Saturday, January 14, 2006

It's here!

I gave up on the Slingbox package arriving. I took a shower and after I got dressed and opened the curtains to our bedroom I saw a white pickup truck out front. Weird. Nobody parks in front of our house. I could see our porch out the window and saw a package... from Amazon!

Maybe the driver put my package somewhere weird yesterday? At someone else's house? And then returned in his pickup truck today to find it?

Either way I'm busy hookin' up my Slingbox and playing the software update game. Yay1

Slingbox

I ordered a Slingbox from Amazon.com and FedEx says they delivered it today. I don't have any way to know if that's true, because when I got home there was no package.

Ugh.

I'm hoping that tomorrow the driver suddenly remembers how he hid it under our house or something. But I have a feeling that's not gonna happen. The best guess I've got is that some hooligan kids in the neighborhood stole the package. They probably saw Kelly leave and then the FedEx truck arrive a little while later. (Note: FedEx says they delivered it at 12:21pm. Kelly says she left at 12:30pm or later. So theoretically she was here. Maybe the driver took my box? Reported the wrong delivery time?)

Anyway, from what I've read the Slingbox is really cool. You hook it up to your cable box/TiVo/DVR/whatever and to the internet via an ethernet cable. It also has an IR (Infra-red) blaster so that it can send remote control commands to whatever it's hooked up to.

Once you have the box hooked up you can use the software to watch the video comin' out of whatever sources it's hooked up to. That means you can watch on your computer somewhere else in your house... or from anywhere that you have an internet connection. Say you're on vacation (and of course you brought your computer) and realize you need to watch the local news in your home town. Or need some Teletubbies shows to play for your 2 1/2 year-old. Or if you need to set up some new recordings on your DVR... Just fire up the Sling software and watch your TV shows, program your DVR etc

Now if you never leave your house this might not be the product for you. But I'm hoping, if I ever get it, that it's going to be pretty dang cool for me. :-)

I'm going to call the local FedEx tomorrow morning. I have a feeling they're going to tell me I'm out $220. The extra crappy thing is that FedEx lost a package of mine a week ago. I guess the good news there is that it was "lost" before it arrived at my house. So I was able to get a replacement from the place I ordered from.

OK. I'm sleepy. It's Kelly's birthday tomorrow. Kelly, Dan and Jonah are visiting Joe & Mary (& Mira & Lyra). I'm hoping they're bring back a chicken (live). Also. Ants.