Wish list for next Christmas

It's never too early to think ahead.

One of the new purchases I would like to add to our entertainment center is a media server. Ideally, this media server would be able to work for audio and video. However, if we are to talk about audio only, the Sonos Digital Music System is pretty close to the ideal system.

• All music can be centrally stored
• Music can be streamed to any part of the house, independently (different streams to different areas of the house) or in sync (same stream to different parts of the house).
• Nice remote for controlling the music

At the moment, with all our music centrally stored, we can use Windows Media Player (or any other software) to access it. We have a computer hooked up to our entertainment system in the family room, but to listen to our music repository in the bedroom, we would have to carry a computer in there. Not quite convenient. This is where a system like Sonos would be handy. Of course there are other systems as well, but Sonos provides the best integrated system (with the ability to play the same stream in different rooms, having a simple interface, and so on).

A similar system for movies and other video we have would be ideal. Since many of our shows are still on ReplayTV units, then a central video repository for all recorded shows would be difficult. We have almost 2 TB capacity on our ReplayTV units and one PC with over 1 TB capacity.

The plans for this coming year's computer purchase is an ultra-small IBM, I mean Lenovo, desktop. This will replace the computer in the media room, and the one in the media room will become my work computer. This way, I can fit the small PC on the shelf along with the other AV equipment instead of on the floor. In addition, with the one I'll use as my work computer, I can easily swap hard drives, so I can boot up with a Linux computer and whatever.

The second purchase is the X41 tablet PC. I would prefer the tablet PC to be less than 3 pounds, but at 3.5 pounds and the fact it is a "convertible" with keyboard included and that there have been some very positive reviews about how it feels to "write" on the surface, I think this is a good choice. However, including the x4 base, it would be over $1800 (over $1500 for the computer alone). However, in Japan, even for IBM employees, it is over 22,000 yen (over $2000) just for the computer alone. Ideally, I would want to get one for Kyoko, too, although she'll say she doesn't need a new computer. What does need have to do with buying anything?

One obvious use of the tablet is to place on the kitchen counter and stream video to it, such as TV video. Another use of the tablet is to allow it to be easily carried to another room for playing music from the music repository. Hey, if I can do that, then why not just use bluetooth speakers to play music in the bedroom and not carry the tablet PC around? There have to be bluetooth speakers somewhere, right?

For the desktop, I noticed IBM, I mean Lenovo, was offering free CRT monitor or $99 for flat-panel monitor. However, since we don't really need a new monitor (especially not CRT), I thought I would wait to see what the next offer was... The monitor offer expired on December 27... And so far, no new offer! Sigh!

I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Regarding other items, one interesting item I saw which hasn't even been advertised much anywhere is an hard drive enclosure for an external drive which also has video playback capabilities and a remote control from ByteCC. What this means is that you can hook up this enclosure to your TV and play videos from the external hard drive. This would be ideal for business trips, especially to Vienna where most of the channels are in German, so I can watch movies and other shows I record. I already do this, but this means I have to watch the shows on my ThinkPad. I would need to check though that the TVs allow external input. There are some limitations with this enclosure though. The big limitation is that it supports only FAT32 and not NTFS format. FAT32 has a limit of 4GB file sizes. Some golf recordings could be over 4GB. To be ideal, the remote should come with 30-second skip feature to help skip through commercials. Anyway, with these limitations, I'll stick with my ThinkPad, but it is an interesting concept.

From USA Today: Top meals for 2005

From USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2005-12-22-travel-review-food_x.htm

Belly-up to the table for the finest fare around the world

By Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY

In a decade of writing about food and wine, I've never encountered as many eye-opening, belly befuddling dining experiences as I did in 2005.

		Heavenly biscuits: Nashville's Loveless Motel & Cafe won reporter Jerry Shriver's vote for top down-home dining spot of 2005.
		Sanford Myers, The Tennessean for USA TODAY

This summer, USA TODAY launched the "Down-home Dining" project, which has taken me to nearly 70 classic pizza joints, ice cream parlors, barbecue and fish shacks, cafes, buffets, hot dog and hamburger stands and pancake houses. I'm ecstatic to report that there is an abundance of dirt-cheap, high-quality humble fare out there that reflects the quirks and traditions of each region.

