You probably have a legal recourse, by LAW they have a fiduciary responsibility to the buyer (same as executors, guardians, etc) and MUST represent you properly. If you had that bad of an experience you might just chalk it up to the individual not the industry (such as a crappy Unix admin does not mean all admins suck). A buyer's agent does NOT remove the necessity for a lawyer, that's NOT their job, their job is to coordinate the mountains of paperwork, investigate why the seller is selling, how motivated the seller is, is there anything bad about the property (they are required to look into things like a new highway being build 2 years from now); they also have access to non-listed items (that's how we got our house, it was to be listed in the next couple of days and with a motivated seller got it 80k below other similar houses listed on our street, in a less desireable location). They are not a replacement for a lawyer, just like a lawyer isn't going to know the first thing about whether a property is in a spot likely to depreciate.
With people doing research on their own... They way I look at it is kinda like this: I need someone to come in and do a whole buch of unix admin work, all our admins are involved in other projects, we can't pull any of them off anything, we just need manpower to do this big project:
1) get a contractor who knows his shit in
or
2) get Bob from accounting who can do some windows things, he can do his own research for a few months to get upto speed on doing a Sun E10k domain cluster failover and have the vendor on the phone for help
You can get a bad contractor who's main goal is to make sure things continue to break (and he continues to get paid) just like a bad buyer's agent, but you do have legal recourses in both situations. I'd even say a buyer's agent has a whole lot more to lose, and in most cases will always work for you interests.
If you are that concerned about it, you can have buyer's agent also work without commision, either by a flat fee or hourly charge and you pay them directly; they know a hell of a lot more than you or I do (at least ones who have done it for more than a few months)
Check out www.exclusivebuyersagents.com/dfw/duties.htm
Actually they by law are working for you have are to properly represent you in YOUR interests; if not you have legal recourse against the agent. They by LAW are required to notify you whether or not it is legally binding, bad things about the property, they are charged with actually investing why the seller is selling (something bad), motivation of the seller, etc.
And if you are *that* concerned with it, buyers agents can also be paid directly (hourly, or a flat fee).
Trying to go it alone, and it's almost list saying my dad who can run MS Office can do enough proper research in a couple of months to run a multimillion dollar unix environment with hundreds of servers and do it as well as any other admin who have been doing it for years.
If you want, an info page I found below with a quick google search. I've got my original contracts stating about actually being able to sue, etc. the agent at home if you want the legal speak.
http://www.exclusivebuyersagents.com/dfw/duties. ht m
Just use a buyers agent, they work for YOU not for the seller. I worked with our for over a year, and I didn't have to pay a thing, they actually take from the sellers agent money; which is kinda funny when you think about it. If you don't use a buyers agent the seller keeps all of the moeny.
I'd NEVER buy a house without an agent, ours did our paper work, got showings setup, etc. we went to over 50+ houses in her car all over and it didn't cost us a thing. Saved me so much time and money covering all of the little loose ends, giving advise on appreciable houses, neighborhood history, they have to disclose to you any detracting information (highway is going in 2 years from now).
If that's not enough, try this when we finally found a house, put money down on it and later during inspection had some bad siding in areas, she did the negotiation for us (we told her we want this, she said OK I'll try to get that or better). Negotiations failed, seller still had our ernest money; that's when our agent became a badass. The same agency was representing the seller as was representing us, seller got pissed that our agent was helping us more than his agent was helping him. He also was threatening to sue: us, contract inspector, siding company we got quotes from, others, if we didn't buy the house. We never talked to the seller, since our agent was doing everything for us, she got the constant calls from him (upto 10 in one day) for that week, she came over as soon as he started doing this to let us know in person and to say that pretty much he has no ground to stand on, and she'd take care of it; we would not have to do a thing (other than let our lawyer know what was happening). That day we pulled back our offer, she came over with the normal sheet of houses for us to look at and to start going onto the next house. The seller finally told the agency he wanted to drop them and go with another one, our agent chewed her way up to the top and got the head honchos to tell the guy that if he doesn't return our ernest money and stop threatening to sue us they just might stop running any adds or do any showings for him; and he couldn't jump ship since they were in an exclusvive contract with them for a few moths more. That pissed the seller off completely but it sure got the message across, he gave everything up. 2 weeks later we found a house and a month later we closed.
