Actors in films (Score 1)

One of the more interesting possibilities with these devices is the feature that lets you tape all movies with a certain actor in them. If you're a Christopher Walken fan, for instance, (and who isn't) the box should auto-record all Walken films for you. A few months ago some friends of mine and I decided that you shouldn't have to get a TIVO of a ReplayTV to get this functionality. We hacked up a website www.tvminder.com that sends you email whenever films with actors you like come on TV. It runs on Linux, written in Java and Python. It would be fun to make this service available to the "Open TIVO" people that are rolling their own boxes. We'd send mail to your TIVO (if you ask it to), telling it what to record for you. Hmmm. It would need a good access control mechanisim so that you wouldn't get hacked, but it seems like a cool possibility.