TiVo

Survey: Do you want a TiVo? You have to be a "Member" to vote. Don't worry, it's free of course, you just sign up over to the left under where it says "Membership". Now that I've owned it for a week, it's time to write up my thoughts about my new TiVo. If you don't know, go here to learn what a TiVo is.

It's basically a stripped down computer, or a VCR on steroids, take your pick. It's a hard drive, modem, computer chip, TV-Tuner, and an MPEG processor, all in a nifty box running a stripped down version of Linux. All of that is completely transparent to the end user, however. My grandparents could use this thing, it's easier to use than your VCR, and it sets the time all by itself.

I bought the 14-hour model of the TiVo last week from my local Wal-Mart, it cost $250, but there was a $100 rebate available from TiVo's web site. I've already sent it in, I'll be sure to post here when and if I get the check. The 14 hour model is becoming harder to find, as it has been discontinued, but you can still find them in many stores. Amazon.com has the 30 hour model and the 60 hour model, both with free shipping right now. I bought the entry-level model, and I already want more space! I know you're thinking "How could I ever watch more than 14 hours of TV?" But first I'll have to explain some more about how TiVo works.

TiVo works like a convential VCR, in that you tell it what you want to record and it does so. But, it's a lot smarter than even your VCR-Plus ever was. Every day, it uses the built-in modem to download program listings for the next two weeks. You can either browse, or use a search function to find the programs you want to record.

The easiest method is to just enter the name with your remote control. That sounds tedious, but it's not, as the TiVo searches as you enter the name. For instance, I wanted to record Michael Moore's show, The Awful Truth, so I started entering the name of the program. When I hit A, it started listing all the programs that began with A, when I hit W, it brought The Awful Truth to the top of the list. You can usually find what you're looking for after entering only a couple of letters.

You can also instruct the TiVo to always record a show, this is called the "Season Pass". Two nights ago, I told my TiVo that I wanted a Season Pass for The Twilight Zone. The TiVo now records it every time it plays on the Sci-Fi Network, even if the show is rescheduled for another time of day. This feature has some caveats in its current form, namely in that it doesn't discriminate between first-run and re-run, or syndication episodes of the same program. For example, take The Simpsons. Our local Fox affiliate shows two episodes of The Simpsons between 5 and 6 every weeknight. The "new" episode of The Simpsons runs every Sunday night. If you simply hit "Season Pass", you get all of these episodes, not just the new ones. This feature will be revised in the next revision of the TiVo software, which is currently in beta testing, and will be downloaded to my TiVo at some point, as all of the software updates take place automatically.

The other problem which I've encountered is that many networks don't stick to their schedules very well, especially in football season. You may wind up with incomplete programs at times, just as you would with a VCR, but the TiVo at least knows about any programming changes that were made 24 hours ahead of time.

TiVo has literally changed the way I watch TV forever. When you have a TiVo, there is no incentive to watch TV live. If it's recorded, you can simply fast-forward through all of the commercials, saving yourself a lot of time. The fast-forward function rewinds a bit when you hit play, so if you're scanning through the commercials, you see your program, hit play, and it backs up a bit before it starts playing, so you don't miss the start of your program. This is such a useful feature, especially if you're weren't God of the Nintendo, and your reflexes are a bit lagging. I can't believe I haven't seen this feature on a VCR before, it just makes so much sense...

The fast forward speeds are 3X, 20X, and 60X. They're just about right where you want them. At 60X, you can zip around through a recorded program pretty fast, great for when you've already seen part of a program, or 60 Minutes chooses to re-run one of their stories, but the rest of the show is new...

If you are watching live TV, one of the newest features allows broadcasters to embed a signal in their commercials for TV programs which will alert your TiVo. Last night, during the preview for next week's episode of ER, a little signal popped up in the corner of my screen, telling me that I could simply push the select button now if I wanted to record that program. It basically enables impulse recording, you see a preview of something you want to watch, push one button, and you've got it!