	25 TOP DISHES
	Listed in no particular order: Tarte flambée, The Modern, New York Porcini mushrooms with peaches and tomatoes, Dei Cacciatori, Albaretto della Torre, Italy Hamburger, Booche's, Columbia, Mo. Tom yum soup, Le Grand in the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia French sundae Newport-style, Crown Candy Kitchen, St. Louis Chicken and dumplings, Hoover's, Austin Fugu sashimi salad with 1995 Krug Clos du Mesnil Champagne, Masa, New York Cioppino, Duarte's Tavern, Pescadero, Calif. Herb-crusted oyster veloute with wakame seaweed crouton, Cercle Rouge, New York Barbecued shrimp, Acadiana, Washington, D.C. Fried chicken, Stroud's, Kansas City, Mo. Chicken Vesuvio, Gene & Georgetti's, Chicago Peanut soup, Southern Kitchen, New Market, Va. Mahi-mahi fish and chips, Taylor Refresher, St. Helena, Calif. Steamed cheeseburger, Ted's, Meriden, Conn. Artichoke pizza, Di Fara, Brooklyn, N.Y. Vegetable buffet, Niki's West, Birmingham, Ala. Risotto with gorgonzola and pears, San Domenico, New York Torchon de foie gras with honey gelee and cherries, Blue Stem, Kansas City, Mo. Cha ca, Cha Ca La Vong, Hanoi Italian beef sandwich, Al's #1 Italian Beef, Chicago Barbecued beef brisket, City Market, Luling, Texas Grilled artichokes, Hitching Post II, Buellton, Calif. Cyber egg, Combal.Zero, Rivoli, Italy Gloucester hash, Two Sisters Coffee Shop, Gloucester, Mass.

In the midst of that research, I also visited half a dozen fine-dining restaurants where chefs with a cerebral bent are practicing avant-garde cooking. n And along the way were trips to Italy and Asia, where both the high-end fare and street foods were nothing short of astonishing; to pre- and post-Katrina New Orleans, where the hedonistic spirit is as potent as ever; and nights on the town at home in New York.

Out of that mix emerged memorable experiences I'm happy to distill into my annual awards for the meals and dishes of the year.

Top down-home dining spot: Loveless Motel & Café, Nashville

A group of local investors saved this 1951 landmark from extinction in 2003 and has breathed new life into a menu that features Southern classics such as fried chicken, country ham, hefty breakfasts and perhaps the country's finest biscuits and fruit preserves. (Related story: Biscuits rise to Olympian heights in Tennessee)

Runner-up: Marguerite's, Westport, Mass.

Top casual lunch spot: Shake Shack, New York

Renowned restaurateur Danny Meyer re-created the take-away eatery of his childhood dreams in the heart of Manhattan two years ago, and New York foodies have proved willing to stand in lengthy lines for outstanding burgers, Chicago-style hot dogs, frozen custard and thoughtfully chosen wines by the glass.

Runner-up: Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville

Top breakfast spot: Otis Café, Otis Junction, Ore.

The kitchen in this super-cozy roadside diner southwest of Portland makes nearly all of the dishes from scratch, including four types of bread, softball-size cinnamon rolls, a half-dozen varieties of pie and the famous German potatoes (onion-laced hash browns that are fried, then baked, then topped with white cheddar cheese). (Related story: Big taste resides in a little corner of Oregon)

Runner-up: Pancake Pantry, Nashville

Wendy Lyn Whitehurst
Exotic eats: Vietnam's Cho Binh Tay Market gets wins the top spot for foreign meal of the year.

Meal of the year — foreign: Cho Binh Tay Market, Ho Chi Minh City

The stalls in this bustling Chinese market are bulging with hundreds of exotic foodstuffs, and many of those wind up in the vast array of dishes served at the simple lunch counters in the rear. We squatted on stools, pointed to about eight or nine dishes and ate our fill of such standouts as duck rolls, pork meatballs, pea shoots and mushroom in chicken broth, and several types of unusual fish (and fish parts).

