Me vs. the Machines
Jan. 6th, 2005 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI am getting ready to don Sarah Connor gear and do battle with Skynet. The machines are taking over, people, and they are frustrating the hell out of me!
1. TiVo decided to not record Alias last night, which I realized halfway through and so I missed everything. It apparently decided it couldn't record it because it started at 9:01 (it did not tell me this beforehand) and CSI: NY is scheduled at 10. It refuses to allow you to set a pass to end a recording early, but will let you start a recording early. You can extend a recording late, but you cannot start a recording late. This makes no sense to me and makes me hate TiVo with a grand passion, putting me back to my old early-TiVo ownership state. Now I have to waste a precious half hour or more setting up manual recordings, which I hate because then you get all kinds of crap if they move things around; or, try to remember to record CSI, a show I loathe but feel compelled to watch because of Gary Sinise. I will not remember it. This is why I bought a ruttin' TiVo in the first place. I could set up my VCR, but, geez... I don't even like CSI. So could some kind soul tell me what happened on Alias? All I saw was Vaughn and Syd talking about the season finale last year, and Arvin and Syd facing off in the new Apple-designed ice-white office. No, I don't care about spoilers -- if someone clicks through to the comments, they can deal.
2. I like the iPod. I do. It saved my mental faculties, what few I have, on my trip to San Diego when my plane was delayed for eons. But everything is apparently located in the online manual, and I haven't had time since I got the thing to read the effing manual. Everything I've done with it has been trial and error, with plenty of the latter happening, while trying to do a million other things. It seems to not do anything the way the little printed booklet said it would. Then it deleted all my playlists when I tried to auto update. Then I read in the printed book that it will automatically delete songs that are not on iTunes on your computer when you plug it in. This disturbs me greatly, since I wanted the iPod so that I could treat it as my repository for all my thousands of CD's best songs. I don't want them all on my computer; I want to collect them and dump them in the iPod and then wipe 'em off the computer because I want all available disc space for vidding. Surely I cannot be the only person who doesn't want all that music on computer (stuff I can easily re-input)? Yet the booklet says it will delete songs from the iPod that are not on the computer and then helpfully intones about what to do if you have more songs on the computer than you can fit on your iPod -- hello! I'm of the opposite problem! What about ME? I know, I know, RTFM, it's just that I haven't had any time. Will leaving it on manually update fix this problem, or will it still delete what's not on iTunes if I plug it in?
3. iPod headphones. Dear God. I put the earbuds that had been recommended by all these lists and comparison shoppers I read on my wishlist from Amazon, and my sister bought them for me for Christmas. When I dumped in some music and put the nifty expensive earphones in, I could not believe what I heard. It was like the worst radio ever. It was like listening to the worst radio ever through a tin can. I thought, OMG! People like these iPods? This sounds horrible. This is the worst sounding thing I've ever heard. OMG, I can't believe my dad spent $300 on this thing! And after fiddling with settings for ages, I finally gave up and put the earbuds in that come with the iPod, figuring maybe it was worth a try even though everyone said they were terrible and awkward and painful and don't sound good. World of difference. There was actually fidelity and midrange and vocals. Real sounds. Suddenly the iPod seemed like a good thing. I'd thought it was the player's fault, not the 'phones, because all the comparisons rated the headphones better than the ones that come with the iPod. So now I have to return them and stupid Amazon makes it such a hassle to return a gift it's unreal, and you end up paying more for all the shipping than you would if you bought full retail in a brick and mortar store. Gyp. I cannot believe that people rate those earphones better than the crummy little awkward ones you get automatically. They must be totally deaf.
4. We're getting ready to transition the magazine to the new ownership. I get to work from home for a while, for more money than I get as a contractor, so I'm thinking it's a good deal. But the transition is so mixed up and fraught it's not funny. We're all completely confused, bewildered, and no one knows how we're going to work. I get a laptop because I groused about not having room for a Windows desktop, but I'm totally flummoxed by the DSL setup. I really don't want to swap the cords back and forth from my Mac to the laptop every day, but the router that someone told me about, sort of a DSL line cable splitter, counfounds me and I haven't figured out how to work this yet. Anyone out there use a setup where they have a router to split their DSL line between computers? I'd love to pick your brain. I'm not even sure how I set up the laptop for the DSL line anyway, but I'll have to figure it out and hope the software they sent me deals with this. Everyone points a finger at everyone else -- no, ask them, no, they'll know, no, we don't help with that... it's such a freaking nightmare even for the people who are already set up, but worse for me with my weird situation and my complete stupidity. In a million years I'd never have expected this situation to arise, so I totally didn't plan for anything like it. But they will pry my Mac out of my cold dead hands; plus, this is really only a temp job even though it's for a while, and I'm not giving up my setup for something that isn't permanent. No way no how I'm going to use Windows machine unless it's for work and I absolutely have to (apparently I have to for this, Virtual PC can't access some of the shared networks).
