Got home from MAX, and the next morning I fired up my Xbox360 to get the dashboard update. Best feature so far? The Netflix streaming. I love 30 Rock, and one of my favorite episodes is “Hard Ball”, especially the ending musical number. (Season 1, ep 15, if you’d like to watch it.) That was the first thing I watched once I got my Netflix account linked to the Xbox. Being able to stream several seasons of 30 Rock, The Office, and even The Addams Family has been great so far.
Another feature I didn’t really think I’d have too much fun with was the Avatars. I built mine last night, and think I did a fair job getting something that looks like me. Of course, if I could get a black Fender or Flex hat for the little guy, he’d look even more like me. Though, the most fun I’ve had with this guy is playing with my (almost) 2-year old daughter Brooklynn. You can use the controller to move the avatar’s head around, make them talk, etc. Once this guy appeared on the screen, Brooklynn was captivated, and we spent a fair amount of time with me controlling him like a virtual puppet, and her giggling. Good times.
So, did you guys get avatar’d, and do they look anything like you? You can share your avatars easily online by using the following URL:
http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/GAMERTAG/avatar-body.png
Just replace GAMERTAG with your own, and you’re in business.
I’ve been having a blast with this thing, and if you haven’t downloaded it yet for some reason, do it now.
Unfortunately, I got a bit ahead of myself, and posted this application with a few (stupid) bugs. I’ve fixed those, and posted a new version online:
ElectionDashboard 1.1.1
Versions 1.1.0 and up have auto-updating built into them, in case I find another bug. Anything prior to that, and you’ll need to first uninstall the app before installing the latest.
UPDATE: I’ve made a few tweaks to the app, like adding an icon, as well as a progress window to let you know when the application is updating it’s data. You can download the newest version using the same link below. I’ve also included some auto-update goodness, in case I need to fix another bug.
Before installing the new version you must FIRST UNINSTALL the previous one, or installation will fail. However, once you have version 1.1.0 installed, there will be a “Check for Updates” link in the app to simplify the update process if you need to update.
Last night I came across a pretty cool idea for displaying the election results using DMX lighting. Basically, the election results are scraped from CNN, and then the shade of the room’s mood lighting is adjusted from red to blue based on the current results.
The guy behind this project posted his code for grabbing the info, and so I’ve adapted it into AS3, and made a really basic AIR app you can leave running on your desktop for at-a-glance results. You won’t get any detailed results like you would from CNN, just a simple needle leaning in the direction of the results, that updates every five minutes.
Until results actually start coming in, this won’t display anything, so I wouldn’t expect it to really start working until later today.
You can install the app using the badge found on my other site: http://ghostradio.net/apps/
