atc » Miscellaneous

Xbox Live home network port forwarding

atc — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:15:40 +0000

I’ve moved house and being nowhere near the router that connects us to the net, I had to purchase an Xbox Wireless Adapter (rip-off!). Once it was setup, I had to test the network connection. For some reason UPnP wasn’t working even when enabled on the Linksys WRT54GR, so I had to set up port forwarding. The ports needed by Xbox Live are as follows:

TCP 80
UDP 88
TCP & UDP 3074
TCP & UDP 53

I found those details on the official knowledge base article found here. Hope that helps!

Xbox 360 freezing on logo

atc — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:14:32 +0000

My Xbox 360 kept freezing on the startup logo until I eventually turned it off and then on by hitting the DVD-tray open button. This probably indicates that the DVD drive is defective or on its way out – meh. Warranty here I come!

Favourite Quote: “Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence. Simplicity does.”

atc — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:52:39 +0000

This excellent phrase was coined by Lawrence “Larry” Bossidy, the retired CEO of Allied Signal. What I find particularly interesting about this quote is that it’s so eloquently structured and an example of what it’s stating; the statement is simple yet intelligent. Here it is in all its wonderful, quoted glory:

“Complexity has nothing to do with intelligence. Simplicity does.”
- Larry Bossidy, CEO Allied Signal

Most Inappropriate Name for a Packet of Cigarettes

atc — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:09:06 +0000

Whilst on holiday in Kenya, the need for smokes was abundant. Amused we were when we stumbled across these:

Best Image Ever?

atc — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:19:54 +0000

I found the following image while scouring the web one day. Has to be the funniest image manipulation I’ve seen in a long time…

asholl wormz

atc — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:31:23 +0000

Oohhh the hilarities of MMORPGs:

(Original image is from here)

You saw it here first ;P

ActiveSync 4.2 Error 85010014 – Solution

atc — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:10:08 +0000

I recently upgraded my contract phone to the excellent Vario III/HTC TyTN II/Kaiser. I am extremely pleased with the phone, which has excellent build quality (including the built-in slide keyboard), great hardware such as the Qualcomm 7200 ARM Processor at 400 MHz, and a nifty compact design.

One of the things that I decided to get a PocketPC for was the synchronisation with my Work PC and specifically the Outlook Calendar. Unfortunately, the ActiveSync (version 4.2) software was giving me an error – 85010014 – every time I tried to sync the calendar. I had searched the web extensively but did not find a solution that worked for me. Thankfully, I found a way round it: don’t setup the sync to talk to Microsoft Exchange. Instead, follow these few steps to stop getting the error:

Disconnect your device and delete it from ActiveSync (File-> Delete Mobile Device)
Reconnect the device and let ActiveSync bring up the Setup Wizard. Click next until you reach the ‘Synchronization Options’ screen.
Select all the ‘Information Type’ items you want
To the right of the items that have ‘Microsoft Exchange’ as their source by default, select ‘Windows PC (This PC)’ instead of ‘Microsoft Exchange’. For me, this was just the Calendar.
Complete the Wizard.
Synchronize with your device
Voila!

This worked for me, and continues to do so. I have meetings automatically synced to my device within seconds of them being added to my Calendar. Just what I wanted!

Note: this was done with ActiveSync 4.2, which can be downloaded here.

I hope that helps someone, as the lack of a sync’ing for a PocketPC renders one of its biggest features completely useless.

Why can’t a multi-billion dollar, international company such as Microsoft just get things right for once?