Bhagwan @ Large

Enter the land of Sadness

Tivo has died.

Not cable, not cable service or the tuner card tivo uses to speak to them, but Tivo itself. Less than 24 hours after I removed the lesser of two boxes from the network, the greater of went kaput. Receives a signal, but refuses to recognize it. Still talks to the internet, still talks to all my computers, just not the cable company.

This makes me sad. Very sad.

Three hours of life support between me, the cable guy, the cable guy’s tech girl, and then eventually the Tivo guy can not restore the hearing and sight of my 27 month old box, 15 months out of warranty.

A replacement is available to me for the “bargain” price of $149, through tivo. this will come to me some ten days after I Ship my wounded soldier back to them. Alternately, I can consent to have a $300 hold placed on my credit card, have a new box shipped out immediately, then have all but $149 refunded to me upon receipt.

I paid $200 for the box in 2008. There is a math exercise here for those what know me. It goes something like this. Current value of a box that will record, but not receive channels is almost $0. I say almost, because it costs $13 out the door for the service I’m not receiving, and we derive benefit from the functions that still operate (amazon.com and netflix access). negative dollars plus perceived value is greater than 0. A quick replacement is $149, but Comcast had one at my house, for free, and hooked up inside 3 minutes.

Free is better than $149, but not better enough.

I’m currently scouring the intarwebs for any price less than 150, or greater than with better options. mind you, it could most likely be repaired, but any research down those lines must also come up sorter than $149.

I have 90 days to make up my mind. Damnit.

UPDATE: Have just this minute discovered that despite my strenuous objections, and contrary to their (Tivo’s) stated promises, I have already been charged for a replacement Tivo unit. apparently I no longer have an opinion on the subject that is not SUCK.

Current Plan end date = 09/20/2010. 7 X $13 (+7x $4 for the cable card from Comcast) = $119. 7 x $5 (the cost of the Comcast unit which will leave my house at any time) is $35. Added together they do not equal the money I’ve just been charged to do nothing.

Rage…building…

The road goes ever on and on…

In just a few hours, we’ll be leaving the Johnson Family compound and heading back North up I-5. The trip has been interesting, and also relaxing. Getting away from our lives for a few days was a nice break, but it will be very nice to reclaim them.

The cats might also miss us, but somehow I doubt it.

To recap:

• We drove
• Stopped driving
• Ate
• Broke the law
• Stopped driving
• Slept
• Woke up
• Ate
• Drove
• Stopped driving
• Ate
• Went to Church
• Ate
• Woke up
• Ate
• Opened loot like a pack of maddened weasels
• Ate
• Ate
• Ate
• Woke up
• Ate
• Saw Sherlock Holmes, ate some more
• Ate
• Constructed a website
• Destroyed a website
• Ate consolation Ice Cream
• Re-installed software in an attempt to reconstruct a website
• Slept

At least, the last bit is true for most folks. I’m running on more or less the same schedule as usual, which means my 5 AM wake-up call is probably my formal entry into Sunday. I’ll take a shower here in a bit, dress, and wait for everyone else to wake up. If WordPress ever finishes installing on L’ Father’s web space, I’ll rebuild his page sometime today.

Oops.

Luckily, we wrote everything down, and the files we need are already uploaded. It’s just a matter of re-entering information and a small spot of coding, then he’ll be up and running.

I also did a bit of writing and plotting in my bead between meals and not-sleeps. When I get back to the casa, I expect I’ll be a bit more productive than I was in the Month of December. I need to do some edits on the new book, getting it all into one place. But the “new” short piece (I’ve been kicking it around for a few years now) turned a corner on our first day here, and I’m just itching to get back into it.

Catch you kids later, unless we’re too busy eating…