#340575 - 25/12/2010 16:15
Lump of coal?
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Nope not here. But I did get the expected sweater, and box of See's Candies.
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Glenn
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#340576 - 25/12/2010 22:11
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3583
Loc: Columbus, OH
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I got projectile vomit and pee on the floor from my daughter
My Jeep gave me an entire exhaust from the cat back. Broke off and lying in the savanna. Noisy.
I missed Christmas dinner in the village because our boat engine broke while we were in the leaky boat. I had to try to bail faster than the boat filled until we could paddle back to shore.
Our presents got stuck in the mail from the States. Ironically enough, we're having to take an emergency trip back to the US tomorrow so that my wife can have a kidney procedure. I likely won't see them til February (and then will have a hefty storage fee from the post office).
Coal would have been preferable.
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~ John
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#340578 - 26/12/2010 02:52
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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so that my wife can have a kidney procedure. Good luck for your wife. I got one of these. We had Three Christmas diners two yesterday and one today. Went to two parties yesterday and two today. Had some people stop over for a few hours at our house tonight too. The entire living room floor is covered with gifts and trash from wrapping the gifts we gave out. It looks like we could be on horders 
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Matt
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#340579 - 26/12/2010 04:34
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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Just got done building. (image attached)
Attachments
IMG_1153.JPG (119 downloads)
Edited by msaeger (26/12/2010 04:36)
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Matt
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#340581 - 26/12/2010 16:07
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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We spent two days at my brother in law's (that's us 5, BiL and his wife and child, four grandparents, sister in law with husband and child) and it has been excellent chaos. Only 5 children, but it seems like 10 of them in the playroom, and way too much to drink.
Merry Christmas everyone!
_________________________
Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#340582 - 26/12/2010 17:45
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Just got done building. (image attached) Looks like you also got a nice Core i3 540! Good buy! From my wife, my big gift was the Archos 101 Tablet. She was so nice to get it for me, and it pained me that after using it for about 10 minutes I already knew it would be going back for having the worst screen I've ever seen on any device I've ever used. My mother, God bless her, has put up with my dorky self my whole life, and was okay with giving me a new receiver, which I've wanted to upgrade for over three years now. I just set it up and it seems to be working perfectly, plus I was able to get rid of an HDMI switch (which caused a great deal of annoyance), and several cables. Among other smaller gifts were things like a bluray of Scott Pilgrim, two very nice Belkin power strips with remote shut-offs, new cast iron cookware, and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Very eclectic and pretty geeky As for the holiday its self, it was very nice, and spent with family. My wife and I went to our respective mothers' homes for Christmas Eve dinners and services, we had Christmas morning together, and then we all went to my mom's house for Christmas dinner with my family's long-time Jewish friends who have had Christmas dinner with us every year for over 20 years.
Edited by Dignan (26/12/2010 17:47)
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Matt
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#340583 - 26/12/2010 17:46
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: frog51]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5543
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
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I spent Christmas playing in the surf with my fierce guard poodle. As you can plainly tell from the photo, Akela just loves the water.  Immediately after this picture was taken, he was able to slip out of his harness and high-tail it (literally!) to the safety of the beach umbrella about 50 feet from the water line. The beach is at Melaqui, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. Bonus points for knowing where Akela's name comes from. [No fair Googling!] tanstaafl. 
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"
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#340585 - 26/12/2010 22:08
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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Just got done building. (image attached)
cool! Looks like you are set to be the top cubical warlord. But it needs wheels.
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Glenn
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#340587 - 26/12/2010 23:50
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3583
Loc: Columbus, OH
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so that my wife can have a kidney procedure. Good luck for your wife. Thanks. We're boarding a plane from Cancun tomorrow. She's got two kidney stones, one 6mm and one over 10mm. The one urologist in the whole country said they can't treat them here. Today was a much better day! We'll just have to celebrate Boxing Day from now on.
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~ John
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#340588 - 27/12/2010 00:02
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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Just got done building. (image attached)
cool! Looks like you are set to be the top cubical warlord. But it needs wheels. I didn't put them on because I just think it looks better without them. The funny thing is the instructions say wheels are not authentic but they include them because people think there should be wheels. This model does have a swinging counterweight.
