My Final Video (of 2023)
Just one more thing…
I’ve found the time today to record this short Patreon exclusive video before the year was over.
I wish everyone here all the best for 2024 and beyond. Take care.
Comments (69)
Somewhat late to the party here - but even for the world's biggest broadcasters, "the algorithm" has become a very dangerous zone. 20 years back they had a monopoly on live news, entertainment, speech content etc, via TV/radio etc. They owned the stations, the transmitters etc, the whole chain. Now live TV audiences have fallen as people chose to spent their viewing time on YouTube - like your channel, rather than watching some sub-par Saturday afternoon movie, which you might have done years back in lieu of anything else on. Especially with younger audiences, the broadcasters feel in order to get viewers etc they need to push their content via Facebook, YouTube etc, as that's where people's eyes are. But all the broadcasters have been burnt here - built up some decent followings, the suddenly Facebook etc have overnight changed their algorithms slightly and suddenly, (say to show more cat videos and less clips from BBC news) a huge drop in engagement, and totally out of the control of the broadcasters. Which I think has come as a shock to some, in that while they were told 'Facebook video is your future' it turns out they have no control over how the content is or isn't shown.
I'm in the US and we're kinda bracing ourselves for 2024. Anyways, Happy New Year to us all.
The glasses are all made buy a few companies like Luxottica or Mondottica who just license the brand names,
That bit was really about *why* they even bother putting names on them when 95% of glasses you try on do not fit and the buyer is limited to buying whichever design fits their head. Even if for some insane reason I decided I wanted Jaguar, Police or Smith and Wesson printed on my glasses, I couldn’t have them because those weren’t the ones that fitted - the only ones that did fit could have Vomit or Yugo written on the side but those would be the ones I’d have to buy.
Happy new year Mat. Thanks very much for the heads up about Apple TV and the AirPods Pro. I’ve had both for years, and somehow never thought to try them together until you mentioned it! It does indeed sound absolutely fantastic – and even more so for someone like me who lives in a flat and so can’t really get a proper surround sound setup without my neighbours hating me.
I’m so glad it’s proved useful - I often feel I must be the last one to try some of these things. It’s the first time head tracked spatialised audio has made sense to me - unlike a phone or a tablet, when you’re watching the TV you do want the sound to always come from the same direction.
Have a good 2024, Mat. Great Video.
Hey all. I went to visit my daughter and have a belated Christmas with her. One of her gifts was a yellow Japanese Sound Burger record player I had ordered after I saw the Patreon-only video. She loves it, but... I'm not sure her cat does as much. https://youtube.com/shorts/q74nONrZEwg
I certainly hope you weren't getting notifications on every single one of the chat room posts 😮.
I didn't - I should really go back and check what's there though - this is why I don't use chat rooms.. I don't want a million notifications but then again if I turn them off, I forget that the thing exists, so it's impossible for me to post in a chat room without coming across as ignorant.
Sounds to me like the glass makers are just selling ad space on their glasses to be able to lower the price..
You're actually spot on many times - even covering a variety of subjects. I honestly affirm that I saw your glasses & immediately thought to ask what you might suggest for those of us getting to that age where close-up vision begins to fail & what reader magnification you might suggest for looking at monitors (that seem to be farther away than normal readers might help with). Best wishes in 2024.
Re: Caterpillar specs-- when I worked in natural gas hauling, I was required to wear safety glasses that had certain ratings. The ones Walmart carried, if I recall correctly, had CAT branding. It's been 7 years since then, but they're probably safety glasses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA
Happy New Year, Mat and Patrons, from 'Down Under'! 🥳🦘 Mat, please let us know what your next car is. 😊
Happy New Year Mat! Thanks for your videos, they make the world better.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Hmmm. Very interesting about the Apple pods.
Glad to hear you're enjoying surround sound through your earphones, Mat. That is how I watch movies as well. Living in apartment, headphone listening is the only way to go without disturbing the neighbours. I find it more immersive anyway. I use a Sony DP-IF8000 as my surround sound processor, which allows for set of any headphones to be plugged into it. However, it's been long discontinued. Sony's newer models in this line of devices are unfortunately available in Japan only. Also, it seems they can only be used with the Sony wireless headphones that come with them, as there aren't any headphone ports on the unit that I could see. Wishing the best for you and your channel in 2024!
