h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can't quite work out how you have mastered the art of writing a page to h2g2 but you cant programe your VCR. They are so simple to operate even a child could do it. (Oh yes you mentioned that they do) you don't even have to adjust the clock on the newer ones cause they do it for you. in fact they do nearly everthing for you except make the the tea during the adverts.
I have one of latest models and It switches the kettle on just before the adverts start, I suppose I could plug my Teasmade into the kettle socket and then it would make the tea as well but this would involve moveing things around and I can't be bothered with all of that.

I couldn't say I've ever had any trouble programming a VCR. As long as you follow RTFM you're fine.

Where the fun arises is that, no matter how much extra time you program before and after the time the program you are interested in is supposed to be on, you will invariably miss most, if not all, of it at some time or other...ususally the season finale!

The other trick is when you are watching TV and something comes on that you are very interested in, but you must leave for some reason or other. You hurridly turn on the VCR and press record, leaving home the certain knowledge that the program will be there when you return. BUT wait...you rewind and it's not there! In your rush to leave the house you didn't notice that the VCR was set to a different channel!

The realy sad thing about over-use of VCR is when you try fast fowarding the ads, only to discover you are not actually watching a video at all but live broadcast.....at that stage you realise you realy must get out more and get a life..........or log on to H2G2.........

Chris

Or do as I do...go out, get plastered, come home and log on to H2G2, then I ask the VCR to replay what it has recorded.
Dame kettle is boiling again....there are to many adverts.

I can only assume that you've been using primitive VCRs!!

I remember the happy days when I had some dreadfully old thing. It would only play a tape about 3 times out of 5, and half the time when you recorded something it would come out all stripey, and translated into Italian. The upside was that it was just about capable of recording a programme in 3 hours time, and it was terribly easy to control.

Nowadays, I have an incredibly sophisticated machine - it knows what day it is, what year it is, everything. Automatically tunes itself to all my channels (although to different numbers than the ones the TV uses, which is another story entirely). Best of all, though, it's possible to program this thing to record about 10 different things up to a fortnight in advance!!!

Well that's what the manual says, anyway.


In a moment of drunkenness (not a terribly rare thing to happen in my house, for sure) I tried to program this thing to record something, I forget what now. The upshot is that in program 1 I now have jammed a request to record something in 1987. And that's it, the machine is rendered useless. There is NO way to remove this program from the machine. I've tried everything. Switching it off. Unplugging it. Pressing lots of buttons (once I'd plugged it back in and switched it back on, of course). Shouting. Crying.

I even read the manual - in English, French and Japanese. Although the last one was a bit of a waste of time as I don't actually know Japanese, but I figured that it was worth trying it in the original language.

And with this program at number 1, the machine refuses to pay attention to the other 9 programs until it's dealt with this one. ARGH!!!!!


And do you know the saddest part of all this? I'm a professional computer programmer. And I have plenty of friends who will tell you that I have the mind of a four year old. It's not fair!!!

Sorry. I'll take my medication now.