So how do you find these programs you've recorded? In the "Now Showing" section of the menu, it lists all of the things that the TiVo has in storage. You can find not only the things you told TiVo to record, but also things that it thinks you may like, based on how you rated other things you've watched. There's a "Thumbs-up" system, that lets you rate shows from 1-3 Thumbs up or down, and it uses those preferences to guess at other things it thinks you might like. I watch Law & Order and ER, and the TiVo now sometimes grabs re-runs of those off of other cable channels. It's getting smarter, the first couple days I had it, it recorded Old Yeller and Beverly Hills, 90210. Definitely not my style...

One problem with the TiVo is that you can't easily watch one channel live while recording another. This isn't a big deal if you know your way around your entertainment system, there are several ways to work around this, using selector boxes, splitters, or different inputs on your TV.

But, as I said above, why would you want to watch live TV? What the TiVo can do, and your VCR can't, is record something from live TV while you watch something already stored on the TiVo. For instance, I watched Wednesday night's episode of Law & Order last night (Thursday), between 7:45 and 8:30 (I fast forwarded through commercials). ER started at 8:00, but the TiVo was set to record it. So, I finished Law & Order, deleted it, then started watching ER, even though the show wasn't over yet. I started at the beginning, fast forwarded through all the commercials, and was almost caught up to live TV by the end of the broadcast, but at 10:00, my TiVo switched to Comedy Central and started grabbing the Daily Show. I finished watching ER, then switched to the Daily Show, watched that, fast forwarding through commercials, until it was over, then went to bed. My TiVo still sat there, happily recording The Twilight Zone, which I'll probably watch when I get home tonight.

Confused yet? It's an extremely simple interface, and you don't have to be a genius to figure it out, just tell it the shows you want, and watch them whenever you want to.

But what about things you want to watch live? You don't want to watch the SuperBowl on tape! The TiVo works great here as well. It automatically records the last half hour you've been watching on whatever channel you're on. Don't go channel surfing, or you've lost it, however. In the middle of a football game when the pizza guy comes? Hit the pause button, pay the dude, and then hit play on your remote, you can catch back up to "live" during a commercial. Your bladder will thank you too. It's also great if you want to do your own instant replays, or you didn't quite catch what the announcer said, or missed a stat.

Now, what are the cons of owning a TiVo? Well, the price, for one, at $250-$300, they're a little steep, but assuming I get my rebate, the cost will be only $150 for mine. You also have to pay $10 per month for the programming information, or you can opt to pay $199 for a "lifetime" subscription, but note that this is for the lifetime of your unit, not of you! The advertised capacity of a TiVo is a bit misleading, since that is at the lowest quality setting (there are four). I generally record everything at second lowest quality setting, which is fine for almost everything, and gives my 14-hour TiVo an actual 10 hours of space. But wait! I can upgrade it! Any enterprising computer geek can easily add a second IDE hard drive and greatly expand their TiVo. The TiVo Hacking FAQ tells you how. When I get around to it, I'm going to drop another hundred bucks and put in a 30GB hard drive, which will expand my TiVo to 52 hours of capacity! This will also void my warranty, so I may wait a while on this one, but you can get all the requisite parts at this site. You just need a torx screwdriver kit, an IDE hard drive greater than 20GB in size, and some cable ties and rubber feet, or the nice mounting kit they sell.

My only other annoyance, is that since it uses a phone line, I had to stretch one across my apartment to my entertainment center. Other people have had good luck with the wireless phone jacks that you can buy at your local Radio Shack, however.

The TiVo does work with cable, antenna, and digital satellite dish systems, in fact there is even a version of it that is incorporated with the tuner device for the digital dish systems, and records the digital signals being broadcast, very cool! It also worked with my phone line, which I was a little nervous about, as I have to dial a 9 to reach an off-campus line at my university-owned apartment. It allows for all of that type of stuff, and the number it dials is a local one, or toll-free if no local one is available. There isn't a Waterloo/Cedar Falls number, so I'm using the toll-free one right now.

In conclusion, the TiVo is a great device! You'll have to pry mine from my cold, dead hands. It's opened up a lot more of TV to me, now I watch what I want to watch, not what happens to be on at the moment. I get to see shows like Politically Incorrect, which are on after my bedtime. I can watch Star Trek again! I get to watch more TV, in less time, and see more of what I want. I don't have to worry about missing a show, as I've programmed TiVo to grab everything that I generally watch. If you've even thought to yourself that a TiVo might be nice, don't fight the impulse any longer, buy one, you will not be disappointed.