Other notable meals: La Griglia, Argegno, Italy; Ristorante Le Torri, Castiglione Falleto, Italy; Erawan Tea Room, Bangkok; Luck Yu Tea House, Hong Kong

Meals of the year — domestic: Alinea, Chicago, and MiniBar, Washington, D.C.

Of the six restaurants I visited for coverage of experimental dining, these two stood out. The approaches of Alinea's Grant Achatz and MiniBar's Jose Andres are worlds apart, yet both chefs offered food that was challenging, whimsical, stylish and usually (but not always) exceptionally tasty. (Related items: In search of extreme cuisine | Interactive graphic)

Other notable meals: Zuni Café, San Francisco; Daniel, New York; Casa Mono, New York; Nobu 57, New York; all of the meals at a dozen restaurants in New Orleans

From GuideLive: Best new restaurants in Dallas

From GuideLive: http://www.guidelive.com/feature/328/

Unconventional wisdom
The top new restaurants of 2005 break rules or defy stereotypes

By Dotty Griffith / The Dallas Morning News

Which words best describe the area restaurant scene circa 2005?
A. Mexican renaissance
B. Italian power play
C. American homogeneity
D. Asian nonconformity
E. All of the above
F. None of the above

Answer: E or F.

If that sounds contradictory, it is because the restaurant year itself felt oxymoronic.

Start with Lanny Lancarte II's "high Mexican kitchen." Who'd ever have thought the year's best new restaurant would serve gourmet Mexican food in Fort Worth? Or that No. 2 would be in suburban Colleyville?

Practically every restaurant on the list breaks rules or defies stereotypes (including No. 10, a three-way tie).

One thing that hasn't changed: All the restaurants mentioned here were reviewed since Jan. 1.

---

Jason Janik / Special to DMN

Chef Lanny Lancarte II, of the Joe T. Garcia's restaurant family, opened his own place in 2005.

1. Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana
3405 W. Seventh St. (at Boland), Fort Worth; 817-850-9996

Lanny Lancarte II, of Fort Worth's famed Joe T. Garcia's Tex-Mex restaurant family, opened his "high Mexican kitchen" midyear. On his first solo venture this 30-year-old chef-entrepreneur crafted a remarkably mature restaurant. Everything is first-class but casual. The cuisine from this classically trained chef takes south-of-the-border flavors to new heights with sophisticated techniques and mastery of the elements of taste. Wines are carefully selected and well-presented. He plans to begin serving lunch early in 2006.

Chris Hamilton / Special to DMN

Wild striped bass at 62 Main

2. 62 Main Restaurant
62 Main St., Suite 200, Colleyville; 817-605-0858

David McMillan's California wine-country bistro elevates the restaurant scene in the Northeast Tarrant County suburb of Colleyville. The subtleties of his decor, menu and wine list are as refined, but considerably more casual, than the virtuoso dishes that earned the chef a following during his years at Nana in the Wyndham Anatole hotel. He uses a brick oven for roasting, burning a "wood of the day." The wine service and list are excellent.

Darnell Renee / Special to DMN

Pan-roasted fillet of sea bass at Go Fish

3. Go Fish
4950 Beltline Road, Addison; 972-980-1919

Seafood, particularly finfish of all kinds, is Chris Svalesen's forte, and he's in fine form at his newest restaurant. This chef has had his ups and downs in a tough business. A lounge and bar scene no doubt provides some cushion for his relatively small restaurant along Addison's teeming dining strip. This is a place to get good basic seafood as well as the kind of innovative dishes that made chef Svalesen famous in previous endeavors. The wine selection offers some good values.

Darnell Renee / Special to DMN

Chef Nick Badovinus at Hibiscus

4. Hibiscus
2927 N. Henderson Ave., Dallas; 214-827-2927

Part steakhouse, part chef-driven restaurant, this highly anticipated location by the dynamic duo of businessman Tristan Simon and chef Nick Badovinus has been hot since it opened. The cocktails are well-chilled and the atmosphere is sexy. Some dishes are knockouts, others are similar to what can be found on any menu featuring thick cuts of heavy beef. Still, this restaurant has made the already-sizzling North Henderson corridor in East Dallas even hotter and more congested on busy evenings.

