"You mean Western Digital still makes hard disks?!" I asked with great disbelief as Jeff connected the external storage device to the TiVo.

A few minutes of set-up later, we were drooling at the prospect of almost 100 hours of HD recording space.

Well, actually he was drooling; I was wondering how on earth I would find the time to watch more TV when I haven't any time right now!

What's neat about the device design is that it looks like a book.

I imagined row after row of metal racks stocked with these digital "books" in some raised-floor, temperature-controlled lab room. Instead of being rack-mountable, one uses bookends. That was a satisfying image ... to my frustrated, "inner" librarian.