HSDEMONZ.com

It was a long time coming, and I had a number of delays and setbacks I won’t discuss here, but it’s sure nice to have that beast done and posted.

Review

Lots of pics,  Lots of videos.

Microsoft Aftermarket 360 Faceplate.wmv
Joytech 360 Faceplates.wmv
Pelican 360 Faceplate.wmv
MadCatz 360 Faceplate.wmv
TeamXtender XCM360 Faceplates.wmv

I’ll have the Chrome Faceplates detailed shortly, and the Xbox 360 Full Case Replacements as well.

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Over the years, despite my better judgment I keep trying out Wireless Keyboard and mouse combos. A couple of years ago it was the Logitech breed of wireless technology. Loved the Look and style of the product. Loved the range too. Didn’t like the fact the mouse died on my in less than 4 months, and the keyboard in 6.

I had bought that Logitech Wireless combo at the time because I had given up my home office for it to become a nursery.  I was glad to do it. I take my computer setup, migrated it into an armoire in the living room, and used VGA 15 foot extension and USB extenders to migrate the needed component to a relatively unused living room table.

So, with the 15 foot VGA (on top of the monitors native 6 foot cable) I was now operating 20 feet from the PC. Cool.  While I did have USB extended to the table as well, that was for peripherals like cameras, etc when needed. I didn’t want the Keyboard and Mouse cables if I could help it.

So, The Logitech setup was brought into my home at the time.

As I said earlier.. loved everything about the combo. Right up to the point it started to get flaky. Efforts to migrate the transmitter/receiver unit, change channels, etc.. in the end proved fruitless.

Eventually.. I showed them in a drawers, pulled out the 4 year old Microsoft Office Keyboard and Blue Mouse and I was then tethered again.

Now let’s jump to the present.

For no real reason, other than I felt my wired setup was showing some signs of age and wear, I felt I should go wireless again. So, I checked out the local Best Buy and Future Shop Chains (really one and the same now in Canada) and found what I felt was a good deal.

A $40 Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse Wireless Optical Combo. At that price, I can hardly buy a MS wired keyboard alone. (I can.. but it’s slim pickings)

It was flat black, and the style was simple and elegant. Parting with $40 bucks for this combo felt like I was ripping them off.

Got it home, fell in love with it.

That lasted for a week.

Mouse started to act up. It slowly became less and less responsive.  As per usual, I started to take measures to ensure no undue interference was involved.. or at least could be helped.  I then took the time to re-read the included literature and the box. I was shocked that the combo was really limited to an effective range of 6 feet or so.

The Logitech kit I had before was good for 20 or so.

Anyways.. the mouse worked. Just not as responsive as I’d like. Sometimes, an extra click or two was necessary. Eventually though, I took the batteries out of the mouse and decided to go back to tethered, and plugged in the USB MS Blue optical mouse I’ve got.

At that point, I was still using the Wireless Keyboard and the T/R unit.  The Keyboard never really provided me with any grief, and I did like the color and styling. So much so that I intended to do the unthinkable and paint my Lian Li PC case flat black to match.

Well.. that brings us to today, for no apparent reason, the T/X unit started to give me grief. While it’s plugged into the USB port of the PC, even with no Batteries in it’s mouse, the pointing would jump like mad. Unplugging it solved the problem. I took some time troubleshooting it, plugging and unplugging my other mice, stylus etc to narrow down that it was in fact the T/X  unit.

It was.

So.. I am now fully tethered again. I had to whip out my class MS Office Keyboard.

Maybe I’ll paint it black.

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A thread on XS made me think about the staff that has come and gone over the years..

When XS started.. we had a small crew of mods, and a few admins during the first 6 months. Most notably Xantium, Syrus as admins, and Cheerio, XB0X_Mod, Satan00, LumbraX, opjose, sonic-iso, The Legendary Rob, R3B0RN. For the life of me I couldn’t tell you when each became staff, not that it mattered. This group waas pretty much the first 4-6 months of XS.

