My A-1 Cabinet Cooling Kludge

The Xbox and its surroundings pre-kludge.

With Gears of War 3 coming out this month (not to mention Zune Marketplace having been my source for new Doctor Who episodes) I've been running my Xbox more than usual lately, and it shows.  Seriously, I could heat my house with that thing.  I'm actually not joking, I'm pretty sure I could.  So it occurred to me, in the interest of continuing to have a working console that I can turn on and use, that it was time to do some work on the thing.

This is my "entertainment center".  Here you'll find my PS3, my Xbox, my Wii, my sweet PC, and for good measure an old VCR (I totally use that thing!).  The credenza was pretty cheap – about $90 from Target – and I've had no complaints about it.  Granted, a credenza is not the sort of thing that sane people ordinarily complain about.  Oh, and the weird pile of watercolor board, hanging folder and framed mixed media art in the foreground has since been replaced with a real rolling table for my mouse and keyboard and stuff.  I'm not that big a slob, come on guys.

The problem with this was, of course, cooling-related.  The Playstation 3 that I have on the top shelf is fine, as it vents air through the "sides", or, if you have it standing on end, takes in air from the bottom (where the hard drive sits) and pushes it out the top (near status lights and power button).  However the Xbox 360 was designed in an era before thermodynamics as we know it, and instead is designed to build up a ton of heat and force it out a three-by-six-inch area with two really small, really loud fans.  In the cubby in my credenza (all these words I thought I'd never get a chance to use!) this was disastrous, because the heat was blasting straight into that piece of cardboard nailed to the back.  How do you solve this problem, you ask?  You cut a hole.

The best part about this is that my credenza glows now.

The right way to do this, I'm fully aware, is to use a utility knife, but I used a Dremel with a cutting disk attachment, because I had one and not the other.  Unfortunately, the back of the cabinet was really thin particleboard, not just cardboard, and those particles are pretty incredibly noxious when they're blowing around in the air, so most of the cutting was done with open windows and a dust mask.  Again, this is bad.  If you're cutting something like this stuff, I recommend at least getting some moving air, ventilation, a respirator, and if at all possible a non-moving blade.

A clear view of the hack with Xbox removed.

The old power supply sits behind the TV.

In theory, removing some of the resistance on the escaping air would make a big difference, but it didn't seem like enough to me, so I looked around my worktable and dug up an ancient 300W computer power supply and a $4 blue 120mm cooling fan I had sitting around.  The fan I adhered to the inside of the cabinet using 3M's 4011 double-sided mounting tape, directed to blow the hot air out the back of the TV stand.  Meanwhile, I rigged the PSU to bypass the on-off pins on the motherboard connector so that it can run on its own uninterrupted, and turned on and off using the switch on the back.  Not the most efficient way to power a fan, but it's very easy to turn the whole thing off when it isn't needed.  Not bad for forty minutes' worth of work.  And don't forget, it glows blue.  Who knew that it would look so cool and so ugly at the same time??

For those of you with an extra power supply laying around who want to know how to abuse it like I did, here are the instructions I used to mod mine.  It's mind-bendingly simple.

The new ventilation port works, I'm happy to report.  I no longer feel a heat wave waft over me every time I bend down to turn on the VCR.

New Page Fortysix songs, + sweet press photo #1

Will and I just put some new flavors off of the upcoming album up on Soundcloud. A good four or five more months of work to go I think, but our first record is getting more real than ever. Check 'em out:

Set To Exo by Page Fortysix

Can't Sleep 'Til Midnight by Page Fortysix

Bio Android Girl (Final Mix) by Page Fortysix

This week we also snagged our very first "press photo", courtesy of Will's brother Kevin. It's pretty fresh. I put some Photoshop on it and I'm totally proud of how it turned out.

On a side note, I got a chance to play a sweet open mic in Grafton, WI with members of the Musicians of Wisconsin group on Facebook. It was fantastic. Here's me:

You can see more performances from Saturday night at this page on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsGPRecords#p/u

Don't let me catch you in front of this tussock again! Rube.

Page Fortysix album

Three weeks ago I sat down at a table on the upper floor of the Java Dock, opened my laptop, and began working on this.


GMA by Page Fortysix

I finished it last weekend – kind of (there are still some nagging transitions I could work on) –at another coffee shop with a mug of Earl Grey and an emergency paperback. After about five hours of working on it today, it's turned into this song. Here I am, five hours after that (can't fall asleep yet) uploading it and sharing it here. I realize I do this a lot, but even now it amazes me that it's possible to keep what amounts to half a recording studio in a messenger bag.

The song is going to be on our first release, which has no name, as far as it's come. That's fine, because we haven't even finished writing for it yet, and we have a lot to do, but here you go. Take it how you will; there will be an album.

This track is way too long, but I couldn't resist. I am aware of this problem and am working to find a solution. Peace.

Hello hello hello, my brothers

I'm truly not a blogger. This is really becoming more and more apparent to me as time passes and posts become less and less frequent. It isn't cause I have nothing to write about, but because I am way too busy to write it, and when I'm not working, I'd rather be playing video games.