Courtney Perry / Special to DMN

Desserts such as green tea ice cream with sticky rice are a highlight at Asian Mint.

5. Asian Mint
11617 N. Central Expressway (southwest corner of Forest and Central), Dallas; 214-363-6655

What a pleasant surprise this small fusion restaurant turned out to be, starting with nontraditional desserts such as green tea ice cream cake and coconut ice cream on sticky rice. Part dessert-coffee bar and part Asian restaurant, this North Dallas gem is a find that has caught on and keeps a steady following. The menu is heavily Thai, with lovely soup specials that make it a standout in a crowded genre. All that makes it a good choice for lunch, dinner or just dessert.

Courtney Perry / Special to DMN

Roasted chicken breast with fettuccine, walnuts and basil

6. Tutto
2719 McKinney Ave., Dallas; 214-220-0022

Luxe ingredients used in unusual ways mark the fare at chef Joseph Gutierriz's newest venture, where he cooks Italian with a Spanish accent. Dishes are complex, and the decor is dramatic. The wine list is international with selections from Italy, California, Spain and South America. The name means "everything," and the restaurant offers such dining surprises as black truffle ice cream.

Darnell Renee / Special to DMN

Tiradito Nobu Style features Japanese snapper.

7. Nobu
400 Crescent Court (in the Hotel Crescent Court, Maple at Cedar Springs), Dallas; 214-252-7000

Dallas wasn't in the first tier of cities to get a clone of the 1994 New York original. But we're glad to have it nonetheless. Famed Los Angeles-based chef Nobu Matsuhisa spearheaded much of what is called Asian fusion today with his South American-Japanese interpretations. The sushi bar provides a particularly memorable experience, as does the omakase, or chef's tasting menu. Be prepared to spend a bundle and enjoy doing it while the sushi chefs explain what's freshest on the menu.

Darnell Renee / Special to DMN

Chiles poblanos at Cafe San Miguel

8. Cafe San Miguel
1907 N. Henderson Ave. (at McMillan), Dallas; 214-370-9815

Earthy dishes reflect the regional flavors of the Mexican city for which the restaurant is named. The menu also suggests chef Fernando Marrufo's native Yucatán. Fine tastes begin with a trio of salsas and continue with authentic Mexican cocktails and beers. The menu skews toward Tex-Mex at lunch, with traditional fish, game birds and steaks at night. Decor is bright and casual, and the restaurant houses one of the city's more imaginative ladies' rooms.

Courtney Perry / Special to DMN

The upstairs bar at Fuse restaurant in the Dallas Power & Light building

9. Fuse
1512 Commerce St., Dallas; 214-742-3873

In the historic Dallas Power & Light building (now a residential-retail complex), this spare restaurant has lit up downtown since last summer's opening, when the water garden patio immediately became a Dallas landmark for the hip-and-happening set. Chef Blaine Staniford's Tex-Asian cuisine hits its target most of the time, impressive but not too contrived.

10. Three-way tie

• Daniele Osteria
3300 Oak Lawn (at Hall), Dallas; 214-443-9420

From Palermo, chef Daniele Puleo prepares a mostly Sicilian menu at his Oak Lawn restaurant, where fresh pastas and caponata are superb. Mr. Puleo's intensely personal and personality-driven restaurant offers some unusual dishes in a city where northern Italian cooking has long dominated.

Chris Hamilton / Special to DMN

Chef Abraham Salum mans the kitchen at his self-titled restaurant.

• Salum
4152 Cole Ave, No. 103, Dallas; 214-252-9604

Abraham Salum's sleek, clean and understated restaurant offers a cleverly crafted wine list and a menu with attention to detail that characterizes chef-owned and -operated locations. Mr. Salum is confident enough to color outside the lines on occasion. The result is a restaurant that is fashionable without being cloying.

• Nicola's Ristorante
5800 Legacy Drive (in the Shops at Legacy), Plano; 972-608-4455

Relocated from the Galleria Dallas to new, much larger digs and with an additional chef, Nicola's reaches out with special ingredients such as mozzarella burrata (imported leaf-wrapped buffalo mozzarella), so fresh it can be imported only during cold winter months. Ingredients like that, and the addition of Sascia Marchesi to the chef lineup alongside veteran Vincenzo Indelicato, make Nicola's worthy of notice.

