This month isn't going so well....
It's been 8 days since I posted a video. And now it's looking like it may be a few more. So, I thought I'd at least give you an update on what is going on. You might find some of this interesting.
After releasing the Gigatron video I spent 2 days binge programming on Planet X3. I had a really hard bit of coding to get through as I had to redesign some aspects of the game engine. And since I was really focused I just pressed through until it was done and working. So that's good news. In fact, the CGA version is getting close to completion. Expect to see a kickstarter soon.
I spent the next day totally disassembling our refrigerator to repair a stopped up drain pipe. The entire bottom was turning into a block of ice.
I felt like I've done too many Commodore related videos in a row lately. It wasn't planned that way. Many of these videos were essentially waiting for something or another to arrive and it just so happened many of these things arrived at once. I don't want my channel renamed to "The Commodore Guy" so I decided I should push back some of my Commodore related videos to next month.
One thing people have requested a lot is that I do some videos following up on older projects. There are a number of specific ones people are always asking about, such as my desk, the cat tower, the osborne repair, the PET repair, the Armatron repair, the Tandy 1400 repair, our electric cars, etc.
The trouble is, while I'd like to follow up, in many cases I can't think of enough material to make an entire episode on. Except for the cat tower. It's been over 2 years and it has experienced quite a bit of wear and tear and my wife has been nagging me to fix it up or get rid of it. So I decided I'd film an episode where I show the tower and how it has held up and then some changes I wanted to make.
However, disaster has struck. I finished the tower remodelling. I went to start editing the video and noticed that I'm missing over half the footage. I think what happened is I was a bonehead and deleted the footage from the camera one day thinking I had already copied it off, when in fact I had not. I've done this before but usually I'm able to just re-shoot the scenes in question. Well, there's no way to reshoot this.
So... what was going to be a nice 10 minute follow up and would have been released today, is now a 5 minute video with a lot of missing footage. So So, I decided to edit together the footage I had, and now I'm going to spend the next couple of days filming follow ups to about 5 or 6 other projects and just combine it into one big follow-up episode. I've never done anything like this before, so I hope people like it.
I also wanted to take a moment to mention how surprised I was in how much interest there was in my "dream computer" that I mentioned at the end of the Gigatron video. I've received hundreds of emails about it, and several people offering to build it. I've had some high-profile people such as Ben Heck send me emails about it too, wanting to get involved. But I think a lot of people missed the point of what this theoretical computer would be for. And so I'm thinking of doing a video on the topic in a few months. If I can get a group of developers all on the same page, you might see some sort of crowdfunding start for it. Myself, I have my fingers in too many pies already so I have no time to devote to such a project. But if I can at least help some other people get it off the ground, then I will!
Comments (37)
Take your time and remember these YouTube videos should never feel stressful. That's my approach. It's a hobby I love, that I turned into a channel. If it ever starts to feel like work I'll back off. So don't worry about the footage. On to the next one! And thanks for the idea to rename my channel "The Commodore Guy"! 😁🕹️ Your friend in retro, Chris aka ԹҽɾíƒɾɑϲԵíϲ
Well, this is my job. Sure it was fun in the beginning, and it is still fun sometimes. But it definitely feels like work now. I think that’s probably normal, though.
About the Dream Computer, you should totally make that video. Explain what you think it should be for, but be open to what other people think it should be for. Also, i don't think you need to be involved personally in the development, but you could be the key to keep interest and people in the project. Also, it would be great if you could create a subreddit so that people can discuss about it :)
I saw this post while at work and recognize undue stress when I see it. Please keep taking your walks, eat right, and do what you need to stay centered. Funny story. I just told a coworker about my stopped up fridge drain pipe yesterday and how it threatened to ruin my new hardwood floors. I told him YouTube is your friend as a YouTube video showed me how to fix it.
As a vintage computer and electronics enthusiast, the idea of an 8-bit dream computer project sounds interesting. I just wish I had the time to participate, but I've got too many projects of my own. But keep us updated if anything happens with it!
More Commodore videos! :P
I very selfishly want you to become the Commodore Guy as 2 months ago I dove into the Commodore 64 world (over my head too) to relive my childhood. I would also LOVE to see some TRS80 content, I remember cutting my teeth on a Model III in high school. Don't sweat the issues, we all have those days. What matters most is the content you do post is always exceptional, keep that up and you'll keep all of us watching along with attracting new blood.
Don't worry too much about what type of content you produce. As long as it's good, you'll be surprised how little people mind. Don't listen to people, listen to numbers, in case people saying it's samey is a problem for you.
No need to rush or excuses, take your time. We're all human, we make mistakes. "Don't think about your errors or failures; otherwise, you'll never do a thing." - Bill Murray
Well, I don't need any excuses anyway. I love your work and every time there is something new from you is like christmas. However, I would like to buy Planet X* from you. Please send me disks. I'll pay whatever extra cost that would be for you.
Planet X2 is available in my webshop. I ship anywhere in the world. www.the8bitguy.com
That’s not so bad. I thought someone got seriously hurt or something. Footage loss is not that big of a problem. I think a mash-up of project revisits is okay. Maybe you could show stills while narrating where you have missing footage.
I think doing a single video covering updates to several projects is a great idea. It lets you get out whatever information and content you have without needing to pad or worry about time constraints. And for the record, there's no such thing as too many Commodore videos!!
