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[Alex Atkin UK]

Youtube just offered this video to me which actually filled in a lot of blanks I did not know of how this all worked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je8lwcUPBys

So of course I had to watch this too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17zfz017s9A

[burakkucat]

From the subject line of this topic I thought it was something that you wanted to do and you were hoping that other eccentric members would assist you in your quest. 

[kitz]

Nice find and an interesting experiment.

That is practically what the likes of Lee Strafford (Plusnet) and Richard Tang (Zen) did.  I hope I remember right when I say in that Lee's started out in his dads garage and Richard's in a bedroom. 
There are several mildly amusing tales regarding some of the things that Lee, his dad, one of the other founders.. and also some of the early staff did in an attempt to keep up with the technology, expanding requirements and also still maintain an ISP presence when adsl entered the market.   

[kitz]

From the subject line of this topic I thought it was something that you wanted to do and you were hoping that other eccentric members would assist you in your quest. 

haha me too 

[Weaver]

I had a USR modem very similar to that one in the 1990s but exchanged it for the corporate something model which was long and deep and all black, very similar to the ancestor of this USR corporate modem here. I still had one when I got ADSL in Skye in 2004. It was good for 49kbps downstream, which I thought was pretty amazing given the length of the line.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Fun fact, I probably lost my first job at Plusnet due to arguing with Lee on the internal forums about changes to the tea making arrangements. 

I took the "you can be open and honest with us" perhaps a bit too literally.

I distinctly remember other staff members coming up to me and saying "you're arguing with the MD" and I was like "So? I was told to be open and honest with any problems I had".  Hard lessons learned about what a business says and what they REALLY mean.

Although its perfectly possible that WASN'T the reason as they went through restructuring at the time, so I was an easy target being right at the end of my probation.

[kitz]

I've had my share of "discussions with the MD".  As you say though there were those who thought you shouldnt.   He wasnt really the typical MD, he would roll up in his flash sports car and step into the office wearing shorts, socks and Jesus sandals.   I dont think I ever saw him in a suit...  and he was well known for his typical Yorkshire blunt speak as you find it attitude with absolutely no tact.

>>  arguing with Lee on the internal forums <<
I thought he was renown for forum arguments particularly in the evenings.  It was probably easier to not say anything rather than risk lighting a spark for what could become an inferno.  At one time it was decided to revoke some of his posting permissions so he couldnt post on the public side.  I think the thing was is that once he had made his mind up about something, then there was no changing it.  He didn't hold back and wouldn't think twice about calling a customer a prat.   

[Bowdon]

I used to go on a BBS were the guy kept expanding the number of phone lines to it. I think at it most had 24. I think his plan was to eventually convert the BBS in to an ISP. But I think the amount of technical work that would have needed to be done got too much for him.

I appreciate the old days though. There wasn't many 'normies' around then, so most people actually had an interest in computers/games and their workings.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Ah the early days of the Internet when people were civil because it wasn't just a commodity.

I miss the early days of Xbox 360 when people would just chat in the lobbies of a game, because the console came with a headset as standard.

Then as things progressed to open world games and first person shooters, it all went down the toilet for me.  No more lobbies in a lot of games so you couldn't just join a lobby that was doing the game mode you wanted, and I have zero interest in FPS as I don't see the fun in playing against people who cheat or are just so much better than you.  Plus the quality of conversation, if there is any, its just people insulting each other.  I was never into that even as a teen.

Now GET OFF MY LAWN!

[Starman]

Alex I know how you feel - the early MMO days were my favorite (early UO and EQ) then up to my WoW guild days where we had a Teamspeak server and 20 to 30 of us would login and chat while grinding but then I was much younger and had SO much free time. Now with a 2.5 year old toddler single dad there isn't much anymore

I also remember being on XBL on my OG Xbox playing Phantasy Star Online that was some of my fondest XBL memories - I should get the XB down from the loft change the clock battery and sort out using Insignia!

All that being said I have an XSX and a PS5 although the majority of the limited console time is on my XSX with Gamepass which tend to to single player titles mostly.

[Alex Atkin UK]

The clock capacitor had already trashed mine when I checked a year or two ago.

It didn't look badly damaged, but it wont boot.  Annoying as Burnout 2 is really broken on Xbox 360 BC, was extremely annoyed they didn't carry its BC over to Xbox One which might have been powerful enough to fix the slow down issue, never mind Series X.

[Starman]

Might want to check out Xenia UWP which was recently ported and seems to be working quite well for running non MS sanctioned backwards compatible titles using an XSX or the XSS


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSN81y9RyEk

As for the my Crystal (modded) OG XB clock battery that reminds me I do have a day off Monday when my Son is at the minder so will try to find it and check now out its condition.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Thanks, I do periodically check the emulators, the Burnout games tend to be the ones broken as they really pushed the hardware.

The PSP games run great on PPSSPP, but they're more PS2 games and feel quite rough.  In fact, I originally had Burnout 3 on PS3 for the free online and it felt more laggy (even offline) than the Xbox version also, its what got me to pay for Xbox Live.

I'd always hoped we would get a full remaster of something like Burnout Legends (but with more tracks, ideally all of them from 1-4) but it seems EA just cares about Need for Speed.