Have your cake and eat it, too...

I have a Media Center PC which does the same thing at Tivo (actually more) when it comes to watching TV.

It's great to record shows, listen to my music, watch our family pictures and videos, but the one concept that I get but still excites me is the ability to pause live TV.

It's one thing to tape a live game and watch it a few hours later. You know that it is long finished and there's no sense of being in the same period of time when the outcome is being determined.

Now, though, I can answer the phone, look at Calanit's blocks, or do whatever and I'm only minutes or seconds behind. Then, I can catch up.

Today, I watched the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey game. I started watching, paused it for 10 minutes and since the score is always in the top corner, I could catch up to the point where one team scored, watch that, and then catch up to the actual action and feel like I've seen the major points of the game in much less time.

The time-shifting phenomenon that Tivo, er Windows Media center, has enabled is quite remarkable.