Not of the machine variety, but time has been unkind to me and I'm only able to work on the next chapter of Measure of a Man in dribs and drabs (insanely busy at work, and the transition, too), and haven't had a chance to do more on Ciudad, either, not that anyone's champing at the bit on that. But I *am* conscious of them. Just... way more stuff to deal with than I have time for right now. Sorry.
1. TiVo decided to not record Alias last night, which I realized halfway through and so I missed everything. It apparently decided it couldn't record it because it started at 9:01 (it did not tell me this beforehand) and CSI: NY is scheduled at 10. It refuses to allow you to set a pass to end a recording early, but will let you start a recording early. You can extend a recording late, but you cannot start a recording late. This makes no sense to me and makes me hate TiVo with a grand passion, putting me back to my old early-TiVo ownership state. Now I have to waste a precious half hour or more setting up manual recordings, which I hate because then you get all kinds of crap if they move things around; or, try to remember to record CSI, a show I loathe but feel compelled to watch because of Gary Sinise. I will not remember it. This is why I bought a ruttin' TiVo in the first place. I could set up my VCR, but, geez... I don't even like CSI. So could some kind soul tell me what happened on Alias? All I saw was Vaughn and Syd talking about the season finale last year, and Arvin and Syd facing off in the new Apple-designed ice-white office. No, I don't care about spoilers -- if someone clicks through to the comments, they can deal.
2. I like the iPod. I do. It saved my mental faculties, what few I have, on my trip to San Diego when my plane was delayed for eons. But everything is apparently located in the online manual, and I haven't had time since I got the thing to read the effing manual. Everything I've done with it has been trial and error, with plenty of the latter happening, while trying to do a million other things. It seems to not do anything the way the little printed booklet said it would. Then it deleted all my playlists when I tried to auto update. Then I read in the printed book that it will automatically delete songs that are not on iTunes on your computer when you plug it in. This disturbs me greatly, since I wanted the iPod so that I could treat it as my repository for all my thousands of CD's best songs. I don't want them all on my computer; I want to collect them and dump them in the iPod and then wipe 'em off the computer because I want all available disc space for vidding. Surely I cannot be the only person who doesn't want all that music on computer (stuff I can easily re-input)? Yet the booklet says it will delete songs from the iPod that are not on the computer and then helpfully intones about what to do if you have more songs on the computer than you can fit on your iPod -- hello! I'm of the opposite problem! What about ME? I know, I know, RTFM, it's just that I haven't had any time. Will leaving it on manually update fix this problem, or will it still delete what's not on iTunes if I plug it in?
3. iPod headphones. Dear God. I put the earbuds that had been recommended by all these lists and comparison shoppers I read on my wishlist from Amazon, and my sister bought them for me for Christmas. When I dumped in some music and put the nifty expensive earphones in, I could not believe what I heard. It was like the worst radio ever. It was like listening to the worst radio ever through a tin can. I thought, OMG! People like these iPods? This sounds horrible. This is the worst sounding thing I've ever heard. OMG, I can't believe my dad spent $300 on this thing! And after fiddling with settings for ages, I finally gave up and put the earbuds in that come with the iPod, figuring maybe it was worth a try even though everyone said they were terrible and awkward and painful and don't sound good. World of difference. There was actually fidelity and midrange and vocals. Real sounds. Suddenly the iPod seemed like a good thing. I'd thought it was the player's fault, not the 'phones, because all the comparisons rated the headphones better than the ones that come with the iPod. So now I have to return them and stupid Amazon makes it such a hassle to return a gift it's unreal, and you end up paying more for all the shipping than you would if you bought full retail in a brick and mortar store. Gyp. I cannot believe that people rate those earphones better than the crummy little awkward ones you get automatically. They must be totally deaf.
4. We're getting ready to transition the magazine to the new ownership. I get to work from home for a while, for more money than I get as a contractor, so I'm thinking it's a good deal. But the transition is so mixed up and fraught it's not funny. We're all completely confused, bewildered, and no one knows how we're going to work. I get a laptop because I groused about not having room for a Windows desktop, but I'm totally flummoxed by the DSL setup. I really don't want to swap the cords back and forth from my Mac to the laptop every day, but the router that someone told me about, sort of a DSL line cable splitter, counfounds me and I haven't figured out how to work this yet. Anyone out there use a setup where they have a router to split their DSL line between computers? I'd love to pick your brain. I'm not even sure how I set up the laptop for the DSL line anyway, but I'll have to figure it out and hope the software they sent me deals with this. Everyone points a finger at everyone else -- no, ask them, no, they'll know, no, we don't help with that... it's such a freaking nightmare even for the people who are already set up, but worse for me with my weird situation and my complete stupidity. In a million years I'd never have expected this situation to arise, so I totally didn't plan for anything like it. But they will pry my Mac out of my cold dead hands; plus, this is really only a temp job even though it's for a while, and I'm not giving up my setup for something that isn't permanent. No way no how I'm going to use Windows machine unless it's for work and I absolutely have to (apparently I have to for this, Virtual PC can't access some of the shared networks).
