bouncingboomergirlgeek: fyi & fwiw

Multi-Modal Reminders 2Go

For mobile minds on the move, portable reminders are often a must-have tool. But where to find such tools and how to use them in a cross-platform way (email and SMS) is not 1-click obvious.

My friend, CC, found this out when she wanted to help her kid at college remember to test her blood and take her meds before she risked an episode. Daughter was always a few steps short of overload, and so mobile it seemed there was no one good way to prompt her even if Mom was willing and able to set her own alarms and sit at her desk pressing "Send" 4x per day. (Yes, Mom could insist that her offspring manage the problem for herself, but failure is not an option here.)

Each tool she looked at had its limits, and only some of them would work if either Mom or kid was unplugged from the Net. When CC came up empty after several searches for multi-model cross-platform repeating auto-reminder tools, my own Internet Bloodhound kicked in.

When My DVR Said Delete or Die

Fresh from the Things They Don't Tell You Until It's Too Late Department:  Last night I was forced to permit a complete delete of every one of the 50* shows waiting in line on my DVR (a VIP622 from Dish Network). What's worse, in the end, I had to pull the trigger personally.

The system appeared to give me no choice and no hope, no invitation to call for possible help. The only options were to click "Delete Now" or leave it locked up. Nonetheless I hopped online and then phoned Dish before I could bring myself to push that big orange button.

Now In the hope you will be spared the same wasted 90 minutes, I will give you both the short story and the long one, then hope some web spider finds it before this hits another customer.

Punchline first: If you see a blue screen of death like the one at left with the warning code 760 (click on image) whatever you have saved on your Dish DVR is probably toast. Hasta la bye bye.  But if you hope for a prayer of saving your shows, read on past the jump. Perhaps one of the tips to follow (including what "soft reboot" means) will do more for you than they did for me.

I just wish I could say I had as happy ending as did some of the folks who were giving me tips. Instead, around midnight, all my neighbors probably heard me say "aaaaaaaaaaargh!" This was not just because I could not stop the loss of saved shows (some of which were kept for work). I was also kicking myself almost as hard as I wanted to kick the DVR since I did not heed the warning signals soon enough.

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