I disagree, assembler is still too high level. What I cut my teeth on and cursed it going through it, but understand now that it was for the better; was good old psuedo code. Exactly what is a "while loop", what are it's parts, where should it be used. Syntax does not matter, methodology does; once one has the proper methods down using/learning Java, C++, Assembler, etc. is fairly easy. I think the first 2 semesters we actually did maybe 10 programs total on a computer; we did a whole lot more on paper using psuedo code (in fact not a single test was done using any computer equipment). As I moved through the courses, I did assembly, heavy duty algorithmic design, project programming theory, built our own pascal compiler with pascal, and even did some coding on a bread board. That gave me a very broad understanding of how a computer works and how best to get it do the things I want/need it do to.
CS students, it seems to me, are getting introduced to programming languages too soon, before they have a firm grasp on actually being able to program properly, not just syntactically correct for whatever language you are using.
Step 1: Apply argument to unix
Step 2: Add Microsoft parody in
Step 3: Look at argument, see how funny it is
Step 4: Laugh at argument
Don't belive the hype. The unix industry has always been under direct control from the sys admin industry. The unix system is 20+ years old, but we have yet to find a better design? Obviously there are alterioir motives to staying with the current design.
There have been serveral Microsoft programmers who have either disappeared or lost their job because they invented a more efficient OS.
Alternative operating systems will not be utilized until the world is in a state of crisis (run out of inodes, death of sys admins). Only in times of desperation, will true change be brought by Microsoft.
Sorry about the gratuitous MS bashing, but it added just that lit bit more of humor to it:)
The hacking portion was meant to go with your statement about having information in the manual about how to not use the service (not getting around it illegaly), about how it would appear pretty absurd to include that in Tivo's manual.
The part that get's me about this, is that Tivo doesn't make the boxes, they only provide the software and the dialup service. So when you bought the box, and did't pay for the service, you became a dead cost to Tivo. They didn't get money off of your purchase, and you are constantly costing them money with the phone calls with absolutely no monetary return.
The people who are buying them as consumer level devices ARE buying the service also. The only people this affects are people who do NOT want the service, if you don't want to use the service on a device that was MADE to use the service you better know the proper way to use the device WITHOUT the service; and nobody is going to expect the manufacturer to tell you how to get around their service. What your asking to be in the manual is almost akin to the direct TV hackers, demanding information in the manual on how to "hack" their smart cards to get free service.
I completely realize that this is meant for a consumer level device, now do YOU realize that not using the service makes it not a consumer level device?
Everyone who bought one knows this, it's right in the manual that it does this, so I'd hardly call it an unauthorized call. If you didn't like this option and found it just too dificult to plug in a phone line once a month, then just return it, because you obviously either need the service or you are just too lazy to do things the proper way.
How often do you think syncing of the clock needs to be done, daily??? You could do it once every other month or even once a quarter, plug in your phone line and perform a test call. That's just too much hard work, I'll have to plug my phone line in, 6 whole times next year.
Agreed that's it's confusion and convoluted, but it's not hard at all if you are a subscriber, which 99% of the people who bought Tivo's are. If they bought one ahead of time expecting to NOT use the service, they should then know that it's use will be convoluded and hard (it pretty much says so on the box).
If I was Tivo, I'd make it difficult too, if they were not paying for the service (needs some reason to pay for it), but not impossible; which is what they've done.
Which they can, the guy from the previous post yesterday, didn't explore his options. You can:
1) Select "perform test call" from the menu periodically to sync your time
or
2) Use a serial cable on the back of the Tivo and set your time manually using Linux's date command.
3) Call in as a subscriber to the subscriber line and have Tivo set your time AND possibly upgrade your software.
Neither 1 or 2 will touch your software, 3 WILL get you an upgrade subscriber or not (if you're not a subscriber don't call the subscriber line); in fact with #2, you never have to call Tivo, Tivo could die and fold up and you'd still have exactly the same functionality.
No, Tivo thinks that anyone calling up to their SUBSCRIBER line should be a subscriber. To make sure things run smooth they want all their subscribers to be at the SAME software level. You call up as a subscriber the system sees that you are on a different level which could cause problems with the next release so they upgrade you. It's not their fault that you called in as a subscriber instead of just:
1) Setting the date manually using the serial port on back
or
2) Used the "test call" option from the menu to just sync your time
with either option Tivo would not have touched the software, in fact with #1, you never ever had to call Tivo to begin with, ever.
