Thanks for the ideas!

They have ways to determine this.

Specifically, moisture sensors that change color. So if leaving it in a tightly sealed bag/container of rice or other desiccant for a couple of days doesn't work, you may as well try taking it apart because the warranty is void anyway.

Sadly, my blank screen was due to a dead hard drive. My data is backed up, but I'm going to be reloading software until the end of time.

I was impressed with the computer repair shop. He charged me $80 for the new hard drive and $80 to install it and load Windows and Office 2007. I had Office 2003 and it takes forever to reload because the updates go back to a very primitive version. I mentioned I use AVG and I see that he installed it. It took an hour.

Grrr. My HDMI slot on the Tivo is kaput. So, Tivo wants me to either pay $79 for a new box PLUS $200 to transfer the lifetime subscription or upgrade for $99 plus $398 for a new lifetime subscription. I'm livid. I've been a loyal tivo customer for 8-10 years. This is BULLSHIT. Bet your ass I'm calling tomorrow and asking them to give me a good reason not to switch to the Comcast DVR that I have sitting in my fucking bedroom right now.

That lifetime subscription transfer thing is not good customer relations. It's not really effectively a lifetime subscription if you have to pay a reasonable portion of it again in that same lifetime for circumstances totally beyond your control (and likely to boot).

My, god, talk about irritating skeuomorphism in OS X Lion--I just fired up the full screen version of Photo Booth. Is this not a clear step backwards? I don't know how to operate a "real" photo booth, and there's no obvious indication of how to get the standard OS X controls back--what is the gain from the cutesy curtain metaphor?

Their bullshit excuse is that it was more than 3 years into the lifetime, had it been less, they would have waived the transfer fee. The tech on the phone suggested that I call back and escalate. Given that I've been a tivo customer for umpteen years, own three tivos, and in fact, still pay for a sub to the old Humax box will hopefully get them to waive the lifetime fee. I'm okay with paying $79 for a refurbished box. Or even $99 for the upgrade.

Good luck. I once called to cancel Tivo service and still got billed. I called back and gave them holy hell about it and they STILL argued with me, maybe I wasn't firm enough about "I'm moving to Germany" (which I wasn't, but that's what I told them). Possibly the worst customer service I have ever had.

I get that TiVo needs to make $$ but I will likely need a new TiVo box since I am finally entering into 2006 and getting a new tv. It seems from the TiVo website that the following is true:

a. The only people who can now get lifetime sub are people who have them now

b. to transfer one to a new box is pretty expensive (400) in my case.

I like TiVo but I think I will use the cable provider's box for a bit.

Gah! Why can't Mail just red underline the mis-spelt words? I don't want to correct them as I type, because you put in ridiculous shit, and I don't want you to do an F7 style check afterwards, because you're checking quoted text, and that's stupid, and other people don't need to be held to British English testing rules anyway.

It's strange that some things in Lion feel like a deliberate deviation from "how stuff works now". I'm not sure what the point is in changing that. Is there an advantage to shifting from the norms? Does it improve the user experience?

I assume auto correct is to again make it feel more like an iOS device. Which I agree is awful. Are you anti-Thunderbird?