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Cox Crow

Asking the Stupid Questions Since 1971
 Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Master the Moment

Cost to repair duplex unit in printer: $blah.
Cost of paper used while duplexing unit goes unrepaired: $blah blah.
Arguing over who will pay for the repairs: priceless.

4:40:07 PM # Google It!

Tunnel Vision

Do you need blinders so you can concentrate on the road?

1:58:27 PM # Google It!

The Customer Debugs the Site

We use Snapfish to develop our many rolls of 35mm film, because the quality is just as good as anywhere else, and the prices are dirt cheap. (Though it's interesting to compare them against other District Photo properties.)

I used to recommend Snapfish unhesitatingly, but now I recommend them with a caveat: their site is broken, and they don't plan to fix it. How is it broken? They use Javascript and some fancy DHTML footwork to make the pages look nice. But their test to see if the browser supports DHTML is broken, and so browsers that are not Internet Explorer for Windows do not work well. Which is OK for them, because they only support that browser.

It's not OK for me, because I don't use it.

It should not be OK for them, because I'm their customer. Furthermore, changes to the site that would help me, would help everybody, even the IE/win users.

I sent a note to customer service, noting a couple of small changes that would improve things. Google knows who their designer is, and some other designers who worked on the site.

11:59:31 AM # Google It!

Picky Picky

We're not TV people. We don't sit on the couch all day and watch it. However, we do sit on the couch at night after the girls have gone to sleep, and we turn on the TV, hoping that something interesting will be on. Usually there isn't.

But now we have a TiVo, so maybe there will be.

Last night during the game, I played with the instant replay button, to the annoyance of my wife. She did not care to watch each of Wells' pitches again and again and again. The pause button is wonderful too. And we recorded Star Wars II: The Attack of the Clones for watching later. And we're all set for the Sopranos and Sex and the City — and Dora the Explorer. Then just before going to bed I left the tuner on Noggin, then put the TiVo to sleep.

But since I'm picky, I have started a list of things that TiVo could improve.

  1. When I left the tuner on Noggin, I meant it to stay on Noggin. Therefore, if you feel the need to record Love and Sex for me, revert to where I left things. (I just turned you on, so you don't know that I've already not watched that movie hundreds of times. I plan on not watching it again.)
  2. The guide is nice and all, but we like to be able to see what we're watching while we browse through the listings. The previous DirecTV receiver let us browse one channel at a time in a small bar across the bottom of the screen. Make that a display style for your guide too.
  3. One of the guide options is to show only the channels which I receive. However, I have to manually select which channels those are. Since they bill me for them, DirecTV knows which channels I receive. So should the DirecTiVo.
  4. If there is no signal on the transponder, don't record.
  5. A quieter hard drive, please.

9:30:36 AM # Google It!
categories: Media

On the Arrival of the DirecTiVo Installer

[whispered] Mom, he's Spanish! Should I say hola?

8:48:16 AM # Google It!
categories: Family