If you aren't a subscriber you SHOULDN'T BE CALLING IN AS A SUBSCRIBER.
You CAN set the time yourself, get a serial cable and set the time manually using Linux "date", you've NEVER had to call Tivo, the guy in the previous article just never looked.
You don't even need that, all you need to do is to select the "perform test call" from the menu. It sync's your time, and it DOESN'T update any software.
If you want to take Tivo completely out of the picture, you can use the serial port on the back and using a terminal program set the time manually using Linux "date". You never HAVE to call Tivo or any other service.
OK, how about you try and downgrade a Redhat 7.1 box to 6.2 with a script??? The downgrade has to be done over a phone line and cannot have ANY human interaction, and it HAS to work thousands of times with absolutely no hicups.
Hmmm sounds really easy to me, especially if they modified their filesystem code.
Yo, hook up a serial cable to the box and use the good old Linux "date" command, you never HAVE to call Tivo. How exactly are they going to "stick it to you" if you never call up????
Re:Read the freakin article before commenting
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
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· Score: 2
I guess that's where we differ (I hold higher expectations for the word hacker), I tend to think it takes more than being able to boot from a floppy disk and mount a volume to be a "hacker option". All your doing is adding a single line to your startup script for peat sake... I mean come on, that's not a hacker that's a tinkerer.
The Tivo's without serial ports are specifically for integration with the satelite, but that in no way means you can't take your remote go to the (stupidly easy) setup menu and perform a test call. Done, end of story.. time sync'd still using 1.3 software.
He's was callin up to Tivo's subscriber line, tieing up a PAYING subscribers line (which Tivo foots the bill for). If he wouldn't have been a numbnuts and did it the proper way (make a test call periodically) there wouldn't be an issue. Tivi's expectation is that if you're calling the subscriber line, YOU ARE A SUBSCRIBER. If you don't want to subscribe stop calling the frickin' subscriber line.
The way I look at is kinda like this... you want to keep your ISP dial up connection nailed up, so you have a script that goes out and pings the ISP's server once a minute; you go out of town for the weekend and the ISP makes a nifty little program than when he get's pinged he does a port scan of the other box. Let's also say you have an aggressive personal firewall that logs all traffic, on different ports and also port scans the other system you get into a loop. You've pissed off the owner of the other box by all of the connections, your box has crashed because your logs filled up. Who's fault is it that your box crashed??? Is it the ISP's fault that they installed some new piece of software on a box that you were pinging, you were pinging them to get around the ISP to begin with.
Re:Read the freakin article before commenting
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
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· Score: 2
I don't know if I'd call the serial cable a "hacker" option, but someone who knew what they were doing option.
There are two options the daily "subscriber" call which usually goes out downloads program listing, etc. (which is what he was does in the article); and off of the phone setup menu, you can perform a "test call" all it does is call Tivo up and make sure everything is cool, it doesn't download updates to your OS or program listings.
If people wouldn't blindly believe everything they read the world would be a better place.
You CAN sync your clock with Tivo's without getting the service OR the upgrade. From the menu select "test call" and it will call out to Tivo, sync your clock and it will NOT download the software.
Another very easy way is to plug a serial cable into the back of your tivo and set your date by hand with the ever popular Linux "date" command.
I think they should be able to "unilaterally retract features" because the guy was an idiot.
The President could try, but those powers are kept in check by the other portions of the government; one of them being Congress.
Re:Read the freakin article before commenting
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
·
· Score: 2
Too bad the article author is an idiot (don't allways believe what you read)
You CAN set the time without getting the new software either by sync'ing your clock with a test call periodically, or plug in a serial cable to the box and use Linux date command to set it manually if you want.
You CAN set the time, he's just an idiot
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
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· Score: 2
You can set the time on your Tivo, just do a test call periodically. You don't get the new software downloaded to you, and you have your time sync'd up. If he would have just made a test call periodically, then there would not have been an issue. He should be pointing the finger at is own dumb self.
BTW the other very easy way to set the time on your Tivo is to plug in to the serial port and just do a regular date command.
Slashdot Mirror
Nice tuxedo, nice tuxedo to DIE in.
