Xbox Live

When I read the news that I could now download movies and TV directly through my Xbox360 I was pretty excited.  Finally…media content through my media player.  I had suspected for some time that the 360 would head this way, and it’s nice to finally see it come to fruition.

The lineup isn’t as exciting as I hoped, but I must be patient.  They just launched the service on November 22, so the depth of programming isn’t that great.  It’s better than nada, however.

Before I even started the download process I knew that I would ultimately be facing some limitations.  First of all, I have the one and only optional hard drive available for the 360…a whopping 20GB drive.  20 gigs?  What is this…2002?!?  I have a 400GB hard drive on my media center computer and it’s half full…

But I pressed on.  I was also a little worried about bandwidth.  I have a Comcast commercial-grade line in my house, so in theory I have 10MB down, 1MB up, but it rarely hits that mark.  What would take longer, I wondered: downloading a movie in the convenience of my own home, or going down to Blockbuster to pick something up?  (Note to readers: you can insert comments about Netflix or Blockbuster Online here, but I’m really focusing on the “I spontaneously want to watch a movie right now” feeling).

We started off with an easy (and free) download.  The music video for the movie “Happy Feet“.  So we downloaded some dancing penguins.  I didn’t time it, but it wasn’t too painful.  We watched it.  The kids laughed.

That was easy.  Now for something more challenging…a full length movie!  As I browse the movies, the EULA tells me that I am “renting” a movie from Xbox Live.  After I download the feature it will expire 14 days later, or 24 hours after the first viewing, whichever comes first.  Interesting concept.  I browse through the movies (only 48 available at this point) and find one of my favorite…Chariots of Fire!  What a great movie!  Something the whole family can watch too.

It only costs me 250 Xbox Live points to download it…just a couple of bucks.  So far I’m interested.  So I start the download process.

Searching…searching…searching…okay, this is taking a little too long to find the movie, I wonder if they are getting swamped with movie downloads right now…searching, searching…found it!  Okay, finally my download starts.

0% complete…

*yawn* Man, this is really slow.  What’s the deal?  It’s been hanging on 0% for quite a while.  I think I’ll go get a glass of ice water while I’m waiting.

I return from the kitchen and see it…1%.  Hallelujah!  I’m getting some content!

And then it just hangs there…that single digit just staring at me…waiting…waiting…waiting…2%.  A full 7 minutes later another percentage clicks off.  Something is wrong.  I’m hard wired in so I know it’s not my wireless causing the problems.  7 minutes for 1 percent of a *gasp* 1.6GB movie?!?  This is going to take forever!  As I watch the progress (why oh why didn’t I just go do something else?) I calculate that it will take 10 hours to download Chariots of Fire.

So I did what any impatient man in this age of instant gratification would do…I went to Blockbuster to rent it.  I figured I’ll “race” the 360 and see who can get the movie first.  By the time I went down and back (I picked up Mission Impossible III at the same time) the downloaded version was only up to 10%.  Forget it!  I canceled the download.

So my first shot at download-on-demand was rather disappointing.  Any number of factors could be to blame, but I’m guessing it was an Xbox Live bandwidth issue, although I don’t know that I’ll ever know the true reason.

I’m not giving up on the service though!  I like the premise, and if they can get things moving along a little faster it will be worth it.  I will reserve a final grade until the end of the term, but a mid-term progress report gives Xbox Live Marketplace a solid “C-” for now…

I will not take grief from anybody that comes into my office and heckles me about my paper inbox…never again!  People pile papers in there (did I mention that I hate paper?) and sometimes things get a week or two behind. (HINT: Give me things electronically please)

I was meeting with our financial department today when Bill Hill, our controller, pulled out a property appraisal from 1995 and said to me, "Here you go, I just got to this one in my inbox and thought we should file it". LOL…thanks for the 11 year old paperwork!  I seriously got a good laugh out of that one. It’s been sitting in his inbox for eleven years!!!

How old is the stuff in YOUR inbox?

I’m considering a couple of Adobe products right now…products that I haven’t used before…to streamline our work flow and productivity.  I have put out the edict to all of our Operations staff that we will do less but do it with excellence, and we are here to serve the staff and the congregation.  I think these tools will help.

First product: Adobe Acrobate Capture 3.  Have I ever told you that I HATE paper?  Hate it.  There are very few things that are done on paper that cannot be done electronically.  I tell people (and I’m quite serious but nobody has taken me up on it yet) that if they want to get me a gift, just get me a t-shirt that says, “I HATE PAPER”.  It’s that simple.  Sunset has boxes and boxes and boxes of paper.  Stuff that people just don’t want to get rid of, but stuff that is simply taking up real estate.  This product is designed to work with a scanner, it is to “convert volumes of paper documents into searchable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files.”  Perfect.  Exactly what I am looking for. Goodbye paper, hello searchable PDFs. Stress and strain go down, productivity goes up.

Adobe Capture

Second product: Adobe Captivate 2. I have downloaded the demo and am trying it out.   The concept? “Adobe® Captivate™ 2 software enables anyone to rapidly create powerful and engaging simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario-based training without programming knowledge or multimedia skills.” I’m checking this out as a possible in-house solution for training.  Training for what?  Everything!  We can make quick movies for paid staff and volunteers to see that show how to use FellowshipOne, Outlook, Excel, EMS…anything!  I can make screen capture moves for “how to” do just about anything that the computer has on it.  This premise is very exciting to me, I want to enable our staff (not just Operations) to work with excellence, and part of that is my responsibility to make sure that the training is complete and easy to understand.

I would love your feedback if you use these tools (or something similar) for training purposes. Leave a comment!

Today is the big day.  In theory, Zune is released to the public today.  I just called our local Costco.  They said that they are supposed to have them but don’t show them as in stock yet.  Hmmmm…

I’m on the Zune lookout!  I want to see these things in action.