Friday, December 5, 2008

The DVR Conundrum

People love DVR. I love it too. HOWEVER, there is a glaring flaw in the way it records. It records programs only at the time they are scheduled, rather than when they actually go on the air. Example: Last Sunday's NY Jets football game against Denver ran over by about 30 minutes. I had programmed my DVR to record "60 Minutes" and "Cold Case," which normally air at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. respectively.

Of course, DVR began recording at 7 and I had 30 minutes of the game resulting in all other programs shortened by 30 minutes at their beginning or end.

DVR needs to be flexible enough to recognize that when a scheduled program is delayed it should record that program when it actually airs so we can get it in its entirely. Or else it should allow us to program our DVRs to record a specific time span to account for program overuns.

Thus this note to FIOS, my "Frequently Incompetent Operating System". Get on the stick, guys, and improve the product.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Muddling to a Milestone

After seven-plus decades of muddling through, my wife and I became great-grandparents for the first time today. Our contribution to the event was fathering the son who became a grandfather today, also for the first time. The grand-daughter (and husband) who precipitated this event are 6,000-plus miles away in Israel. Yet, thanks to modern technology, we have already seen pictures of the adorable little girl, their first child, who, according to Orthodox custom, will be given her name in Shul on Monday.

I can, after all, open email. We anxiously await more pictures in the days ahead.