Re: Re: Tivo

[Phillip Harris <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

*chuckle*

>From my own experience I'll happily lay money that if there are people
out there with any device that they are using then the overwhelming
proportion of them will be using a very small subset of its functionality
unless they are actually working through a structured testing programme
designed to exercise all functionality.

Not that I'm in any way suggesting that this is what's happened with the
Virgin TiVo box but I've seen this in "soft launches",
"testing programmes" and "public betas" that I've taken
part in from companies of widely varying sizes over the last 20 years where
the testers are basically just your average end users and generally happy
(even excited) to be using something new. This can be done as a way of
"getting something out" to head off public perception of a
product being late (or to hit a sensitive corporate milestone) whilst the
developers crack on independently still trying to get stuff finished...

In this situation it is normal for the participants to actually spend very
little time exploring the product or doing much in the way of useful
testing and you'll find that when asked for feedback they generally report
"Yes it's working fine" whereas when it hits a wider audience and
people really start to use it (in ways that might not seem sensible or
logical by any stretch of the imagination but by God if it's possible to
break a bit of kit they'll break it and keep breaking it) then the real
issues crawl out the woodwork.

I'll be completely open with you on this though - I have had my email
address lodged with Virgin for one for quite some time (I was trying to get
on the trials but couldn't) but as far as I have seen there are some pretty
fundamental issues with the current software which I hope get resolved very
quickly ... once they are it should be a really great product.

I completely agree though that the unit won't be the hackers delight that
the original TiVo box was - it's intended to be an appliance and, as Dom
says, you don't actually own the TiVo box so modifying it will be a no-no -
so if that's one of your criteria for getting it then keep on looking...

"Security super-geniuses" - I like that. :-D

Phil



On 6 Feb 2011, at 17:00, domdevitto wrote:

> Not based on any secret or public knowledge, but I'd expect launch to
the unwashed masses 'real soon'.  If you're interested, I'll call VM proto
and get yourself on the waiting list, as it's bound to be a big rush when
it's available to all.
>
> FYI, just about every other employee seems to be thoroughly
'dogfooding' the Tivo at home, and it's got nothing but great reviews.
>
> And no, I'd also expect the device to not be 'yours', and tinkering
with the innards to be a breach of the Telco act., and the people that deal
with this kind of stuff at Virgin are security super-geniuses.
>
> Dom
> --- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Phillip Harris <phil@...> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Special as in not very many available or special as in
temperamental?  Like
>>> many here I was a very enthusiastic TiVo early adopter and
modifier but have
>>> since moved to pure Sky+HD setup.
>>
>> I don't want to get my source into any trouble but Virgin had
committed to launching TiVo last year and did "launch" on the
date planned ...
>>
>> ...however, as I understand it, I don't think any paying customers
received a Virgin Tivo box! (The box itself is made by Cisco - Tivo are
just doing the middleware.) My understanding is that the launch was to an
almost insignificantly small number of "subscribers" (500 is the
number that I was told) who are subscribers because they do pay money to
Virgin for their service but oddly appear to (at the time of launch) all be
Virgin employees.
>>
>> There are a number of issues with it at the moment as far as I am
aware - but it's only software so it'll be easy to fix, right? ;-)
>>
>>> Hopefully the new Virgin TiVo is as open for modification as
the series 1
>>> models were.
>>
>> *chuckle* Expect to be disappointed here!
>>
>> The Virgin TiVo boxes are looking like being as closed as the Sky
boxes are - nowadays no-one can run the risk of being cavalier with
content! Also the Virgin boxes can be fully interrogated from the head end
to ensure that they are doing nothing that they shouldn't (whether that is
running processes that they shouldn't or versions of code that they
shouldn't) and automatically reverted if they are.
>>
>> They're an appliance and not a hackers toy...
>>
>> Phil
>>
>
>
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