Turmoil

This is getting bad, and it's only going to get worse. The election is still up in the air, and it won't be resolved any time soon. There are still absentee ballots to be counted, so even when the recount in Florida is complete, it's still not over. Then we have to take into account the ballot situation in Palm Beach. My class today was interrupted by one of the professors in the department to tell us that now it appears that the 19,000 ballots that had two candidates marked in Palm Beach may be due to mechanical malfunction, rather than user error. It's only going to get worse from here on... In some ways, I really hope that Bush wins. He's going to be faced with a Congress that's almost evenly split, and very hard to work with. He'll be completely lacking a mandate, he'll be a lame duck for four entire years. The economy is going to turn south sooner or later, and the next President will be saddled with the responsibility. So, Bush may win, but he certainly won't win re-election, and the Democrats would retake Congress and the White House in 2004. I could even see Al Gore winning in a landslide election...

If this drags on for another week, the American people will be so tired of it that the person who wins the election may really be the loser. It's a classic example of winning a battle but losing the war...

The Senate presents a very interesting scenario to consider. With the race in Washington still undecided, the Senate is split 50-49 in favor of the Republicans. If the Democrat wins that last seat, it's 50-50, with the Vice President breaking all of the ties. If it splits 50-50, and Bush wins, the Democrats would control the Senate from January 3 to 20, until Cheney would take over Gore's job as President of the Senate. If Gore wins, Lieberman's seat would be vacated, only to be filled by a Republican, nominated by the Republican Governor of Connecticut, so the Republicans would have control. Of course, Lieberman could resign as Vice President, to keep the Democrats in control in the Senate. Doubtful, but possible, and Gore could then nominate someone else to be Vice President.

Now, also consider that both Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond are older than the hills, and they could both die or leave office for health reasons before the next election. Both of their states have Democratic governors, so Democrats would be appointed to fill their vacancies if they did leave.

And no, you can't emigrate to Canada just because you don't like this election...

Cliffhanger

It's going to get nasty. The Curmudgeon has an excellent plot of the polling data from Florida. It shows exactly how bogus the votes for Buchanan were in Palm Beach County. If the recount shows Bush winning Florida by less than 3,800 votes or so, the Democrats are going to scream holy hell. Rightfully so, the Presidency of the United States of America may very well hinge on a poorly designed ballot in Palm Beach County, Florida. That one county, with 7% of the vote in Florida, accounted for 20% of Buchanan's total for the entire state! In a county that's two-thirds Democrat? I don't think so, in fact, I know it's not so, the only fair thing to do is to have a re-vote in that county. It's going to get very very ugly in the next week, this election is going to be tainted if Bush wins. People will point to a Gore victory in the popular vote, and allegations of fraud in Florida. These are the type of things that start civil wars in other countries...

Time to get rid of the electoral college? That's what Bill Press says in his column today. I think that we should do away with it, but I somehow suspect that how John Q. Public feels about this will be closely tied to who he or she voted for...

So what did Nader accomplish for all his efforts? He didn’t get his 5 percent. He didn't qualify the Green Party for federal funding. He didn't succeed in building the Green Party. He only succeeded in destroying the Democratic Party and, perhaps, denying Al Gore the White House. And, of course, if that happens, everything that Nader supposedly supports -- environmental protection, worker safety, consumer protection, a woman's right to choose -- would be systematically destroyed by a Bush administration.

Welcome to all of you finding my site via BirdBrain's Nest. Don't you just love referer logs?

Ever wonder how Apple lost the education market? Here at "UNI" Gateway still has the majority, but the smart folks are buying Dell boxes now. In another year or two, Dell should have the majority. Mac support is weak to non-existant. The central computer folks don't support them, and the only places they're used are the Education and Arts colleges.

No matter who wins this race, The Onion has certainly called it correctly.

I don't know if my heart can take another night of drama. First the Vikings - Packers game, and now the election!

I was up until 2:30 Central Time, watching the results come in. I went to bed after the election was called for Bush, but I was thinking about how close the votes were coming in, that it could really still go either way. Imagine my surprise when I woke up at six this morning to find that it still can...