You probably have a legal recourse, by LAW they have a fiduciary responsibility to the buyer (same as executors, guardians, etc) and MUST represent you properly. If you had that bad of an experience you might just chalk it up to the individual not the industry (such as a crappy Unix admin does not mean all admins suck). A buyer's agent does NOT remove the necessity for a lawyer, that's NOT their job, their job is to coordinate the mountains of paperwork, investigate why the seller is selling, how motivated the seller is, is there anything bad about the property (they are required to look into things like a new highway being build 2 years from now); they also have access to non-listed items (that's how we got our house, it was to be listed in the next couple of days and with a motivated seller got it 80k below other similar houses listed on our street, in a less desireable location). They are not a replacement for a lawyer, just like a lawyer isn't going to know the first thing about whether a property is in a spot likely to depreciate.
With people doing research on their own... They way I look at it is kinda like this: I need someone to come in and do a whole buch of unix admin work, all our admins are involved in other projects, we can't pull any of them off anything, we just need manpower to do this big project:
1) get a contractor who knows his shit in
or
2) get Bob from accounting who can do some windows things, he can do his own research for a few months to get upto speed on doing a Sun E10k domain cluster failover and have the vendor on the phone for help
You can get a bad contractor who's main goal is to make sure things continue to break (and he continues to get paid) just like a bad buyer's agent, but you do have legal recourses in both situations. I'd even say a buyer's agent has a whole lot more to lose, and in most cases will always work for you interests.
If you are that concerned about it, you can have buyer's agent also work without commision, either by a flat fee or hourly charge and you pay them directly; they know a hell of a lot more than you or I do (at least ones who have done it for more than a few months)
Check out www.exclusivebuyersagents.com/dfw/duties.htm
Actually they by law are working for you have are to properly represent you in YOUR interests; if not you have legal recourse against the agent. They by LAW are required to notify you whether or not it is legally binding, bad things about the property, they are charged with actually investing why the seller is selling (something bad), motivation of the seller, etc.
. ht m
And if you are *that* concerned with it, buyers agents can also be paid directly (hourly, or a flat fee).
Trying to go it alone, and it's almost list saying my dad who can run MS Office can do enough proper research in a couple of months to run a multimillion dollar unix environment with hundreds of servers and do it as well as any other admin who have been doing it for years.
If you want, an info page I found below with a quick google search. I've got my original contracts stating about actually being able to sue, etc. the agent at home if you want the legal speak.
http://www.exclusivebuyersagents.com/dfw/duties
Just use a buyers agent, they work for YOU not for the seller. I worked with our for over a year, and I didn't have to pay a thing, they actually take from the sellers agent money; which is kinda funny when you think about it. If you don't use a buyers agent the seller keeps all of the moeny.
I'd NEVER buy a house without an agent, ours did our paper work, got showings setup, etc. we went to over 50+ houses in her car all over and it didn't cost us a thing. Saved me so much time and money covering all of the little loose ends, giving advise on appreciable houses, neighborhood history, they have to disclose to you any detracting information (highway is going in 2 years from now).
If that's not enough, try this when we finally found a house, put money down on it and later during inspection had some bad siding in areas, she did the negotiation for us (we told her we want this, she said OK I'll try to get that or better). Negotiations failed, seller still had our ernest money; that's when our agent became a badass. The same agency was representing the seller as was representing us, seller got pissed that our agent was helping us more than his agent was helping him. He also was threatening to sue: us, contract inspector, siding company we got quotes from, others, if we didn't buy the house. We never talked to the seller, since our agent was doing everything for us, she got the constant calls from him (upto 10 in one day) for that week, she came over as soon as he started doing this to let us know in person and to say that pretty much he has no ground to stand on, and she'd take care of it; we would not have to do a thing (other than let our lawyer know what was happening). That day we pulled back our offer, she came over with the normal sheet of houses for us to look at and to start going onto the next house. The seller finally told the agency he wanted to drop them and go with another one, our agent chewed her way up to the top and got the head honchos to tell the guy that if he doesn't return our ernest money and stop threatening to sue us they just might stop running any adds or do any showings for him; and he couldn't jump ship since they were in an exclusvive contract with them for a few moths more. That pissed the seller off completely but it sure got the message across, he gave everything up. 2 weeks later we found a house and a month later we closed.
