Cryptosmith

I’ve been living with a computer-age annoyance: my Tivo crashes about once a day. This has been going on for a while now, which shows how little TV I’ve been watching since the writers’ strike and its resolution.

I’ve scanned the Internet for discussions of Tivo crashing and, surprisingly, it’s not a topic that gets discussed much. In fact, the only explanation I’ve seen people put forth is that it’s caused by hardware failures.

Now, I’ve had my Tivo for almost four years. To convert this to computer terms, I’ve been running a dedicated computer with its hard drive continuously for about four years and (surprise, surprise) it’s finally started to fail. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Continue Reading »

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Tivo is a mixed blessing in any case, but it really rubs one’s nose in the writers strike.

Before Tivo, I would do a lot of channel surfing - I would hit the channel button every few seconds, scanning for something worth watching. It could take a bit of time to get through the 100-odd channels.

Now, the only ’surfing’ I do is to scan through my “Wish List” listings for things I might actually want to watch. It’s actually rather inbred, because the only things I see are films and shows relating to things I already know I like. Continue Reading »

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