A Holiday Greeting (And Updates!)

Actually, videos on all of those topics seem like great ideas to me (pinball machine included). Hope your drive to the Torrid Zone was uneventful, and speaking as someone who moved down from Northwest Lower Michigan -- the Tampa area is less... weird. It's no less hot in the summer, however.

Brendan Meteer

I just joined Patreon and wanted to say that, as a deaf person, I really really appreciate your taking the time to put in properly-formatted subtitles for your videos. They are a godsend and make your videos so much easier to follow. Happy new year!

Ron Painter

Thank you for a year of great videos.

Mike Mason

If you come down to Florida again, stop by Delray Beach and visit the Silverball Pinball Museum. Hundreds of pinball machines, all grouped by era (mechanical, early transistorized, early electronic, early computerized, atari-era (space invaders is my favorite!), some absolutely insanely modern full-on computerized machines from Jersey Jack, etc etc) and are all playable, just a one-time entry fee (very reasonable). Also food, a couple bars, a stage for bands. neat place!

Phillip Cosgrove

I'm not a coffee person but I've heard percolated coffee is terrible tasting. Is this true? something about the temps are too high, maybe?

Brian Miller

A topic is like to see is analog voice encryption. I have read that the equivalent of a "one time pad" audio encryption system was used in WW2 between the U.S. and Britan and am highly intrigued!

HarveyB

Have a safe road trip. I love the humor you edit into the videos... sometimes, it's the only "laugh out loud" moments I have that day when I watch. You also made me mad... here's how: I'm old enough to be your father and I remember the toaster I grew up with all during my formative years and it was one of those you featured (just drop the bread in and it works... no levers to press... it just worked). I'm mad because "Why did that go away????" Just one more thing... you're the production pro so I defer to your judgement on this: is the lighting in the HQ set casting more shadows on your face and upper body than it should? I'm wondering if more eye level light sources would be beneficial. I enjoy your channels very much.

Howie Walters

I hope you'll share all your tech-conn videos of 2020 with us, not just some of them 😁

Marcel de Jong

Merry Christmas! I love jukeboxes. I'd love to have one of those 60's-70's compact 33 stereo EP Seeburg units one day in good working condition and not needing constant maintenance. Probably infinitely improbable. I know Techmoan did 2 videos on those Seeburg 1000 BMS units but it would be great if you could delve into the mechanics of those one day. I have one and I'd love to get that damn banging to stop, apparently a common problem with those things.

Arthur Robillard

If you want a rabbit hole as convoluted as CED, try Bell Labs' Picturephone! Also, just a normal elctro-mechanical switching system would make your heart swell, The MIT model railroad club used to use one to control their layout's switched for decades.

Mike Bird

On a different topic. You didn't miss Christmas! Like the song says, there are 12 days of Christmas from Dec 25th, through Jan 5th. Jan 6th is the Epiphany when the wise men supposedly showed up.

Mike Bird

Want some more dark room equipment? We're getting out of our out-home storage, so we're looking to get rid of some stuff. yeah, stuff is accurate. Among the stuff is darkroom equipment. A Kodak safe light, some patterson tanks (which I see you prefer), an enlarger, an exposure computer (set it to your paper/developer combination's speed (via a chart) place it in a contrasting position, turn out the lights, turn the enlarger on at the F-Stop you're planning on using, and turn the dial until a neon light turns on. You'll then have the exposure time on the dial.) A focus helper (slanted mirror like a microscope stage going through a loupe. Let's you focus until you can see the grain.) development trays, print dryer, etc.

Mike Bird

I was fortunate enough to attend a middle school with a darkroom; it's been years and years since I've developed film or made prints from negative, but it would be delightful to see that process revisited. I recall the darkroom work being quite relaxing. Though that's probably because the three door entryway and the "dark mode" lightswitch overriding the normal lights did a lot to prevent the work from becoming abruptly stressful. ;)

Travis Snoozy

If you make your way to the Tampa/Sarasota area, you definitely would enjoy the Ringling Museum...I can't recommend it enough, particularly the huge model train setup. Topics I'd love to see vids on: MiniDiscs, DAT, and/or DV. Coffee percolator -- vacuum coffee pots are hella fun and kinda old tech.

Sierra Mistystep

Thanks. Happy holidays to you also and enjoy the road trip. Look forward to what’s coming

if the CED series ends, I'm unsubscribing 😜

Adam Wishneusky

Techmoan did a video a few years ago about a jukebox wall box that would allow users the select records remotely (the wall box was wired). My guess is that the selector in the jukebox works similarly, like a rotary phone and Strowger switch. I second a comment on YouTube to this video that a series should have installments that can stand alone. That way, you can satisfy those both crowds. Also, where’d you get that shirt?