Happy New Year!
All designer glasses are made by the same company, EssilorLuxottica.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thanks for a fantastic and entertaining year and may it continue into 2024!
Happy New Year! Glad to hear your audio is working for you!
Thank you, and I wish you all the best in 2024! Cheers! Sounds like we have the same type of exciting New Year's plans.
Happy New Year! I've not been out to a New Year's do for twenty years!
Happy New Year. I love your ‘ramblings’ and the way you shoot off at a tangent. Thank you for making my year just that bit brighter.
Happy New Year Everyone !!
Happy new year, Mat! 🎉 All the best for you & the Mrs. In 2024. Will be watching Techmoan and it's a mad, mad, mad, mad, world tonight!
Happy new year!
Oh with glasses frames 90% of them are made by Luxotica... and they do deals with the brands... including Hugo Boss.
It was already 2024 in Australia mate and yes being a Pom... got the Accurist reference. Have a great 2024 Matt.
Happy new year!
Happy New Year Mat!
Happy new year!!!
Totally agree with you about the marking stuff... Just take what fits :-D. Happy New Year Mat!
Happy New Year Matt. All the best for 24!
Happy new year, Mat! All the best to everyone’s 2024.
Happy New year everyone. Me and my wife are about to drive (from Glasgow) out to the coast and ponce off the Hogmanay hospitality of the residents in a Scottish town about an hour away. They have a big fire on the beach every year, which we stumbled across some time ago. I think they're secret swingers or satanists or something, but my wife think they're just pleasant people. If I never post again, you'll know I was right.
I think one of the reasons Apple is such a big deal is because their brand actually MEANS something. Apple doesn't license out their name the way Pierre Cardin does
Happy New Year Mat. Your issue with Amazon sounds a bit like Adrian Blacks issue with YouTube, they closed his third channel with minimal notice and no reason. He managed to get it back after shaming their support team on TwiX.
No New Year's Eve party for me as I just got back from 37C3 in Hamburg, so I've already partied 5 days in a row, on top of Christmas. Shameless plug (as there is no community tab anymore): I attended a nice talk from the RevvoX team about reverse engineering the Toniebox and how to get it off the cloud. I'm almost planning on getting one myself just to perform the mods... (if anyone is interested: https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-11993-toniebox_reverse_engineering#l=eng with English dubbing, and yes, it's a tech talk). When it comes to fashion (eyeware, clothing...), this whole brand stuff is devoid of any rationality. We shouldn't care about brands. The poorly paid workers in Bangladesh (or wherever) surely don't care who ultimately sells the stuff they have to work on. Good to hear (pun not intended) that you found some ear buds that work well for you. So far, I've been hesitant to get any ear buds as even earplugs (for hearing protection) drive me crazy after a short time. Anyway, happy New Year everyone!
In the last several years I've been getting glasses from the online retailer Zenni and find them to be a good value. Basic frames cost about $40.00 or for something a step higher in style it's $75.00, both with progressive lenses. I'm also authorized one pair of glasses per year free of charge from the U.S. Veteran's Administration. Choice of frame styles is somewhat limited, but they get the job done.
Happy New Year to Mat and everyone else here. My plans are the same as Mat's - although I've never in my life gone to a NYE party, I used to want a first NYE kiss at midnight, those days are well passed apparently 😂. My eyeglasses are branded with 'Bebe' and I've never heard of it before now. I miss the community area as well - doing the Potpourri was fun and difficult (at times) but it gave me something to live for each week. Patreon app is having a tantrum as it says 'Something went wrong' when I press 'Agree' to the Chat terms so that I can see Mat's chat post 😂. I'm not surprised considering the history of the app. Tonight, more than any other night, I wish I had a bottle of champagne to drink and sleep until 2024. 🍾 Take care 🤍 & 🤍
Have you ever considered becoming a creator yourself? The Potpourris are probably a bit too niche to make a fortune, but I'm sure you already have a small but loyal audience.
I am pretty sure there are quite a few people who choose glasses for the designer name. My neighbour would, he has a Harley bike and buys tyres from HD because he wants the HD logo in the tread pattern....
