Singing Potatoes
Previous — Main Page — Up to Archive — Next
Sunday, 13 March 2005
If it ain't broke, don't fix it

And if it is broke, don't fix it either, as the fix might make it worse.

I've been loving my little ammo-box PVR. Karen and I can record our shows and watch them at our leisure — without the thing phoning the mother ship to report what we watch, or suggesting shows it thinks we'd like — and then save the ones we want to keep to DVD±R.

But yesterday, I noticed that Nero had put out an update which would support dual-layer drives (which is what I put in there). Naturally, I immediately downloaded and installed the updates. And now, instead of simply burning the already DVD-compliant files onto the DVD, as it used to do, Nero decides it has to "transcode" every single one — at about one hour's worth of transcoding per ten minutes of show. Which means not being able to actually use the PVR while it's doing so, since it eats up so much CPU time.

Needless to say, this does not make me very happy. At all.

But on the plus side, yesterday Karen actually allowed as how she likes "the technological terror [I've] created". Oh, she was full of scorn when I was building it, but the seductive lure of being able to watch Alton Brown, The Daily Show and the Weather Channel's tornado specials whenever she wants has given her cause to reëvaluate her position.

Posted by godfrey (link)
Previous — Main Page — Up to Archive — Next
Comments
I wasn't full of scorn. More like aprehension. Who wants the Blue Screen of Death when she turns on the telly?
Posted by Ginevra on 13 Mar 2005 17:02
You do know, of course, that it's a "technological terror you've constructed"? I find your lack of [accuracy] disturbing.
Posted by Squelch on 13 Mar 2005 19:58
Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise.

Posted by Godfrey on 13 Mar 2005 20:29
That line is so ironic.
Posted by Lisa on 14 Mar 2005 09:56