cathoderaydude

Real big camera hours

(in case you don't feel like reading all this, here's the Call To Action: if you have any triax cables with the big plugs and would like to donate or at least sell them for less than ebay prices, please get in touch. ty!)

So, a few days ago I heard about a set of three old broadcast cameras, complete with box lenses, camera sleds, CCUs and image control strip inserts, being auctioned by Oregon State University with a starting price of $500. There were just a few hours left and ...

Side channel vid + phone camera hijinks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x01_PPdPiqY

Trying to record more of my projects, and also wanted to experiment with a new way of recording using my phone instead of a Real Camera, so here's a video of me doing some upgrades on a funky little luggable computer I picked up recently. Both projects were largely successful, though I'm still figuring out the camera bit. Apologies for the absurd focus racking ...

Video: Intro to Cash Registers

Hey! It's the next video in the previously created series! And it's not the one you expected! Probably!

I explain all my reasoning in the video so I won't rehash it here, but in short, this was the last of several different ideas that I tried and discarded before settling on this one. I know I'm not expected to explain the delays in my production process (i just signed up for hbomberguy's patreon and it's extremely funny seeing him make the same mistake i have of Ever Saying What I'm Do...

Update: huh! that's a lot of linkages

nobody here minds getting a lot of emails from me right? okay cool glad to hear it. i thought you'd all like to see this

i figured out how to get the cover off. it's 4 screws.

A lot of people...

happy halloween

i'm gonna stream some spooky games on my side channel in a bit if you're into that. things been rough lately for reasons i'll post about later, it's been real hard to move forward on videos, but i have been doing research constantly for the last month, am working on a script steadfastly and hope to have something out in the near future. here is a marginally related set of photographs. if anyone knows where to...

Video: Retail Hardware

Okay! Yes! I'm still alive! It's been complicated but I'm still over here doing things! In fact, I did this! I have no idea if I will do more videos in this series, but the probability is high since I came up with such a good series title, that kind of obligates me to do more. And I guess at a minimum I gotta come through on the Wayne, I already wrote like 12,000 words about that thing before I realized it needed to be a separate video and just cut off the front half and turned it into this o...

Video: Little Guys Episode 13

We're so back, it seems.

I've been working hard for weeks with nothing to show for it - shot a video the other day, then had to reshoot 2/3rds of it, then just couldn't bring myself to edit it, too overwhelmed. Pushed everything aside, took a few deep breaths, and contemplated a Guy.

When I got this thing it was out of sheer novelty; I did not expect there to be anything worth discussing, and there really kinda isn't, but it was a good springboard for Saying Words and Doi...

Still kickin

Noticed yesterday it's been a month since my last video and a couple people asked if I'm still alive, so: Yeah. It's been a really tough year, for a variety of different reasons, nothing major, but life just won't quit happening to me lately.

Good news: Just shot a new video today, will probably have it out Monday. Also trying really hard to get myself to relax for once and do a simple video here at home; I swear, things like Little Guys will come back eventually, yo...

Let's Try This Again: LPX!

Okay! Alright! Here we go! This is a significantly overhauled version of the LPX video; I made a bunch of adjustments, added some jokes+gags, and shot about ten minutes of new footage that change the entire thrust of the narrative.

I say this a lot, but it bears repeating: I could not do this without all of you. Several people in the comments here and in private messages pointed out the severe errors I'd made the first time around, and I know I wouldn't have fixed them otherwis...

boy sometimes you just look silly

Okay, so, I just uploaded a new revision of the LPX video where I pointed out that the XT had 8 slots and not 7, a really silly factual error that I should have caught... and before I could refresh the page someone pointed out another one: the PS/2 had a massive and broadly acknowledged impact on the industry, by giving us VGA!

And, yeah, I'd mentioned that in the video... but I also asserted that the only thing anyone ever says we got from the PS/2 was the smaller key...

Video: LPX (updated)

New version, fixed some minor errors and one big factual one lol (XT had 8 slots, not 7)

haven't thought of a name for this one yet and it's kind of a mishmash of several different incomplete topics that i think i successfully pulled together into a coherent narrative. at this point I can't tell if I succeeded or not. Please Enjoy

BTS: LPX teardown fail

I'm working on a script right now about a weird intermediate PC form factor standard called "LPX" that arose at roughly the same time as "baby AT" but was totally unknown at the time, due to being an OEM-only standard with no formal spec. I needed to do an experiment before I could finish the script, decided to record it so I wouldn't have to do it again for the video - then the experiment failed, so it'll never end up in the final video! But you might enjoy watching this anyway, idk...

Schedule, etc.

I always feel compelled to justify when I release a video publicly without any real pre-release period on Patreon. In this case it'd been over a month since my last public release and I had to take the opportunity to draw in new patrons since it's the end of the month. I figure most everyone understands, but for anyone who's new here, I do typically try to have a preview period of at least a couple days before a release (both to get feedback and to reward my supporters,) it's just not always ...

