Having had a computer at some point since Dec. of 1997, I’ve come to know all the little possible problems that can go wrong with a computer. The first computer we had as a family, was re-formatted multiple times with Windows re-installed (this was pre-XP, so it was less of a hassle to re-install. It first had Windows 95, but we eventually got Windows 98 (2nd Edition). And this system had a 2GB hard drive. And overtime, from one PC to another, hard drives got bigger, and cheaper as well. We usually bought a new drive for the purpose of expanding storage. There was never anything massively wrong that resulted in absolute failure.

Toward the end of 2006, I decided to buy each computer part after each paycheck, (or after a few paychecks, depending on the cost of piece), and Dec. 2006 it was completed. Total amount was around $1,000 (probably a little more), with case and 300 Watt PS, AMD motherboard w/ nForce chipset, 2GB DDR2 RAM, Dual-Core Athlon processor (if I remember correctly, it 2GHz, or maybe less), I want to say an 80GB (at least that, maybe 120, I really can’t remember) hard drive (IDE, not SATA, but the motherboard did support SATA connection, DVD-RW optical drive, Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse, and Viewsonic 17″ flat panel monitor. Five years later, the only upgrade I had done was a 2nd hard drive (I think around 200GB). I once tried to put more RAM, but a third RAM stick caused memory errors, so it stayed at 2GB RAM. I never added a video card (the onboard video was good enough for Enter the Matrix, and that was all I needed, as I’m not much of a PC gamer anyway). I got Vista 32-bit a month or two after it came out in order to try it, but ultimately went back to XP Pro, which is the same installation of it still on it. I eventually partitioned the main drive, to triple boot it, adding two different Linux distros (PCLinux 2007 and OpenSUSE (whichever one was near that year), allowing me to tinker with Linux, while still keeping WindowsXP.

Just a few months ago, we booted it up, and it still works. A little slow, but the damn thing still works. The monitor, of course, is one of the best ones we’ve had (had built in speakers) and never one dead pixel ever surfaced. Basically, I got seriously lucky with that build. Everything still works. And when to the point where I wanted to have a laptop, in May 2008, I finally got one at Best Buy, a Toshiba Satellite, with 320GB HD, 4GB RAM, Intel processor and graphics, webcam, harman/kardon speakers, DVD-RW drive, and, what they seem to no longer have now, Firewire port to go with the 4 USB ports. Unfortunately, it was pre-loaded with Vista 64-bit. Fortunately, I have NEVER re-formatted it, do any reinstall, and only this year did I partition a sliver of space for a tiny Linux distro (Puredyne), just to try. I’m typing with it now. So, luck can hit twice.

Sometimes, though, aren’t so great. The computer I had before I made that build, was a Dell laptop that crapped out on me after two years (basically, right after any warranty that usually would’ve existed). While my current laptop has performed well (okay, it’s not as fast as it was when it was new, but is expected since I’ve installed/uninstalled software over the years). The Dell was absolute crap. It came with XP Home (the useless XP variety). I did manage to get XP Pro, since I was in community college, as a student I got a copy of XP Pro.

Now, my more recent build, the HTPC experience I blogged about way back in April of this year (not actually too many posts back). Everything was running fast and smooth when I got Windows 7 Home Premium and eventually even added Linux Mint 11 beside it. The dual boot worked great. Windows for everything, using Windows Media Center to record TV shows (with analog cable and the clear QAM channels), do some net surfing, plus a project I started working on at the end of summer, trying to backup all my DVDs and Blu-Rays to go with my Media Center. Linux was good for net surfing, but I also found it much faster at encoding video in Handbrake (Windows loads so much in the background, I think that makes a difference in performance of the same or similar software, or maybe it’s just in my head).

