So much has gone on and so much I could share but instead of all of that I'm going to share the most recent thing on my mind - TIVO. So here's the story...
I bought into this TIVO thing two years ago and we (I) used it initially. I taped ALL my design shows and all those shows I wanted to watch but could never watch when they were on. I LOVED it. But, eventually we (I) quite using it because we didn't have a phone outlet on the wall the TV was on. To upload the data and to stay current I had to run the phone cord from one room to the other and hope that no one tripped over it (which of course did happen but luckily no one was hurt in the taping of my programs!). It ended up being too much of an ordeal to get updated programming. So, it just didn't happen - however, I was still paying the monthly fee! Then this weekend came.
I have been working and working and working. No time for much play - and when I did have time to play I was too exhausted to enjoy it. This Labor Day weekend was different. I decided to honor the spirit of the long weekend and do NO work. It was fabulous! I enjoyed myself so much I actually began to get energy again. As a result, I decided I was awake enough to plug back in TIVO to begin using it's services again. Alex (my oldest son) was ALL over this. Apparently sometime recently he has become aware of TIVO and all it offers. We pulled out the trusty cord, sat with anticipation as it would surely tell us it was uploading all the data it needed to allow us to begin playing with it but nothing happened. We couldn't get passed the TIVO IS POWERING UP screen. I have come to understand this screen is not a happy screen. Rather, it's a very bad screen indicating the hard drive has failed!
I ended up calling TIVO and the rep I spoke with informed me that the last time we had connected to TIVO was 6 months earlier. He then told me the fate of our unit and was amazed because normally they have a life of at least 4 years. To help us out he could exchange the unit for the newest unit they have for just $149. Of course it was OUT OF WARRENTY! I was NOT happy! Obviously from their records they could see we barely used the unit, only had it two years, yet he couldn't offer me anything. I told him I was very disappointed and wanted to cancel my subscription. I was NOT going to do any sort of upgrade to a unit that has limited warrenty and would break so soon - with no use. He said he understood, created a case and I thought was transferring me to a cancellation rep. Apparently she had more authority then just to cancel service. She said that the previous rep was not authorized to give me anything but she did have the POWER to help me out. She offered to exchange our unit (40 hours of recording power - a baby) to a refurbished unit with 80 hours of recording capabilities for no cost. I told her I definately would agree to that. I don't care it's refurbished, it should work - right? I then told her of my sad cord story and she said they do have a wireless-G USB network adapter that would connect into our wireless network. Just so happened we just went wireless less then a month ago and it's a wireless-G unit. Now, I believe in signs - this was a sign! I decided to hold off on that piece of equipment but kept it in the back of mind for future research.
I now have the broken unit ready to be shipped out for replacement. But, tonight, I did some research on this wireless thing and ended up ordering the missing piece off Amazon. For not much money I no longer have to run the cord from one room to the other. Instead it's wireless - obviously. LOL! But, it comes with bells and whistles! We will be able to put our photo album on our TV. I have all our photos on our network and we will be able to hook up to that. Further, we will be able to download movies to our laptops and/or our video iPods (if we had one!). Lastly, and most exciting, we can then burn the movies onto DVDs for future keeping! I am so excited about this and even more excited that my boys are really into computers and would love to do this for me! Ok, maybe not love doing it but could be talked into doing it since we just got them their own computer. I'm using that leverage for a lot of things lately!
To make this deal even sweeter, I got a great price on the adapter and didn't have to pay shipping. I save $20+! Yeah!!!!
well, hello stranger. yes, I do still check to see if you've blogged and soooo happy to see a new post. Hooray for Tivo and super-hooray for wireless!