The Awesome Videos Thread (with Extra Sauce!)

GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
evilmike said:
Floppotron 3.0
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So pardon me a moment for ranting but I want to get it off my chest. I sent my Dad the link to this video because way back in the day, whenever he turned on his dot matrix printer, he'd make a joke about it sounding like the start of I've Got the Power by Snap. You know, music from a stepper motor.

So I thought he'd find this neat.

You know what this guy replies back to me?

"Impressive. Just think what this kid could do if he applied himself to something useful?"

Me, mentally:



So I went to the grocery store, stewing this over in my head, giving myself time to cool off before I replied. I was monsterously disappointed in my father of course, and this is not the first time he's made a backhanded compliment about something I've shown him that I thought was cool.

Eventually I came back, breathed deeply, and replied with the following e-mail:

I suppose it depends on your definition of useful.

Does everything have to cure cancer to be enjoyable? Does every hobby, pastime, or form of entertainment have to address some societal ill to be worthwhile of praise? Or failing that, does it have to be some form of high art that 75% of people who observe it fail to understand the point? Or can it just be something that brings a couple minutes of joy into this wadded kleenex of a world as it circles down the toilet bowl?

Does it need to be commercially viable to be "useful?" Youtube videos generally make $3-$5 per 1000 views in ad revenue. That video has been watched 843,000 times as of a minute ago, which translates to roughly $2500-$4200. I've been watching that channel for over ten years, and while the last couple years he's only put out 8 or so videos per year, in 2019 he put out 33, all getting between 100k and 800k views (most in the neighborhood of 300k). So roughly $1,000-$1500 a video for the old Floppotron 2.0, pulling in well over $30k-$45k that year... which is pretty not shabby for simple videos of a hobby.

Something can just be neat, and time spent making someone happy, even if it is just yourself, is never wasted. And this is definitely the kind of fun nonsense a software engineer (which is Pavel's day job, unsurprisingly) would do to entertain himself.

And hey, if nothing else, it's keeping a few dozen floppy drives, hard disks, and scanners from cluttering up already-overflowing landfills.
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I also wrote one more sentence that went "But not to worry, consider me having learned a valuable lesson about trying to share things with you that I find interesting and entertaining." But I deleted it before sending.

I still probably won't be sending him any more "cool links" for quite a while.
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

Ah, what a time to be living in the future!

Truth be told, without the X-Files music and the night vision, this could easily be a scene from The Jetsons.
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Here's a cyclist/filmmaker that films his biking tours. And he just posted this one, where he bikes from Pictou, Nova Scotia, to PEI, and then tours PEI. Definitely one of my dream tours on my "Bike-It List."

 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
While initially debuting in early 2019, the Color Splash never made it to mass production, despite displaying adaptive wall scanning, a new innovative paint application technique, high capacity reservoir, and incredible artistic talent.

 
chris

chris

GasBandit said:
While initially debuting in early 2019, the Color Splash never made it to mass production, despite displaying adaptive wall scanning, a new innovative paint application technique, high capacity reservoir, and incredible artistic talent.

Click to expand...
That felt a bit like the scene in RoboCop (and RoboCop 2).
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

I recognize all three cartoons in the thumbnail.
And I haven't seen any of them.
Well, that's not entirely true. I've seen the first half of Antz. Up to the attack on the termites, at least.
Okay, maybe that's only a third of it.

--Patrick
 
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