Jim › Comments

I'm a huge fan of TiVo and wish them all the best. It seems that their case has merit so it will be interesting to see what happens. - Jim McCusker

The question is... will this be an opportunity to buy/sell TiVo stock? - Louis Gray

Big TiVo user since day one, but I fear for them. They are running out of partners, options, etc. Hopefully they can find a way to survive. - Dean Terry

Huh, I was just thinking about getting a Tivo HD - Jason Carreira

I'd be sad to see TiVo go. Their DVR beats the pants off of Comcast's offering. - Akiva Moskovitz

Louis - Might make a bounce if they win but TiVo still needs better penetration into the marketplace. I love my HD unit with Verizon CableCard, but it's a shame that the CableCard isn't bi-directional yet, thereby making On-Demand and Pay-Per-View impossible. - Jim McCusker

I recorded the entire olympics in HD, on a DISH network DVR, the 722. it rules - Brian Hendrickson

I really liked TiVo and was rooting for them big time. They are in a tough spot though. Top technology that a lot of people don't see as enough better than the generic cable/satellite DVRs on the mass market side and competing with Microsoft Media Center on the higher end. Best advice is to sell to Apple who might have the muscle to market them. AppleTV needs a DVR badly anyways. - Thomas Hawk

IMO, Tivo has a pretty good product, but will die a slow death unless they can either get major traction with the cable companies (ie, Comcast deal) or are able to monetize their IP. Most consumers won't pay the premium to get a Tivo when the local cable co offers an alternative for $10/mo. - Jim

Oh, and I'm getting increasingly irritated with Tivo's inability to ship software that is full of blatant bugs that I encounter _every_ time I use my Tivo... and they refuse to fix several of these, as they have endured several software updates. :( Very disappointing... - Jim

I guess I'm just grateful that our TiVo HD doesn't randomly decide to delete everything we've recorded like our old Comcast DVR did. - Akiva Moskovitz

Tivo needs to become the software provider (as the idea behind their deal with Comcast) ... having seperate hardware that doesn't play well with cable and/or satellite is going to kill them. Oh, and lower prices. I love my Tivo. - Tim Hoeck

That's the thing... I've seen the DVR I can get from TimeWarner, and it's just CRAP. Somebody has to make and sell a good one, and if it's not going to be Tivo, then who? I still think DVR's are in an early adopter phase. I think people will get tired of the DVRs from their cable companies and upgrade. - Jason Carreira

Just shows you how stupid people can be... $10 a month adds up pretty quickly when TivoHDs aren't even that expensive. Refurbs on woot a couple days ago for $160, for example. Normal price at Costco is around $200, iirc. Tivo's even offering lifetime subscriptions on units again, making the service even cheaper. Sure, a lot of this is upfront money and a barrier to buy for a lot of people, but the math is solid... if you have the cash, you're a bonehead for renting. Nevermind non-Tivo boxes are 99% shit. - abacab

(all that said, we have three Tivos in our house--2 Series2s and 1 Series1--and love them. At the same time, though, I'd almost rather just drop cable and torrent the shows we watch. It's not like we watch anything live anymore anyway, so the wait for a good torrent download isn't a big deal at all.) - abacab

Dish has always been a second tier satellite provider, IMO. DirecTV has them beat hands down. I was very sad though when DTV decided to drop Tivo in exchange for their own equipment. I really miss the interface on Tivo and it's recommendation feature. Plus, I felt the search feature was better on Tivo. But, at least the DVR functionallity on DirecTV is nice, unlike what most if not all the cable operators have. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

Agree with Jason - the Time Warner DVRs are truly awful. I've swapped devices, tried getting the "newest" ones (almost all Motorolas) and they are world-record awful. Time Warner couldn't give a shit. Is there an elegant way to use Tivo or other good DVRs on TW that I don't know about? I wonder if Apple will figure out a way to make this work. Although they need to fix this iPhone disaster first. - Anthony Citrano

I've heard that the Tivo HD's with Cable Cards work with TW... anyone who's tried it, feedback would be appreciated - Jason Carreira

