I keep getting this weird error after my Windows session has been logged in for a long time. It happens if I try to run any Office program (Excel, Outlook, Word, etc.) or if I try to run Windows Media Player.

Logging off and logging back in fixes the problem, but that’s hardly ideal.

I found a forum post regarding the issue, and it seems that Microsoft is indeed aware of the issue:

In the meantime: You don't need to reboot, just log off and log back on. It's a per-user issue. That will clear it up if it's the same issue.  I realize it can be a pain and I'm not trying to minimze the issue at all, but the workaround is simpler/quicker than a full reboot.

It hits different people in different time frames. It depends on how many apps you are running and how often you have loaded/unloaded them.

I appologize that it takes this long, but we'd rather not give you an update that had other problems/regressions, so we want to make sure it's fully tested, and that can take a few weeks in an environment as complex as this, as I'm sure you know. 

Reading further, it seems the fix is actually finally released, but won’t be forced upon users (via Windows Update) until July. If you’re having this problem, you can download KB952709 and fix it right now!

My wife Heather was begging me to find some Wall-E ringtones; after a short while I couldn’t really find anything for free, so I decided to make some. I’m sharing them with the world in case someone else wants to check ‘em out too. I’m making them available in MP3 and M4R (iPhone Ringtone) format:

MP3:

Wall-E Music (from the trailer)

Wall-E Saying His Name

M4R (iPhone):

Wall-E Music (from the trailer)

Wall-E Saying His Name

Instructions for iPhone: Simply right-click and save the files to your hard drive. Drag them onto iTunes, and they should be recognized as ringtone files. The next time you sync your iPhone, they will show up.

Update: Do you have a request for another Wall-E ringtone, or just a ringtone in general from your favorite movie/TV show? Let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

Update 2008-07-18: Here are some more "ringtones" I made from Wall-E!

MP3:

Eve Saying "Wall-E!"

Mo Saying "Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah!"

Wall-E Saying "Eeeve-A"

Wall-E Saying His Name (longer)

M4R (iPhone):

Eve Saying "Wall-E!"

Mo Saying "Woah Woah Woah Woah Woah!"

Wall-E Saying "Eeeve-A"

Wall-E Saying His Name (longer)

Update 2008-08-05: Want a glimpse into the life of me and my wife? Check out her blog, Inquisitive Sensitive!

Heather and I went to see Wall-E on the opening night. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from this movie— I couldn’t think of a single Pixar movie I didn’t like. As a side note, I held off watching Ratatouille for forever because I just didn’t want to be disappointed in Pixar; everyone was telling me Ratatouille sucked. It didn’t.

Anyway, getting back to Wall-E, the film is right in so many ways. The pacing is spot on, and we really get invested emotionally in all of the characters, not just the leads (Wall-E and EVE.) And on top of that, it’s just a great sci-fi story, with a dash of action and a extra spoonful of romance.

The visuals are obviously gorgeous, and Pixar did a great job of defining “the world”. There is live-action (real humans) mixed in with the animation and it doesn’t actually seem that out of place. I’m not spoiling anything, but as an example, there’s a great chain of pictures in the captain’s quarters that starts as a picture of an actual person, and ends with the current captain:

As to why us humans are fat, that gets explained :)

Anyway, it’s a great movie, and I’d say it’s easily one of the best I’ve seen this year. There’s an animated Pixar short in front of it, called “Presto!”, about a magician experiencing some issues with the ol’ rabbit out of a hat trick. The audience was in tears for that, and it just set the stage perfectly for what was to come with Wall-E.

So go see it. Take your girlfriend or wife too, especially. They’ll swoon (multiple times) over Wall-E’s cuteness.

Here’s some more Wall-E related images and (ooh!) retro-looking Disneyland-ish posters:

I posted about this before.. Disney’s been using Annie Leibovitz to take some pretty cool “Disney-themed” photos with famous people. They’ve done some more since then.. check ‘em out, I still think they’re pretty spiffy. I still need to buy a decent camera…

Tennis star Roger Federer is King Arthur from "The Sword in the Stone"

Actress Rachel Weisz is Snow White

Actress Julie Andrews is the Blue Fairy from "Pinocchio" with actress Abigail Breslin as Fira from "Disney Fairies"

Gisele Bundchen as Peter Pan’s Wendy Darling, beckoned by Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan and Tina Fey as Tinker Bell

Jessica Biel as Pocahontas

Jennifer Lopez as Princess Jasmine and Marc Anthony as Aladdin

Whoopi Goldberg as the Genie

Actress Julianne Moore and World Champion swimmer Michael Phelps, with Julianne playing Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”

Since getting my console back after having it repaired, due to the red ring of death problem, I haven't played it much. I decided today to sit down and play Assassin's Creed, and about five minutes into it, my screen starts to look posterized. Basically, it looks like the colors are reduced. Think cheesy 80's music video special effects. Here's some shots:

Of course, if I go to XBox.com and look up my repair information, it says I'm out of warranty. Fantastic. A console I hardly play is broken yet again. I'm going to try to call and deal with their customer service people (in India.. ugh.) But I doubt I will be able to get them to fix this for free.

I haven't found any other information online about this problem. I can't be the only one, though.

Stuff I've tried:

- Changing from 1080p to 1080i, 720p, etc. -- no change.

- Jiggling the entire cable, in case there's a short.

- Unplugging/re-plugging in the video cable.

- Performing the "Reset Video Settings" trick per Microsoft's KB article.

How *$()@% frustrating is this? Microsoft really doesn't get it sometimes.

Update: According to users who replied to my XBox.com forum post, the problem appears to be that the GPU is either overheating, or beginning to break away from the motherboard. This is similar to what causes the "Red Ring of Death" errors, but not the same. I think I'm going to just have to bite the bullet and pay for repairs, even though this is clearly a design flaw, and not a problem I caused.