To recap the build, I got a pretty large case for an HTPC case (but I want to be able to put stuff in it, and even fit an standard ATX motherboard) w/500W PS, AMD AM3 motherboard (no onboard video), AMD Athlon 3GHz Regor Dual-Core Processor, 4GB Crucial DDR3 RAM, 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue HD (SATA II), Sparkle GeForce 210 512MB DDR3 video card (PCI Express 2.0), Hauppauge HVR-2250 TV tuner card (PCI Express x1), which all came to about $405. I first tried to only use Mythbuntu, but I could’nt get the TV tuner to play nice with it, and had to use my Vista 32-bit I had bought about 4 years earlier, and even then that didn’t perform the DVR stuff well enough (had to use a third-party plug-in just to try to get the QAM channels). Eventually, I bought Win 7 Home Premium (OEM), and got a Sony Blu-Ray burner along with it, so that brought the total to about $605. All through the summer, it worked flawless, beautifully, allowed me to record QAM without any additional tweaks. I even go MCEBuddy to automatically convert those pesky WTV files to a more friendly (and smaller) mp4.

Well, at some point, after summer, the screen kept blacking out. I’ve seen this happen before, with the 2nd machine we got, which was in late 2001, a Compaq, unfortunately, with Windows ME (terrible OS). That one, we, of course, got XP on it eventually, as well as added a video card (GeForce). Well, it didn’t have a fan, so when I tried playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, it blacked out. We put in one of those little case fans that take a PCI slot up, and it worked fine afterward. So for this new machine, when it happened, what was once a good rated video card on NewEgg, wasn’t as high. Seems the fan isn’t a very good fan. So I had to put down $60 for a new card, since I couldn’t wait for a NewEgg delivery, I bought it in store at Best Buy (thus I paid more than I liked). It is still a GeForce 210, but PNY brand and with 1GB DDR2 RAM. Once I installed it, no more blackouts, and my Windows experience rating went from 4.8 to 5.1. Was it worth $60? No, but it got it working. My old card will probably work fine, just need to have some kind of secondary fan.

But the real reason for this post: the Hard Drive. Linux Mint 11 was when I first saw some issues arise. It was being real slow at accessing data. I looked at the Disk Utility, and it said there were a few bad sectors, but it was in green. So I checked in Windows. It loaded fine, and I got the Speccy application to read SMART data, and it said the drive health was good. So I figured, maybe a Linux thing. So I decided, well, the new Linux Mint 12 was just released, so I formatted the old partition to make way for Linux Mint 12. It installed, loaded up fast and worked fine. Disk Utility still said a few bad sectors, but again, was in green (versus red). But, I was also starting to notice some issues in Windows, particularly in playing back TV Shows. There was some freezing, and also, some video failing to properly convert to mp4 (or it converts but unable to write the new file, causing the totally fine converted file in the temp folder to disappear when the next video starts conversion).

Finally, it seemed ever more evident as Linux Mint 12 would no longer boot at all, and while Sunday I got Windows to load up and record the first 2 FOX animation shows (I watched other 2 live as ‘Leverage’ recorded). I watched both recorded FOX shows straight through, maybe one freeze-up, but when I did ‘Leverage,’ I couldn’t get half-way through. On Monday, I believe ‘Terra Nova’ recorded fine, and ’2 Broke Girls’ worked fine as well. Tuesday, Windows loaded fine, but it took forever to just highlight the ‘My Computer’ icon once clicked. I found an ‘Ultimate Boot Disc’ I made last year, and used a Diagnostic tool made for Western Digital drives, and it barely got ten seconds in before it brought up error code 0007. And on the Western Digital site, 0007 is in the range that says ‘Replace Drive’. Luckily, I had bought a 1TB Caviar Green drive from Staples (double the space, but more than twice the price, thanks to the Thailand flooding). Hence the title: Great Time for Hard Drive Failure. It didn’t give me a heads up on eminent failure before the price increases due to the flooding. Nope, while the prices have skyrocketed, that’s when I got worried enough to go ahead and buy a new hard drive for $100 (when I purchased the 500GB drive in late March, I paid $40 [note OEM drive from NewEgg, not a retail store purchase]).