That's why, on the recommendation of a friend who also would rather be playing videogames, I went to the store last week and picked up my copy of Battlefield: Bad Company II.

Yeah, but I'm not a game critic either, so...

This week in SE Wisco...

...lol...

I've noticed a new shift in the energy here lately. It has left from being a working class, apeshit, alcoholic kind of vibe and transitioned into some kind of more mature, purposeful, creativistic, soul-centered, even entrepreneurial scene. The kids are growing up and figuring out how most of the world does reality, and applying this to some serious life skills. The next big thing musos I grew up with in 2004 and geeked out over in 2007 are all old and wise musicians with albums and international airtime and they've earned it, by putting more good solid work into their art than I can claim to have done in the time I've known them. Better still the fear-mongering and the end-of-the-world-ness and stuff is disappearing. People have more important things to do these days, and it's fortunate, even though it's kind of not. Here's why:

Humans are highly susceptible to entropy whenever the situation is positive and they are well provided for. It's an unpleasant fact of the day to day – we are sort of blind to everything we gained on our way to the present, and we forget all the good stuff when it starts to blend in with the flow every morning. It's like our new toys just got old. It unfortunately takes a hearty punch to our ample paunch to make us appreciate it all over again; it resets our expectations back to zero. The upside of getting knocked down is the period of recovery after you get back up leaves you feeling that much more alive.

So it's cool to see a lot of that recovery happening right now in the local. I've been involved in – in actuality, a co-owner of – a small business for a year now fixing peoples' unhealthy PCs and selling original local art and generally being a one-stop shop for computer needs and a community touchstone. I've seen a lot of shops come and go in the last year, but more are appearing week after week, and the ones that stick around are invariably the ones that attract customers because of their uniqueness, friendly service, and community ties (for-real community ties, not fake Pick 'n' Save community ties). In fact, even though a lot of businesses aren't making it, and many people are still struggling to land jobs, the real gold is that people are taking this on as a challenge, not talking about giving up, and they are conquering their setbacks in some really unexpected ways. See, that's how the world really works; you can't plan a blessed thing, but if you keep an open mind, you will find what you need.

Shows this month:

Tons of stuff happening at the Borg Ward in Milwaukee various evenings this month, starting tomorrow (the 13th) with Young Widows, Phantom Family Halo, My Disco, Maidens – all sounds really good and three of these bands are on tour together.

823 W National Ave MKE WI www.theborgward.org

Early next month (April the 3rd to be exact) Glenview Lane (of local newsrag fame) are playing a set at Live On North along with several other bands TBA in honor of the new season. Glenview Lane are cool, don't mess with them. They make quiet, earnest power pop in upper Ozaukee County.

That's all I know about this week. See you soon and be good.

Let's talk about catfish and maybe other food too, Part 1

If there's one thing I enjoy more than exploring the music and the back highways of eastern Wisconsin, it is the food. Now I'm no foodie, but there's something special about discovering that sequestered, unheard about, hidden gem of a restaraunt. It's something that any seasoned Wisco veteran knows about: there's nothing can beat the satisfaction of knowing the landscape, and a good meal is a big part of it.

So i've decided to embark on a voyage of discovery that will cover a quarter of the state and a goodly portion of its culinary offerings, and I'll share my knowledge here in Arbitrary.

Next time: Farmstead in Cedarburg, WI!

Sheboygan's rad, bright-as-hell underground: Wednesdays at 7:00 PM

The Weather Center Café in Sheboygan Wisconsin's waterfront district, in addition to being the recognized source for superb drinks of the latté/cappucino variety, fine sandwiches and (excuse me) damn good coffee, is one of the central hideouts of the strongest local songwriters scene I've ever come across. It hosts a regular open mic night every Wednesday evening, with some truly fantastic artists taking the stage each week. Definitely check it out if you're in the area, as well as open mic regulars Hopscotch Wonder of Cleveland WI, the fantastic duo Lillie Lemon, Sheboygan songstress and RN Kyane Howland, blues powerhouse Sequoia, and open mic host and curator of local music Don Burhop, who has a fairly crusty history of his own. It's all good.
Many of these artists perform at other venues across the city, and appear frequently at not-to-be-missed concert events including the Sheboygan Earthfest.

Eyedea's new side project sounds like Via, CatHead, other zeitgeist whiny wall-of-sound indie bands; somehow still pretty cool

The Minnesota freestyle virtuoso Eyedea, well known for his stint with Minneapolis rap group Atmosphere and current ongoing collab with DJ Abilities, released an album last year that sounds like, well, both the worst and best indie rock has had to offer in the shoegaze scene for the last half decade. And I will be honest, it's mostly the worst.

Now this is old news to those who've been paying attention, but I've been under a rock or in Canada or something for the past year or so, salivating over BackBurner and the Motherboard collective (both of which are cranking out some incredibly ill hyphy right now). Somehow what Eyedea was doing after his departure went without my noticing.

So I was understandibly uncertain what to think of a traditional-sounding indie band with Eydea at the helm. This is what it sounds like:








It's basically nothing amazing, but as a band I guess they could hold their own. The dude is much better when he's in his element, I say.

Some technical difficulties with the sound files. I'll keep working on it, I'm rusty.