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Personally, I would rather pay $500 to TiVo and be done with it than have to screw around with getting all of the different random bits inline to make the Linux VDR solution work!

I own a ReplayTV, recently upgraded from 20 to 80 GB because I was going to be out of town. A couple days ago, the local phone monopoly changed the rules (went to 10-digit dialing, area code is not optional now) and my machine couldn't keep up.

I missed "That 70's Show" tonight, and if I hadn't caught the machine at 8:15, I would have missed "24" as well. The punchline is it had data up to 7:30!

The hateful part is there was no "dial now" option. I had to pretend the input was "Nothing" and accept the changes, then reset it to the proper cable network to get it to call in and get updates.

An Open Source solution would have a distributed "channel" to communicate important "overriding" information like this, with obvious security around it. So my machine, which still had 6 hours of space, would have know how to update its knowledge.

As another poster said, I'd like to see an Open Source "update" to the TiVo/ReplayTV software which gives it our own UI. Complete control over what the buttons do. The ability to teach it new controllers so you can re-use controllers from old machines, for families with more than one kid. That'll teach them how to share! ;-)

For developers, the ability to create Perl and Python bindings to the buttons on-screen. Editing would be a little difficult, but could be (slowly) achieved with the 2 = "ABC2", 3 = "DEF3", etc., where hitting it once is the first, twice is the second, etc., and it wraps around. Or the user could program in macros, in "Edit Mode", for each button. One button could be "last function called" and could keep going back each time it was pressed, again wrapping around.

Now, with these things to help out fellow developers, imagine what a marketing-minded contibutor could add to the polish of the finished product? I think there's a serious competitor, and like Microsoft's Windows Update site, if a product can be auto-updated it can hijacked.

Imagine creating a distrubtion of Linux with a "perfect" WINE, which completely mimicked the Windows interface, except the Help screen had different credits.

Then imagine hijacking the Windows Update machines (which must run IIS, though I'm not certain), and distributing this update. An update which can cross-polinate, and get in through various cracks like IIS holes, Exchange exploits, etc. It tries to be silent, but it'll stop at nothing to replace the closed-source mess that's eating your productivity.

The TiVo's not eating your productivity; it's just not giving you the full potential of the device, and the company wants to be friends with the old dinosaur companies. So it restricts features. That's what forces people to write their own versions, because they want new features. They want to improve what they paid for. And that (I must assume) applies to everybody, with any piece of merchandise -- especially if it can be done at no cost.

But that also means it damn well better be tested good, for it to be accepted by the general public.

You'd think ReplayTV would have been notified by my albatross of a phone company, and then been given ample opportunity to update its devices' software, so they continue to dial correctly. There should be a law -- because the telephone company is a monopoly. Otherwise it should be free competition, but since infrastructure is expensive we gave them a monopoly.

These days a wireless network with the same bandwidth would cost a lot less to set up, and wouldn't have to be regulated. And it could be as simple as an extra "layer" in TCP/IP that took advantage of the fact that wireless cards are approaching the cost of LAN cards. So instead of wiring your house, you can wireless your house.

The benefit is you're getting the ability to talk to your neighbors, too. If they have a card, then it creates a secure network among them, on which commication can be passed -- creating a "separate" Internet, similar to the Gnutella clouds model, each piece connected to a few neighbors, forming a large cloud. Like the original BBS email, as well -- which kept all calls to local calls to keep operational costs down.

And it would of course have "Internet Entry Points" where it would reach other clouds by using the Internet. So if every tenth house had DSL, it would be able to communicate very effectively.

Hated by the providers, of course, since they invested in a technology that's being evolved on top of, and they haven't made back their money yet. But not every investment is (or should be) a profitable one, and legislation isn't going to stop it (but they'll try, I'm sure -- in all the cases above).

Well, you might be able to update somewhat and fix a few of those bugs.

Go to http://windowsupdate.com, where you'll find out that:

Windows® 95 and Windows NT® 4.0 users:
You will need to install Internet Explorer 5 in order to use Windows Update.

Think the Judge Penfield is aware of this crap?

Symantec posted this advisory of the VBS.BubbleBoy here
http://www.symantec.c om/avcenter/venc/data/vbs.bubbleboy.html.
It contains details of what the virus does, where it goes into the registry and how to protect yourself.

If you already do not have that security patch from Windows Update, you can download the patch from
http://www.microsoft.com/s ecurity/Bulletins/ms99-032.asp.

This is kinda scary... as we have always taught people that you cannot get a virus by reading mail, only opening attachments. I hope this doesn't become a growing trend.