Posts from — February 2005

Tivo upgraded my DVR last week with a new feature called TivoToGo. It allows you to transfer shows recorded on any networked Tivo box to any computer. You can also record these shows to a DVD to watch anywhere. Until now I was able to send programs from one Tivo to another in our house. Now I’m able to send it to my computer and then burn a DVD.

While the concept is cool, the process is a bit cumbersome. Even with a fast network connection, the transfer takes a long time. Also, the Tivo desktop software needs to run on your computer and has several processes running in the background taking up valuable resources. I don’t know about you but I’ve made it my mission to eliminate any items running in the system tray that take up memory.

For practice I transferred a few of Pam’s cooking shows to the computer. The new Tivo desktop lists the available shows, you select what you want and they are copied over in the background. I think TivoToGo will come in handy once in a while to archive shows we want to save. I just wish it moved faster.

I read the other day the Comcast DVR allegedly prevented people from fast-forwarded past commercials during American Idol and 24 last week. This is very bad. The main reason I have Tivo is to skip over the commercials. If they start blocking this feature, I’ll stop watching the shows.

“Break dog waste into small, manageable pieces and mail them to people you don’t like.” This random quote of mine appeared on the site yesterday. It’s appropriate because I’ve been having trouble with the neighbor’s dog. Lately, they’ve developed the habit of letting the beast run loose around the neighborhood, making “deposits” along the way.

I usually try to be a good neighbor and look the other way when they piss me off. We have to live next to each other and I try to do whatever it takes to avoid conflicts.

But as I walked out to the mailbox the other day, I stepped in some of the dog poop. Now it’s time to confront these disrespectful morons that let their dog run in the street and poop all over their neighbor’s property.

How should I deal with them? Leave a note in their mailbox? Talk to him in person? It’s too bad they are putting me in this position. I only hope I can be nice when I ask them to behave nicely toward their perfect-neverbotheranyone neighbors.

As I walked in the work this morning, some lady in a Grand Cherokee almost ran me over while parking in a handicap spot. Then she raced past me on the sidewalk, running into the building. I caught up with her inside when I spotted her in line at the Starbuck’s kiosk. What was the big hurry?

Here are a few of my observations about the incident:
1. The lady was parked in a handicap spot in a garage almost 1/4 mile from the main building. I don’t understand why there are handicap spots that far away. If they can walk 1/4 mile, they can walk from a “normal” parking space.
2. By her sprinting past me on the sidewalk it showed me she really isn’t handicapped and shouldn’t be parking in that spot. Why is it so easy to get a handicap sticker?
3. She never once acknowledged my presence by apologizing for almost hitting me. I wonder how she treats other people during the day.
4. She should lay off the caffeine.

I received notice this morning from Comcast telling me they increased the speed of their broadband service to 4MB. This may be the selling point needed to keep me with Comcast instead of moving over to satellite TV and DSL internet. To be fair, Comcast’s service is exceptional and we’re happy with the programming choices. It’s the higher prices and not so great picture that bothers me.

I plan to do more troubleshooting to see what I can do to improve the cable signal. I’ll also make adjustments to our channel lineup to help lower the costs. For now, I’ll be surfing away at warp speed.

By the way, I do realize most of the time it’s not my connection speed to the internet that causes slowdowns. It’s the overloaded servers that I log into which cause my speeds to crawl along. So Comcast increasing their speed may not be as big a deal as I may think. I’ll let you know.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

So I’ve been interviewing people around the office who have satellite TV service. Each person had a different point of view and their information was often contradictory. I’ll need to research it more before making the switch - if I do it at all. One thing is for certain, I’m dropping all the premium movie channels. Night after night we browse the listings and rarely see any movie we’d like to watch. After Netflix, Blockbuster and Pay Per View, there are few movies left we care to see on HBO.

Gary - best wishes to your nephew.

Dear Comcast,
We’ve been together for many years and you’ve always been good to me. But lately I’ve become annoyed by the terrible picture and high prices I’ve been forced to endure. You came to my house and checked my connections and did everything you could but I’m still not happy. So it’s with regret I may be switching over to satellite. It’s nothing personal but I feel I should be getting more from you considering the high prices I pay for your services. Satellite TV sounds better to me right now, so I’m going to be leaving you. I love you, Comcast but you have to love me back.