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Matt
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#340589 - 27/12/2010 01:31
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Ugh. I just got done dealing with a kidney stone myself. That crap is no fun.
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Bitt Faulk
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#340590 - 27/12/2010 02:28
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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so that my wife can have a kidney procedure. Good luck for your wife. Thanks. We're boarding a plane from Cancun tomorrow. She's got two kidney stones, one 6mm and one over 10mm. The one urologist in the whole country said they can't treat them here. Today was a much better day! We'll just have to celebrate Boxing Day from now on. Idle curiosity, but in this situation does the trip cost count as a medical expense?
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Glenn
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#340592 - 27/12/2010 08:06
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: gbeer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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I was able to get rid of an HDMI switch (which caused a great deal of annoyance), and several cables. Are these things known to be iffy? I've been wrestling with one over the Christmas period: The supplier says it's the quality of my cables, but they're all ones which have worked satisfactorily 'till I put the switch in the circuit. For once in my life, I actually wanted the sweater and it's just the one I wanted: Unique! But I've enough socks for a centipede and way too many chocolates for a diabetic. As someone who has spent two mid winters staring at the ceiling of a hospital ward: Heartfelt good wishes for the kidney op.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#340594 - 27/12/2010 12:48
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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I was able to get rid of an HDMI switch (which caused a great deal of annoyance), and several cables. Are these things known to be iffy? I've been wrestling with one over the Christmas period: The supplier says it's the quality of my cables, but they're all ones which have worked satisfactorily 'till I put the switch in the circuit. The switch did a satisfactory job but was not great. It was a cheapo switch from Monoprice. Here's the bullet points of the issues I had with it: - I don't know what it was doing to the audio streams it took in, but my TV was constantly giving me this error message of "unknown audio stream" or something like that. It's not a big deal because I don't want my TV to handle the audio, but I do want it to ignore it, not get confused by it. This isn't happening to me anymore.
- I also had problems getting the right audio settings on my bluray player. Some configs would result in no dialog track, others with sound that would cut in and out constantly. I can't say it was the switch and not my outdated receiver, but I think it wasn't a problem when I was connected to the receiver directly for audio.
- Scenario: I watched TV last night, powered down my home theater, and this morning I want to watch TV again. The macro on my remote is essentially just turning things on to the state they were in before, but for some reason when I did that the switch wouldn't deliver it's output and I'd just get a black screen with no audio. I had to toggle it to another input and back, and then it would display properly. Eventually I just had to add two steps in all the macros on my remote to advance the switch to whatever the next input was, then switch to the input I wanted.
- One day I wanted to watch Netflix streaming on my Tivo. I played a movie, but there was no video (I think there may have been audio, I'm not sure). After a few hours on the phone with Tivo and Netflix (who couldn't help) and a few hours on the web, I finally found out that some of these switches simply crap out on the DHCP. Simply power cycling the switch was enough to fix it, but that was a big annoyance.
- Lastly, and I'm sure this was limited to my particular switch, but for some reason whoever built it decided to put what I can only imagine was the brightest LED they could source. This thing was blinding me from the couch. Even worse, it was this purplish color. Eventually I just covered it with electrical tape.
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Matt
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#340596 - 27/12/2010 13:09
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5682
Loc: London, UK
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Are {HDMI switches} known to be iffy? I've been wrestling with one over the Christmas period. I've heard that they can be. I've got a cheap one from Maplin, and it seems to work fine with my PC and PS3 connected to my Samsung LCD TV (an LE32R41BD). But, then again, I've only been using it since this morning (first time I've wanted to use the PS3 in months -- "Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit" was among the presents that Santa brought), so that's not exactly conclusive evidence.
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-- roger
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#340607 - 27/12/2010 16:09
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: Roger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Mine's from Neet through Amazon, I would have gone to Maplins, but I couldn't get the car up the hill in the snow.
They say that they've sold hundreds with no problems, but have offered to swap it, so I'll see if I do better with another one.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#340609 - 27/12/2010 20:02
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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old hand
Registered: 15/02/2002
Posts: 1049
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Just got done building. (image attached)
cool! Looks like you are set to be the top cubical warlord. But it needs wheels. I didn't put them on because I just think it looks better without them. The funny thing is the instructions say wheels are not authentic but they include them because people think there should be wheels. This model does have a swinging counterweight. Wheels make a trebuchet throw farther because they allow the weight to fall vertically because the frame moves. This results in more energy transferred into the boom.
