Tag: world

Microsoft Zune freezes — joins others world wide

My Zune
My Zune

So this afternoon, I got in my truck and turned on my 30 GB Zune, just like normal and the device froze on boot-up.

I figured it was a random fluke but later after letting it charge for a while, the same issue occurred. The device simply froze on boot-up.

A quick Google search showed me that apparently everyone around the world is having this same issue.

Microsoft has gathered that the issue is related to the way the internal clock handles leap-years (feels like Y2K all over again).

From Microsoft support ::

My Zune 30 is frozen on the boot screen, now what do I do?

You will need to reboot your device after noon GMT on Jan 1, 2009.

Please unplug your Zune (no AC or USB cables).

Because your Zune is frozen your device battery will begin draining, this is good.

The battery will eventually be fully depleted and the screen will go black.

After noon GMT on January 1 (that’s 7 a.m. Eastern or 4 a.m. Pacific time) connect your AC power or USB cable such that the battery can begin charging again.

Once the Zune has enough battery to boot it should do so normally and you can go back to enjoying your Zune!

So, I’ll go without my Zune till sometime tomorrow and hope that fixes it all.

Of course, the mention of the issue on Twitter brings all the tweets from my friends to go out and buy an iPod.

But I’m also pleased to say it brought about comments from a Microsoft Techie as well ::

microsoft_cares @jdblundell We tried our best to repair the issue, but due to the nature of the problem even if a patch was released, no one could use it

So, while I started to write a post that bashed Microsoft for the malfunction and lack of an available patch, I’ll hope that their solution is a fix tomorrow and I’ll applaud Microsoft for taking notice and reaching out to their customers. Thanks!

read more ::
1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The Wanderer

Bono

Back in the early 1990’s my friends turned me on to the music of U2. It was right before the release of their album Achtung Baby. In fact the first CD I ever bought was U2’s One single, followed soon by the Achtung Baby album.

As I came to learn more and more about the band I was even more intrigued by the suggestions that they might be a “Christian band.” The continual argument against their “conversion” was the rock lifestyle they led and the fact that they wrote and sang lyrics that often talked just as much about doubting their faith as accepting what God was doing in the world around them.

I’ve come to see more and more that perhaps that’s also what attracts many people (and me more and more) to their music – they’re real, authentic and don’t claim to have it all figured out.

@U2 shared a list of U2’s Top 10 Spiritual Songs last month.

The list included ::

Tomorrow
Drowning Man
The Wanderer
Love Rescue Me
The Playboy Mansion
Wake Up Dead Man
Mercy
Yahweh
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
40

I’m glad they included “Wake Up Dead Man” on the list. The first time I heard that song I thought perhaps Bono and U2 had given up on any faith they might have had. But then I came to see it as real, raw, honest seeking of God.

@U2 writes ::

Bitter, enraged and at times desperate, the final song on the Pop album is a fierce antidote to any rose-tinted view of the spiritual life. Bono states his predicament bluntly and uncompromisingly in the first few lines, painting a grim picture of what is perhaps his boldest depiction of a life lived in isolation from both God and the wider world.

Crying out to a deity who may or may not have abandoned him, in “Wake Up Dead Man” (the lyrics of which were partly written by the Edge), Bono describes a bleak situation, one of being so consumed by naked anger with God that it makes hard listening for any believer. However, I’ve often found it the perfect sound track to those blackest of black moments, as the song almost perfectly articulates what it feels to have what Bono has called that “very valid” sense of outrage at a God who at times seems indifferent to the awfulness of the human condition.

The song goes to prove that sometimes we will feel lost, confused and alone in the world. And those times may leave us asking “God, why have you forsaken me.” Yet, the picture doesn’t remain bleak – as the next song U2 released was “Beautiful Day.” The song contrasts the previous one like Good Friday contrasts with Easter Sunday.

I’ve come to realize in my own life that it’s those deep, dark, lonely moments that make the moments of resurrection and reconciliation that much more beautiful.

What songs would you add to the list? Are there other songs, albums or movies that paint beautiful pictures of God’s reconciliation with you and the world around us? Are there other stories that you’ve heard that have brought about new understandings of God’s working in the world?