Out of sequence - XBMC How To That Looks Interesting

It's not in the regular flow of things, but it is at least apropos.

I've got an XBox with a dying DVD drive in the basement (who doesn't?)

This is the first How-To I've seen that doesn't involve either the Replay device or a hardware mod chip. It falls nicely into Rule 1 :-) I've looked at using the XBox for a media centre device before, but was hesitant to spend more money on a dead box, especially since all Xbox mod stuff seems to have that grey-market feel to them. I'm sure some (most? all?) of the hardware mod vendors have a good product, but I had no current word-of-mouth that I trusted to pick one.

Now, I should note this How To has two BIG caveats.

1. I haven't tried this yet. It might be complete baloney.
2. You have to disconnect IDE cabling on both your PC and XBox at least once - while it's in use! I wouldn't be doing this with an XBox or a PC you love - the results could be tragic. I've accidentally hot swapped IDE devices before, but I cringe every time it happens, and I'm sure sooner or later the smoke is going to come out.

Caveat Emptor