So, back a few days when I bought the drive, I found I couldn’t install it alongside (at the time) functioning drive, as my Power Supply, only had two SATA Power connectors, and they were both in use. So I had to order an adapter, and while at it, a way to put the second drive into the 5″ bay. Both of those items came in Tuesday, just in time for when loading Windows is gone. So, a fresh install was the only way now.

Not so fast! Unfortunately, I misplaced my Win7 disc. So, at this time, I am using the ‘Ultimate Boot Disc,’ which just so happens to have Cloning tools. I’m using the HDClone Free Edition, and at about 30%, it had about 1,440 read errors.

One more thing to add, the drive bay adapter thingy I bought, kind of leaves a little opening into the case, but hey, maybe that’ll add more air near the drive.

Tomorrow, I’ll hopefully know more, and maybe the cloning tool will be successful, but with my luck, if I don’t find my Win7 disc, I may either try to find a Linux distro that’ll play nice with the HVR-2250 (I want both clear QAM and analog, but definitely need the QAM ability), and if that fails once more, it may come down to needing to buy Win 7 again, but I really hope that if it came to that, SSDs can go down a little more, because, if I’m gonna put more money into this, might as well upgrade to a good SSD for OS and programs, and this 1TB drive would be for storage. I’m also hoping I can get a replacement drive as it’s well within the 3-yr warranty (I registered the 1TB drive the day I got it, but I never did for the Blue drive, and since I’ve never been in such a situation as this, I don’t know what I can do.)

As a Netflix subscriber, with the current $9.99 DVD-streaming combo option that will cease to exist come Sept. 1 to current subscribers, I thought I’ll weigh in on what’s going on.

As most people are aware, Netflix made a streaming only option for 7.99, while increasing to 9.99 for having unlimited streaming and DVDs (1 at a time), last November. Going from 8.99 to 9.99 wasn’t a big deal, I think most people understood as it costs money to send out DVDs (you know, postage). Now, with Netflix set to separate their two services, having the already existing 7.99 streaming only, and adding a 7.99 DVD-only, meaning to have both, you add those together to get the $15.98/mo, which is what current $9.99 subscribers will be paying, starting Sept 1, unless they decide one way or another, or as some people (stupidly) are threatening to do, canceling altogether.

I find canceling to be stupid, as Netflix is by far the best paid streaming option out there. Right now, even the paid Hulu Plus has ads, while Netflix doesn’t. The streaming limits of Netflix is why people liked the DVD option. All the other streaming sites have limitations to what they offer, because it’s all a matter of what licensing rights they can get. It’s not Netflix’s fault that Warner Bros. doesn’t want Netflix to even had the DVDs available until 30 days after release date (I believe same goes with Redbox). It’s not Netflix’s fault that HBO and Showtime don’t want their shows available to stream, even after a season has been released to DVD/Blu-Ray and is available to rent in that form. Though, in our eyes, being able to rent the DVD or Blu-Ray out should be seen as the same as streaming, when it comes to studios, they don’t see it that way.

From their fear that streaming is easier to rip (though, DVDs are easy to rip, but whatever), or they think people won’t subscribe to their premium network if they can just stream it, about eight months after the season ended (I’m using True Blood‘s releases as a guide for that number). Well, same can be said if they can rent it as well, but, whatever.

None of these are Netflix’s fault. And, now, their partnership with Starz could be lessened when the contract is up (I believe in January). Right now, current shows from Starz as a 90-day wait period, as Starz is hoping some people would subscribe for the course of a season to what a show now, versus waiting. If this experience shows that people were okay to wait, it wouldn’t surprise me that Starz doesn’t renew any deal with Netflix.

But, if Netflix can phase the option for DVDs out completely (as it is their goal), then funds could potentially go towards purchasing more (or even better) rights to streaming shows and movies. Of course, don’t expect HBO, as they have their HBO Go service, which is only available to subscribers (and not even all, as I know Time Warner customers don’t get it). Would it be nice to allow people who don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for digital cable (which, I think is at least required to even get premiums, so set-top box fees on top of minimum digital cable, it’s just ridiculous).