Sonic-Iso you’ll recognize.. from XBH. R3born and Legendary were early mods.

Xb0x_mod was the guy who made the Xbox Cover app.. and a few others. Also ran the early BST I think. He more or less left 2 years ago, between moving, and issues with a guy named Hellomoto who exploited his “encryption” and later “worked” with him only to screw him again later.. Xbox-mod walked away from the scene.

Cheerio, was probably the most interesting and active. A young Canadian, in his early teens at the time. He had a lot of enthusiasm for this site.. and for the scene in general. Too much so. After a short tenure here on XS as a mod, and one on XBH, he allowed his own self interests and agenda to spoil a good run by turning the XBH news page upside down. That was the beginning of the end for him on XS, as it also was the beginning of a number of impersonation acts of me, and other that finally got him removed from XS and XBH altogether.

His on and off battles with Bagel were legendary. Those two children would go at it daily, trying to one up each other withy their slams. Cheerio was as helpful as he could be.. but at times was more interested in how fast he could accumulate authority. So much of their baggage was a carry over from another fledgling site.. ConsoleGods.com. Bagel remained staff there for awhile.. not sure if Cheerio ever was staff there. I was staff there myself for a month or so before inner strife with Zeus and other staff tore it apart.

Satan00, a long time friend, was one of the most active members, and staffer we had at the time. Funny and abusive humor, was pretty much enjoyed by all. Some night, we’d stay up late to read his CLOSE posts on threads. Few people were as creative as he was/is. He was a staffer until last year, when interest in the scene was starting to trickle off.

Opjose, is a guy that really earned his place in the scene. This guy had seemingly no end of knowledge about all things Xbox.. and what he didn’t know.. he knew where to find it and would tell you. His patience for answering the same questions over and over and over is still unmatched. He eventually burned himself out and more or less walked away a year or so later. Most of the early members, and some early staff owe him a debt of gratitude. We learned a lot form him.

The next crop of staff were, included myself (HSDEMONZ), LepPpeR, BenJeremy, No_Remorse_666, Iriez, N00bvin, kkattfish, M3_DeL. Most of this group ended up becoming the first group of Head Mods on XS. (The term Head Mods wasn’t used before this group. You were either a mod or you weren’t) This group held the ground for the next 6-9 month period.

My popularity was due in part to two things.. Backup Guides/Methods, and to cartoons I’d make poking fun at members and staff.  As that popularity grew, and a fan base to match, there we request for me to become staff. Despite what people think now or then, those calls had nothing to do with me becoming staff, much less the admin of this site. We had a plan, and we worked it. Simple enough.

Around this time, Guys like Leppper were active a lot.. and participating in the General Chat a lot. At that time, we really had only about 5-6 forums, and about 15-25k members.  No Remorse was only just starting to tinker with the idea of Jewels.. and man.. that took off.

Ben Jeremy, one of the most helpful guys on the site, and developer of MXM became staff. He was if memory serves very active in CHIP related discussion, often taking on very volatile topics and debating them with ease. He didn’t make a lot of friends in some chip circles with his ideas and tone, but we loved him just the same. Ben Jeremy kinda just disappeared a year and a half ago.. so we simply pulled his mod privs. MXM forums are run by enthusiasts now.

Ireiz from Xbins Fame took the mantle of moderator and ran the emulation area of the site.

M3 Dell still pokes his head in from time to time. Kkattfish was the XBSKINZ.net guy.. selling vinyl cut “x” for your Xbox. Very popular guy.. and remained so until an incident with a contest where he was supposed to ship an XBOX as a prize.  He eventually walked from the scene due to that incident, and other personal issues. Noobvin left as he didn’t like the new administration on XS. XS was growing and changing and some people enjoyed being big fish in their little ponds.

Shortly after I became staff, Xan and myself discussed the future growth of XS, our plans for it, and how to accomplish those goals. A month later I became Admin and put that plan into action. New Forums were made, others were split, and new staff were brought in. We began a period of explosive growth that didn’t slow down until Summer 2005. To this day, we are still growing at a good clip.. with new signups far outweighing older members leaving.