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#340610 - 27/12/2010 20:12
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
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The supplier says it's the quality of my cables, but they're all ones which have worked satisfactorily 'till I put the switch in the circuit. For what it's worth, I helped a friend upgrade from an ancient amp and CRT television to a new HD LCD panel, new Onkyo receiver ($250 including all the HDMI goodness), and matching Blu-ray player (cheap Samsung model). We bought the cheapo HDMI cables (3 for $10 at Fry's, but over in the computer section rather than in the TV section where they only carry overpriced Monster cables). We ended up with some snow on the HDMI connection from the Blu-ray which was completely fixed by going to a different cable from the same bag. Conclusion: it's certainly true that cheapo HDMI cables sometimes cause problems, but there's still no reason to spend the bucks on fancy expensive ones.
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#340612 - 27/12/2010 20:48
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
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Bonus points for knowing where Akela's name comes from. [No fair Googling!]
tanstaafl. Sounds like Jungle Book, or the scouts :-) Thinking your weather looks better than mine - it did actually get up to zero degrees centigrade today so stuff is melting. It is expected to freeze within the next day though, so then we'll just have ice.
_________________________
Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock
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#340613 - 27/12/2010 21:36
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5682
Loc: London, UK
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...and it seems to work fine with my PC and PS3 connected to my Samsung LCD TV Turns out: no. Came in from the pub this evening. No audio from the PC until I reset the HDMI switch.
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-- roger
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#340616 - 27/12/2010 23:29
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: tanstaafl.]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Bonus points for knowing where Akela's name comes from. I can't get "Akela and the … something" out of my head. Now I have to Google it. Edit: Looks like I'm wrong. Now I don't know either the something or the initial something. My head may explode. Damn you, Doug!  Edit Edit: De-damn you.
Edited by wfaulk (27/12/2010 23:31)
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Bitt Faulk
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#340620 - 28/12/2010 09:21
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: frog51]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Fair play to Neet, as well as sending out a new switch, they're sent a complete set of cables which I can pay for if they solve the problem.
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Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#340624 - 28/12/2010 14:01
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3583
Loc: Columbus, OH
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Idle curiosity, but in this situation does the trip cost count as a medical expense?
I'm not sure about our insurance company (Aetna Global), but our missions organization has an emergency healthcare provision that will pay for the sick persons travel and any dependent children (like our 2 month old). So we'll get at least some of it back.
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~ John
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#340625 - 28/12/2010 14:12
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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...and it seems to work fine with my PC and PS3 connected to my Samsung LCD TV Turns out: no. Came in from the pub this evening. No audio from the PC until I reset the HDMI switch. It was a couple years ago but I tested a bunch of HDMI switches and the most reliable one was a Gefen model. Some of the really old models didn't do HDCP properly and would need a restart and others had the issues you experienced. The Gefen had a RS232 port as a project I was doing for somebody was to link the HDMI switch and TV together so it would automatically adjust the picture to suit the input selected. In the end I actually inserted the uC inside the Gefen box so I could leech off the Gefen PSU and RS232 level converter. The end user just needed a regular serial cable that went from directly from the TV to the HDMI switch. Their Pronto remote would send the Gefen IR command to switch which then sent their proprietory RS232 status message which my uC would receive and send the relevant TV commands. You could change the commands and configuration via the serial port with a computer.
