Well, it's not that it's not authenticating--I get as far as entering credentials (I'm trying it wired only right now, no diff), and if I put in an invalid password it shimmies at me.

Huh. I fired up the old Mac, and it can't connect to it anymore either. Great.

Well, hey! At least I am troubleshooting a different problem now.

So I'm back to the beginning on that one, but at least my website problem has totally cleared up. Although they insisted that the server move would have no such effect, the IP address in the error message was the old server, so something was being cached somewhere. But it's all caught up to reality now, and the page works just fine.

Didn't change anything, my ass. Not their job to troubleshoot, my buttocks.

As for Time Machine--I've disabled it on the NAS, re-enabled it, cleaned it up (bye bye backups...), but I still can't connect with either machine, even with a new ID.

So I'll need to talk to a Seagate support person. Blargh.

Is HBOgo for Xbox being wonky for anyone else out there? Trying to watch shows, and it keeps pausing, and then, it will play at 2x with no sound. works fine on the iPad. Xbox will stream baseball and Amazon prime, so it's not a network connection.

I cannot believe I am so phone adverse as to be using a chat feature to try and fix the dvr function on my Time Warner. It's been ten minutes and they can't even change my phone contact information. By now they should be having me reboot the box which I did (and told them) three times already. At least on the phone they make me do unhelpful busywork. Did just get thanked for my patience. Which since I am posting here, not so much.

Does anyone have Time Warner and use their dvr service? Am I just getting unlucky that it worked one day and now is broken and they can't even seem to change my contact number? Because I'd really like a reason to break up with them. When the services work, they seem great. But I am not a happy person dealing with having to contact them.

edit: 15 minutes and the claim is that my phone contact info was successfully changed. Back to what I said it should always be.

Cass,

I just got Time Warner, and man is this cable company assworthy. I cannot believe how awful I thought Comcast was and then ta-da, I have TW.

My DVR function is working okay but it is a pale pale comparison to Tivo.

What is wrong with your DVR?

I cannot believe how awful I thought Comcast was and then ta-da, I have TW.

My last support phone with them - which accused them of misleading and giving false information when asked - included that exact sentiment. That this was a terrible experience and how really unhappy I was with them "and I've just finished dealing with Comcast. How can you even make Comcast look better?"

What is wrong with your DVR?

Borked. It shows me a listing of recorded shows but they are all black and I have to get to the guide to watch anything. Same if I try to pause or skip back. The shows are taking up some space but I have no idea if they exist or not.

Tech call tomorrow.

Here's the great part. All that time and I said I'd rebooted when we started. Was asked again after taking forever to get my phone number corrected. Confirmed that, yes, I'd rebooted. And the only thing that was said after that was that they'd have a tech come out. I wouldn't have minded if that had taken the five minutes it should have but what the fuck was happening that whole time?

Mostly I am cranky that I missed an amazing race yesterday that I had on but too low to hear while unpacking so I didn't bother my mom who was helping. If I'd realized it wasn't going to work, it'd have been turned up just a touch so I could glance from the kitchen. I was here. It was on. I just totally assumed that I was recording it and thus would be able to watch it later.

Okay, let me give you a suggestion:

instead of rebooting, turn off your DVR. Turn off your tv. Wait about 5-10 minutes, then turn on your DVR. Wait a bit, then turn on your TV.

Tell me if that helps.

Giving that a shot. Will report back.

Tech thread - so much more actual tech support than the people I pay...

I can also help you troubleshoot Verizon landlines.

Okay, so my little sister gave me her Nano to replace my stolen Shuffle, and I've only ever used Shuffles, so help me understand if this is how a Nano works.

Unlike a Shuffle, a Nano just holds all its music as music, not in any order. It organizes it on the device; you don't have to do anything in iTunes.

There is a Sync music feature. One option is to sync the entire library, but this is a stupid feature unless your entire library is under 8 GB. The other option is to sync selected Playlists, and I think that is what I want to do to replicate the Shuffle experience as closely as possible.

So if I create a playlist called Suki in my iTunes and dump all the songs that I want to have on Suki (my Nano) and select the "Sync playlists" option and select Suki, what will happen is that when I connect Suki, it will compare the music that it has on itself with the music that is in the Suki playlist and, well, sync. If I have added music to the playlist, it will add it to the device. If I have removed music from the playlist, it will delete it from the device. If any of the files have been updated with new ID3 information, that information will also be synced to the device. Is that right?

And I can also create other playlists in iTunes (like, say, "Electronica" or "Chill" or other themes) and select only those playlists to Sync with Suki so that I can edit those playlists in iTunes and every time I connect the device, Suki will match it all up (and even if I have somehow added a song to one of THOSE playlists that I did not add to Suki, intended to be a list of all songs on the device, it will add it to the device because it is Syncing).

Is that right? This is sort of confusing but kind of exciting.