I was a very popular member at the time, high post count, fans, and suck holes followed me. Becoming a Head Mod, and then Admin caused my popularity to do a 360. Which was fine.. Xan told me that would happen as I’d have to drop the head Cheerleader act and take on the Quarterback position. I’ve never looked back, and never regretted accepting the position.  As the new admin, I then started to scope the forums looking for good candidates for staff for the new forums.  We had big plans.. and with the continuing growth needed staff to look over it.

A lot of people (and when I say a lot.. that can be as much as a couple dozen PM’s per day) to this day don’t like the abrasive and harsh approach I have had to take with XS and our policies. (but it’s easily overshadowed by those giving praise, suckholing, or just being genuinely nice and courteous with comments and questions)

For the Bitchy Fucks..

Fuck’em.   We’ve always had a take it or leave it policy.

Seriously though.. the approach was necessary. The site simply grew. With that growth, came abuse from the members, and with that the need for more staff.. more rules.. and tougher attitudes.  These days, tolerance is low. It needs to be. People don’t understand that, then that’s their problem not ours. What we have done.. moreso what I have done works. For the bitchy whiny people.. “the good old days blah blah blah” are gone. Get over it. Stories of nostalgic night of 3 hour posting marathons might sound cool.. but really guys think about it… this is 2006 why on earth would you even want to go back to how you were 2, 3 or even 5 years ago. Whether that’s on this site, or in your own lives.

Anyone who was a member in 2001 or 2002 doesn’t need to be on here hours per day talking to people. You learned what you needed to, and now have the tools to learn new stuff faster. You’ve made your friends.. and have now splintered off into your new groups. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

XS was never meant to be.. nor should itever be a place you spend all of your time.. year after year. After awhile, we’d hope that you learn what you want, then drop in when you feel a need to lean more or see what’s changed. At no point should anyone be looking at Xs, or any site and looking for a place to perpetually spent all of your time.

It’s 2006, and trust me, I don’t spend the same amount of time on the forums as I did in 2002. It’s called getting a life. I do however, spend more time on this site than most, but of course I’m in a unique position, and it’s a requirement. Enough about me though..

In no particular order, we brought up Shanafan, brahm2, heinrich, Xeero, Mage, leftyfb. These guys I made Head Mods. They all had a lot of interest and enthusiasm. Most were very helpful publicly on the forums.. some moreso with PM’s, while others went the IRC route. All of which were good picks as staff.

Shanafan was one of the heaviest posters on XS before becoming staff.. and increased his posting. A lot of LIVE users owe Shanafan big for his time and tireless efforts. He wrote guides, how to and not to get banned on live. He helped a lot of people get unbanned as well.

Xeero, was no less helpful. He was big in the Backup forums at the time. (a personal heaven for me.. that’s where I cut my teeth with Leppper)

LeftyFB was an early staffer for the BST forums, especially during some of the early changes. LeftyFB will always be known more for his IRC antics and his Anti-softmod rhetoric.

Heinrich, with his unprecedented connections to Xbins, and many chip devs, was and still is incredibly helpful in the chip forums. He’s one of the few old Guard to still hang around.

Brahm2, was one of the early Case Mod forum staffers. He did a lot of whacky mods, and loved the site and it’s members. A while ago some opportunities popped up in his life, and some things changed so it was time to pull back from XS and concern himself with more important things.

So, with many of the original gone.. Legendary Rob, R3born, Ophose, Noobvin, M3Del, Kkatfish, Cheerio, LumbraX, and others gone or slowly leaving.. and the new Head mods in place we expanded again.

Something I did.. which to this day still gets me a lot of grief, was luring relevant members to be staff of key forums. Adding Xenium and Xecuter devs, sellers, or IRC regulars to be XS staff in their respective forums. Same with some of the key software and dashboard forums we took on. For me, it simply made sense. Have people who know the projects intimately, working the forums they have interest in. We found it to be a very successful formula.