Worse yet, ISPs aren’t happy with Netflix, which accounts for a good chunk of web traffic in peak hours now. That’s why ISPs experimented and implemented bandwidth caps. This is one reason why we need government regulations to prevent ISPs from jacking up prices while speeds see no improvement. If we can get some good investments into fiber optics in more places, then cable companies will have more competitors, and thus, will have to have lower prices just to compete.

But I’m getting into something else, so back to Netflix. I myself like the DVD option, but like others, I only rent out a DVD about once a week (I work full time, I hardly have time to stream with Netflix). Though I get why Netflix is doing this (phase out DVDs by pushing people to go streaming), I think they could go about it better. If someone makes use of the unlimited DVDs on top of the streaming, then they should essentially pay for the two options (If they squeeze 2 DVDs in a week, that $7.99 a month plan is cheaper than buying from Pay-Per-View (which is about $4 a movie), cheaper than renting from iTunes (again, $4), renting from any Blockbuster or video store that has somehow managed to stay in business (and those require going out and using gas, plus risk of late-fees which apparently plagued people who rented a movie without considering if they had time to watch it that night or couldn’t get it returned in time), and is about that same as the $1 rentals of Redbox ($1 a day, that is, so if you have the movie in your possession for two days before you get to return it, it could add up.

But, if you’re like me, you don’t rent but no more than 4 DVDs a month from Netflix, so, I think it’ll be fair to keep a 9.99 plan with a DVD limit of, say, 2 a month. I think that would be fair.

So, come September 1st, would I drop my DVD side and go streaming only? I don’t know. There is a large streaming library, but, new releases are DVD only and come with wait times as everyone wants to see a new movie. Right now, my DVD Queue has some TV shows not available to stream and aren’t syndicated on any network (I’m watching Night Court now (which I’ve had since Thursday), actually, so I can send it off tomorrow and get a new one Friday (I Am Number Four is next on my list).

I have until September to ponder over it, but for the extra 8 bucks, I would need to squeeze in two a week to justify the increase, which could be possible when hours are cut in the fall (I got Netflix when I was unemployed, and used a lot of it when I got a part time job, but full time, I can afford it better but not using it as much, interesting huh?).

Okay, where was I?

Right, in process of building myself a DVR (Read Part One post), I did away with Linux since it wouldn’t play nice with the Hauppauge HVR-2250 tuner, or play sound through the HDMI cable. VISTA, once loaded, I put the install disc for my GeForce sound card, and when it rebooted after that, SOUND! No other configurations, nope, just install the drivers, and sound went through the HDMI like it should. One thing I didn’t like, I actually had to use my laptop to find the drivers for the wireless card, where Mythbuntu recognized it on its own. So I downloaded to a USB drive and then loaded it into my new DVR or PVR or HTPC (whatever you want to call it), got the wireless working, simple. Then popped the disc for the HVR-2250, installed, reboot, and boom. Tested the Windows Media Center, got it set up, and viola, got TV.

Unfortunately, VISTA only tuned to the analog cable signals. But, I had video and sound, further than with Mythbuntu. So, hours more into figuring out how to get the ClearQAM channels, from trying open source alternatives to Media Center (NPVR and Media Portal, both failures, from getting both analog and digital (versus just one), which the NPVR only came up with the digital (maybe it was because I was tired that I didn’t feel like working with it long enough). And with Media Portal, I couldn’t get the channel list to be accurate enough, probably because it doesn’t ask for a zip code to get local info, and I’m not gonna manually set with channel number is which channel). Basically, those open source solutions, I didn’t want to spend too much time playing with this, I wanted it to work.

So, in comes a Hauppauge plug-in (found here). I tried it after the NPVR but before Media Portal and didn’t get it to work. But I went back to it, as I read the instructions completely and realized that I was supposed to install from the Media Center program library. Then, set up the channels again, but start off with an Antenna setting, then also for cable. Once I did that, it worked.