Not of the machine variety, but time has been unkind to me and I'm only able to work on the next chapter of Measure of a Man in dribs and drabs (insanely busy at work, and the transition, too), and haven't had a chance to do more on Ciudad, either, not that anyone's champing at the bit on that. But I *am* conscious of them. Just... way more stuff to deal with than I have time for right now. Sorry.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:31 pm (UTC)Or you could keep the songs in your library but delete them from the computer. This has worked for me before as well, your iTunes will simply mention that it can't update the files because they aren't there.
I only got my iPOd this christmas, so maybe someone else knows better advise. I have my episode transcripts and music on the thing, it's all I need these days to write.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:33 pm (UTC)Couldn't be more simple - if you're using WinXP.
Start > Connect To > Show All Connections > Create a New Connection > go through the wizard prompts, you'll need your username and password.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:42 pm (UTC)right now, with our router we have 3 computers - 2 PC and 1 mac. the router has 3 ports in the back, each computer gets its own cable. Each computer is "always on".
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:58 pm (UTC)As for buying the router, I'm not sure if Radio Shack would have one, but I know Best Buy or CompUSA would. Although don't trust those Best Buy clerks, they don't know anything. I kept trying to buy a KVM switch that works with both PC and Mac (so I could use my good monitor for both my computers), and every time I got one and asked if it would work they'd say yes and it didn't. And those things aren't cheap. Punks.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:24 pm (UTC)Well, the thing about not doing Friday night is that means I won't have to subject myself to your disappointed scrutiny of my lameass Mag 7 vid. So I'm all over that. It sucks, and you're just going to make that "it sucks" face and then I'll cry. So I should try to finish it before I get the it blows face. Because then I'll be finished or mostly finished and can say, so what, go away! It's done!
(BTW, do you have Witness?)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:38 pm (UTC)I do, however, have lots of ethernet cable. Since I have to do the Lundberg route tomorrow morning right past your house, want me to drop it off? It's an easy hookup, but if you have questions, you can call me.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:36 pm (UTC)2. The reason why you have to have the songs on your computers is because it was the only way for Apple to appease the record labels. It's all part of the DRM (Digital Rights Management) that we have to deal with because of the fear of piracy. Otherwise you could sync your Pod up to your friend's computer and snake all their music without ever paying. There are apparently software tools ("hacks") by third-party developers that overcome this problem. But I don't know specifics.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 01:13 am (UTC)Isn't it though? Alias is altogether too big on conveeeenient. :P
Completely agreed on Irina. Although, I tend to believe her "death" is an elaborate Jack and Irina scheme to some mysterious end the writers will pull out of their asses later on. This could be me giving them too much credit, but the alternative is just so disappointing I can't accept it.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-07 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:00 pm (UTC)We have a seperate Tivo and receiver so there is a sensor-deal-thinngie we have to use to receive the signal. It invariably gets moved while dusting right before 6 really important episodes of something or other and poor old Tivo can't change the channel. It thinks it's recording an episode of Law and Order but is actually recording the John McEnroe show on CNBC.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 09:04 pm (UTC)The other thing that bugs me about Tivo is that it will grab every single episode of Stargate available - not just the new ones. I have to go through my Season Pass list every week and weed them all out to make sure I am not missing some other important thing because it is up against an old Stargate rerun.
It's still a lot easier and more convenient than setting the VCR, though. I've become so jaded.
I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 07:09 pm (UTC)but if champing willmake you feel better not worse, let me know, and I'll champ vocally and regularly.
Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 07:48 pm (UTC)And baby, you know I'm always up for more fic, especially after all you've done for me this week.
Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 07:57 pm (UTC):::chomping:::
Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 08:35 pm (UTC)Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 08:34 pm (UTC)Champ means to chew or bite noisily, and refers to horses grinding at the bit between their teeth. Chomping is similar in action, but it's not the word that was used when the phrase arose, and it's only become accepted in some dictionaries because its misuse is so widespread.
I just don't care how widespread it is. I hate it and it's driving me crazy.
Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 11:36 pm (UTC)Re: I'm champing at the bit
Date: 2005-01-06 08:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:24 pm (UTC)Will leaving it on manually update fix this problem, or will it still delete what's not on iTunes if I plug it in?
