So I finally broke down and bought a brand spanking new SlingBox.  The nice shiny red one arrived while I was at work (yes the spouse was asking, ok, what is in the box this time) and I got anxious to get home.  I was leaving a 3 days and wanted it live and running.

Question:

I have an XBOX 360, and would only like to use it to play HD-DVD on my TV. I would like to diable the game controllers completely and not be able to play any games. Any ideas?

-submitted by Martyb

Answer:

To answer your question in one sentence, shy of hiding the XBOX 360 controllers entirely, there is no way to render the 360 incapable of playing games. That really is what the 360 was designed to do, afterall.

I thought about opening up the XBOX 360 and disconnecting the internal DVD drive from the main board. However, getting the 360 open is not an easy task, but it could be done. The problem though, is that this will void your warranty, and there's a chance the 360 will not boot if the drive is disconnected.

The Japanese have been using cell phones for a couple years now that allow consumers to purchase any number of goods.
They do this by simply swiping their phone instead of a credit card. Cell phones embedded with smart cards are placed near a touch pad reader.

This enables it to perform the function of a credit card.

Nothing new really. But what has happened is it has caused a problem with Cell Phone Stealing.
If you get access to someone's cell phone you can easily buy whatever you want by simply swiping their phone.

This has lead to other inventions to prevent this and several companies are coming up with ways to prevent this.