Grey Matters

I just spent 20 minutes reading the software license for the Microsoft SYNC software embedded into my new Ford pickup’s system(s). Apparently, I “accepted” the terms and conditions of the MS SYNC software license by driving my new vehicle home from the dealer. I did not know this when I bought my truck.

The license makes reference to “the device” that uses the copyrighted software. Use of the device indicated acceptance of the license terms. Also, the software is “licensed, not sold” so I do not own the medium on which the software resides. I don’t know if that’s a ROM chip or the vehicle’s hard drive. It is not clear what “the device” is either. Is it the entire navigation system? Just the parts that use SYNC functions? Is it the entire vehicle?

The license begins:

You have acquired a device (“DEVICE”) that includes software licensed by FORD MOTOR COMPANY from an affiliate of Microsoft Corporation (“MS”).

<blah-blah–blah>

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (“EULA”), DO NOT USE THE DEVICE….. ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO USE ON THE DEVICE, WILL CONSTITUTE YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS EULA (OR RATIFICATION OF ANY PREVIOUS CONSENT).

Since “the device” is not defined, I have no way of knowing whether I have (unwittingly) “consented” to the EULA. That’s just wrong.

And get this: The Ford Motor Company software, the MS software plus third party software with which it might interface is collectively referred to as “SOFTWARE” and any use of the SOFTWARE means I’ve “accepted” the license terms. I’m pretty sure that, just by driving my new truck home from the dealer, it used some of the SOFTWARE.

When the Ford dealer told me about the wonders of the navigation system and voice control (voice commands are part of MS SYNC) he never told me I’d be agreeing to an EULA from a Microsoft Subsidiary.

There’s more.. <http://www.ford.com/technology/sync//features/#page=Feature300> tells me that: “With Send to SYNC, you can use Google® Maps or MapQuest® via your laptop or desktop to locate a destination, then send it directly to your vehicle’s SYNC system for directions.” Except it doesn’t “send it directly to [my] vehicle’s SYNC system.” It sends it to my mobile phone and the phone sends it to the nav system via BlueTooth.

Part of the EULA is consenting to automatic upgrades of “the software” which, doubtless, also would come through my mobile phone.

From reading the EULA, I can’t even tell if the “agreement” is between me and Ford Motor Company or me and Microsoft — pardon me “MS” — an affiliate of Microsoft Corporation.

More later.

Next Episode

My daughter went to Las Vegas for a couple of days leaving her MacBook Pro and her FaceBook farm for Wifey to tend. I promised to monitor things to ensure nothing withered on the vine or whatnot.

Today I texted Daughter: “Levees broke. Farm under six feet of water. I blame FaceBook Corps of Engineers.”

My wife and I are TV junkies. I have seven TiVo DVRs (Digital Video Recorders), four of which have dual tuners. Lemme ‘splain.

I have two HD TiVos, each of which has two tuners. On these two boxes, one records ABC and CBS, the other does NBC and Fox. With a separate tuner for each network, we rarely have to forego one show to see another. However…

The HD DVRs, bought in December 2009, have had problems. On multiple occasions, one or the other crashed and lost all recordings. Therefore, of the remaining (non-HD) DVRs, four of them are used to record ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox as backups (recording from analog, not digital cable). If the HDs bite the dust or fail to get a recording, I fall back to the non-HD version of the show.

Another non-HD TiVo is primarily for SyFy. We have USA, TNT and other cable channels programmed wherever the DVR doesn’t have a higher priority show to record. Usually, I program the Season Pass on more than one machine to be sure we get it.

There are two Mac programs that I use daily to transfer recordings from and to the DVRs (More from than to). iTiVo allows me to access my Now Playing list on any TiVo and select recordings to transfer to my Mac. This program also allows one to “subscribe” to shows such that any new recordings of that show are transferred automatically with no need for me to select it for transfer.

As a result of the problems I’ve had with the HD models losing all recordings, I have two G5 Mac towers each with a 2-TB drive, dedicated to backing up each HD TiVo. Each runs 24×7 and is subscribed to all shows on the respective DVR. So, as soon as a recording is complete, it is backed up to the respective G5 Mac.

Twice since implementing this backup scheme I have had to restore recordings from a G5 Mac to one of the DVRs. For that, I use pyTiVo, a Python based server app that allows a TiVo DVR to transfer programs from a Mac to itself. (TiVo has the ability to transfer recordings from other TiVo DVRs.)

This setup also allows me to archive recordings off the TiVo for viewing later. I like to collect all episodes of a series, then view them marathon fashion.

Because many a series in syndication does not air in the original order, I have a number of scripts I’ve written to massage the metadata files that accompany each recording such that when transferred back to TiVo for that marathon, they’re in the right order.

About the HD TiVo crashing… The first thing I do with every TiVo I buy is remove the original hard drive and put in a larger one. As noted earlier, the tools for this are Linux and Windows based. Since I don’t do Windows, I use the Linux based tools.

Because I fiddle with the TiVo innards, I cannot say for certain that the crashing problems I’ve had are not caused by yours truly. With every new drive I buy, whether for Mac or TiVo, I burn it in, writing zeroes to it with Disk Utility and testing it every which way with Disk Utility and Techtool Pro. Because the Linux tools used to copy the TiVo OS to a new drive overwrites the partition map, I typically finished the new drive testing and burn-in with the drive in Mac OS extended filesystem form.

It may well be that the Linux tools do not thoroughly overwrite the partition map and that artifacts from its residency in a Mac persist in a drive later placed into a TiVo DVR. If the TiVo OS sees and misinterprets these (possible) artifacts, I, and not TiVo, may well be the culprit here.

Given that possibility, I have taken to totally zeroing out the partition map of a drive after burn-in and testing and before I prep it for TiVo. (I use ‘dd’ to write zeroes to the first 100 sectors of a drive.)

It’s been a few months since I’ve had a lost-all-recordings crash on one of my HD units. Whether this is because of my obliteration of the partition map before installation of the TiVo OS or due to updates TiVo has made to its OS, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have such a crash tomorrow. Maybe I never will again. [update: as of August 29, 2011, there have been no more crashes that lost all the recordings on my HD TiVo DVRs.]

My older Series 2 TiVo DVRs run for months on end with no crashing and no rebooting necessary. I really like my TiVos.

I’ve been reading a lot about bringing the spendthrift FedGov under control. In some circles it is fashionable to say that we have deficits because the “rich” don’t pay their “fair share.”

Somewhere in my reading it was stated that if we increased the income tax rate for ALL taxpayers to 100% we would still be running a deficit of several hundred billion dollars a year. Sounds to me like we need to cut back spending.

So I say again: the best way to balance the budget is to fund only those programs and agencies that are actually Constitutional.

I was at my daughter’s home for Mother’s Day dinner and noticed that her TiVo DVR was not responding to inputs from the remote control. I rebooted the TiVo by unplugging/replugging the power. (There is no power switch on TiVo DVRs.)

There was a terrible grinding noise as if the hard drive platters were scraping against something. I packed the TiVo home at evening’s end.

This morning I removed the drive from the TiVo and when I shake it, I can hear the drive internals rattling. Probably a massive failure of the bearing(s). I’ve never seen a drive so badly damaged that it rattled.

Note: this is a Seagate 750 GB drive that I installed, not the original TiVo drive. The original is kept as a backup for occasions when the DVR needs a new drive, like now. I’ll copy the original drive to a new drive for the DVR and put the original back into storage.