# "TiVo Thinks I'm Gay" article



## kirbylile (Nov 25, 2002)

Does anyone have the classic Jeffrey Zaslow article in "The Wall Street Journal" from December 2002 entitled "Oh No! My TiVo Thinks I'm Gay" or a link to it somewhere?

I want a friend to read it -- he has had TiVo for 6 months now, and is starting to ask me more serious questions about how to use TiVo -- no longer a newbie and starting to realize what TiVo can do.

Many thanks
Kirby
Atlanta


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

This one?

http://www.planetdan.net/blog/tivo.html
http://www.public.asu.edu/~risa1410/neatstuff/profiling.html'

A slightly different version:



> Posted on Wed, Dec. 04, 2002
> 
> Oh no! My TiVo thinks I'm gay
> 
> ...


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## kirbylile (Nov 25, 2002)

That's it. Thanks!


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

My TiVo KNOWS I'm not gay.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

Wasn' t there an episode of "The King Of Queens" that was about this topic? 

I'm not gonna mention Leah Remini.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

MickeS said:


> Wasn' t there an episode of "The King Of Queens" that was about this topic?


Read the 5th paragraph of the article I quoted above.


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## LifeIsABeach (Feb 28, 2001)

Patton Oswald (who is on KOQ) has a routine about that in his stand-up act as well.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

> Read the 5th paragraph of the article I quoted above.


D'oh!


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

My wife's uncle got TiVO and he called me up for help. The funny thing is, he must have gotten a refurb. He doesn't have any SPs set up yet, but he has tons of suggestions recorded of Children's programming, and almost nothing else. I walked him through a "Clear and Delete Everything". It was pretty funny.


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## rlc1 (Sep 15, 2003)

"Not that there's anything wrong with that!"


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## stevel (Aug 23, 2000)

I'll recommend "TiVo for Dummies" for your friend. It's a great introduction to how to get the most out of TiVo. I served as technical editor for it, so you can blame any mistakes on me.


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## trainman (Jan 29, 2001)

jlb said:


> My wife's uncle got TiVO and he called me up for help. The funny thing is, he must have gotten a refurb. He doesn't have any SPs set up yet, but he has tons of suggestions recorded of Children's programming, and almost nothing else. I walked him through a "Clear and Delete Everything". It was pretty funny.


Not necessarily a refurb (unless all those suggestions were on the TiVo when he got it) -- TiVo seems to favor children's and family programming with its "default" suggestions, and so if nothing's been given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, it'll happily keep recording as much of that as possible.


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

trainman said:


> Not necessarily a refurb (unless all those suggestions were on the TiVo when he got it) -- TiVo seems to favor children's and family programming with its "default" suggestions, and so if nothing's been given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, it'll happily keep recording as much of that as possible.


The last TiVo I got didn't seem to record any suggestions until I rated something.


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## RonDawg (Jan 12, 2006)

trainman said:


> Not necessarily a refurb (unless all those suggestions were on the TiVo when he got it) -- TiVo seems to favor children's and family programming with its "default" suggestions, and so if nothing's been given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, it'll happily keep recording as much of that as possible.


My brand-new Humax unit seems to have a FOX-fetish. It likes to record FOX programs of all sorts (The Simpsons, King of the Hill) despite the fact that I don't watch them, nor do I watch anything similar.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Before I got 7.2, half or more of my suggestions were preschool kids shows.
Since, it has been Futurama, KOTH, Daily Show, and some PBS DIY stuff (which is SP on my other TiVo). It even recorded a Bob Hope film on its own (I had previously recorded a Hope-Crosby Road picture).


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Comedian Mark Day emailed me with a new twist on the theory presented via YouTube:
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2006-08/is-your-tivo-gay/


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## drew2k (Jun 10, 2003)

davezatz said:


> Comedian Mark Day emailed me with a new twist on the theory presented via YouTube:
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2006-08/is-your-tivo-gay/


Hysterical!   

_(But it probably could have ended around the 1:45 mark!)_


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## TiVo Troll (Mar 23, 2006)

Who needs this crap (unless they enjoy it)?

Personally, I'll never tell!


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

Ha! Personally I long ago shut off suggestions. They're just not useful to me. I already know what I like, and I DON'T want repeats of stuff I've already watched.

Theoretically I'd like it, but honestly a human being would have a hard time picking out suggestions for me. I guess family members could do a decent job (I get a call from my mom from time to time asking if I know about a show, and usually set it up to record)-but a machine?

EDIT: Also, because I record a couple of what are technically children's shows, it would record all this other junk for me. It did occasionally grab something good-like the News Hour on PBS, but then I don't watch it because of time (even though in an ideal world I'd watch it every day)...so, basically worthless.


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## HDTiVo (Nov 27, 2002)

My TiVo thinks I'm its prior owner.
 !


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## Havana Brown (Feb 3, 2005)

Puppy76 said:


> Ha! Personally I long ago shut off suggestions. They're just not useful to me. I already know what I like, and I DON'T want repeats of stuff I've already watched.


I keep suggestions on so I know how much space I have left.


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## Bai Shen (Dec 17, 2004)

Havana Brown said:


> I keep suggestions on so I know how much space I have left.


+1


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

Don't need to anymore, since we've got deleted items.


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## PRMan (Jul 26, 2000)

Weird Al's parody of Eminem's song Lose Yourself also has the line,

"But I only watched "Will And Grace" one time one day
Wish I hadn't 'cause TiVo now thinks I'm gay"


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