My sister and her husband gave me a very nice Christmas present this year - their spare TiVo plus an annual subscription. They say if I like they can just renew it each year for me rather than buying a present. Not a bad deal, but I told them I will think on it.

You see, I already have Media Center on my computer. But TiVo was the version I first tried out, back when it first came out and one of my other sisters had it. And I’ve long thought that I like it best.

Don’t get me wrong. Media Center is nice. It came with my computer that I was buying anyhow, and all I had to do was get the tuner card so that it could receive cable channels. No subscription fees.

Each one has some advantages and disadvantages.

TiVo Advantages:

• Designed just for the television.
• Great operating system. Easier to interact with in many ways.
• I like watching my shows on the television.
• Makes suggestions of shows you might like to watch, and records them. This can be turned off if/when it drives you nuts.
• I think the picture quality is better in my experience.

TiVo Disadvantages:

• Subscription fees.
• Watching a lot of television on the television means I work less.
• If you just want to record, for example, the 9:00 showing of a show every week, you can’t just type in the name and tell it to do it. You have to go by time and channel for this. Otherwise the subscription will go for all showings. This is a pain if it’s on a channel that does a lot of reruns, such as the Discovery Channel.
• My own problem - living room is really not set up for an internet connection or telephone connection, so we have a cord running through the house to the nearest phone outlet. We hope to eventually do wireless internet, but it’s not in the budget now.

Media Center Advantages:

• No subscription fees.
• Sometimes it’s nice to watch television on my computer monitor.
• Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television.
• Could be set up to work with the television if I cared to do it. They’re in separate rooms, so it’s not happening for me.
• When you decide you need to program in a show you’d like to record, what you are currently watching appears in a small screen near the bottom, so you don’t stop watching completely.
• You can choose the airtime of shows you want to record, so episodes run at other times do not record.

Media Center Disadvantages:

• Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television. Yes, good and bad.
• Watching a lot of television on the computer means I work less.
• I’ve always felt the picture quality was poorer.
• Took a very long time to figure out how to change show priorities. You have to go to the Scheduled recording section, then switch to series before you can mess around with recording priority on anything other than a case by case basis.

All in all, it’s interesting having both. I don’t know if my preferences will change or not over time. One plus to having both that I’ve already noticed is that my husband and I can more easily enjoy our preferred shows separately and together. With Media Center on my computer, not his, he hasn’t always been able to watch his shows as easily as I could watch mine.

Technorati Tags: tivo, media center, television, dvr

You heard me. Die germs, die!

No, I’m not really all THAT paranoid about them. I have two kids and no time to be afraid of germs. A little dirt can actually help kids to build their immunities.

But there are some places you don’t want germs. And so when I saw the SteriPen Portable Water Purifier I couldn’t help but think how neat it was.

I can see two times I would want these:

• Going camping
• In a disaster kit

Living in earthquake country means that yes, I do have an emergency kit. With a decent water supply, but there’s no promise that the bottles won’t be smashed in a major quake. I don’t consider it paranoia to consider the possibilities so long as I don’t let them take over my life.

For more general areas, there’s the UV Disinfectant Wand. It’s a pretty cool little device too. I’m not quite feeling the need for it, but then I work at home. Pretty much no matter what I do I figure we’re going to all be sharing germs.

Of course, nothing can replace just keeping things clean for general germ control. I’m a touch overdue for a major housecleaning right now, and starting to feel it, which is no doubt why this topic really appealed to me today.

Technorati Tags: germs, killing germs

Or so says Merriam-Webster.

Yes, the word that originated with gamers was voted the word of the year on their website. It’s certainly a popular enough word, although I’m more prone to trusting that it did indeed originate from users of Quake III jumping, rather than from “whoot”. I could be wrong and I’ll leave that to the professionals to argue.

Want to celebrate? I’ll bet the w00t t-shirt at ThinkGeek.com is very popular.

Technorati Tags: w00t, word of the year

I’ll give the folks over at Fark this much - they have a sense of humor. At least it seems to be more of a prank than anything else that they are trying to trademark “not safe for work”, or NSFW.

As the article notes, such a trademark is already pretty much unenforceable, and unlikely to be granted in any case.

And as noted by Drew on his blog:

About the NSFW Trademark Application, I can say three things:

1) Yes, we applied for it.

2) Can’t comment on the prank angle other than “stay tuned.”

3) Muhahaha.

Any time you do something that allows you to say “Muhahaha”, it has to be good.

Technorati Tags: fark, trademark, nsfw

Can’t say I particularly blame the Writers’ Union for the strike, but having this season of Heroes chopped short is driving me completely up the wall. Just seeing all the story lines obviously shortened, minimum details only is really hurting.

But overall it’s a good show anyhow.

Next week is the early ending of the season. No fun seeing how quickly it’s all going. No fun knowing that the things they talked about for this season pretty much fizzled. But lots of hope for next season.

Many kids love geeky gifts just as much as adults do. Geek toys allow them to explore and to be creative.

On the light side of geekdom, my husband bought our kids an MP3 player. Just a cheap one, since the oldest is 5, but to me this is very practical too. We can download music as well as fill it with the CDs they already have. Considering how hard kids are on CDs and DVDs, I wish it were more reasonable to do similar with their movies.

There are a lot of really great science toys out there for kids, and some are even pretty popular right now, like the Eye Clops. I can also really picture kids enjoying the Blue Man Group Percussion Tubes, which I saw and played with last year. Didn’t quite fit in the budget, but even now I still think they would have been a great gift.

But some options are perhaps a bit more directly geeky. Such as the DIY Telescope Kit. Great for the kid who is really into astronomy. A quick lesson in what goes into making a telescope, perhaps as a lead in to a future, bigger telescope. Or for the kid who has everything, including that dratted cold they gave you, Giant Plush Microbes could be a fun idea. Cuddly yet noninfectious… at least until the kids get their hands on them when they really do have a cold or flu.

For older kids, I really like the Khet Laser Game. We try to do game nights every here and there, and while my kids are too young yet to really strategize, they do get a kick out of playing. We have some pretty unusual games too, since my husband is a big fan of Cheapass Games.

And of course, geek t-shirts are a consideration. ThinkGeek has them mostly in infant and toddler sizes, but some of them are pretty cute. I suppose it is challenging to come up with good shirts for the range where their friends won’t get it, and even if you explain it, the kids may not understand either.

The Learning Resources Gearbotics® Robot Motorized Set caught my attention too, as a switch from the usual R/C prebuilt robots. I mean, the Roboreptile is cool, but it’s always fun having kids build their toys to encourage still more creativity. That’s probably why I like the plain LEGO sets, Capsela, and K’Nex.

I have to admit, I’m not always so good at following my kids’ wish lists for gifts. After all, according to my daughter, every commercial she sees is her favorite toy. Why go and get her something she will probably play with at every one of her friends’ houses when she can have something more unique at home?

and how better to encourage her own geekdom (I hope)?