So, with it working by the heavy Wednesday 9pm hour, I was happy. I have Mr. Sunshine and Breaking In still on there waiting for me to watch. I still have my DVD-Recorder hooked up, so I used that for Criminal Minds while I watched Ghost Hunters. Then I caught the midnight encore of Mythbusters, as I ran out of tuners.

I tested it with how it works with sleep mode: perfect. I can put my computer in sleep mode before I leave, and it’ll wake itself up for a recording. I’ll still turn it off, as it is a PC still and I don’t want it to be on ALL THE TIME, but have it on when I need it on.

But, given this is VISTA and my 30-day limit, I am gonna have to just get Windows 7 (the OEM version is $100, plus I also need to get a newer DVD burner drive so the old one can go back into my first built computer.

PROS:
No monthly fee – unlike TiVo or any cable/satellite providers, there’s a monthly fee. With TiVo, it’s like $13/mo and most cab/sat is about $6-$10/mo (I’ll say $8/mo to average it out).

It’s more than a DVR – Windows can do things right, and their Media Center works great. If I didn’t have a PS3 already doing it, I can stream my Netflix. I can watch any videos on my machine, listen to music. Plus, this is a computer, so outside the Media Center software, I can do whatever I can do with any computer: browse the web, check email, play games, etc.) I’m not gonna really do a lot of that, but it’s an option.

CONS:
I didn’t get a remote, but I printed a list of basic keyboard shortcuts, but still have to revert to the mouse sometimes. I really shouldn’t put it as a con, since I knew I wasn’t gonna set one up with use with a remote (I did get an OEM tv tuner which didn’t come with WinTV or a remote)

I’m running VISTA 32-bit, so my 4GB of RAM is not fully recognized (more like 3.2GB). Another reason to put down another $100 for Windows 7.

Being Windows instead of Linux, I have to have an antivirus running alongside. Luckily, I’m using a free Avast! AV, which has a nice silent feature for gaming (no pop-up notifications), plus, it’s not a system hog, I can deal with it.

Oddly, I can record an analog and a digital at the same time, but not a digital and a digital or an analog and an analog. Weird. So I have to pick which shows I want digital (any CW show has to record on digital as it’s the only way it’s available, so Big Bang Theory (funny!) recorded from an analog source so I could record the new The Vampire Diaries (which was GOOD tonight)).

RUNDOWN:
My PC versus getting TiVo

My PC was $363 at NewEgg (plus, I can get a $20 rebate which I have to mail in still) + $44 for the RAM I got at Amazon (Crucial, BTW, and only because I had unused gift card amount), comes to $407, right now. Add $100 for Windows 7 in the future and I can find a burner for about $20, so that cancels out with the rebate, and I’m looking at $507.

With TiVo, it’s either $100 for the unit plus $20 a month for the service, or $300 for the unit and $13/mo for the service. This is for the regular one which does 45hrs HD (about what my built one can do as well, according to Windows), but add $60 for a wireless-g adapter, so one year with $100/20 is $400. One year with the $300/13 is $516. The $100 way may be cheaper the first year, but I wouldn’t be able to do all the stuff a PC can do, and half way through the second year, I would have paid more for TiVo, as it’ll have surpassed the $507 mark for my system. The math doesn’t lie. The only positive to TiVo is cableCARD support, but that’ll be another $5/mo or something to the cable company so I wouldn’t need a box. Also, TiVo’s lifetime subscription (which is a one-time fee) is $400.

A built PC can last years, five years down the line, I still would only have paid $507 for the setup, where Tivo with a subscription (let’s go with the 300/13 setup) would come to [$300 for box + $13*12*5 for service + $60 for wireless adapter] a whopping $1,140. BTW, I had to find the price for the lifetime subscription hidden in their updated policy thingy, here. They don’t advertise it well, and the math proves why (over $1,000 in five years versus $500, that’s a big difference).

So that’s it, my new DVR setup, now I must get back to my HD recorded Bones, no conflicting shows meant I was able to record from the HD source, YAY!