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#340657 - 31/12/2010 01:41
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: tman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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I forgot to mention another gift, a Tivo Slide remote. Now, I'm one of those people who thinks the Tivo remote is possibly the greatest remote ever designed, so perhaps I'm biased, but this new one is even better than my beloved Glo Remote that I got with my Series 3. First of all, it's FAR more compact, despite having an extra row of buttons (the multi-colored ones at the middle, which I have no use for on my non-Premium device). This makes it possible to hit far more buttons without moving/contorting your hand than before. Second: going forward, if any company releases an entertainment device that has any sort of text input and doesn't provide a way for you to easily enter that text, they're messing up. I wish Tivo would supply the Slide with the Tivo Premiere, but just having this remote available is at least better than what the Roku and Apple TV are doing. Even Western Digital has added support for wireless keyboards. No one should ever again be forced to deal with a grid of letters/numbers and be forced to use five buttons to type things out. It's a nightmare. Having the keyboard on the Slide is wonderful, even when I'm not doing text entry. It seems they've gone a bit further with it. For example, I needed to program the new remote to control my receiver's volume. Tivo gives you a list of manufacturers to go through on-screen so they can tell you the codes to use. This list is extensive and usually you have to scroll through or channel-down for a while to find the one you want. Well, I just opened up the keyboard to see if I could use it to skip to the letter of the manufacturer I wanted, and it worked! Nice touch by Tivo. Lastly, I have to say, it's more responsive. I think it's because everything is digital. It's using bluetooth to communicate to a receiver plugged into the USB port of the Tivo. Most of the times, the button presses are instantaneous, and there's a noticeable difference from my Glo Remote. The downside is that every so often, the Tivo seems to need to think about the command for a second before it reacts. I don't know if the delay is in the remote-to-receiver or afterwards, but it happens about every 20 times I use the remote, and it's not always just after using it after a rest. Not sure what's up with that, but I'm willing to live with it. Anyway, if there are any other hi-def Tivo owners out there considering the Slide, I recommend it.
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Matt
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#340658 - 31/12/2010 02:28
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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The downside is that every so often, the Tivo seems to need to think about the command for a second before it reacts. I'd bet the wireless connection has gone to sleep for power-saving. Edit: that's my pet peeve about wireless keyboards and mice.
Edited by gbeer (31/12/2010 02:31)
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Glenn
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#340659 - 31/12/2010 11:19
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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I forgot to mention another gift, a Tivo Slide remote. Now, I'm one of those people who thinks the Tivo remote is possibly the greatest remote ever designed, so perhaps I'm biased, but this new one is even better than my beloved Glo Remote that I got with my Series 3. First of all, it's FAR more compact, despite having an extra row of buttons (the multi-colored ones at the middle, which I have no use for on my non-Premium device). This makes it possible to hit far more buttons without moving/contorting your hand than before. Second: going forward, if any company releases an entertainment device that has any sort of text input and doesn't provide a way for you to easily enter that text, they're messing up. I wish Tivo would supply the Slide with the Tivo Premiere, but just having this remote available is at least better than what the Roku and Apple TV are doing. Even Western Digital has added support for wireless keyboards. No one should ever again be forced to deal with a grid of letters/numbers and be forced to use five buttons to type things out. It's a nightmare. Having the keyboard on the Slide is wonderful, even when I'm not doing text entry. It seems they've gone a bit further with it. For example, I needed to program the new remote to control my receiver's volume. Tivo gives you a list of manufacturers to go through on-screen so they can tell you the codes to use. This list is extensive and usually you have to scroll through or channel-down for a while to find the one you want. Well, I just opened up the keyboard to see if I could use it to skip to the letter of the manufacturer I wanted, and it worked! Nice touch by Tivo. Lastly, I have to say, it's more responsive. I think it's because everything is digital. It's using bluetooth to communicate to a receiver plugged into the USB port of the Tivo. Most of the times, the button presses are instantaneous, and there's a noticeable difference from my Glo Remote. The downside is that every so often, the Tivo seems to need to think about the command for a second before it reacts. I don't know if the delay is in the remote-to-receiver or afterwards, but it happens about every 20 times I use the remote, and it's not always just after using it after a rest. Not sure what's up with that, but I'm willing to live with it. Anyway, if there are any other hi-def Tivo owners out there considering the Slide, I recommend it. So it uses some kind of wireless not IR to talk to the Tivo ? It still must have IR to run the TV. How far away can you run the Tivo from ?
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Matt
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#340660 - 31/12/2010 15:17
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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It's Bluetooth.
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Bitt Faulk
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#340661 - 31/12/2010 16:14
Re: Lump of coal?
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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So it uses some kind of wireless not IR to talk to the Tivo ? It still must have IR to run the TV. How far away can you run the Tivo from ? Sliding peanut to TiVo is Bluetooth with a dongle on the back of the TiVo. Sliding peanut to your TV/receiver is via IR. Its got an IR receiver for learning and a transmitter in the end of the remote that you can see on the photos of it.
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