The power went out in our neighborhood three days ago. Since then, I have to reboot the UVerse box in order to watch television. Otherwise, I see a blue screen with an instruction to press "OK" on my remote, but this button has no effect. So, I called ATT, which scheduled a service call for the next day. So far so good. I was told that there probably is something wrong with the box and it will have to be replaced. I inquired about recorded programs. The helpful techie said that he would indicate on the ticket that I wanted to save these programs, but he didn't know what could be done.

The service tech arrived late with no advance phone call. But hey, he got there, though with no idea what he was supposed to do. Hmmm. I showed him the problem. He told me that I shouldn't be using an HDMI cable. Let me say that again: I was told by the ATT Uverse tech that I shouldn't be using an HDMI cable to receive high def signals with my hi def service. Right. The techician told me that he would swap the receiver, but my programs would be lost. I asked him why he couldn't save them to another medium. He scratched his head and asked me how I would do it. I sure don't know, but there's a USB port on the tuner and my television has a bunch of ports as well.

By now, I had gotten the uneasy impression that of the three beings in the room, two human, one feline, the tech was third in line. After five weird minutes I escort him to the door, having deciding that I would rather keep my current programs and surely there's a way to save them to another medium. In any case, this tech has a real future in fast food, which is where he should be building his career.

The bundled DVR is a terrific feature, but it's like going back to the stone age regarding disk maintenance and data security. Surely a solution is on the way, whether it comes from ATT, a third party developer, or a hacker. I'm patiently waiting.