Old tech

Grumble, grumble. Yeah, I'm still very much old-tech in some cases. I still have a VCR for recording any TV shows. I use it so seldom -- before the Olympics the previous thing I recorded was the Royal Wedding -- that it isn't worth buying newer tech.

Friday night I went to a concert. The college was able to get some free tickets to the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra through a special arrangement and I figured it would be good to show up with the students. Since I didn't want to go all the way back to campus afterward I drove my own car. The students came by college bus. Alas, the only address the driver had was for the orchestra's business offices, not the auditorium. A colleague, who was with me at the venue, had to call a student on the bus to get it sorted out. Good concert (though not as wonderful as the Detroit orchestra). But it meant I recorded the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.

I watched part of the ceremonies on Saturday, then watched the team figure skating that were broadcast that evening and yesterday. I was ready to watch the rest of the ceremony this evening.

I hit play. The tape popped out and the VCR shut itself off. I turned it on and popped the tape back in. None of the tape controls worked. It wouldn't even eject. Nothing. The VCR would show various operation displays on the TV, but completely ignore me if I pushed play or rewind.

Well, NBC has been saying events could be watched online. So I went to that site and found the page for the ceremonies. It showed me the first part of a playlist of 14 videos. That's when I ran into problems. I could scroll up and down the page, but not scroll through the playlist. *Every* video in the list started with a commercial (and probably the same commercial) with has no way to bypass it. When one video ends it doesn't automatically advance to the next video. So there might be 14 videos in the playlist but I can't get beyond the 6th one. So much for that nonsense.

I searched for videos -- taking out the "NBC" search term -- and found the whole thing has been posted on YouTube, courtesy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I now don't have time to watch it this evening. But it is good to know I can (then I can go back to watch the beginning of the London Olympics ceremony that I missed).

Perhaps I'll watch the pairs skating online afterward since I have rehearsal tomorrow evening.