Making a million on the Internet? No problem.

I guess this shows there are endless possibilities on the Internet to make money. Or at least 1000x1000 ways.

From Reuters:
Link to referred home page: http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com

Cash pours in for student with $1 million Web idea
Dec 29, 1:05 PM (ET)

A view of Alex Tew's page, www.milliondollarhomepage.com. Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small... Full Imag

By Peter Graff
LONDON (Reuters) - If you have an envious streak, you probably shouldn't read this.

Because chances are, Alex Tew, a 21-year-old student from a small town in England, is cleverer than you. And he is proving it by earning a cool million dollars in four months on the Internet.

Selling porn? Dealing prescription drugs? Nope. All he sells are pixels, the tiny dots on the screen that appear when you call up his home page.

He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, www.milliondollarhomepage.com, while lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university.

The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100.

He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release.

That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites.

So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew's home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.

"All the money's kind of sitting in a bank account," Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. "I've treated myself to a car. I've only just passed my driving test so I've bought myself a little black mini."

The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.

Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business.

"It's been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site," he said.

But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online.

"I didn't expect it to happen like that," Tew said. "To have the job offers and approaches from investors -- the whole thing is kind of surreal. I'm still in a state of disbelief."

Give me my MP3 player

For Christmas, I gave Kyoko an MP3 player... After careful consideration, I got her the MPIO FL350. It has 1GB memory and weighs about 1 oz. Yes, that's right, one ounce. For Kyoko, weight would be a consideration, especially if she wants to use it while exercising, and this one, she hardly feels she's wearing it. I thought they looked pretty stylish too.

I also gave consideration to their FG200 which is approximately the same size and has about a 1" LCD and can play videos. I ended up opting for FL350 because of the choice in colors. It seems that MPIO is having some supply problems, though, as I have not seen the FG200 with 1GB available on their website for a long time.

Anyway, back to the FL350, not only can it play mp3 files (as well as wma), it has an FM tuner, voice recorder, and I believe line-in recorder as well.

Kyoko has been very happy with it... and when she's happy, I'm happy!

My trouble with phones, part 2

Anyway. since we went to Skype, I thought it would be better to get a wireless headset instead of talking directly into the computer. Using computer speakers and mic anyway could result in an echo (although not the cause of the echo per my previous post), so anyway, a headset is a reasonable accessory to the computer and a wireless headset would be the best.

After researching bluetooth headsets, I decided on the Sony Ericsson Akono HBH-300. I thought the other ones looked way too geeky. I thought this one with a clean line was the best looking.

However, with the headset people were also complaining that they could not hear me so well. So based on the following picture from the user's guide, I thought that meant that you could extend the boom mic. Doesn't that seem like a reasonable assumption to you?

Just as a warning, this is NOT what this diagram means. I am not sure what it seems but do not try to force extending the boom mic. So now my headset does not have such straight lines.

Sigh!

My trouble with phones, part 1

For some reaosn, at our house, the phone lines seem to be iffy. Of course, if we call a service person out to take a look but they cannot find a problem, then they'd say the problem is inside the house, so they would charge us for a service call and not have fixed anything.

So I need to have a quantifiable way of measuring the problem we are having with the phones.

Basically, the problem is that often on calls, I am told that they can hardly hear me. I've thought it could be our Siemens phone system, which may be contributing to the problem, but I've also been told that using a different phone. I have taken a phone outside to the junction box (whatever it is called) and I have seemed to have replicated the problem outside, too, which would indicate the problem is not from inside the house. However, I really need to have a quantifiable way of measuring the extent of the problem.

