techpoetry

Time To Talk TiVo

Yes I did use illiteration in the title of this post. There is a reason I called it Tech "Poetry".

I wanted to give my review of the new TiVo2Go Service and voice some idea's that I would like to see from TiVo since I have been using it for the past 3 weeks now. For starters, if you don't have TiVo get it now. I am not one to impose my tech savviness on others, well maybe I am guilty from time to time, but before now I couldn't confidently justify the $12.95/month service fee. However, now with TiVo2Go it's very much worth it! Copy your recordings to your laptop and take them with you on that long flight, or add earphones keeping your back to the wall it will make any lame meeting go by in a breeze. Pair this feature with a DVD Burner and you can edit / archive your own DVDs for a personal collection of TiVo favorites. The feature is at no additional cost. My suggestion for convienince factor is to get a small portable usb 2.0 external hard drive the bigger the capacity the better! A movie generally will use 1.2gb of space at best quality, while a series of 1 hour long is 740mb at basic quality - you get the idea right? I must say that the trouble to hack your TiVo to acheive more space becomes a mute point since archiving to DVD is now possible (VHS doesn't count). Altough that will not stop me!!!

Prerequsites include a TiVo Series 2 Unit, Windows Media Player 10 for XP or WMP 9.0 in Win2k and a DVD Codec. Also you will have to provide a "Media Access Key" and set you personal password during installation of TiVo Desktop 2.0 It uses Microsoft's Digital Rights Management and I must admit that so far MS has impressed me with this concept that is easily extended in to the corporate space for document protection as Windows Information Management on Windows Server 2003 well.

Now for my suggestions to TiVo.
1. How about the ability to copy the shows back onto the TiVo after you have archived it to your laptop? This could be done securely and safely using your DRM (Digital Rights Management) technololgy and by checking to confirm the destination TiVo unit is on you account / local network.
2. Why can't your online scheduling site more closely mimic the TiVo interface itself? Couldn't I access my wishlists created on my TiVo from the remote scheduling site?
3. Why is the TiVo Desktop software interface so cumbersume? There could be more information displayed in the main menu about recordings and there is no need for a redundant "Tranfer Status" window when all information could be displayed in the main window.
4. Why doesn't the software do a check when you click Start Transfer and alert you if a selected show has already been transfered?
5. Why can't you use multiple folders set for each show or category? ie... set all of your HUFF and Carnivale episodes to transfer to "Favorite Series" folder and all cooking shows to transfer to "Cooking" folder. You can set this up in a options tab.

Some if not all of the wishlist functionality is available hacking into your Linux based TiVo and installing packages and modifying configs but this post isn't meant to cover these topics. Besides, for now I havn't found that much done with the new version (7.1) of sofware your TiVo must run for TiVo2Go. Note: you can get on a waiting list to prioritize the download of the new version to your TiVo although it is a long list. I waited for over 3 weeks and I signed up the very first day it was released 1/3/05!

Links to get started hacking with:
Leo Laporte's Guide to TiVo
Deal Database Forums

Thanks for the best wishes!

Thank you all for your comments to my previous post about yesterday being my birthday! I really appreciate your support.

My birthday was wonderful! Kerry went to my parents with me and made dinner for everyone (minus my sister whom was sorry she couldn't make it being stuck in Boston and Law School and all). It's ok Sis, I understand! My mother and dad gave me a great 33rd b'day! I didn't deserve the gifts they gave me, so I appreciate them a lot. My brother gave me a great pullover! And Kerry gave me a great gift. Two tickets to go see Jerry Seinfeld!!!!! So, aren't you so jealous guys? Now if only Elaine would be there, too - little did she know I had that crush on her character on the show. LOL

Let no b'day go by without tech! That's right she also got me a little something for my geekiness - a USB 2.0 1GB thumb drive secure!

This is a quick post for all you Linux tinkerers out there who may be interested in one of the coolest things I've seen thus far - I may use this for Project Green Thumb.

May your 33rd offer you as much as mine did me!

For those who wonder?

Wondering where I am? Well, join the club. I sometimes wonder too. LOL Well here I am with a whole new me. That's right I have begun to change my life as my New Year's resolutions began to gear up --- I have always lagged on them during the short time between New Years and my birthday. Here it is - today is my birthday!!!

What resolutions you ask?

