- Friday, January 30, 2009
Recommendations... for Me? Really?
TiVo is a wonderful thing. It allows you to pause, and rewind "live" TV. You can also program and record Movies, TV shows, or entire seasons of TV shows with it. It will also record recommendations (at random) if you forget to go into the sub-menus of the sub-menus and tell it "NOT to record recommendations".At some point, the TiVo in the "spare" room must have upgraded itself (yes it can do that), and in doing so, it also reset the settings that tell it "NOT to record recommendations."
I was needing to (wanting to) program the TiVo in the "spare" room to record a program, because the TiVo in the living room was already set to record a different program; which conflicted with the time the other program would be available. When I requested the program I wanted, and pressed "record this showing", my Tivo alerted me to the fact that it was running out of space!
WHAT? Running out of space? I haven't recorded anything on this one! I navigated the controller to the menu to view the list of recorded programming. It was full of random crap, none of which I requested or set to record; none of which seemed related in any way to one another. I have no idea how TiVo selects its recommendations, but I do know that TiVo has been very busy over the past few months, recording up to THREE random programs a per day. Here is a small slide show of the recorded programs (4 screen captures, in a loop, which repeats twice then stops. To start the loop again, refresh your browser. Watch it all day if you want to.)
I found the sub-menu of the sub-menu, and told TiVo "NOT to record recommendations". Now I have to delete the twelve to fourteen screens of programs - one program at a time, each taking three button presses and scrolling and pressing to delete. My other option would be to "format" the TiVo, which I do not really want to do... so I will delete the programs one by one. I am now down to six screens... but I am bored with scrolling and pressing, and scrolling and pressing, so I am taking a break for now. I will delete the rest over the weekend.
Labels: big televsions, Product Pushing
pero @ 9:53 PM | œ | 0 comments
It Arrived by Mail.
Why don't they have "parental controls" for standard land-line telephones? My good friend, Tim, has once again volunteered me for something which I would normally avoid. At some point last week, he answered my phone, and on my behalf, agreed to be a participant in the Nielsen TV Ratings. When it arrived, he opened the envelope, took the five dollars that they pay you to fill out the diaries, and absconded with the money.Problem - Tim volunteered for this. It is bad enough that he does NOT LIVE HERE. Not only does he volunteer (me) for this... but he also LEAVES TOWN this Saturday. So, he gives these diaries to me and says "here. you have to fill these out and send them in by ---."
Protest? Yes. Yes I did protest. I'll fill it out, because from what I know, he probably did not identify himself as himself, but rather gave the impression that he was indeed a resident of the home above the age 16. Now, they are here, America is counting on me (against my will or otherwise) to fill these things out. I am sure that the Nielsen people anticipate a percentage of the surveys not returning, but I feel obligated to complete the tedious thing and turn it in on time.
I took part in the Nielsen ratings in 1987. While I recognize the significance of the survey, it was a pain in the ass to fill in the information.
Labels: big televsions, miscellaneous topics.
pero @ 5:37 PM | œ | 0 comments
The Reason SOME People Can Never Find Things On-Line.
While shopping at BEST BUY, I was looking at (what I want) Sony Grand WEGA 70" 1080p Rear-Projection SXRD XBR HDTV Model: KDS-R70XBR2, I was approached by a goofy looking sales guy. He attempted to make small talk about the TV without actually telling me much about it, saying things like, "That's some picture, huh?" and "Big, ain't it?"He finally got around to making the assumption that I was there to BUY today, and he started to mention the (numerous) features this particular model; and he stated that the one on display did not have the side-mount speakers attached. I asked how big the speakers were and he said that he did not have a picture of it, but oh hey, there is probably one on the internet if I wanted to see it.
I followed him to the back of the TV sales floor and looked around at the other TVs while he looked around the internet. The browser opened to the YAHOO main page. Goofy sales guy typed "Best Buy" into the Search box.
His search results yielded a page full of links - all pointing to BEST BUY DOT COM. (Wow. That's Amazing!) He clicked the first one. From there, he putzed around, viewing menu after menu, attempting to find the model by clicking around the site-- rather than simply entering the Model Number directly into the significantly visible "Search For" form located towards the top of the site. Nearly ten minutes later, he had the correct model displayed on the computer's small screen.
In order to create this post, I followed his path (including the YAHOO-portion of his search. (I wanted to time this process and compare it to his) and clicked around until I landed on the correct Model, size, and type of television. Using this method, it still took me (significantly) less than half the amount of time it took him; and I didn't remember the model #.
Labels: big televsions, computers, idiots, shopping
pero @ 7:08 PM | œ | 0 comments
