40° North

Finally got around to seeing the film “Death Proof” by Quentin Tarantino this evening.  Great piece of work with great atmosphere.  I think it also has one of my favorite in-movie conversations.  It goes something like this:

Lee: You carry a gun?
Kim: Uh-Huh.
Lee: Do you have a license to carry it?
Kim: Yeah, when I became a secret service agent, they gave me a license.
Lee: Oh, I didn’t know you were… Ok. I didn’t say it. Stop looking at me. I didn’t say it. God! Did you know Kim carried a gun?
Abernathy: Yes. Yeah. Do I approve? No. Do I know? Yes.
Kim: I don’t know what futuristic utopia you live in, but in the world I live in, a bitch need a gun.
Abernathy: You can’t get around the fact that people who carry guns, tend to get shot more than people who don’t.
Kim: And you can’t get around the fact that if I go down to the laundry room in my building at midnight enough times, I might get my ass raped!
Lee: Don’t do your laundry at midnight.
Kim: Fuck that! I wanna do my laundry whenever the fuck I want to do my laundry.
Abernathy: There are other things you can carry other then a gun. Pepper spray.
Kim: Uh, muthafucka tryin to rape me, I don’t want to give him a skin rash. I wanna shot that nigga down!
Abernathy: How about a knife at least.
Kim: Yeah, you know what happens to muthafuckas who carry knives. They get shot! Look, if I ever become a famous actress, I won’t carry a gun. I’ll hire me a dude dirt nigga and he’ll carry the gun, and when shit goes down, I’ll sit back and laugh, but until that day, it’s wild west muthafucka!

For a while now I’ve wondered why I don’t see more movies that feature characters who carry a concealed firearm for personal protection in everyday life.

Most movies feature people who have guns as part of their career, or “arm up” just to deal with a situation.  And too many feature heroes who knock out an armed bad-guy, only to leave the gun laying on the ground.

Considering that 39 states are “shall issue”, you’d think it’d become more common in movies and TV shows.  Unfortunately, most of these shows are filmed in “may issue” or “no issue” population centers that are behind the times when it comes to recognizing the liberties of their citizens.

Interestingly, though the “Kim” character doesn’t carry legally, it would have been possible in Kentucky, the setting for her part of the movie.  I also like how the dialog describe the way wealthy or famous anti-gunners deal with the situation – they hire armed security.

For those of us unable to afford private armed security, concealed carry of a firearm is a reasonable option – because a police officer is too heavy.

Summary

Unable to see Zune in Music menu when connected via USB to Xbox 360

How to Fix

1. Download “Optional Media Update”
2. Power off Xbox 360
3. Unplug power supply from Xbox 360 then reconnect
4. Turn on Xbox 360
5. Plug in Zune via USB cable
6. Zune should say “Connected” if successful
7. Xbox will display Zune logo and name in “Music” panel of “My Xbox” if successful
8. Music can now be browsed and played on Xbox 360

Details

Around 11/29/2008 I tried connecting Zune 30GB as described here: http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/hardware/accessories/portablemedia/usezune.aspx

Zune has power from Xbox 360, but there is no indication that the Zune is connected on the Xbox menu.

All USB ports have power and can be used to play SceneIt with it's USB connected IR receiver.

I tried connecting USB thumb drive to both front USB ports. When connecting to the left port (with Xbox vertical) the LED on the thumb drive blinks once as it's inserted, then does not illuminate.  When connecting to the right USB port, the light is on constantly with no indication of attached device on Xbox 360. Normally the LED is illuminated and blinks when accessed by the USB host.

This KB article describes the process I'm trying to follow: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927714

In section 3.b the "Portable Device" option is grayed out.  I've tried the 2 front ports as well as the back USB port.

I submitted an email support request via Xbox.com, I didn’t have time until now to dedicate some time to a fix.  Hadn't been able to find much of anything on Google Groups or via more general web searches. Here’s the thread on this issue at Xbox.com Forums.

Also, this Xbox 360 was serviced over the summer to repair a "RRoD" issue.

Finally got around to calling Zune Support 12/30/2008 followed by Xbox Support and resolving the problem.

For the record, Zune support was helpful and articulate - able to help me immediately in a single call.

Xbox support was terrible via email at first - every email (mostly canned responses) told me to call (then why offer the email option for support?). When I did call they told me their database was down and to call back in an hour (this was at 11:45p my time on a weeknight). When I called back I gave them my incident number, but there was a lot of handwringing before they transferred me to a supervisor. He was the one who ultimately provided the fix.

Zune support had me reboot the Zune (hold "Back" and "Up" for about 5 seconds), plug the Zune into the back USB port (later it worked fine on the front - the back port was just for testing), and download the “Optional Media Update” (you can download the update to your Xbox 360 from this link).

This was found via a search under "O" in the games download section of Marketplace (they really need a section for utilities since "Games" is not the logical place for this sort of content).

Once downloaded, I tried to "Play" it, but it said I had to open it with the correct game (it didn't say what that was). So I went to My Xbox, and on to the "Music" panel where the media device was still grayed out.

We tried rebooting, but that didn't work. This is when Zune Support asked me to consider updating my firmware (even though it was already the latest version). I asked for a support incident number so I could call back if Xbox Support couldn't address the problem from their end.

Next I called Xbox Support and eventually got a supervisor who suggested downloading the Optional Media Update - he also had me restart the Xbox 360 to no avail. I was asking how to apply the update I had downloaded and he said it should apply automatically after download.

We tried one more thing - shutting off the Xbox 360, then unplugging the power supply from the Xbox 360 - then plugging it in again and restarting. After this hard reboot I plugged in the Zune and it said "Connected" on the screen. I then saw the Zune logo and the name of the Zune instead of "Media Device" grayed out as before. I was now able to browse and play media from the device.

Of course, after getting it to work last night, now 30GB Zune owners have this issue.

Hopefully it gets fixed soon. I can't win! :D

It would have been nice if Xbox Support just told me to download the patch and un-plug my power supply the first time since two calls to two separate support groups (plus a 1-hour wait because their systems were down) was not the optimal way to address my issue.

My friend Max Berry is in a band called Zimbeat.  Here he is playing a song with his friends:

He’s the guy in the front on the right with the dreads.

This is one of my favorite brief exchanges on the subject of “Greed”.  Is it good or bad?  Is it useful? Can we avoid it by delegating responsibility for important tasks to governments? The audience seems to agree with Friedman. Phil Donahue seems to agree too in the end.

Shot this video in 2005 near Archbold, OH. Long straight flat track = fast trans.