TiVo is fantastic, I've used other DVR from the cable company, etc and they all suck... they crash, they fail to record properly, the menus suck, the controls suck, TiVo (even a series 1 if you ignore the lack of HD) totally pwns every other DVR I've ever used.

That said, I have five TiVos and they are all sitting out in my garage gathering dust because I grew disgusted with the cable company (poor service, price increases, stupid fees, morons for technicians). Now I have AppleTVs in all my rooms and a central media server which hosts all my content. I can easily purchase/rent and watch virtually any TV show or movie I want anytime and it doesn't even begin to approach the cost of paying $100+ per month for cable packages. It is much better to just pay for what I actually want to watch instead of shelling out over a thousand dollars a year for a bunch of content I never watch.

In short, TiVo is failing mainly because the industry is changing and their product is not in a great position to survive those changes. The days of broadcast are numbered IMO.

It won't matter which one you take, whatever job you end up doing, you will be solving specific types of problems based on the type of work. If you are smart you will become skilled at those types of problems just by working with it all the time. College is not there to teach you everything you need for your future job, it just isn't possible and employers know this. Companies look for smart people who have the aptitude to learn as both technology and your job requirements evolve.

Trust me, I barely passed my high level/advanced math course, but when it comes time to put it in practice in real life rather being stuck in an academic/testing environment, it suddenly makes a lot more sense when you actually know what it is useful for. The grades you get in classes typically have little to do with how you will perform in real life unless there are other reasons such as irresponsible/self destructive behavior which could make you difficult to employ. The most important thing is that you "get" programming. I can't tell you how many otherwise intelligent people there are out there who just don't "get" programming, it almost seems like it is a genetic trait.

Wait, are you serious? LIDAR is neither easier to aim, nor more accurate. You're telling me that from at least 100 yards away you can hit a license plate on a vehicle in heavy traffic going 85 MPH? Is your name Jack Bauer? Holy crap.

No, actually, LIDAR is MUCH harder to aim. It is also not really any more accurate as long as the comparable radar gun is used properly. In fact in certain conditions (rain snow, etc), LIDAR can be horribly wrong while radar still works just fine.