Maybe it's just me, but I don't pay for cable TV if I can avoid it; I don't even have an antenna to pick up broadcast. I just pay for broadband internet and watch my favorite shows/movies online via Netflix, Hulu, etc. So maybe TiVo hasn't done well because it appeals to consumers who consume a large amount of media and prefer to do it via cable tv, but many consumers have come to prefer the versatility of the internet (where something like TiVo is unnecessary ).

...seeing as the overwhelming conclusion drawn about the iPad I have encountered is "this will be great for my grandma." NOW my grandma can have something more affordable, and something that I won't hate to help my grandma use.

'I think this problem is a symptom of our terrible science education in our schools.' I live in Utah, and this areas actually has one of the highest per-capita population of physics undergraduates in the nation (due to the existence of three large universities with unusually large physics programs and the low population of the state). The sciences are strong in Utah, but nobody with any political power listens to us, because the money is in things like strip-mining and oil and such. Plus they gerrymander the heck out of the colleges.

Because every time I listen to "Boris the Spider," I go into throes of ecstatic pleasure, the mad fits and aftershocks of which last for hours. I must owe them millions. I wonder what the going rate for particle of dopamine is? Of course, if I have to listen to the crap my coworkers play on the radio all day, I think that maybe the record labels should owe ME a considerable compensation for my pain and suffering.