Happy New Year to you too. I had the issue of struggling with reading and screens. I have been short sighted since teenage years and now close up gone - am similar age to you. Anyway my optician made me glasses with "Occupational" lenses. There is a small amount of close reading lens at the bottom, the majority is intermediate for screen use and a small amount of distance at the top. I find these perfect for work and screen /reading at home. I couldn't get on with varifocals but have had no issues with these. Thought this might be of interest. Still need my regular distance glasses for driving, TV, going out, etc. Maybe one day I will find some varifocals I can get on with...
I’ll have to look into it (pun not intended).
Happy new year Matt. Thanks for a super video. It was a really lovely surprise ! Many, many thanks for a lovely year of super stuff!
Could you set up a community chat Mat? Seems to be Patreon's replacement for community pages but unfortunately only works in the mobile app. I miss Grace's posts too. Happy new year all. https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-gb/articles/18855652505357-Community-chats
My amazon associates also threatened to be closed down recently and I was lucky to act fast to resolve this…turned out they wanted me to change my password to be different to my amazon uk account!
It's a shame about the community page, I miss Grace's eBay posts. As a teenager I had some glasses frames from Pierre Cardin, I picked the frames out because I liked them, but I felt even better about them because it was Pierre Cardin. I had read that all of John Steed's suits in The Avengers were done by Pierre Cardin, so having those frames made me feel fancy and sophisticated. These days, as an adult I wouldn't care one bit who makes the frames. Anyway, happy new year everyone. Let's hope the next year is better than the last.
I wouldn't be surprised if clothiers, perfume-makers or other fashion-related manufacturers were to put out merchandise with the John Steed brand and find that it actually increased sales (I might buy that stuff myself, but I'm old). It all depends on the target market: Do they want to sell to people who buy John Steed-branded gear vs. those buying CAT(erpillar)-branded gear.
Regarding the car tests this year I was checking the back seats of cars before buying one. Years ago I bought a Nissan Sunny coupe and had had it a week before i wondered how much room there was in the back. The answer was so little that both rear seat passengers had to share one footwell. If checking rear seats make sure the child-locks aren't on. I got stuck in the back of a Renault Arkana in a showroom earlier in the year. I had to wait five minutes before a salesman walked past who I could shout to asking to be let out ! Happy New Year everyone.
It’s been 2024 in New Zealand for over 8 hours now and I can tell you it’s just the same as last year…
Jonathan - my wife and me were re-re-re-re watching Lord of the Rings this week and it occurred to me: due to the size of the population, has everyone in New Zealand worked for Peter Jackson at some point over the last twenty years?
Happy New Year! Thanks to you I just discovered my glasses are branded Eyespace. I've had them almost two years, never noticed that.
I have heard that complaint about the EX30 from a couple of other sources (mainly American I think, I forget where) Such a shame because the Polestar 2 (which I have and has similar software) has a reasonable balance between screen and buttons. Happy New Year Mat!
To learn that YOU - of all people - would endorse BOSS does it for me; Seriously? Are you going to wear nazi glasses on your videos from now on, because that is way over the limits that we draw, with the war and all. Will cancel my Patreon as of now. … just kidding. Thanks for the video and take care. Happy New Year.
I remember when I was working in my retirement teaching job, (after I retired from my main job, I took a part-time teaching job), I had some high school girls go on because I had gotten a new pair of glasses and they were Ray Ban... something like that. I didn't get it either. Happy New Year. May all our video never get 'content-matched'.
Well at the least the cat will have a less stressful 2024 if no one else :-) Happy New Year Mat. P.S. I'll be in bed as well hoping the fireworks don't wake me up, I've done too many New Years Eve parties they just don't appeal anymore, and the priority when you get to a certain age is always getting a good nights sleep above anything else.
Just had a look and my specticales are made by Jaguar, like you they were the ones that fitted best and I had not looked at the make at all. I should try going into the Jag car showroom and asking to see their specticles range.
Happy New Year all! Hope 2024 is much better. Also, Luxotica and Safilo dominate the eyeglass market. Go fall down that rabbit hole.
I think for the community posts, you need to create a new community chat. There is a section (in the app anyway) for this. But think you need to set something up. Not sure though. Seems like it could be like a WhatsApp messenge thread. Anyway, happy new year!
Why...?
Still have some to watch, but wishing you and everyone the best for 2024. And for community posts to return to patreon
I got scared for a second
Me too!
Here to a better 2024!
Wishing you and your family a very happy new year. Thank you for all you do!