I said yesterday that it would all depend on Florida. I guess I was right, but I didn't think it would turn out like this. I didn't really think Gore would win the popular vote, but it looks like he has, by 233,000 at the time I write this.

So what's going to happen? The Bush people are claiming that the absentee ballots in Florida are going to favor them enough to ensure a Bush victory, but CNN was reporting that there are still uncounted votes in Broward County, Florida, a county where Al Gore has been getting 60% of the votes. Conclusion? It's anybody's ball game.

If Bush does win Florida, and the electoral vote, with Gore winning the popular vote, Bush is going to face serious legitimacy issues. Democrats will call for the abolition of the electoral college, and the Republicans probably won't pass it through Congress. This is exactly what happened in 1876 and 1888, the Republicans were in power, and they blocked attempts to change the Constitution.

It could get even more wild. Imagine a scenario with Bush winning Florida, and Gore winning Oregon, that puts the electoral vote at 271 for Bush, 267 for Gore. Those votes aren't actually cast until December, intense lobbying of the electors could conceivably sway things to Gore. If Gore has won the popular vote, pressure could be brought to bear on Republican party electors to switch sides. It's unlikely, but it'd only take two of them to do so to force an election by the House. It'd only take three electors to switch their votes to make Gore our next President.

I've got to wonder how this plays to people in other countries. Take a step back from the election and look at it as you would if it were happening in some other democracy. We've got one candidate who has (apparently) won the majority of the votes, but he may not be the President, because the son of a former President is ahead by a few hundred votes in a province where his brother is Governor. If this were another country, the American press would lament the archaic electoral college system as being bogus, as distorting the will of the masses. We'd also start wondering about fraud. I don't think there was any fraud here, but it's bizarre that the election hinges on Florida, where Bush's brother is Governor, but Gore's campaign manager for the state is the Attorney General...

Can I go home and get some more sleep?

Election Day

Gallup has posted their final prediction for the election results. This is what most of the other polls are showing too, with the notable exception of the Zogby/MSNBC/Reuters poll which has Gore leading by two points. My own unofficial analysis is that the race has tightened over the weekend, and the race is truly a tossup. I'll be watching the state of Florida closely tonight, I think it will be the indicator of which way the election is going to go... What a bizarre end to a horrible game. The Packers beat the beloved Vikings in overtime last night, on a bizarre play that has to be seen to be believed. The Vikings deserved to lose, if you give up five turnovers and 129 yards in penalties, you're going to lose. It's amazing that the game was even that close...

I voted this morning, for Gore, at the Nazareth Lutheran Church near my house. The polls were moderately busy, I had to stand in line behind 5 other people. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the "I Voted" stickers that I usually get, now I have nothing to wear around all day. I did get to stick my ballot into the machine that John likes so much, it was schlooped away...

Sick Day

Are you ready for some football? Vikings vs. Packers tonight on Monday Night Football. This is always a good game, a heated rivalry between two good teams, played on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. Okay, so it's probably not frozen yet, but it could snow tonight... I went to the Gore rally at the airport last night. Hundreds of people showed up, many more than there was space for. Gore gave a quick speech, and departed for elsewhere. He was a little loopy, probably tired, since it was nearly 1:00 a.m, but I think he was actually better on the stump than most of the other times I've seen him speak. Maybe his handlers should pump him full of booze before public appearances... it seems to work for Bush...

And speaking of Bush, there was an obnoxious guy standing near me who kept heckling Gore when he was trying to speak. He was like the proverbial turd in the punchbowl. Why do such a thing? I'm sure that some jerk Gore supporter has done the same thing, but what do they hope to accomplish? Do they think they're going to change the mind of the people who stood in the rain outside the airport at midnight to see Gore? No, I'd say they've already decided who they're going to vote for, so don't be an asshole...

If I found myself at a Bush rally, I certainly wouldn't insult the man or scream when he's trying to speak. Even if you don't respect the candidate, have some consideration for your fellow citizens.

I'm taking a sick day today. I was tired from the rally last night, and had an upset stomach and a sore throat when I woke up this morning, so I took the day off to recuperate. I think I'll be ready to go back to work tomorrow...