Userlandia

Hey everybody,

Here's a channel update for November with some important news:

1. I'll be in Japan for the month of November. Therefore, I've paused Patreon for that month so people won't be charged. I'm not planning on making a video about the trip, but I may pick up interesting things while out there.

2. This obviously impacts the projects I have on schedule. I basically put everything aside for a month to do the VCF video, and that meant the odds of getting something else out before then very unlikely. But the positive side is that I've got a fourteen hour plane ride to work on some scripts and other things.

Those projects include:

1. Laptop showdown. This is a tech pop culture focused video based on a movie, and I'm hoping it'll land with people.

2. Computers of Significant History. We're moving in to the early aughts for this one. Get ready for the dotcom bubble and the Pentium III.

3. ALR Sequel Pentium Upgrade boards for Compaq PCs. This took forever to arrive, and I'm not going to use my current ProLinea for it, but I want to cover this little-known upgrade option for 486 PCs. I'm on the lookout for battery bombed/scrapped Deskpro/ProLinea desktops from 1993-1995.

4. 25 years (late) of Pirates of Silicon Valley. A few years ago Jake and I did a review for the Icon Garden but I've wanted to do an absolute deep-dive into it point-by-point.

Anyway, thanks for subscribing and I'll see you on the other side.

6 months ago | [YT] | 18

Userlandia

Greetings all!

VCF Midwest is coming up in a few weeks, and I'll be there. Keep an eye open for me in a Userlandia shirt, or in my spiffy new PS/2 It! shirt. I won't have a table but I'll be going around seeing all the cool people that do.

I want to thank everybody who watched and engaged with the IIGS video. That one was a long time coming because I finished the script in March and it took some time to finally get it in to production. I wasn't sure how it would land, but 50,000 views and counting later (plus all the comments, new subscribers, etc) have proven it was a success. I don't want to do massive hour-long projects like that all the time, but this one was important enough to me that I felt like I couldn't leave anything out.

I've got more material coming down the pike, like a VCF report (of course) and a face-off between an iBook and a ThinkPad. Computers of Significant History will also be continuing. Stay tuned!

9 months ago | [YT] | 33

Userlandia

Hey all,

I wanted to give an update on upcoming projects.

1. Computers of Significant History: This required a bunch of hardware which has all been acquired. It needs to be filmed.

2. I went on a trip to several English computer museums. A script is in progress. This may end up being posted before other videos because it's all filmed and needs to be edited together.

3. A script for a video about the 65C816 and the Apple IIGS is done. The video will probably be an hour-ish long. Needless to say that this'll take a while to produce.

4. VCF East. I'll be there, and yes, there'll be a wrap-up video. This year's event looks to have a lot of great updates and activities, so I'm eager to go. If you see me, say hi and I'll give you a sticker!

1 year ago | [YT] | 17

Userlandia

Hey everybody,

I wanted to say thanks to all the new people coming by from the Model 80 video. I'm grateful for all the comments and feedback, which I'll be using to improve future projects.

What's in the works?

1. The next Computers of Significant History. It's all written; it just needs to be recorded, filmed, and edited.
2. Some shorter videos about various things. Apple IIGS, for one.
3. VCF East coverage. I'll be returning and I'll try to mix it up so the coverage doesn't get too repetitive.

There's been a bunch of requests to install OS/2 on the Model 80, and I'd like to do it, but I'm not sure the best way to produce such a thing. Maybe more of a learning and exploring guide, since I'm by no means an OS/2 expert.

I hope you'll stick around and if you haven't checked out my back catalogue there's plenty of other old computery stuff to see!

1 year ago | [YT] | 43

Userlandia

If you're going to be at VCF Midwest, I'll be there too! I'll be handing out Userlandia stickers that are guaranteed to class up your laptop or classic PC.

1 year ago | [YT] | 14

Userlandia

Thanks, everybody! The channel's broken 1,000 subscribers, and YouTube partner is unlocked. First, I'd like to thank everyone who subscribed, commented, and gave feedback. It's nice to know that I'm not completely shouting into a void.

Having unlocked Partner, I looked into YouTube's automatic ad placements, and I was shocked at the number of ads it put into the latest videos (and at the points it put them). I've manually adjusted ad placements to be more logical and less aggressive than YouTube's defaults. I swear it tried putting fifteen ads on to the Apple IIe computers of significant history, which is outrageous. Nobody wants to watch an ad every two minutes. If you're not a YouTube Premium subscriber, this should make things a bit less painful. I care more about people watching my videos to completion than seeing a bazillion ads.

On the subject of upcoming content, this is what's in the works:

* A video exploring an arcade I've been visiting since I was a child.

* The next Computers of Significant History (The IBM PS/2 Model 30 286)

* VCF Midwest (I'll be there!)

* A video version of the Compaq ProLinea 4/33 Computers of Significant History

On an unrelated note...

I have a complicated relationship with YouTube. When I originally started Userlandia, it was supposed to be a blog and podcast that could be updated regularly with smaller projects. The problem, I realized, is that the audience for those things are here on YouTube. However, making videos (filming, assembling, and editing) has a significantly higher cost in terms of time and money. After all, you can't film something you don't own. Everything you write needs coverage, which means being a little creative in how things show up on screen. At its core I'm producing narrative, written content where the video is an illustration. I realize it's not the same as someone who finds a computer and films repairs and such. But I believe there's room out there for people to do different things, so we'll see how it works out.

I knew in my gut that my previous written content would do better as YouTube videos, in terms of people actually seeing and engaging with it. So far this theory has been proven 100% true. Nobody reads blogs anymore, and solo podcasts are impossible to gain traction. The audience for computing is largely on YouTube, which is unfortunate, but you have to go where people are. For context, it took about twelve days of recording, filming, sourcing, and editing to put together the Apple IIe video, on a script/podcast that took a month to research and write a year and a half ago when it was originally posted as a podcast.

I'll still post transcripts to the blog and audio podcasts to the feed, because I know some people like engaging that way. But for now, all I ask is that you spread the word and give appropriate feedback. I hope you'll enjoy the upcoming videos.

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 22

Userlandia

Hey all,

I've de-listed the audio only podcasts. You can find them at www.userlandia.com/home/category/podcast for listening. I'll be recreating things in video form (along with new video content) as the new year goes on. Or Apple podcasts. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/userlandia/id1588648… Or Overcast. Whatever!

Coming soon is Commodore 64 content, as I've acquired one! I'm also writing a script for an SE/30 restoration, and may produce some SimCity content. If only I had more hours in the day...

2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 6

Userlandia

Trying out this community post thing! First, thanks to all the new people subscribing thanks to the Lian Li video! I guess I got lucky on the YouTube lottery and it's doing really well.

The next podcast/video/whatever is in the works. I also wanted to make sure people knew that old content in the channel with a logo thumbnail are audio-only podcasts that were auto-posted. They're still great listens, but they're not video-videos, if you get my drift. I may recreate them as actual videos later, but they'll stick around for now. In the future every show will have an actual video version. It may take longer for them to post as videos, so if you want to hear them ASAP, subscribing to the podcast at www.userlandia.com/ is a good idea.

2 years ago | [YT] | 3