And so it goes. My loyal Xbox has finally bitten the dust, after five faithful years of serving up media content on televisions big and small, of powering impromptu PowerPoint presentations, of even streaming music for the odd apartment party. Now, we offer one last samba for its Samba share and pour one out for the little black box that could. I picked up my Xbox after the 360 had been out for a while, back when Microsoft slashed prices so that they were losing money on each one they sold, and promptly stuck in a $10 mod chip so that I could delight in the wonder that was and is Xbox Media Center. It was the best bargain around, particularly if you’re into homebrew because getting a real MythBox working is damn near impossible in practice unless you go out and buy all new parts for the process, in which case you’ll spend thousands and not the under-$150 price of the used Xbox, and then likely get screwed over when the HD tuner you got is rendered obsolete by some crappy new DRM scheme thrust upon us.
But I digress. The cause of death was electric shock when I started fiddling with the circuit tonight while it was plugged in. I think I saw some smoke, too. It is survived by a brand spanking new Toshiba flatscreen and a Nintendo DS. It was five years old.