Great stuff! Re the analog photography etc youre right. I think some people have some assumption that it is automatically crap as its old tech. I once let some mates see a ton of my prints Id done ages ago and they were gob smacked. Anyway, loving your work as always.

Your goofs are great and are quite funny. Glad you're getting more comfortable with them!

Sunchild

You don't need to redo the analog audio series. It was what got me watching this channel, and was excellent. When I look back on some of my earlier videos, I can't believe anyone watched them, but they do, so I don't think I'm the best critic.

Big Car

Hope your trip goes well, take the time you need! Regarding the CED videos, part 3 was more like a business class, add a all talking head video and it's a lot less interesting for a lot of people. I'm looking forward to CED 4 and 5; I'd encourage you to add as much B roll as you can, even if it's barely relevant, and combine with jump cuts; infographics can be nice but they take forever to create. As for being goofy, the lastest videos had a really good level of that with some subtle and less subtles amusements that were very much appropriate (e.g. the teleprompter story, the this-is-being-dubbed,... these were great). Take care and have a good 2020.

Raphaël

Happy Holidays! Here's my vote for the pinball machine, here in Austria at least pinball is pretty much dead, there's one guy who's operating a private museum in my area but any remaining machines out in the wild are left to rot. I can only speak for myself but as a huge fan who can't own a machine for himself I'd love to see a short video about what's happening under the playfield. Safe travels and all the best for 2020!

Orvath

Happy Holidays indeed! Can't wait to see what you put out there in 2020, your channel has such a unique and fun sense of humor in addition to being fantastically informative. Keep up the great work!

Honestly, no. I don't really want to change anything about how I operate the channel, and I'm much happier with the sort of "volunteer" system that Patreon support provides. At this point I'm not looking for anything more

Technology Connections

Happy Holidays. Have you considered Floatplane.com?

Adam Zawisza

Happy holidays to you as well. Your shirt is awesome. Toot your own horn all you want, it's your channel and the content is interesting. Extremely excited for the juke box and, well, you made toasters almost interesting, I'm sure you can manage the pinball machine. I've always wondered about photography development, I'm counting on you for that one as well.

Indeed! The most clever bit is how the relays complete their own circuits, and rely on the score motor to disconnect them! That way, the 50 point relay will lock in, the score motor will pulse the tens unit five times, and after the fifth pull, it breaks the power to the relay and stops! It's all just a mess of "this completes a circuit through here, here, here, here, and here" and somehow that all gets turned into logic. I'm especially fond of things like the bonus countdown, double-bonus scoring, and all of the wonderful stepper relays doing all the crazy nonsense!

Technology Connections

I have a roll of some fairly dense foam ready to go, but I haven't been able to devote time to experimenting with it. I plan to do some documentation of the process and make a behind-the-scenes video about it

Technology Connections

Vote for the pinball machine. I have loved these for most of my adult life and only recently bought one of my own. The EM machines are fascinating, especially the scoring. How can one switch score 5 points and another switch score 50 points? I now understand (I think), but the relays and scoring motor are clever.

Bruce Davis

You've mentioned that the room acoustics are mostly affected by the HVAC ducting. Have you thought about using the kind of sound dampening materials used in automobiles?

Bard

What--Alec at mom & dad's place all alone? You know of course that it is mandatory in those situations to record a video performing air guitar to "Old Time Rock & Roll" in your tighty whiteys. On second thought, probably not a good idea. Anyway, happy Boxing Day and it sounds like there's some good stuff to come--can't wait for it.

Mark Hesse

You know I haven't really done anything like that... The most basic thing is, I had never expected YouTube to go anywhere, but also I didn't really know what I wanted to pursue in life. My interests have always been so eclectic and engineering didn't seem like it would fit me. So I ended up starting a career in the hospitality industry, with a focus on hotel management. I had literally just gotten a promotion to a supervisory role when my video on VHS suddenly went semi-viral and overnight I went from about maybe 1,300 subscribers to 30,000. So I kept working at the hotel and just kept making videos when I could, and after starting my Patreon I was able to go full-time YouTube within about a year. If that wasn't crazy enough, I decided to buy an *unfinished* house in the middle of nowhere (relatively, it's near to my parents so in that sense it's quite familiar), and that's what Headquarters is. Right now it's just where my studio and filming equipment is, and I crash here for a couple days at a time before heading back home. So, since life never exactly went in the direction my plans were set, it's pretty safe to say "My name's Alec, and I make YouTube videos" because... that's it!

Technology Connections

Happy Holidays!! Just recently subscribed, and already a bit lost 😂. Is there a Q&A/Draw My Life/About me video/article I can read to know a bit more about who you are & what you do?

PseudsPie

Dude, you entertain me, inform me, and crack me up. Thanks!

B3

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy New Years! Hope the travel goes well.

Taylor Cuzela