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Unreliable technology

I've had this debate with my friends for months now. Why I think my BlackBerry is better than anything else out there. I am not partisan about this. Maybe I am biased. This is really a digression, but I will start off with that. I've had a blackberry since 2005. It was one of those bricks (6xxx series) with the scroll wheel on the side. It was monochrome, the phone sucked and was a brick. Since then, I have had a smaller brick (with colour!), then the first Pearl (which I loved) and now the Tour (I had to upgrade the OS to 5.0 by a hack because Bell won't release it officially). Consistently, over the years, things that it did (or at least, the things I considered important), it did well. I got push email. I got a keyboard that worked. I got a browser (it sucked... but whatever; in 2005, that was the best it was on a mobile device)... Google talk worked. Gmail integration works. Google Maps works. My contacts from google sync seamlessly. Multi-tasking works. Like truly works. Multiple things run. At the same time. Without anything being put to sleep or whatever. And the battery doesn't die in an hour as a result.

That's why I love my berry. 

I have an iPod touch. I use it when I am home on the wifi network. I love how I can browse most websites (I read the globe and mail a lot, and the website is far better than the native app). I love multiple tabs in mobile Safari. YouTube works. Angry Birds works. I don't get why its spell checks sucks and it tries to fix things when I don't want it to. I don't get why I can't search for stuff easily on a webpage (it took me a while to figure out how to do it even... use the google search box to search for text on page). I don't understand why multi-tasking sucks on it. But whatever. 

My issue tonight is not either of these. Fanboys (I guess Apple and possibly Android have those... I doubt there are BlackBerry fanboys out there) have done this to death. Beaten it over and over and over. The Apple people think their platform is the best. Whatever. I can't afford their platform for the most part. Especially when it is twice as expensive for 'elegance'. 

My issue is my PVR. I setup the recording of the English language debate tonight before I left for work this morning. It didn't record. 

I have a Shaw Pace set-top box (758D). I use Novus as my service provider. I needed a PVR. I built my own e-SATA 1TB box. It seems to work some of the time. Every so often, the thing flakes out. Its almost like once a week, I can assume that it will stop working. It will tell me that my PVR is full when it is not. It will tell me the PVR is not available from time to time. The hard drive never seems to stop even when the TV and STB are off. It frustrates me no end that it stops working. I don't understand which piece of this setup is responsible for this pain. The fix is to reboot it. Like unplug it from the wall type of reboot. This wipes out the Guide and delays PVR access.

I don't know if the Pace box is at fault or if it is the provider or the firmware of the device (which I understand has to be updated remotely by Novus). All I know is, the damn thing is so unreliable that I question my decision to buy the box. I setup things to record with an expectation that I have half a chance of not seeing the recordings. And not really working fully either. As in, lots of drop offs and pauses. Thank goodness most of the stuff I care about is also available online (sans commercials).

If I could be a fanboy of companies, I would pick 2 off the top of my head. T-Mobile in the US (not sure why they are being sold to AT&T... but that's beside the point now) and Novus. Novus has been awesome to me so far. They send me a bill once a month... the service works (well) and I don't have to deal with weird issues from them. I would recommend both of those companies wholeheartedly.

But here's the thing. This STB/PVR/service setup's reliability is so flaky that it doesn't work for me. It sometimes works. And unreliable technology is not like the BlackBerry. My BlackBerry works. It does what I want and it does it well. Sure it has its issues, but it does the 10 things it is supposed to do well. I just don't feel the same with the STB/PVR/service. 

Anyone have ideas/suggestions/thoughts on what I can do to make the PVR work? Why is this thing so unreliable?
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