Yes. Automatic update means that it tries to exactly match what's on your computer to what's on your ipod, and since it's not allowed to copy songs from your ipod to your computer, it has to delete those songs to make them match. There may by another setting to also fiddle with in the syncro settings, however, but I'm not sure because I can't remember and am not near my computer.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 07:53 pm (UTC)1. Set the season pass for CSI:NY as a repeating manual recording that starts at 10:05 on Wednesdays.
2. Set the permanent options on the season pass to make it start recording 4 (or 3, if Alias is running until 10:02) minutes early.
Took me forever to figure that one out, but that's the simplest way I've found to get all of one show and have the other start taping at :01 after the hour.
If you're more willing to miss the last minute of the other show, then you pretty much reverse the instructions, setting the manual season pass for the earlier show and letting the later show start on time.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:42 pm (UTC)Sorry you missed Alias. I know how frustrating it can be. I can send you a DVD, if you need it. Just email me with your address -- melina123 at cox.net.
That said -- I don't think this was TiVo's fault. The show was 1:59 last night (9:01 - 11:00), so it conflicted with CSI: NY by way more than one minute. Is CSI:NY higher in your season pass list than Alias? If so, that's why it didn't record. Not TiVo's fault :)
Once a week or so, I check my To Do list (and the future list in "recording history") for things like this that might have slipped through, especially at times when new shows are premiering. Another good place to check weekly is the Season Pass Alert forum at TiVo Community's web board. (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=10) A quick perusual of the subjects is usually all it takes to see if any of your shows might have upcoming issues.
I totally agree with you that TiVo should fix this, and allow soft padding to end a recording early or start late. However, it ain't their fault -- this is stupid network tricks, and I have written both ABC and last year, NBC, to complain about it. I missed an episode of Angel (9-10) because Law & Order was scheduled to start a minute *early* at 9:59 (kind of the inverse problem) and because of the one minute conflict, Angel didn't record at all. I was so mad I just stopped recording L&O.
So when you have a chance, write a very, very cranky note to ABC and tell them to STOP DOING THIS! I already have. Grr.
But anyway -- I suspect the 1 minute issue did not cause the problem last night, but it could in the future, since Alias will go to 10:01 or 02. My recommendation would be to move Alias higher on your Season Pass list than CSI:NY, so missing Alias never happens again, then setting a recurring (weekly) manual recording for CSI, from 10:01 (or 10:02? -- check to see how next week's Alias is listed).
It's not as big a pain as it seems. It will automatically record that time every week, so you will only have to delete the scheduled recording (or just the recording) if CSI's preempted or a rerun. I'd leave the regular season pass for CSI:NY in place -- that should catch any episodes scheduled outside the regular time slot, or start it at the hour if Alias is preempted or whatever.
So, in your Season Pass order, it would be:
Alias
CSI: NY (regular season pass)
CSI: NY (weekly manual record, 10:02-11.)
I know that TiVo isn't perfect, and I agree the reverse padding is something they should fix, but this was never an issue until last year when NBC started this 1 minute stupidity. And I still love my TiVo and think it does what it does better than any device out there. :)
And do let me know if you want a DVD. If you write me today, I can mail it tomorrow and you should have it by Monday or Tuesday. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 08:58 pm (UTC)I hate this late thing, but I'm more than willing to miss beginnings or ends of shows I'm not archiving if they'll give me the option to do it with the setup, rather than a manual requirement. Alias is highter on my season pass, but it didn't even tell me it wasn't recording until after the ep started, so I'm bewildered because it should have warned me in the To Do List.
I love my TiVo except when I don't. When I don't, I really hate it, because it disappoints me. This is where my hatred of thinking machines comes in -- I'm sure Skynet lulled people into complacency, too, and then look what happened! Or Colossus! Or any of those things! It's just dangerous to invest so much dependence on these things. They will betray you and take over the world and launch nuclear missiles.
I'll muddle through Alias, I think, and just wait till next week. I'm bummed I missed Spy Daddy angst, but the show was making me so crazy last year that I figure I'll probably be okay if I don't grind more tooth real estate.
And yeah re the angry letter thing -- I always write mail when I'm happy or angry about something and tell peole why I'm boycotting them, otherwise it's just useless to stop using/buying from/watching. I'll have to drop them a line.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-06 11:47 pm (UTC)My friend who works at Adobe told me that the support outsource company TiVo had when I wrote that was one Adobe had used for a while and they were so bad they had to change outsource companies. Apparently TiVo also switched not long after that, because I ended up talking to a guy about three months later and he was polite, friendly, and even asked me at the end, "So, do you not hate TiVo anymore?" I told him I was getting there. ;-)