RE: Any advice for ambitious newbie?

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Bruno wrote:

>> Have you seen the SliMP3, DDAR, Audiotron etc?

> I'm sure they're good, but will they also function to playback video,
play
> games, browse the web, read email, write letters etc? If I want a
computer
> for these purposes in each room, why not get one box to do everything?
It
> would certainly please my wife, who would rather I had no
technology
> visible, and certainly not a handful of boxes for each purpose. Plus
there's
> the cost factor....

No, they won't do this stuff. However, neither will my separates CD player,
or my separates tuner.

It's an "all-in-one" vs. "hi-fi separates" argument.
You know the pros and cons ;-)

I want a SILENT device in many of my rooms (you know what I mean - an MP3
player that only makes a noise when it's playing, and doesn't spend all its
time whirring away PSU and CPU fans.)

Likewise, I don't want a "computer" - or more specifically a
monitor in, say, my dining room. I'd rather have a small unobtrusive device
there, but I do want music while I eat, and a wireless laptop to carry
around if I do want to do my accounts on the dining room table.

>> Do yourself and buy a TiVo (or two if you want multi-channel
recording).

> How do I watch what I have recorded on TiVo in the rooms where it
isn't
> located? Is it network-enabled? And can the storage be upped
without
> invalidating the warranty?

TiVO isn't network enabled (but a third-party addin is available.) ReplayTV
is network enabled out of the box, but the UK launch is still a few months
off.


> And as for their [Microsof't] business practices, do I really need to
go into
>  detail? I had months of VBA code wrecked in a company-mandated
upgrade from
> one version of Office to another, and I am not willing to put myself
through
> that again. With Free Software, I choose what I want.

Come on - you had a company-mandated upgrade from one version of office to
another? And that's Microsoft's fault? Surely if you had a company policy
that allowed you to choose what you want, you could also have chosen to
remain on the version office that you were happy with... (Certainly - we
give our staff the choice of MS Office 2000, MS Office XP, or
OpenOffice.)

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