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Comment by jorl17 | Hacker News Reader

Alec is probably my favorite YouTuber. I remember catching his videos before he really blew up and they ticked all my nerd boxes! Unlike other youtubers I enjoy, I never seem to get tired of his content — keep going!

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His channel is a fresh breath of air on today's YouTube. No clickbait titlea/thumbnails, no exaggeration, no drama, no filler content? That's rare these days. Everything is well organized and clearly explained. His videos are often long, but every minute is valuable. His videos are like the opposite of CNET -- you learn more after watching 2 minutes of Technology Connection compared to 20 minutes of CNET.

I like his humor as well.

him and "cathode ray dude" are likely my favorite youtubers for this exact reason. When their videos come out I'm cracking out the snacks and watching it on my OPS tv

I just wish cathode ray dude would sometimes put out a 25 minute video instead of always 90 minute videos

he did, on his second channel for a little while in the little guys era

YT recently recommended his explanation of how pre-computer pinball machines worked to me - a series of 3, hour-long videos. Gave me something to look forward to on my commute. I shared it with everyone I know, and now I'm sharing it with you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue-1JoJQaEg

Fascinating (and insanely impressive) to see how a bunch of switches and stepper motors implement complex logic.

Not from the same Youtuber but that video reminded me of another great one about how mechanical bowling alley machines work: https://youtu.be/Iod6uwUGM2E

Early arcade video games (pre Space Invaders) also didn't use universal microprocessors but relied only on circuit boards without software.

TTL logic, timers, oscillators, triggers, and more.

The circuit is the game.

I find myself randomly recommending his videos to friends in the middle of conversations. Content like this is why I love YouTube.

I've been a huge fan of these videos. They explain electro-mechanical pinball machines incredibly well plus they're beautifully photographed. A remarkable amount of effort, thought and care went into creating them.

I have my name listed in all of his videos going back to right around when he started his Patreon. You can find me on the first "page" as it scrolls by. Love his videos.

That has me wondering, do any youtubers sell Executive Producer credits for funding like films?

Lots of youtubers with Patreons do have tiered credits, with bigger doners having separate credit sections with fancier titles, and usually their names are bigger and/or stay on the screen longer, which kind of seems similar

A big difference here is that EPs on a feature can get ROI on their money. Of course the cliche about Hollywood account can play games with that, but I doubt any Patreon supporter at any level would ever start to see any kind of revenue sharing from the YouTube's monetization.

Well, you deal with that the same way you deal with Hollywood accounting: you negotiate a cut of the gross for any episodes you sponsor.

*donors

C&Rsenal (~hour long historic firearms documentaries) does

Defunctland offers EP credits but is currently sold out.

His videos are so interesting. I went out and bought a rice cooker after watching his explanation of its mechanism.

Same here. I used it every day during COVID

I can also recommend:

  VWestlife
  This Does Not Compute
  Michael MJD
  Tech Tangents
  Janus Cycle
  LGR
  Posy
  Cathode Ray Dude

It's a shame that Druaga1 stopped posting on YouTube because he should be on that list.

CelGenStudios and Usagi Electric are good channels for vintage computing stuff.

Posy seconded. He's weird (and I'm certain he would agree), but in a fun and interesting way. The music used in his videos is composed and recorded by himself, btw.

A recommendation of mine is Bad Obsession Motorsport. Two men in a shed put a Celica engine in an Austin Mini. So far it's taken 12 years and 41 episodes. Some astonishing engineering going there.

If you're into cars, I'll also recommend "driving 4 answers". Very well researched and presented videos about engine technology.

>He's weird

He's just Dutch :)

He's very Dutch indeed. His English is also full of dutch-isms that maybe only dutch people recognize. I'm Dutch, but live in Canada. Watching his videos make me miss my home country.

Seconding Bad Obsession. Not only is their build quality outstanding, their video production efforts are top notch. Their dedication to the concept and execution of Project Binky is nothing short of amazing.

I got a little less interested in the videos once they got to the trimming out the car part. I liked when they were building the car and were doing (what seems to me) like excellent work. then they got to the dashboard and it became what ever goes. like the dashboard clock in the latest video...

I feel like some of that wonkiness (like the ridiculous clock) has to do with their drive to keep the car's feel as "80s Mini" as possible.

A couple more, adjacent:

Ahoy (if you like Amiga and old video games, I cannot recommend enough)

Ben Eater

Majulaar

Tantacrul

And of course Veritasium with the consistently super interesting science videos.

Majulaar's Ultima retrospective is one the highlights of my subscription feed

Ooh, nice to find someone who is following that too ahahah

Ultima Underworld is my favourite so far, that's an outstanding game.

Ahoy is essential just for how well produced their deep dive content is. The great art and music really elevate it from a "Watch something for an hour and learn some computing history" to "Have an experience for an hour"

+ Techmoan

If the idea of just chilling out and appreciating old tech with a slick presentation sounds good to you, you might like https://youtube.com/@PosyMusic

I know it's a cliche to say a Youtuber is unique, but Posy really is quite incredible. He's certainly not the only one making videos about vintage 80s technology but his great videography, calm tone, odd manner of speech, occasional goofy humor, and beautiful custom-made audio soundtracks make for a mesmerizing presentation.

  Huygens Optics
  CuriousMarc
  Applied Science (<- not the journal)  
  clabretro
  xkcd's What If?
  optimum

Calum, LowSpecGamer, Mustard, Rhystic Studies

+1 for LGR. Also adding TechMoan to that list.

I find his content wildly good but his voice to be so grating I can barely stand it.

Don't watch Aging Wheels then. Love both of them, but my wife complains when I watch either on the living room TV.

Same!

Then you'd really be missing out, because Aging Wheels is awesome

The first time I came across his channel I felt similarly, but coupled with the dry humor, passive aggressive offhand comments, and intentionally long pauses waiting for the joke to land, I began to feel like it went with the tone of the content. I wasn’t sure at first, but he seems very self aware.

The whole thing reminds of some 80s PBS and Wes Anderson mashup in the best way.

Yeah, he rides right up to, and sometimes crosses, the line of being a bit too hokey/jokey for me. But the other 95% of the content of his videos are so amazingly good that I can get over the eye-rolly bits. He absolutely deserves his success.

Thankfully YouTube allows you to 2x the playback. That was the only reason I watched most of this video.

I don’t know his experience with academics but if the stars aligned, he would be an amazing university lecturer.

Majored in hotel management and that was his job until the channel took off. You get the sense that he'd be good at literally anything.

I also just seem to like the guy. He exudes knowledgeable and level headed.

I am a big fan of his channel but in a lot of his videos lately, the tone has been somewhere between holier-than-thou and outright preachy. Just because you spent a week researching a semi-obscure topic enough to present about it on YouTube of all places doesn't make you an authority on the matter, and it absolutely doesn't mean you're suddenly qualified to dismiss people who disagree with your conclusions.

I prefer his videos where the vibe was more along the lines of, "Hey, I've been playing with this neato old technology lately, what say we nerd out about it for 38 minutes or thereabouts?"

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