Now I have previously built a computer before, back in late 2006. After getting a job after two years of college, I saved up, then bought each piece every so often, cheaper components with each paycheck. By December, I had all I needed and by December 20th, 2006 I had working Windows 2000 (had a license for it from school I never used, didn’t have it for long though, having planned getting Vista), with an AMD dual-core processor, with 2 GB dual channel memory (cheap brand, can’t remember), Sony DVD burner, on a nForce motherboard (with good onboard memory, I never installed a video card and could still play the Sims 2) inside a standard tower case with, I think, a 350W PS. I did put Vista on it, for about a month, and acquired WinXP Pro. Eventually I even dabbled with Linux, getting OpenSUSE and PCLinux. All are still on there, and they run fine (tried it a few months ago). So, over 4 years later, I got a good computer I can always fall back on.

But, I’ve had a laptop for near three years, but always wanted to build another machine. Of course, with me no longer having a DVR and having switched jobs and will find myself working nights again, I needed a DVR (I got so used to watching so many shows, I needed something so I could record 2 shows at once, and it needed to pick up the analog cable as well as the clear QAM (the unencrypted digital channels cable companies allow anyone with a QAM tuner to pick up without needing a box, these are usually the local broadcasts (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS, CW, …) they are essentially required (at least, that’s how I understand it) to provide.)

I finally bought the components at NewEgg.com, and Monday, April 4, 2011, with the help of my dad, we built what would be my HTPC (Home Theater PC, though, my “home theater” is a 26″ HDTV in a small bedroom. I got a large APEVIA X-MASTER HTPC case ($70 with 500W power supply), AMD Athlon II 3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($61), ECS AM3 770 microATX motherboard (no onboard video, $50), SPARKLE GeForce 210 512MB DDR3 HDCP video card (so I can output HDMI, $30), Western Digital 500GB SATA hard drive (OEM, so only $40), Rosewill wireless-g PCI card ($15), and, of course, the TV Tuner is the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 Dual TV Tuner PCI-Express x1 Interface (OEM, so no WinTV software or remote, $100).

What? No optical drive? No Windows?

Not initially, my intent was loading Mythbuntu onto it (a LINUX distro that combines the popular Ubuntu with MythTV). I did research that said the HVR-2250 can work with it. But after loading it (by USB drive, why I initially went optical drive-less, but during the build, my dad wouldn’t close it up without one, so we pulled the old DVD Burner in my 2006 build (IDE, unfortunately, luckily the motherboard had an IDE port).

Anyway, Mythbuntu is loaded and installed, no problem. Recognized the wireless card, able to do a few updates for the video card. The problem. Despite forums where people did get this to work, I just couldn’t get it to completely work. I was very much aware that analog cable wasn’t supported, but I was more interested in getting the ClearQAM to work (so I can record my Friday night CW shows, but also the mass amount of shows in the Wednesday 9pm hour, which increases by one this week, which alone is three from local broadcast stations, only two cable shows, which encore later in the night anyway). I was able to tune to the channels fine, the problem? Sound. I could not get sound at all with the card. I’m sure it was some setting with MythTV itself, because I could go to AOL radio, put on a station, and bam, sound. Yes, outside of MythTV, I could get sound (the monitor, BTW, was from my first build, which has built in speakers, and is still the greatest monitor (a Viewsonic) [note, don't know how the brand is now, but in 2006, it was definitely the best]. Then I did a test recording, closed out and went back to the normal desktop, looked for that recording and tried playing it in VLC, and no sound. So, sound just didn’t record.

This was day one. I took a break, watched Tangled (good movie, missed the beginning, but my sister wanted to watch it at that moment, and I was still trying the DVR, but shut it off so I can watch the last 90% of the movie,) got everything unhooked and went home. Got everything moved around, plugged it in my HDTV through HDMI, and again, just never any sound. I worked on it all night, setting my DVD Recorder for Castle and an encore of Stargate Universe, and catching the encore of Conan at 1AM (basically, I gave up at 1am).

