Coffee + Geekery

October 4th, 2007 by Atomictumor

Man, I’m riding the coffee buzz from hell.

I’m not even really sure whats up with it.  I don’t think I had more than 3 or so cups this morning.  Granted, I slept well, and had nothing to eat (yet), but damn.  Its right on top of me.  I’m buzzing like a vibra… like a broken ceiling fan.  Or something.

Or maybe like a controller from an xbox 360.  Not that I bought one of those yesterday.  Or that it looks DAMN good on my fancy TV, what with the HDMI connection, and the 1080i picture.  No, because that’d be an egregious waste of money.  Yes, egregious.  I had to look that one up.

However, the theoretical Xbox presents a theoretical problem, one that has been festering in the back end of my mind for some time, but one that demands a quick solution:

Hooking that bastard up to the home network…

Now, those of you in the know know that I had what I like to call the ATivo going on, whereas the computer can push data (usually in the form of TV shows) to either of my TVs.  I actually wrote a piece about it a while back, complete with a nice little picture, but the problem is that the whole things kinda been mothballed, because digital cable prevents the use of the RF modulator that was the key in the whole darn kitenkaboodle.

Not that the theoretical xbox has much to do with that.  I’m getting there.

Now, right now, I gots three computers, the big guy in the living room, the littler guy in MastaG’s room, and the lappy in my room.  They’re all kicking back on the mighty beams of my wifi network here, joined occasionally by my phone and whoever can break the encryption to wardrive on my little network (if they can break the 128 bitness, they’re welcome to it).

Thing is, the wifi connector for this theoretical xbox is like a hundred freakin dollars.  Bugger that.

I mean, I bought two little desktop wifi connectors for like 5 bucks apiece.  Its not like its space age technology, people.  Seriously.  100 bucks, so I can hook the dumb old thing up to the wifi.

Hell with that.

So, looks like I gotta run ethernet.  Thing is, if I’m going to get underneath the house, and run cables and crap, I might as well redo the whole darn works.

But I don’t think the coffee buzz can sustain all that.

These days, I’m just not as into home improvements in that way.  I mean, I recognize the use in doing that sorta stuff, but I can’t be arsed to do it.  Its bad enough keeping the house clean and the boys in fresh underwear, without trying to hop up in crawlspaces with wire in my teeth.  Sure, I can do it, and yes, I fully recognize the fact that I’m a lazy bastard (woot), but the needful just isn’t there as of yet.

So, I’m trying to find another solution.  However, that theoretical xbox just really wants to be able to connect to the other computers, and talk shop, and hang out, and maybe share some files.  Its all lonely in there (theoretically), and I gotta do something about it.

Just without spending a hundred freakin dollars.  Seriously, Microsoft, you suck.

14 Responses to “Coffee + Geekery”



  1. Allisone Says:

    Our gamertag is FreeFlyDave.
    Of course, that could be the husband, me or the kid - but we’re all pretty friendly :)

  2. Exiled to Canada Says:

    www.lifehacker.com had a DIY hack for this very thing yesterday. Involves some Cat 5, a router and some freeware. It’s a wireless hack http://lifehacker.com/software/how-to/build-a-wifi-adapter-for-your-xbox-360-on-the-cheap-306678.php

  3. sumgirl Says:

    man, this post was all greek to me (or maybe “all geek to me” is more appropriate).

  4. Jane Says:

    Yeah I’m with Sumgirl (whom I miss reading BTW)
    No comprendo buddy!!

  5. Southerncharm Says:

    I think you need to connect the thingamabobby into the hickerydoo and that should give you a trillawatt of power which will malfunction your thingamagiggy and hence catch everything on fire and problem solved. If that doesn’t work slap it for good measure, that always works with my old black and white TV with atennas. Damn I’m good. Let me know how it works out. :-)

  6. Southerncharm Says:

    PS: When you slap it you have to scream “Who’s your daddy?” or it wont work.

  7. Jason Dufair Says:

    You keep your kids in clean underwear? I’ve got to start stepping up my game.

  8. Vixen Says:

    Does your theoretical Xbox know of this Halo3 wonderfulness that is taking over a certain compound in SoCal?

  9. home theater » Coffee + Geekery Says:

    […] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHooking that bastard up to the home network… Now, those of you in the know know that I had what I like to call the ATivo going on, whereas… […]

  10. Punk HP Says:

    The Coffee Buzz explains your hike through the historic district. I almost thought you were jogging!

  11. mlaldrid Says:

    I did some research on this myself before settling on using a wired connection (already had cat5 to the living room).

    One possible alternative to the official M$ dongle is a wireless ethernet bridge. I’ve never used one, but it’s my understanding that some require device driver support, while others are configurable via a web interface. You’d obviously want the web interface kind. This would be a little bit cheaper than the official USB adapter, but more expensive (though less work) than the router/DD-WRT hack linked above.

  12. Atomictumor » Watch out for Atomictumor Says:

    […] Atomictumor Savvy? Skip to content Outting the LurkersUseless information, for the sake of having it! « Coffee + Geekery […]

  13. Jane Says:

    Southern Charm is a genius!!

  14. Southerncharm Says:

    Thank you Jane. :-P