Im a big TiVo fan, and was really excited when I started hearing about the whole hacking thing, and was looking forward to the 3 books coming out (this one, the TiVo Hacks book, and the upcoming Hacking TiVo book - which I cant wait to get my hands on.)
When I went through this one I was usually left with more questions than answers. The author is a hardcore UNIX guy, and he, unfortunately, expects that you are too. Im certainly not a newbie, but I am not a UNIX administrator either.
Many times he gets ahead of himself, and describes a hack that involves doing something he hasnt covered yet, which was really frustrating - having to flip back and forth to try to figure it all out.
It is also a little out of date, or just wrong about certain hardware hacks like the TurboNet card for instance, and I was very disappointed that some of the stuff that is supposed to be on the CD isnt there. Having all the software in one place and being able to install it on your TiVo easily is what is really what a good TiVo Cd is about. There are some places on the internet that sell TiVo boot CDs that are better than the one that comes with this book in my opinion.
Ill keep looking for the best TiVo hacking book - so should you.