In my family, I don't love equally.

I'm talking about my family of gadgets. Some have been sources of joy from the beginning. Others break my heart on a regular basis.

Let's start with the star of the show. There's no doubt the DVR takes top honors. Before I had one, a DVR sounded like an overpriced VCR to me. You hook it up to the TV and it records shows. Big deal, I thought.

But it really is a big deal. Not only can I tape a show for viewing later, I can also pause or even rewind a "live" telecast. If the phone rings when Andruw Jones comes to the plate for the Braves, I can pause the action and handle the call. I can rewind a live broadcast and figure out why everyone is laughing. Add in the fact that, unlike a VCR, it will record HDTV broadcasts faithfully, and you have a big winner.

I hate my PDA, on the other hand. I use it to keep track of telephone numbers for family and work contacts. It's a necessary evil as far as I'm concerned.

I need it because I may need to make work-related calls from home. Since it syncs with my home computer, I have my complete phone list even when the PDA is in my desk drawer at work.

All that sounds fine. But I routinely lose the tiny stylus used to poke the touch-sensitive screen. So I end up using everything from a Q-tip to a fingernail clipper to add information when I'm away from a computer. Typing on the tiny screen makes me long for a ballpoint pen and a cocktail napkin.

In theory, I could scribble notes on the screen and let my PDA translate that into type. Maybe yours works better, but mine translates my handwriting into some alien language.

While it's hard for me to love a PDA, I get teary-eyed with romance when I look at my 15-minute battery charger.

The trouble with most battery chargers is that by the time they're finished charging you've given up and bought a couple of regular batteries at the convenience store.

Mine charges AA batteries for my digital camera in 15 minutes or less. So on Christmas morning I can have fresh batteries in about the time it takes to unwrap my gifts of socks and underwear.

My cordless phone fills me with hate. This time batteries are the culprit. Like most people, our phones end up scattered about the house, sometimes hidden under letters we haven't opened and bills we haven't paid. Seldom is it parked on the charging base.

I've replaced the phone's battery pack about three times in a year. Letting it discharge so deeply and so frequently means it won't take a good charge. Sometimes I have trouble ordering a pizza without hearing beeps signaling a weak charge.

Until I started typing all this I had no idea I have such strong feelings about batteries. It must be true, though, since I have deep affection for my UPS.

As in uninterruptible power supply. I have one for my HDTV and two others for computers. Still another UPS uses its big battery to keep my DSL modem and router powered up even with the lights out.

And the lights go out a lot. Just last week I was busily killing video game monsters when things went dark. The various UPS systems instantly switched my computer over to battery power, and my mass murder of Snarling Driftwoods and Armored Cave Spiders continued in the dark.

We're all different. You may hate some things I love and vice versa. But I do think that any gadget with the power to stir love or hate is an important one.

So I'll end this column with some Web links that will let you try your own dating game with these gadgets I love --- and ones I hate. It may be the start of a beautiful affair with a PDA.

DVRs

> www.tivo.com/2.0.A.asp

> www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4139_22912926,00.html

> www.digitalnetworksna.com/replaytv/default.asp

PDAs

> www.mobiletechreview.com/

> palmtops.about.com/

15-minute battery chargers

> www.thomas-distributing.com/energizer-15-minute-battery-charger.php

> www.atruereview.com/rayovac/charger.php

Cordless telephones

> www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/guide/dsp_cordless_guide.cfm

UPS

> www.apc.com/

> www.uninterruptiblesolutions.com/