"Record Grey's Anatomy, HAL." "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

While various solutions do exist for setting up recording times with your WMCE box remotely, we're not sure many of them could match Casey's new mobileRecord MSN chat bot for sheer geekery. Basically, it allows you to ping your WMCE unit via MSN Messenger with a last minute reminder to record those primetime soap opera episodes you forgot to program -- which sounds great as long as it doesn't get some sort of attitude. After a couple of questions to make sure it's on the right track, the bot takes over and schedules the recording for Media Center. The general idea is for use with a smartphone, but you can message from another desktop just as well. Apparently, the software also supports voice recognition using the Speech Server 2007 beta, which would allow you to just phone in your recording requests, but since Speech Server has been delayed until next year, it looks like it'll be all text requests for now.

[Via MAKE]

[Spartacus @ Sep 28th 2006 7:17PM]

WMLW means Milwaukee....

Honestly though Casey I would think the whole point of something like this is so you're NOT stuck watching the 1 AM showing of Fear Factor.

[CraigS @ Sep 28th 2006 7:50PM]

I've had a voice activated video recorder for years. It goes like this.

*Dial home, any phone will do*
Me: Hey Peter, can you record 24 for me?
Brother: Do you have a tape?
Me: yeah just use the one labeled temp
Brother: OK

it took 18 years to develop but it's pretty solid and does cost me anything to keep it running.

[Big Al @ Sep 29th 2006 12:40AM]

Ummmmmmm, uhhhhhhhh.....Or you could just use Orb.

[HughJass @ Sep 28th 2006 8:07PM]

Ping?

[abib @ Sep 28th 2006 8:33PM]

ping is actually sending a packet (or message) to another computer.

shame.. engadget should do more to attract more geeks and nerds, and stop going mainstream.

[Dan Diemer @ Sep 28th 2006 8:20PM]

i saw that the other day... it's from the guy who made that goofy windows version of Front Row.

[Mick O @ Sep 28th 2006 10:06PM]

>> shame.. engadget should do more to attract more geeks and nerds, and stop going mainstream.


engadget% do more
-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `do'


Wait.. were you using the term "do" in some sense unrelated to the command? But why??

[Alain @ Sep 28th 2006 9:45PM]

You do know that using tv.msn.com is alot easier... just make sure you have msn remote record on your mce pc and sign up with you email account. its waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy more convinient.

[casey chesnut @ Sep 28th 2006 10:04PM]

Alain, tv.msn.com only works with desktop browsers. this is primarily made to be used with MSN Mobile on a PocketPC or Smartphone ... when you don't have access to a desktop browser. and the voice-only interface will work with any phone.

[HughJass @ Sep 28th 2006 9:53PM]

More specifically, pinging is sending an ICMP echo request packet and listening for an ICMP echo response. I'm all for the entertaining, witty slang we see on Engadget, but "ping" isn't slang and really doesn't make sense here.

[Mick O @ Sep 28th 2006 10:10PM]

Sorry to break it to you. Ping is fairly common for "send an instant message to" among the general populace.

[HughJass @ Sep 29th 2006 11:41PM]

I really don't think ping is common among the general populace. Apparently there are some people say it, but I've never heard someone use it in that context for as long as I've been in computing, so it can't be *that* prevalent. The general populace isn't overly tech-savvy, so I figure if they're using it, they probably picked it up from some techie and didn't know what it meant.

[... @ Sep 28th 2006 11:01PM]

holy crap, you can't be serous about the ping.

This marks a new level of tech ignorance for the general populace...

I could feel something snap inside me as I read your comment.


In any case, being able to im your dvr is certainly a nice touch :)

I wonder how long it will be until there are shows that have been marked as non recordable, and you actually will get a response 'I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that.'

[beanspants @ Sep 29th 2006 12:13AM]

tech ignorance? more like general ignorance of the current tech population.

"ping" as referring to computers is an echo, as described above. it originally referred to a "ping" sound from submarine sonar, which was also an echo. therefore, the tech word "ping" was a general populace term before it was a computer term.

at first, "ping" was a sonar wave being sent and returned. now, its any message sent and returned rather than specific to sonar. so the writer's use was fine.

using the same articles on engadget mobile, engadget hd, and engadget regular on the other hand, is questionable.

[Sniper @ Sep 29th 2006 3:38AM]

Anyone added this "[e-mail]" and screwed with this guys recording? :P

[Martin @ Sep 29th 2006 6:40AM]

This was blogged on PVR Wire 3 days ago:

http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/09/25/record-to-mce-with-msn-messenger/

[Jeff @ Sep 29th 2006 10:35AM]

Oh God No!!! Not 3 day old news!!! Heaven-forbid!!!

Did ya notice that blog picked up a reply? Yup, ONE reply. One. I'm about to be 16. So maybe... JUST maybe.... posting this info here is going to expose it to more readers.

But, no. We can't have that, can we? If it's already on the internet, it certainly shouldn't be ANYWHERE else. Well, at least if it's already someplace you, personally, have seen.

Blech.

[Chase Richards @ Sep 29th 2006 2:35PM]

This is almost down right freaky, but all should check out MC Lars' "Space Game" song, hilarious and has a very similar Space Odyssey allusion.