The problem is only outbound traffic, so I never have problems with hearing what other people are saying. The problem does not occur all the time. However, since I never hear my own voice on a call, I never know when there is the problem and how often it occurs. Whenever I call home, I never seem to have the problem hearing what Kyoko is saying.*

Anyway, since it is a problem for people not to hear me on calls, we did sign up for Lingo. However, there seemed to be extremely poor quality on calls to Japan, so we ended up dropping Lingo. My current alternate provider is Skype. Other people sometimes hear an echo with Skype. I've gone through the FAQs but there does not seem to be an easy answer with that either. Also, since I am not the one who hears the echo, I am not sure how often the problem is with the echo. I may have to try Vonage next...?

(* This has led me to wonder if the frequency of my voice is such that it is difficult to transmit over phone lines. There are insects which chirp at such a frequency that even though the human ears can hear the sound they make very clearly, someone on the other end of the phone would not hear them at all. Is the same true with my voice?)

100-disc CD player

Last year we were able to use my old Aiwa 100-CD player to play Christmas CDs, although it did need a little "encourage" at times. This year,it really does not want to work. From what I can tell, it is a mechanical failure, not an electronic failure. I can see what it wants to do, but for some reason, it is not able to do it. It can work with a little assistance, but it requires assistance now every time you want to play a CD, so it makes using it quite impractical.

However, playing one CD at a time is also impractical when you want it as background music. Therefore, I decided to create mp3 files from the CDs. This being the first time for me to do so, it's actually quite simple. The only drawback would be for the disk space, but considering we have over 1 TB available for recorded TV shows, we can spare a few gigs for music. Having all your music available on your computer then make it quite simple to play what you want, whenever you want, and never have to search for CDs.

So even if I were to get the 100-CD player working again, it seems that having everything on a computer is much more convenient. Oooops, I shouldn't mention that to anyone to whom I might try to sell the CD player.

I thought that I bought the player in the late 80's, which would make the player almost 20 years old. (OK, 16 years old if it were bought in 1989.) However, it turns out this one was manufactured in January 1995, so it is one month from 11 years. I never used it to its full capacity. However, that is not too surprising for me. It's quite a nice looking piece of equipment with flashing lights for the elevator moving to load and unload CDs. The flashing lights are the main reason I bought it. You can even hook up multiple players together to get 200+ CD capacity. In fact, I was extremely tempted to buy other units. Good thing I managed to be patient in this case. Also very surprising for me.

Anyway, I can't quite get myself to throw it away yet, knowing that it seems that it is some mechanical failure which is preventing it from working. I was able to get a type of workaround using double-sided tape, but it only helped partially. With everything else I need to be doing, I'll put this unit away in storage for when I might have some free time to look at it again.

PS. Uhhh, anyone interested in buying a "partially working" 100-disc CD player?

Backup of backup

The new external hard drive for Kyoko's use is making some not-so-interesting noises. Just in case of a hard drive failure, I'd better make sure that the data on the enclosure is backed up somewhere.

One use of the external hard drive is to backup data from her ThinkPad. Therefore, the original data is still there. (Also, the PC is the media room is also used as a backup for data.)

However, another use of the external hard drive is to archive shows she wants to save from ReplayTV. Therefore, one way to have a backup of the archive is to burn to DVD, but probably too much of a hassle, so I need to expand the data available on the Family Room PC archive to also copy her shows there. I have been wondering whether I would need a backup of the Family Room PC archive. Considering it is already over 1 TB, that would be quite some additional capacity to back that up. Therefore, at the moment, it seems impractical, although it is true that if I really, really, really want to save a show, I'd better save it in two places.

Yes, I believe in Magic

I found someone created freeware called IVSMagic. IVS is the Internet sharing mechanism used by ReplayTV users to share shows (among other ReplayTV owners). Someone had already created freeware called DVArchive which allows your PC to look like a ReplayTV unit and allows you to easily download from your ReplayTV unit to your PC. But once downloaded onto your PC*, then you cannot use IVS to send the show to another ReplayTV owner. (By downloading, I do mean downloading and removing the original copy from your ReplayTV unit. Downloading to your PC is a way to free up space on your ReplayTV unit but still have a copy of the show available to view.)

IVSMagic allows you to send the show even though you have already downloaded it to your PC. Now I can send my mom "Teahouse of the August Moon" which is a very good movie starring Marlon Brando in post-war Okinawa.

Update:I did install IVSMagic and it is truly magical.