Friday, July 14, 2006

A Day of Frustrations

I hate not being able to fix things, and I hate failure.

So the last 24 hours have been rather disheartening. Of the semi-Burst-Into-Tears-on-the-Least-Provocation category of Disheartening. I thought maybe if I listed the specifics I might get a sense of the actual scope of my failures, as opposed to a general Everything-Sucks malaise.

  1. Can't get my living room TiVo to dial in. I have tried countless times, going so far as to bring it to Elder Sister's house to use THEIR phone system. All to no avail.
  2. A web design client from 8 months back went with another designer without any notice (that I can recall) and (very politely) won't pay for the 3 hours I spent on her site.
  3. Another web design client isn't entirely happy with what I've done in a beta format, and I sense he wants something more sophisticated than I am capable of.
  4. I haven't had time to work on 2 other client websites, and I don't want to right now.
  5. I spent 4.5 hours this morning on a home wireless network job that should have taken 1 hour, and the problem STILL isn't fixed; so of course, I don't feel like I can charge them; and I don't know where I went wrong with the whole thing.

That's the gist of it; nothing absolutely devastating, but enough within 24 hours to cause overall melancholia. Oh, and I was unable to go to my part-time job at Vandy since I spent all morning at a job I can't charge for, and therefore lost 4 hours of legit paying work. [invective]Bugger all.[/invective]

2 comments:

MegaZone said...

I take it the TiVo is either a Series1 or a DirecTiVo and therefore cannot use a network connection? What is the particular error? And this is over a regular phone line, right?

If the modem is completely dead - and Series1 modems seem prone to getting fried with a surge - there are possible solutions.

If you have a standalone Series1 you can pick up a TurboNet or TiVo CacheCard add-on. Open the unit up and install it, and bingo, the TiVo has an Ethernet port to connect to your home network.

If you have a DirecTiVo Series1 you can do the same, but it also requires software hacks to enable. If you have a DirecTiVo Series2 (USB ports), then you can use software hacks to enable the USB ports and put it on a network.

And, in any case, there is a way to connect an external modem to the serial port on the back of the TiVo. The one normally used for serial control. You can buy a kit from WeaKnees.com (http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-modem-fix.php) or from 9thTee.com (http://www.9thtee.com/tivomodemrepair.htm) - or you can have the modem repaired, see the same 9thTee.com page.

I run TiVoLovers.com

Mike Howell said...

Wow! It pays to vent.