From the “it’s about time” category, news that Tivo has signed a deal with Nielsen (the television ratings people). Last year, we were a “Nielsen family,” and we actually had to write down which shows by hand in a little diary that they sent us. I would have thought that by now you would at least be able to go online and indicate which shows you had watched, but Nielsen hasn’t even come that far. The whole thing was particularly insulting when you consider that we have a Tivo, a digital cable box, and a DVR provided by Time-Warner Cable. Surely we should have been able to just give our consent to someone to let Nielsen know what we were watching. I believe Tivo when they say that all data collected from customers is anonymized and aggregated, and if my viewing habits can actually influence broadcasters to show more of the kinds of shows that I like (instead of regularly cancelling them before sweeps), I’m all for it.