When I first got the Kinect, I had it mounted about 4 1/2 feet off the ground and I would stand about 6 1/2 feet away from the camera. I had no issues with the Kinect seeing me or my face and would track me quite easily.

Now today we got a new TV stand that is much lower and the camera is now at a height of 32 inches, and it is still the same distance away from where I stand when I play.

Now my girl friend spent quite awhile playing Kinectimals today just fine. I will write about her thoughts about the Kinect at a later time. I might even try to get her to write out what she thinks. Anyway, she is about 5 foot 4 inches tall so the camera saw her just fine.

Same with my two nieces that came over to try it out as well. The camera could track them both quite easily and they could take turns jumping in and out and the Kinect had not trouble with them either.

Then I tried to play and it would not do anything. I tried moving back and forth, side to side. Nothing. I thought that maybe it got confused with so many people jumping in and out but anyone else could get it to work just fine. I guessed that it did not just stop liking because it is sexist and only like females, so I restarted the xbox to see if that will fix the problem.

Now when you first turn the xbox on and you have the Kinect attached, there is a small box in the bottom corner that shows what the camera can see. You know what I saw in that box? Me. With no head. It could not see my head. Just up to my chin. I am 6 foot 3 inches tall. I am thinking that I am standing too close for someone as tall as myself. I am going to have to do some experiments to see if I can get the camera to re-set and look up a little higher. Either that or I need to stand a little further away.

UPDATE: Yes, you can easily change the height at which the camera works. It will see me clearly, but it will adjust to see my 4 year old. All is good.

I am impressed with the technology so far. It knows who you are, so if someone else walks into the cameras view it will ignore them totally. Plus it recognizes me now through facial recognition and signs me in automatically.

I will keep trying this thing out and get a few more games before I give my full review, but so far this thing looks like it is going to be great fun, especially if you have kids. No Wiimotes to go flying and my 50″ Plasma!

It had been working for awhile until last week. Frank fell asleep, froze up if you will during a particularly intense firefight in Vegas 2. I just started to play this as it has been sitting on my shelf for months and I had not loaded it to the hard drive yet. So I tried that and started again. “Freeze” said Frank, and I could play no more.

I restarted Frank and this time he froze before even getting started and then I knew what was happening. Frank had the virus and only precious seconds to live. I powered him down and then back up. It was for the last time, Frank was no more.

As Frank was the 4th of his brothers that I have owned, I knew the procedure quite well. I called the number, told them what had happened, and both I and the operator on the other end shared a brief moment of silence for poor Frank.

Then ‘Nick’ as he called himself had more bad news for me. After checking his records, he noticed that it has been more than three years since my original purchase and that I would have to pay to have Frank ‘fixed’. I ‘calmly’ told ‘Nick’ that this was Frank the 4th and I would not be paying for him to be fixed, but fixed he shall be. ‘Nick’ went away to talk to a supervisor and when he came back all was well. Microsoft would take care of Frank for free.

After a few minutes of hugging and fond memories, I got Frank all wrapped up and into his cardboard coffin and sent him off to the Xbox morgue. That was on Friday, July 17th, 2009.

I am sad that I lost Frank the 4th, but am I happy because I just called home and my girlfriend told me that the gaming stork dropped off my new/fixed bundle of Xboxy goodness. So rest in peace Frank the 4th, I hope Frank the 5th lives a nice long life.

UPDATE: Frank the 5th is running like a charm, and they threw in a free month of Xbox live as well. I know that is not much, but it is something and really it only took them one business day to get Frank the 5th to me.

UPDATE 2: I now also have a new slim model named Coraline so Frank now lives in the basement with the Wii.

The problem is that the Xbox 360 does not come with wireless built in, and the wireless dongle does not get packed in with any version of the Xbox 360 you can get.

So you go to the store to buy the wireless dongle which looks very nice and fits on your Xbox 360 very nicely. Then you look at the price and vomit with rage right there in the store. I have not looked at the price lately, but when I first went to get one, it was $125! For a wireless antenna with a USB connection! Seriously, that is messed up and I will not pay it out of principle.

So I have mine plugged in to my router. I hate having the wire coming down from my ceiling, but I will not bend over and pay that much. So if you are like me, except you are not lazy and are willing to work a little for a cheap solution, then click THIS LINK to go over to gizmodo for a few suggestions on getting your wireless cheaper.

Even if they were to improve voice software this to the point where it would be a reasonable alternative to typing, I don’t think many would be lining up to recycle their keyboards. Throats get sore and I can’t imagine shouting out W, A, S, and D in the heat of battle. Granted RTS would seem really cool with voice software…well…at least to spectators. Playing would be a frustrating mess without a keyboard.

So what am I really trying to say here? Keyboards suck and I’m getting pretty impaitent with keyboard technology.

How long ago was the Optimus Maximus keyboard supposed to become a new standard? At long last the thing is at least SHIPPING, but at a price so ludicrous ($1800) that even the creaters admit it’s no good for personal use. What’s even more telling about the OM is that the designers imagine themselves as a cast. While the concept is awesome, every inch of this overhyped centerpiece smacks of form over function.

In response or in frustration, ThinkGeek now sells the Luxeed, seen below. (EDIT: Currently being restocked.)

Again, while sporting an awesome concept – custom designable lighting – the execution is a disaster. The price, while at least Christmasable at $200, is still way too much for a keyboard that has no ergonomic design. In addition, literally, is the numberpad which actually sits attached to the mainkeyboard like a damn telephone. And that part has no backlighting! Are you kidding me? It looks like they’re releasing this thing in beta and getting away without because the market is so starved.

One of the only serious competitors, and the keyboard that I happen to be using now, is the Ideazon Merc Stealth. My current keyboard offers 3 different color settings for backlighting as well as 3 different intensities. While ergonomic (e.g. actually usable) it’s not without it’s faults. The fact that it has no wrist-rest (detachable or otherwise) in the area below the space key is mind boggling. I’m forced to put a long-retired Fellowes gel strip from 1999 back into action just to use this l33tboard. While the gaming-specific WASD add-on to the left side of the board is awesome once you get used to it, the fact that ideazon decided to cram the numberpad on top of the command keys on the right side (so that you need a seperate button to change the input of the “1″ key back and forth from “Delete”  etc.) is an inconvenience you never get used to.

Overall, it makes me incredible sad to say that in many ways, the best keyboard I have used to date is the now-defunct Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro. By all rights this thing should be totally outdated, but apparently nobody has been able to take this simple principles at work here and deck them out with flashy lights and custom gaming profiles.

It’s enough to make you want to say screw it and just get a SafeType. If the design is going to be mangled and force you to relearn the keyboard altogether then it might as well be good for your health.