Jason - I have Tivo HD and it's amazing. But I use it with bunny ears as a small protest against Comcast and their stupid fees for cablecards. Separately... I thought Tivo and Comcast had a partnership in which the software would update on Comcast boxes "any day now" for some regions? - Patrick Lightbody

I am one of those 100k that unsubscribed to TIVO, after 4 years I decided that breaking up with TIVO and TV in general was a good plan. Both are gone. Netflix+Roku+Web all we've been using since June. - Mark Interrante

@Mark, but that doesn't have current seasons of TV shows, does it? - Jason Carreira

@Mark, Wow, bold move. The best I could muster was to eliminate cable and go w/ bunny ears. @Jason, you can get current TV shows via Hulu and other websites. It works fairly well except that: A) it doesn't display on my TV, and B) it doesn't work for sports events and such, though going to a bar works well enough. - Patrick Lightbody

How's the Roku, Mark? Any complaints or nags about it? - Josh Haley

Great, my kids love bars :| - Jason Carreira

I read this story all the time, and it never makes sense to me. Fundamentally, a lot of my job is about interacting with other people. And it ain't just me, it's everybody I know. Somehow this article always gets written with little attention to the essential nature of email/chat to people getting anything done at all, and instead focuses on its minority role as a distraction. - j1m

Good approach to this issue is using 'Getting Things Done' by David Allen - see http://tinyurl.com/6zlpvf - Jeroen De Miranda

Thats what soul tech is about, http://www.sparknw.com/soultec... - Leif Hansen

But the Rescue Time metric is real and when viewed in light of how many average workers cannot discipline themselves to remain on target for on-time collaborative results, it's important to acknowledge that time-motion studies can bear fruit. - Bernie Goldbach

are there any metrics out there which tell us how much time people spend TAGGING the applications and site within Rescue Time???? geez, i bet that takes 10% of my time too! - Ivan Stegic

Just finished reading this in the paper and didn't understand it. Have we become such children that we need others to tell us when it's naptime? I get a ridiculous amount of email and sometimes, yes, it does cause a bit of apnea when looking at the pile. But there are only so many hours in a day. Accept it, answer what's important, and get on with life. - Carla Thompson

I don't work in Tech, but at my job I think it is fair to say that 20% of my emails contain information essential to my work. The other 80% are mildly relevant to just noise. And I can't even tell you the last time I received an email that required a response that couldn't wait 15-30 minutes. My point is I definitely think I could become more productive by ignoring my emails for 30 minute spans and concentrating ont he meat of my job. In fact, I'm going to try it next week. - Andrew

Where I work, people COMPLAIN when they get taken off a thread and ask to be on as many distribution lists as they can. They want to be in the loop and know what other people are working on, etc. Granted, we've got just under 100 employees, so in a larger org this could be overwhelming. I think the problem is more in managing the emails rather than feeling the need to "act" on ever single one. - Jim

Hmm, seems like we get a Digg acquisition rumor every 6 months. - Mike Doeff

if anything, they should really do something to make Google News more timely / reverent - Andy Sternberg from twhirl

Seems like both Google and Digg fanboys hate this idea. - Pat Hawks

I wonder if Yahoo ever tried? - Mark Dykeman

ake to build a Digg? Google can command an userbase - Lakshman Prasad from twhirl

While in many ways, these seems like a great fit... I'm skeptical of the value here for two reasons: 1) Google has the fanbase, why not build themselves... they could do it and they'd have the users on day one for it to be successful (question: could they manage the algorithms and userbase as "successfully" as Digg has?). 2) Where's the synergy? Would Google really realize some value here or is just another case of plug Google advertising unit into Digg and hope for big returns? - Jim

Bad investment. Digg's business model / concept is now old and has many competitors; not to mention "the rumors" about their algorithms. - Susan Beebe

I disagree that Google could just rebuild Digg on it's own. Anybody use Google Shared Stuff (Not to be confused with Reader Shared Items) or Google Notebooks? - Pat Hawks

FF is personalized, Digg is for the masses. - Jeremiah Owyang

Jim I still check Digg, just to see if there are any decent stories on the frontpage! - Joe Dawson