How huge? Well, let me tell ya.
A few weeks ago, the wireless router that I got for free (Thanks Kuzma, as if you're reading) started to fail. It was an especially nefarious manner of failure, because it would work some of the time, and fail at the most inconvenient time.
Being a geek, I was sure I could figure out what was wrong with it. So, I suffered at it's evil hands, taunting me with wireless bandwidth, until I needed it, or until my kids were REALLY wanting to watch Netflix streaming.
After countless administrative logins, and log browsing, and trial, and the inevitable error, I gave up. I bought an Apple Airport Extreme. The Big Daddy Bitchslapper of wireless routers.
It worked great. For everything with an apple on it. iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac, golden. Tivo? Uh, no. Wii? Not so much.
With hours of configuration incantations I managed to wrestle the Wii into submission, but the TiVo remained outside the new, gloriously fast network.
The deal was that the TiVo needed a new wireless adaptor to talk to the new router. When it tried to connect, it told me that the wireless adaptor I had was cool, but to talk to the new router, I needed an upgraded adaptor. A $60 upgraded adaptor. Silly, really. But reality. A reality I was not ready to accept.
I fiddled and reconfigured and swore and rebooted and reset and configured some more and finally gave up. Gave up to the point that I brought back the possessed old router to service the TiVo. This, my friends, was a mistake. Sure, it worked for a few days, but then, when I wasn't looking, it bailed, leaving my beloved TiVo disconnected from its mothership.
Stymied, I went to BestBuy, hopeful, put pessimistic. With some research I was presented with my choices which were two-fold... buy yet another router, this one old-school enough to talk the ancient hieroglyphicesque language of my TiVo dongle, or buy a new adaptor.
New router, $40. New adaptor, $24. Oh wait, that adaptor won't work with TiVo. You need to buy the TiVo branded adaptor, which is essentially the same thing, but with special TiVo stuff that makes it work with TiVo. And it's $60.
That's how much I love my TiVo. Enough to bend over and take a 250% markup for an accessory.
This is what larceny looks like in the TiVo world.
We accept mistreatment all the time. Sometimes to keep the peace. Sometimes to avoid trouble. Sometimes because we're ignorant. Sometimes because it's easier. And sometimes for reasons we can't explain. Most of the time it's because of good marketing or poor self-esteem.
The cure? A good run.
Worked for me.
Good running,
Doug
Numbers: 1.4 miles on tender achilles.
are you sure your name isn't MURPHY
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