I use Boxee for playback. It's been very reliable for me on multiple flavors of Ubuntu. I realize it doesn't have true DVR capability, but your complaints seemed to be more to do with the playback portion of your experience and, using Boxee, I've had no problems playing back pretty much anything (though, for some reason, I can't get youtube to work). It also automatically indexes your media file collections (assuming you're following some standard media naming conventions, i.e. Lie.to.me.S01E01.avi) so you can easily view your entire collection and quickly pick out the show (or film, or music) you want to watch.

You probably think colour, gaol and banque are spelled wrong too. ;)

I've had similar issues in the past with not being able to recall the solution to various setup issues. These days I keep a log of these problems and their solutions. So when (for instance) I need to rebuild the RAID on my file server, I open my log, find the entry on rebuilding RAID and follow the instructions I left for myself.

Occasionally the instructions end up being outdated as tools and systems are deprecated but overall, it's a lifesaver.

Same here. The best coder I've ever encountered once told me that if he had it to do all over again, he'd become a farmer. 8^) He swore and ranted while he coded, but in the end, his code was always efficient, elegant and easy to use.

What, you mean like one of these?

... No, they removed the ability to install another OS with the latest hardware release. My old 60GB launch PS3 still allows me to install Linux if I so choose. With the PS3 slim, they didn't want to provide linux drivers for the new hardware (which would have added time and testing - and therefore a higher pricetag).

Parent is joking, but honestly, the internet is the single best system of data archival we've ever implemented. It's distributed and automatically updates useful data (for some value of "useful") to the latest formats. I'd be willing to bet that in twenty years we'll still be able to find digital versions of, say, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in whatever the leading formats of the time will be. Of course, they'll probably be pirated, but the point stands.

The internet is for archiving.

Yeah.... verbing weirds language.

(With all due apologies to Bill Watterson)

An Illinois man left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida, where his wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him in Orlando the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email. However, unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her email address, he did his best to type it from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint, at the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in.
Everything's prepared for your arrival tomorrow!


P.S.
Sure is hot down here!

Do Not Want to Fone Verizon?
Dance Naked Where the Frogs Vomit?
Did Not Wait to Fully Vest?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Next time, please note when your link is NSFW. KTHXBYE

Why would we start now?

Ewww... Wouldn't you'd need a surgeon to be sure? And given that Linus was born in '69, shouldn't most of his pieces be that old anyway?

Yeah, those robo-dialers can connect to strange places. Once upon a time, (while working as a telemarketer) I was greeted by a woman's rather confused sounding "...Hello?" I launched into my spiel but had to stop as the woman burst into surprised laughter. "Do you know where you've called?" ... Turns out I'd reached the emergency phone in an elevator. 8^)