It did, and still does bring with it calls of bias. That’s fine. We’ll accept that. You cannot make a forum, that makes everyone happy. We won’t try. It’s a proven formula though, and has worked very well.

Adding an average of 50-80k members a year for the next few years, we had to add more forums. With that, more staff. It’s been a never ending cycle. I think we’re up to something like 140 forums.. and 120 staffers. 280k +_ members, with new members joining at a rate of 100-400 per day depending on the interest level of the news page.

The staff I didn’t mention are no less notable. I simply pointed out the ones that strike a cord with my for one reason or another. So much of the staff, are forum moderators for dedicated areas like a CHIP forum, or a Particular Software forum. Many of those guy are rarely seen outside of their him forums, yet without them XS would not be what it is today.

We also about to see a new flood of moderators.. I’ve basically been sitting on my hands and watching them in their respective forums of interest. Some of which accepted positions weeks ago, and are simply waiting for me to flick the switch.

Over the years, we’ve removed a lot of staff as well.

Cheerio was removed due to the never ending drama and abuse.

Others like UnRealMack and a few others for posting links to files that were illegal, or deemed inappropriate. I want More Cowbell because he took what few privs were given to him, and wielded it like a weapon, allowing poor decisions and ego to ruin a good run.

There are so many interesting stories about the staff here on XS. I’ll highlight them in future posts.

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I had to sit through American Idol this week. I’ve managed to not watch it all season this year. Wife has followed maybe half of the season, enough to know who is who on the show.

When the show opened, me and the wife started placing our bets.. since I don’t know who is who on that show, we simply break it down to GUY or GIRL?

I said Girl. That chick is hot. If she could sing, she’s the total package and people can make some serious money with her. Guy won though. Guy looks a little like Jay Leno.. big head.. Big mouth.. Salt and Pepper Hair..

Fucking Americans though.. put him over the chick. People aren’t going to buy music that dope puts out. His album will come out.. it’ll do brisk sales for a few weeks.. then the only time we’ll see him is on other IDOL shows.

Least with that chick, she could be cross marketed a dozen different ways.

Oh well.. once you make the TV show.. there are no losers. The Top ten will tour.. and make some nice cash, after that.. they get to work on their separate contracts and deal.. which at least half will get given the history of the show.

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Watched that WWE PPV the other night.. what a snore. I was shocked though to see Taker lay down for that Khali goof. That guy might be a freak of nature to look at, but he’s a snore to watch in the ring. I almost felt bad seeing Taker job to that guy.

Taker will job to guys when it makes sense for the product. He is a good company man. He’s also said no when people didn’t deserve the push. Does taker actually think Khali is worth the time invested to get him over?

I doubt it.

The ECW PPV I hope will be interesting this year. In some respects, it’s already in the hole not having the Dudleys. (who really helped to make and legitimize last years ECW PPV.

The card so far..
RVD VS Cena for the WWE Championship

I love RVD. Really.. I do. I just don’t think the Cena can give him a good match. What I hope to see.. is RVF win the belt.. then pull a Shane Douglas, toss it aside, and proclaim it the ECW belt or something like that original Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme changeover that they did back in the day.

Course.. I doubt the WWE would consider any action that would have someone shitting on the WWE belt. But still..
Dream/Funk VS Edge/Foley

Love Dreamer.. (when wrestling as an ECW star.. not as a WWE jobber)
Love Funk.. (man simply won’t stop.)
Love Foley (how could you not..)
Love Edge.. (he’s come a long way the last 12 months..)

Given Dreamers match last year.. given Edge and Foley’s show at WM22, and given that fact that Funk is a sick old bastard this match will steal the show. It will probably completely overshadow the RVD/Cena match.

What is interesting, is that this is the second crazy hardcore match this year for EDGE. I hope he knows what he’s doing with his career. He doesn’t want to become the new poster-boy for hardcore matches. It’s an awesome way to get over, but it’s also an awesome way to shorten your career significantly.

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