suburban america, as we now know it, is unsustainable.
new york times recently published a very interesting discussion by some academics.. and some dude from new jersey.. about the future of the new american wastelands:
as much as i dislike microsoft, i love my xbox. as a gaming platform, it’s at the top of the heap - it boasts a nice development pipeline that’s resulted in a very well-rounded library of games. its online service, xbox live, works - and works fairly well - with new stuff added at a fairly decent rate (including the upcoming netflix ‘watch now’ service.. something i’m personally very excited about).
the xbox hardware, however, sucks. the whole thing is rather plasticy and cheap. it is notorious for overheating and producing the ‘red ring of death’. the optical drive is flimsy at best and sounds like a leafblower while it streams from disc. and let’s face it, it’s ugly.
enter the lian-li pc-xb01. a sexy black hairline brushed anodized aluminum chassis, it features a single 120mm fan, optional water cooling, and thick, sound-proofing foam to keep the device as silent as possible. it’s huge (4x the size of the original xbox chassis) and it will void your warranty, but if it works as advertised, then who cares.
at only $150, i think it’s a good deal. especially if, like me, you just can not stand the extra 20db of white noise the xbox generates while in operation.
miss me? more new stuff forthcoming. stay tuned.