Ummm... sorry but your are wrong. Nokia firewalls use a BSD derivative, that then runs Checkpoint firewall on top of it as a firewall appliance.
I disagree, assembler is still too high level. What I cut my teeth on and cursed it going through it, but understand now that it was for the better; was good old psuedo code. Exactly what is a "while loop", what are it's parts, where should it be used. Syntax does not matter, methodology does; once one has the proper methods down using/learning Java, C++, Assembler, etc. is fairly easy. I think the first 2 semesters we actually did maybe 10 programs total on a computer; we did a whole lot more on paper using psuedo code (in fact not a single test was done using any computer equipment). As I moved through the courses, I did assembly, heavy duty algorithmic design, project programming theory, built our own pascal compiler with pascal, and even did some coding on a bread board. That gave me a very broad understanding of how a computer works and how best to get it do the things I want/need it do to.
CS students, it seems to me, are getting introduced to programming languages too soon, before they have a firm grasp on actually being able to program properly, not just syntactically correct for whatever language you are using.
Fun in the morning in 4 easy steps
:)
Step 1: Apply argument to unix
Step 2: Add Microsoft parody in
Step 3: Look at argument, see how funny it is
Step 4: Laugh at argument
Don't belive the hype. The unix industry has always been under direct control from the sys admin industry. The unix system is 20+ years old, but we have yet to find a better design? Obviously there are alterioir motives to staying with the current design.
There have been serveral Microsoft programmers who have either disappeared or lost their job because they invented a more efficient OS.
Alternative operating systems will not be utilized until the world is in a state of crisis (run out of inodes, death of sys admins). Only in times of desperation, will true change be brought by Microsoft.
Sorry about the gratuitous MS bashing, but it added just that lit bit more of humor to it
The hacking portion was meant to go with your statement about having information in the manual about how to not use the service (not getting around it illegaly), about how it would appear pretty absurd to include that in Tivo's manual.
The part that get's me about this, is that Tivo doesn't make the boxes, they only provide the software and the dialup service. So when you bought the box, and did't pay for the service, you became a dead cost to Tivo. They didn't get money off of your purchase, and you are constantly costing them money with the phone calls with absolutely no monetary return.
Also as a FYI, if you want to set the time without opening up your Tivo and voiding your waranty.
a q0 4.004.htp
http://tivo.samba.org/index.cgi?req=show&file=f
The people who are buying them as consumer level devices ARE buying the service also. The only people this affects are people who do NOT want the service, if you don't want to use the service on a device that was MADE to use the service you better know the proper way to use the device WITHOUT the service; and nobody is going to expect the manufacturer to tell you how to get around their service. What your asking to be in the manual is almost akin to the direct TV hackers, demanding information in the manual on how to "hack" their smart cards to get free service.
I completely realize that this is meant for a consumer level device, now do YOU realize that not using the service makes it not a consumer level device?
Everyone who bought one knows this, it's right in the manual that it does this, so I'd hardly call it an unauthorized call. If you didn't like this option and found it just too dificult to plug in a phone line once a month, then just return it, because you obviously either need the service or you are just too lazy to do things the proper way.
How often do you think syncing of the clock needs to be done, daily??? You could do it once every other month or even once a quarter, plug in your phone line and perform a test call. That's just too much hard work, I'll have to plug my phone line in, 6 whole times next year.
Agreed that's it's confusion and convoluted, but it's not hard at all if you are a subscriber, which 99% of the people who bought Tivo's are. If they bought one ahead of time expecting to NOT use the service, they should then know that it's use will be convoluded and hard (it pretty much says so on the box).
If I was Tivo, I'd make it difficult too, if they were not paying for the service (needs some reason to pay for it), but not impossible; which is what they've done.
Which they can, the guy from the previous post yesterday, didn't explore his options. You can:
1) Select "perform test call" from the menu periodically to sync your time
or
2) Use a serial cable on the back of the Tivo and set your time manually using Linux's date command.
3) Call in as a subscriber to the subscriber line and have Tivo set your time AND possibly upgrade your software.
Neither 1 or 2 will touch your software, 3 WILL get you an upgrade subscriber or not (if you're not a subscriber don't call the subscriber line); in fact with #2, you never have to call Tivo, Tivo could die and fold up and you'd still have exactly the same functionality.