1. To take better care of my diabetes! (first on the list of course)
2. Join and go to the gym.
3. Calm down and try not to stress out so much.
4. Diet / lose weight - goes hand and hand with number 1!

My suggestions so far:

1. Go on the South Beach Diet - I've lost 13 pounds since the 3rd!
2. Take Yoga - For you guys it's not gay - guys do it too - it's helped me stress less and recover from workouts faster.
3. Use that treadmill and work out with high reps and low weight on the weights for weight loss.
4. Hit that dry sauna after a workout (careful to not over do it). This will make your body sweat out toxins and impurities - Be especially careful it you are diabetic, my nurse told me it will make your blood sugar drop)! If you feel light headed or faint like just leave and cool off.

Bye for now :-)

Note: Look for a less lazy blogger here as time goes on.... :-)

The end of TechTV... The Beginning of something else?

I am giving up on a network that I've been a faithful viewer for so many years. It's not news to know about the whole G4TechTV story but it is news that I am giving up on them. The content that once was the inspiration for my tech knowledge has constantly been degraded into a sick fest for marathons on video games while young boys ogle at female video game characters. Yes, I endured this while many of my true fellow TechTV fans decided to forgo this network that has serious age-regression issues! What can I say? I've been watching since it was called ZDTV. Then my girlfriend refused to watch after her intelligence was insulted as well as her understandable disinterest of their growing unprofessionalism. So here I am now with the realization after reading that things are not going to improve. Saddened as I am I will be giving it the season pass delete salute from my TiVo! But wait what is in the future? One couldn't ever really know but I am a believer that "When geeks speak... Other geeks will listen... and an army will be made." So I end this post bidding farewell to TechTV with a small shred of hope.

The Void in IT Life

Countless hours of surfing the Internet robs us of the life we deserve. Yes that's right, there is a life going on around us while we are refreshing that Oishii page or digging deeper in the delicious links. We maybe self justifying that long Slashdot read by saying "This is information I need for my career." "It will make me a better technician, programmer, or system administrator!" I know if you prove your knowledge is continuously growing in this topic I'll impress your peers. Of course we can't just keep up on tech only can we? Yes we must be able to speak intelligently in the break room too right? Hence we also hit our google news, fox news, and many others as well. And yes I agree it is very impressive to be the most informed on these topics. But at what cost?

How do you impress your peers?
Only if you only encounter IT people in your path will the above strategy work. Are you that lucky? Many are not! One of the others will cross your path sometime, somewhere. If you only work with IT people you are married to one of the others, if you are lucky like me and have an IT personal life you have to deal with the one of the others at work. Not to mention the possibility when one of the others will pop up in so many of the other extra activities of life! They are not as impressed!

How did I got a glimpse of the other life.
I was on a service call today. I drove slowly into a neighborhood were children were out riding bicycles and such. When I arrived ringing the door bell I could hear the russling of domestic life and the chatter of children. Once I was greeted and lead to the computer in question I began my work. My peripheral sense witnessed the mom preparing afternoon snacks for the kids and coaching them into homework duties as well as supervising other kids in their play. She was taking phone calls as well. All this and still catering to my questions too. It all seemed to be a blur. It was as if she was doing it all at once! So to multitasking computer theory I say "pewwy" you can't even compare. How do you impress someone like this? I decided that she couldn't care less of my knowledge of complicating her computer experience more. Instead I chose to impress her with my quick layman's terms answers to her questions and customizing her computer to make things as easy as possible as well as throwing in a scanned picture of the family and setting it as her wallpaper. I think this impressed her. I didn't require the amount of research I do on a daily basis to do this either. I didn't need it to do my job and impress a customer today. I too was impressed by her. Heck I even joined her and a group of moms try to locate their puppy whom the little boy couldn't find. Think of all the things I could have been involved with if I hadn't spent that time researching! Of these things I am concentrating on family and friends. So now after spending half an hour on this post and smarting off to my girlfriend a few times I am going to put that daily visit to digg off for a few hours... as she starts browsing blogs... oh... well it's a start right?

What makes a geek a nerd? - one that forgets their social life!

To what prevail to we research so much? - to make our personal computers the most complicated as possible. - Think about this one... (Our users and customers want it simple)

Just a glimpse of how the others live brought to you by techpoetry.