Video: The Empeg Car

I've been sitting on these things for two years trying to find a spicy way to cover them but since I don't own a car with a normal radio mount it was never gonna happen, so here you go.

Dunno if I'm gonna keep the moustache; it looks better in person than it does on camera for some reason.

Side channel: Rambling about Tyan boards

I'm getting Making Video withdrawal so here's a video.

Over the last four weeks I've written at least 50,000 words on five different subjects and none of it's producible; at least, not at the moment. I know, I know, I don't need to stress about Producing - the thing is, I like Producing, and I'm frustrated when i can't do it, so I keep working and working and hopefully I'll have something early next month. We'll see! for the moment, here's some semi-facts about motherboards. 2025-06-23 03:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post

Xoftware Review: Final (Copy) [Edited] (4).xlsx

I've uploaded a new version, this should be final. The only change is that I tempered the comment about Wayland. Sorry to anyone who left comments on the last version, feel free to leave em again.

yeah idk what i'm gonna name this one. anyway, hi, I can't go back to the office and work yet but I wanted to make a video and I've been tooling around with old unix/linux stuff and just happened to come across this. weird kinda video from me, hope you like it. healing going pretty well

All good

Surgery went well, no surprises except, apparently, a *second* hernia. Not a big one I don't think and both are fixed now. Belly is uhhhhh a "just a little sore" haha. Will keep you posted. Thank you all, the words of encouragement and anecdotes made this tremendously easier. I am so grateful for such a kind and caring audience. Be excellent to one another

Health Update / Hiatus

Warning: Descriptions of medical issues, anatomy and surgery.

Hey folks. I've alluded a couple times recently to Health Problems I was dealing with. Figured I should tell you what that's about.

In short, I have a hernia, umbilical type. That's the one where your guts won't stay inside your belly, not the one that makes you bleed from your ass; for some reason a lot of people seem to read 'hernia' as 'hemmorrhoid.' No, I don't know how that works either, but it keeps happening so I...

Solaris Solicitations

Anyone out there who used Sun (or similar workstations e.g. microvax 3100) for their job, preferably (though not necessarily) prior to 1999? Would like to know what you used them for, what software you ran, what decisionmaking process led to that particular platform if you know. Bonus if you ever had a SPARCbook, would love to know what purposes those were bought for. Lots of anecdotes on Usenet but I figured I'd cast a wide net.

Not interested in hobbyist stor...

Video: Quick Start, Episode 8

This is one I've been wanting to make for months. I explain in the video why I didn't make it sooner (it's my own damn fault) but I kept worrying that I wouldn't ever get to make it at all. It's not the wildest machine in the quick start series by a long shot, but I would call it the best machine by a wide margin. Enjoy!

(accidentally labeled this as quick start 8 at first for some reason lol)

(oh my god it IS episode 8. how did I mess this up twice)

Video: Five Phone Stories (Finished!)

Alright, this is the finished version. Thank you so much to everyone who chimed in on the video and the patreon post, you caught a LOT of mistakes - I don't think any were major, per se, but several were embarrassing and I should have known better / checked better. I am pretty happy with the outcome, though I admit there's a lot of onscreen text - this is such a dense topic that there were things I just could not fit into the script that still needed to be mentioned, didn't know what...

Rough cut: Five Phone Stories

Okay, this is one that I'm actually happy with and absolutely planning on finishing for normal release, but I wanted to put out the rough cut first because I'm hoping some of you can check my work.

Over the last week I came across a number of fascinating stories about the history of telephony in the US, centering on the internet boom of the 90s, and at some point I decided they were all sort of related, in a Pulp Fiction kind of way - none of them exactly connect, but they...

Video: Response Point For Real This Time

After most of a year I've finally decided that the Response Point video is fit for public consumption, so here it is. It's not terribly different from the roughcut other than the inclusion of all the appropriate onscreen graphics and sounds, though of course that does make it a lot more watchable.

Video: (final) Linear Editing

This should be the final version of the linear editing video, so feel free to leave YouTube comments. Thank you to everyone I have not replied to yet on Patreon, all of your feedback on the other post made me finally feel confident about my work, I wasn't sure I'd managed to make it either correct or entertaining until then. If I somehow haven't been clear: I couldn't do this without you all.

Video: Linear Video Editing

Hey everyone, here's a video. Once again the comments are off because I made several egregious errors, so I will be re-rendering and re-uploading, but I figure I'll release it on Monday so I have a while to get feedback first.

I am absolutely astonished that this video came together the way it did, the writing and experimentation took much less time than I expected, and I'm really proud of the result. I think I did as good a job as anybody of demonstrating linear editing, so if you do...

Behind the scenes: Compositing setup

Was setting up for a video yesterday and realized folks might be intrigued by how I do my on-set preview setup - I'm sure I've mentioned some of this before, but I don't think in this much detail. I need to actually make a public video at some point explaining how I do this, since I think a lot of people would benefit from it, but for the moment here's freebird