We all have days like this. That being said, you should have just made a PX3 update video out of the two days you spent on it. :D As a developer myself, some of my favorite videos you do are about your coding adventures (of course I like ALL your videos, just sayin').
Hey David, I echo the sentiments of others about the planned video. Looking forward to the updates. I'm also excited to hear about PlanetX3 (I enjoy X2 a fair bit!). Re: Your Dream Computer, I've read your article about it, and I believe I want the same thing! However, your plan to do a video explaining it will help clarify. I would like to be involved if I can. I'll talk with Ben, since i have worked with him before on software for his pinball machines. In any case, I'll be following whatever develops on this project.
Every once in a while life gets in the way, so the fact that once in a while you can't do a video on time is fine by me, I really enjoy what you put up and, also I don't think you do too much commodore stuff =)
As long as you haven't shot with the same memory card again or did anything else than deleting or formatting the footage can be recovered. It's not as hard as you may think but you should not use it until everything is recovered as that'll overwrite data.
I had already considered that. But I've used and deleted the memory card about 3 more times before I realized the issue. There's also the possibility that I did copy the data off of the camera and maybe I copied it into another folder somewhere by accident. However, doing a search of files on the server and my local computer for that time frame has not revealed any MP4 files anywhere else.
ARGH I would have loved to see the whole Cat Tower video :) Anyway, I don't have any issue with the thing about "too many Commodore video": in the end I just like old tech, so I don't mind what that is. Regarding your dream computer, I think we have a different idea :) for me that is the raspberry Pi :) That's because it reminds me of the old computers: very easy to program through a simple language (in this case Python) and some very easy to access ports to attach stuff to them.
So the main takeaway here is that i'm allowed to get super excited for CAT TOWER PART II right now! thanks David!
I wouldn't be concerned about the length of a video. Even a short video explaining the trials and tribulations like you've written above is worth posting because it keeps your fanbase up to date, even if it'll never get as many re-watches as some of your other videos. I think that making a video out of what you've got and explaining about the deleted footage is still a great video because I love everything you've put on your channel and rewatch various episodes (and 8-Bit Keys videos too) pretty regularly. No matter, thanks for the update!
I think the follow-up roundup idea is great and will work much better than trying to make individual videos long enough.
For your follow-up roundup video, consider putting timestamps for each section in the description. That way if people only care about one of the things in your video they can find it easily.
Sorry to hear about the lost footage.
I'm a HUGE Commodore fan and I don't mind the videos either. I appreciate everything that you have chosen to share with us so I will gladly continue to watch whatever content you make.
About the Commodore videos: I have a smiler problem on my own channel, I keep finding so many things to say about Commodore - but I feel I'm neglecting my non-Commodore audience. At the same time, nobody is complaining except for a flag going off in my own head. I guess what I'm trying to say is: it's your channel, so you should keep posting whatever comes naturally to you. Creating "in the flow" is much easier than forcing yourself to do something else. I LOVE your videos, and your style, and I really don't mind if it's Commodore biased or not. Just my two cents! Hope that fridge starts behaving better soon :-)
The idea of a general follow up episode is great btw, its fine to compile them all into one video... in fact i much prefer that idea. Totally different subject but very similar in some ways, Jay Leno has restoration vlog videos on all the car projects his team work on and they have one of these videos every couple of months on his youtube channel and its really fascinating and nice to get little updates on these ongoing things you've seen before. I wasn't even interested in cars really till I started watching his channel but thats another topic.
Eye-Fi cards used to be an excellent solution to this problem, then they got bought and the new company got greedy and ruined everything by trying to force people into a cloud subscription service. I don't care about the frequency of your videos, release when you are ready, I'll be waiting!
You are awesome at what you do. Thanks for the update. Remember to take it easy.
David, have a routine where you routinely cycle through different storage media for your video cameras. This way even if you do make that mistake of wiping data not copied off the cards you won't have re-used the same card for a fair amount of time more, allowing you to run data recovery software on the sd card if you do then some days later encounter a similar problem. SD Cards and the like are so cheap these days its worth buying a lot to facilitate such a cycling routine.
That's a good idea. Normally, it wouldn't be relevant though. Most of the time I don't have more than 2 to 5 clips on the camera, representing about 2 minutes of video before copying it off and importing it into Final Cut Pro. It just so happens with this project I had about 30 clips on there over the course of 2 days. That's a very rare occurrence for me.
I forgot to ask whether you wanted to follow-up on the Miracle Piano, on consoles in particular, as I think I can help a bit with that.
I don't think so... I mean, I might eventually, but not any time soon.
I don’t mind the commodore videos David. Those machines probably do represent a lot of who you are today. Even so, I don’t think there is a danger you’ll become “The Commodore Guy” I always learn something David. It’s why I always come back :-)
Im also very interested in your Dream Computer, as a developer it would be awesome to have an unified platform with very thin OS layer and some modern features (support to modern pads, lots of RAM, CPU and storage). It could create a huge community as arduino or Rpi did. Keep us updated about it!
I'd also love to see such a "Dream Computer" but I must confess, as I never was into computer gaming, I fear it will be much too much gamining oriented. I would rather like to see it as a computer which can show how computing as such was at the time, not (just) gamining.
For what it’s worth, I never owned any Commodore, and I don’t mind those videos. As long as I learn something, I’m happy watching stuff about any machine :)