TiVO Acquisition Incites Cyber Violence (Almost)

Computer Whackers Anonymous... Hey, I knew it.  "One in every four computers has been physically attacked by its owner, according to a survey. ... Many technical support people from the United States, Canada and parts of Europe have sobering stories of brutalized computers being brought in for repair by sad -- or in some cases, smug -- owners who had smacked, kicked or otherwise deliberately injured their machines." (Battered Computers: an Epidemic,Wired News, June 5, 2001)

Well, that almost happened to me as Dyan and I struggled for a month to set up TiVO, along with a new TV and a new combo DVD/VCR.  TiVO "revolutionizes" your TV by running your cable through a hard drive. So, for example, you can pause programs in real time and catch up.   TiVO connects to a phone line, which builds intelligence into it by downloading future programming, enabling you to record all episodes of a program like The Sopranos, or, say, all movies with Clint Eastwood.  It's very cool.  (But I've never watched The Sopranos -- oops, no premium cable service.)

You'd think that two reasonably intelligent people could figure out how to hook up these widely available consumer electronic devices.  No way.  Here are front and back pictures of the three units.  You'll count 43 wires plugged into the back of them!  That took multiple trips back and forth to the store, two personal visits to our home by the salesman, and a call to TiVO's tech support.  Oh, that was fun!  I gotta have more technology.  ... So if you want a real hoot, play the original Badday video clip of a man trashing his computer.  You'll laugh.

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--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com