The Xbox 360 still works, eventually

Getting back to the raison d'être of this blog, I tried firing up my Xbox 360. (The older Pixel I was using for mobile gaming isn't reliably registering screen touches any more; some of it is probably just wear and tear, though I did get it caught in my tailgate and left out in the rain when I was back in New Jersey—the first dumb thing.) 

Anyway, the Xbox 360 turned on okay (once I figured out the power plug was loose), but the screen was blank; it wasn't showing any signal to the HDMI 2 input. I went down a rabbit hole diagnosing HDMI problems with Xboxes, when I finally realized that the reason why it wasn't showing up on HDMI 2 was because it was actually plugged into component video.

52 Bits of Trivia for Age 52

As is my wont, here are the 52 pieces of trivia that I used to respond to Facebook birthday well wishers (granted, mostly from wikipedia and first pages of Google search results, but still). Also, this year, I compiled the list, then randomized the posting order of things in Google sheets, so I did not/was not able to send subtle messages to posters with my chosen response:

1. Fort52 sells watercolor-painted playing cards and other paper goods. They're in Fort Worth.
2. "52 hertz is equivalent to the musical note G#1, which is the 12th lowest key on a conventional 88-key piano keyboard; or, the 4th finger position on the lowest string (E1) of a double bass."
3. The B-52s are also an iconic US band.
4. 52 is a series of 4 albums totalling 52 songs writing by American country singer Kristian Bush.
5. The Bell XP-52 was a WWII fighter aircraft design project with a twin boom tail and pusher propellers.
6. US Route 52 goes from South Carolina to North Dakota, about 2,072 miles.
7. The Q52 is a superyacht tender built by Dutch company Qnautic.
8. 52 in Morse code is ….. ..--- (I actually knew this without having to look it up)
9. Social 52 is a restaurant and bar in Richmond, Virginia.
10. The atomic number of Tellurium is 52.
11. 52 is a DC Comics limited series, published weekly in 2006 for a year.
12. F52 is the ICD-10_CM code for "Sexual dysfunction not due to a substance or known physiological condition"
13. The p52 protein dimerizes with RelB to translocate into the nucleus, where it regulates gene transcription.
14. 52 factorial (52*51*50…*1) is about 8.0658e67. That link has a lot of trivia about that.
15. 52 in binary is 110100.
16. Seasons 52 is a US restaurant and wine bar chain.
17. Pub 52 is the US Postal Service's publication on Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail (I actually know a little about this one.)
18. 52 is not a prime number. The factors of 52 are 1, 2, 4, 13, 26, and 52.
19. Title 52 of the US Code codifies voting and election laws.
20. A B-52 cocktail is "a layered shot composed of coffee liqueur (Kahlúa), Irish cream (Baileys Irish Cream), and Grand Marnier (in later versions replaced with triple sec or Cointreau)"
21. 52 is the international direct dial code for Mexico.
22. B52 is another name for The Sicilian Defence chess opening?
23. Pliny the Elder wrote his account of the Roman Empire's German wars in AD [CE] 52.
24. D52 is a school district in Washington, Illinois.
25. 52 American hostages were held in the Iran hostage crisis.
26. A modern piano has 52 white keys.
27. The New 52 was DC Comics' lineup revamp in 2011.
28. The 52nd day of the year is February 21.
29. Article 52 of the Geneva Conventions covers the general protection of civilian objects.
30. J52 was the hull number of the HMS Guysborough, a British Royal Navy minesweeper loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy and sunk by a U-boat in 1945.
31. 1952 was a leap year that started on Tuesday.
32. The Lenovo ThinkPad P52 was a laptop.
33. Messier 52 or M52, also known as NGC 7654 or the Scorpion Cluster, is an open cluster of stars in the highly northern constellation of Cassiopeia.
34. Food52 is a food website.
35. There are 52 cards in a standard deck of playing cards.
36. 52 is the car number of retired NASCAR driver Jimmy Means.
37. Clay Matthews wore 52 for the Green Bay Packers.
38. The Siemens and Halske T52 is a WWII German cipher machine and teleprinter, codenamed Sturgeon by the British.
39. 52 is a song by British band The Royston Club (it's not bad)
40. The movie 52 Pick-Up starred Roy Scheider and Ann Margaret.
41. 52 is an untouchable number (a math term for "a positive integer that cannot be expressed as the sum of all the proper divisors of any positive integer.")
42. NFPA 52 is the National Fire Protection Association's Vehicular Natural Gas Fuel Systems Code
43. The Liga Privada T52 is a cigar by tobacco company Drew Estate and made in Nicaragua.
44. A beehive hairdo is also (apparently) nicknamed a B-52.
45. WMATA's Route 52 Metrobus runs between L'Enfant Plaza Station and 14th and Colorado.
46. 52 Blue is a whale that calls at the "unusual">frequency of 52 hertz, and has been called the "world's loneliest whale."
47. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an iconic US bomber.
48. There are, of course, 52 weeks in a year.
49. A pill with imprint LILLY J52 is a white, round pill, Diethylstilbestrol 1 MG.
50. Part 52 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations deals with Solicitation Provisions and Contract Clauses.52 was some sort of video series about a group trying to make 52 short films in 2013.
51. 52 was some sort of video series about a group trying to make 52 short films in 2013.
52. NGC 52 (PGC 978) is an edge-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered on September 18, 1784, by William Herschel. He described it as "very faint, small, extended."