buy a few of the XBoxâ??s rather than having to buy regular PCâ??s.