So, I missed Being Human, but I’ll catch an encore of that, next week is a whole day marathon leading into the season finale, so unless Chuck or How I Met Your Mother is new as well, I should be able to watch it.

So, what did I eventually decide to do? First thing today, I tinkered with it a little more, tested that I could record two shows at once. No sound outside of MythTV, since I couldn’t even get the sound through HDMI. Then, my keyboard (again, parts from the first build, I have a very good wireless keyboard and mouse, Logitech brand), decided to work, then not work, then work for two characters before crapping out. The mouse still worked, the batteries were new.

So, I decided bye bye Linux. I wanted to be using open source software as much as possible, but it’s too much of a pain. So, I got my Vista disc (again, same one from my first build, but so far, seems fine, but I didn’t activate it, since I think I already did before and I have 30 days anyway). I plan to go with Windows 7, because the Vista I have is 32-bit, I want 64-bit.

Okay, I’ve reached over 1,000 words, so, the stories of the problems with VISTA I’ll post later in a part 2, including tests I’m doing now on it, and other things I’ve tried (will try). Plus, the find in dealing with April 6 at 9PM (Criminal Minds (CBS), Ghost Hunters (SYFY), Mr. Sunshine (ABC, 9:30), premiere of Breaking In on FOX at 9:30, and also, Mythbusters (DISCOVERY) comes back as well). That’s FIVE shows in the last half hour, three for the full hour, so I really, really, need to get this to work.

Read Part Two here

Haven’t posted anything in a while, so here’s something on my mind:
—

I get it. Kids make messes. You have the special crayons and markers that only appear on special paper, and now you see more of these special gyro-bowls that prevent spilling, no matter how the kid handles it.

The reason I find it stupid. Simply put, kids need to make these messes, they need to make these mistakes in order to learn when they do bad things. Products like these are simply for the benefit of the parent, which I find to be extremely selfish. I know, I don’t have any kids, so it’s probably not my place to say anything, but having been a kid, I needed to make messes in order to know what not to do. This is how I learned things. If I were a kid now with one of these bowls, I would grow up thinking I can handle anything anyway I wanted with no consequence (of course I would hope later in child development it actually wouldn’t be a problem, but a kid should start learning things as early as when they start walking and talking). Like I said before, this is to make things easier for the parents. And parenting shouldn’t be easy. It should be hard.

Plus, these gyro bowls, they look ridiculous too. They also have similar concepts for other children products, such as a “Bubble Bowl” which I guess is so kids don’t spill all the soapy water for their bubbles. And, I imagine the special paper for those special markers and such just make things more expensive. And that’s just crazy.

Quick note, I do get sippy cups, that seems more for the safety of the kid, so they don’t accidentally try drinking more than they could handle. At least that’s how I see it, plus they are much younger at that point, that I understand those more.

But I will stress this, again, I have no kids (don’t plan to), am also not any type of child behaviorist, or behaviorist in general, nor work in child development industries. I’m just a regular person with an opinion, and this has been on my mind since the store I work at got those dumb Bubble Bowl thingys.

I couldn’t help but notice unscripted shows about auctions. You have Auction Kings which premiered on October 26, 2010 on Discovery. Funny thing, only a day later, Syfy premiered Hollywood Treasure. And then there’s Auction Hunters that premiered on November 9, 2010 on Spike. That’s THREE auction series that premiered in only a few weeks time.

First, I want to apologize for not picking up on this sooner. I was aware of the Discovery and Syfy ones (since I watch those channels often), but just recently saw ratings notes for Spike’s one. This is what made me wonder what the deal is.