No, Tivo thinks that anyone calling up to their SUBSCRIBER line should be a subscriber. To make sure things run smooth they want all their subscribers to be at the SAME software level. You call up as a subscriber the system sees that you are on a different level which could cause problems with the next release so they upgrade you. It's not their fault that you called in as a subscriber instead of just:
1) Setting the date manually using the serial port on back
or
2) Used the "test call" option from the menu to just sync your time
with either option Tivo would not have touched the software, in fact with #1, you never ever had to call Tivo to begin with, ever.
If you aren't a subscriber you SHOULDN'T BE CALLING IN AS A SUBSCRIBER.
You CAN set the time yourself, get a serial cable and set the time manually using Linux "date", you've NEVER had to call Tivo, the guy in the previous article just never looked.
You don't even need that, all you need to do is to select the "perform test call" from the menu. It sync's your time, and it DOESN'T update any software.
If you want to take Tivo completely out of the picture, you can use the serial port on the back and using a terminal program set the time manually using Linux "date". You never HAVE to call Tivo or any other service.
OK, how about you try and downgrade a Redhat 7.1 box to 6.2 with a script??? The downgrade has to be done over a phone line and cannot have ANY human interaction, and it HAS to work thousands of times with absolutely no hicups.
Hmmm sounds really easy to me, especially if they modified their filesystem code.
Yo, hook up a serial cable to the box and use the good old Linux "date" command, you never HAVE to call Tivo. How exactly are they going to "stick it to you" if you never call up????
I guess that's where we differ (I hold higher expectations for the word hacker), I tend to think it takes more than being able to boot from a floppy disk and mount a volume to be a "hacker option". All your doing is adding a single line to your startup script for peat sake... I mean come on, that's not a hacker that's a tinkerer.
The Tivo's without serial ports are specifically for integration with the satelite, but that in no way means you can't take your remote go to the (stupidly easy) setup menu and perform a test call. Done, end of story.. time sync'd still using 1.3 software.
He's was callin up to Tivo's subscriber line, tieing up a PAYING subscribers line (which Tivo foots the bill for). If he wouldn't have been a numbnuts and did it the proper way (make a test call periodically) there wouldn't be an issue. Tivi's expectation is that if you're calling the subscriber line, YOU ARE A SUBSCRIBER. If you don't want to subscribe stop calling the frickin' subscriber line.
The way I look at is kinda like this... you want to keep your ISP dial up connection nailed up, so you have a script that goes out and pings the ISP's server once a minute; you go out of town for the weekend and the ISP makes a nifty little program than when he get's pinged he does a port scan of the other box. Let's also say you have an aggressive personal firewall that logs all traffic, on different ports and also port scans the other system you get into a loop. You've pissed off the owner of the other box by all of the connections, your box has crashed because your logs filled up. Who's fault is it that your box crashed??? Is it the ISP's fault that they installed some new piece of software on a box that you were pinging, you were pinging them to get around the ISP to begin with.
Agreed, thank you.
I don't know if I'd call the serial cable a "hacker" option, but someone who knew what they were doing option.
There are two options the daily "subscriber" call which usually goes out downloads program listing, etc. (which is what he was does in the article); and off of the phone setup menu, you can perform a "test call" all it does is call Tivo up and make sure everything is cool, it doesn't download updates to your OS or program listings.
If people wouldn't blindly believe everything they read the world would be a better place.
You CAN sync your clock with Tivo's without getting the service OR the upgrade. From the menu select "test call" and it will call out to Tivo, sync your clock and it will NOT download the software.
Another very easy way is to plug a serial cable into the back of your tivo and set your date by hand with the ever popular Linux "date" command.
I think they should be able to "unilaterally retract features" because the guy was an idiot.
The President could try, but those powers are kept in check by the other portions of the government; one of them being Congress.
Too bad the article author is an idiot (don't allways believe what you read)
You CAN set the time without getting the new software either by sync'ing your clock with a test call periodically, or plug in a serial cable to the box and use Linux date command to set it manually if you want.
You can set the time on your Tivo, just do a test call periodically. You don't get the new software downloaded to you, and you have your time sync'd up. If he would have just made a test call periodically, then there would not have been an issue. He should be pointing the finger at is own dumb self.
BTW the other very easy way to set the time on your Tivo is to plug in to the serial port and just do a regular date command.