This summer my sons cracked their copy of Halo 3 that my father bought them last Christmas (they had to play on my 360 that day because the family 360 RROD’d the night before). At least I thought they did - as I did a little research before posting this tonight I see that 360s can actually crack the discs according to several members of the YouTube population. I’m not quite sure I owe them an apology just yet because they are pretty careless with their things and have cracked some of their Xbox 1 games (played in an original Xbox, not the 360) by stepping on them or pulling them out of the case wrong.

The issue came to light while my sons were playing Halo 3 - “Daddy, the game won’t work. It keeps saying unplayable disc.” This happened shortly after my bout with unplayable disc error on my personal Xbox 360 so my initial thought was “Oh no, not the other one too”. As I investigated further, I noticed the rather sizable crack on the disc that ran from the inside to the middle of it. The DVD drive had not crapped out (yet) on the family 360. A quick googling session will tell you that you can’t fix a cracked disc (whereas I’ve had pretty good success at repairing their scratched DVDs). So I told them they just wouldn’t be able to play it anymore.

Fast forward a few months and Microsoft releases their fancy new dashboard update last week. One of the neat features they’ve added is the ability to install any Xbox 360 game (except Crackdown or Dead or Alive Xtreme 2) to the hard drive. The catch is, for obvious reasons, that you still have to have a copy of the disc in the drive to play the game. The benefits of the HDD install include not running your DVD drive at all, save for a disc check when you launch the game; and improved loading times for several games (though Bungie has pointed out that you actually get decreased performance by installing Halo 3 to the HDD).

So I had a thought. What if I installed the game from my good copy to the family’s 360, and then hope that the cracked copy would readable long enough to pass a disc check?

After clearing out some stuff on the HDD, I installed the game from my copy. Lo and behold, first try, the game launched from the damaged disc! As I would find out the next day, however, it does not read on the first try every time and you have to eject the tray a few times if it’s not readable right away to get it working (which is much better than the results I had at the time the disc was first damaged). It does indeed work to this day and I can happily report that my sons are able to play their favorite game again. I might add that if you haven’t installed to the hard drive, even if your drive does read the cracked disc sometimes you most likely will have problems in-game; so installing is a must.

So, for those of you that have cracked discs, if you have another copy of the game in question, you may be able to try this solution. If you are in a single 360 household and don’t have another copy of the game, borrow or rent one (you will still have to have a copy of the game in the tray, so no free games for you!) long enough for the HDD install and try running the game from your damaged disc. Sure beats the hell out of having to buy another copy.

An Orange County, Florida man gets stopped for speeding and the cops confiscate his Xbox 360 that was in the backseat. They assumed it was stolen, even after running a serial number check on it.

too true.

YouTube to users – make a decent video [contest].

anyone else feel like they would punch this thing?

Accounts Receivable lets Accounts Payable know exactly what kind of change Obama was talking about.

(Windows Live sucks at embedding videos that aren’t from YouTube, just click on the picture to take you to a magical place that is not this blog for the video)

supposedly this guy

- was given 260 horsepower by god

- has to has sex with his wives 15 times a day (divided among wives)

- has four wives, has been married 24 times

- breaks coins with his hand, bends them with eye sockets

- can have uncontrolled bursts of rage like the hulk

yikes.

Taken at my local polling place at 7:30 am on Nov. 4, 2008.

Barack Obama….we did it!

*yes, the screen had to come from fox news.

November 4th can be a true forward-thinking action when we all vote together on the presidential election. A black man has a shot at it, and so does a woman running for vice president. There’s also the chance of a large party majority in the Senate. We can make sure the decision we make is for the future of our children, our parents, ourselves and the rest of the world by doing the right thing and voting for things to change. Things must change.

Even though we’re finally at a point where a black man can run for president, California is voting on Prop 8, a discriminatory law that tramples on the very idea of civil rights for same sex marriages. Didn’t we figure this shit out before? Samuel L. Jackson talks about the history of discrimination in CA in the above video (thanks to reader SlartyBartfast).

Michigan is voting on two important proposals this year as well. 1, a proposal that would make it legal to grow and use medical marijuana for strict medical purposes; and 2, a proposal that would allow for regulated stem cell research. It’s exciting to be alive at a time when such a big difference in the way we think (vs. what we’re told) can be made and also in what we do.

We can change for the better. Your vote can end a war made under false pretenses, it can uplift us at a time of sorrow, it can stop punishing people for getting sick, it can give hope back to those that have lost it, it can get a step closer to eliminating intolerance, it can give people who have worked their asses off their entire life a reason to look forward to their golden years, and it can bring calm to a wild storm in the heart of our universe.

Vote on Nov. 4

above video: Saul Williams and Trent Reznor’s take on Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Underground poet/musician Saul Williams endorses his presidential candidate.