Next, in my quest, let me pick apart what the difference between these series are. Starting with Auction Kings, it revolves around one auction house, Gallery 63 in Atlanta. It’s rise came about after the success of History Channel’s Pawn Stars, which are similar when it comes to old antique items and them being appraised and sold. In this case, at an auction. I don’t watch either, but from what I gathered from, yes, Wikipedia, Auction Kings follows a similar format to that of Pawn Stars. There are experts to appraise items of historical significance and a multiple choice question (for some reason). Syfy’s Hollywood Treasure, goes a more fun route, it follows a California-based appraiser who looks for, well, Hollywood memorabilia, check authenticity of the items and auction them off. Spike’s Auction Hunters, which deals with storage-unit auctions (’cause, from what I hear (I saw it in a Criminal Minds episode, “Limelight”), if someone rents a storage unit and it’s neglected, they can legally auction off the units after I think 6 months or something?). Anyway, this being on Spike, it’s seems to focus more on finds of antique guns, baseball cards, and guitars.

So, the shows offer there different attributes to the table. A big history buff looks like they would enjoy Auction Kings on Discovery more (which doesn’t focus on specific types of items, so it may be more appealing in general), and a guns and ammo guy, would probably love watching Auction Hunters on Spike. And pop-culture and media buffs, especially sci-fi fanatics, would get a kick out of Syfy’s Hollywood Treasure.

Now, I can see the appeal, things like these can be very interesting. I just find it strange on how they all premiered within a month of each other. Then again, people in general get into things, love them for a year or two, so the popularity stays high, then they are phased out. One network does a competition reality show, and then all the others jump on board. But, most end up goner, while in the end, a few (like Survivor) well, survive. This idea of either people put into one place, and then one is voted out, was just a huge thing. It moves on to talent competition, having FOX bring in American Idol, other singing competitions follow, same goes for dancing. But in the end, only one still ends up being the bigger ratings powerhouse. And reality shows aren’t the only ones doing this. Scripted show fall victims to this as well. We have two shows where the lead is pretending to be a psychic, not to mention had two shows where the leads were actually psychics, all within the last five years. There’s been a slight bump on Moonlighting-esque crime dramas, and now it seems every show wants to do a musical episode.

Remember when court-room drama were the “it” thing? Law and Order lasted for 20 seasons, spawned four spin-offs (don’t forget, there was the failed Trial by Jury a few years back), but now, no one is watching them (Law and Order got canned last season, Criminal Intent, I think, has one season left, the new spin-off Los Angeles isn’t doing all that great, and SVU is still the more higher rated, but it’s not looking overly pretty, but still good in an NBC standpoint though. Plus, other courtroom shows, The Good Wife and The Defenders aren’t doing too great in ratings for CBS). Got two vampire shows in the US, one more on the way (which is the US remake of a British series, Being Human, I recommend the British series), mixed in a pool of vampire films (though, that seems to have died down a little, unless I haven’t heard anything, it seems to be existing franchises such as the most awesome of them, Underworld, but unfortunately, there’s still more of the horrible Twilight crap left that overshadows potentially good vampire films (such as Daybreakers, it wasn’t that bad), after that it was zombies (which I guess there’s still love for that, since The Walking Dead ended up being a big ratings win for AMC). Talking about films, let’s not forget the comic-to-movie surge, which is still going on, with a few big franchises, along with a few bad attempts).

I think the point is, the American TV/(and film) viewers seem to have a short attention span. The next big, what people call ‘fad’, will happen soon, and a whole slew of related projects will come about (maybe witches is the next thing, or there will be robot phase, and for TV, look for an increase in comedies, particularly romantic comedies, as TV.Com pointed out, there are five shows coming up in the midseason schedule, plus one on now, about couples in different stages of a relationship (such as one that are married, one that’s been together for years, and one that’s been going out for a couple of months)). Maybe one or two will live on another season, but I expect networks to keep trying as multiple-camera comedies tend to be as cheap as you can get for a scripted show. Afterall, both NBC and ABC are each having comedies go in the 10pm hour (ABC Wednesdays and NBC Thursdays are all comedy in the midseason).

Back to unscripted, I imagine there being a few more auction-related series, then a new thing will emerge. All it takes is one network to have success with a new (or semi-new) idea and then others will follow.