LGR’s Clint Basinger plumbs the depths of retro-computing—and his YouTube comments

LuisMercado

Smack-Fu Master, in training
89
Fantastic to see Clint here in Ars, and while now it’s obvious that’s something I’ve never expected.

To me he’s one of those rare YouTube personas that have a sizable following (over a million subs) without retorting to the typical gimmicks used by tube’s celebrities. He’s always frank and charismatic. His humor is very natural, never feeling forced and his knowledge about retro computing is sizable yet never snobbish. A great person. Thanks Ars.
 
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57 (57 / 0)
You should be including the closed caption for LGR video. Clint includes closed captions in his video to keep it accessible for users. It felt weird that I am seeing Clint without the closed caption, I implore you to add it to the video since it is Clint, you know, just to keep the spirit of his audience.

No, YouTube Auto-Generated Caption sucks and they don't work well.
 
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23 (24 / -1)

Danathar

Ars Praefectus
4,569
Subscriptor
I don't know if we are at peak retro yet, I hope we never get there.

What LGR, 8 Bit guy, Retro Recipes, etc. all show is that in many ways due to the fact that you can get a PCB made to order and the internet exists...there is MORE activity on old computers in some ways than there was back when they were current.

People are making peripherals and software to go with them that could of NEVER been done back in the day.

Simply Amazing. Thanks LGR for all your thrifting!
 
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13 (13 / 0)

simplepurple

Ars Scholae Palatinae
814
Subscriptor
Getting a like out of me and I haven't even watched it yet :) I'm a fan of LGR, The 8-Bit Guy, and some other retro folks.

I follow those as well. Retro Man Cave is another one I like. Dave at EEVblog also has some good videos, including ones on retro hardware.

Technology Connections has some interesting stuff on retro hardware, although it's more than just retro computer hardware. (Like the old Sunbeam toaster - that was really cool tech!)
 
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15 (15 / 0)

pokrface

Senior Technology Editor
21,552
Ars Staff
You should be including the closed caption for LGR video. Clint includes closed captions in his video to keep it accessible for users. It felt weird that I am seeing Clint without the closed caption, I implore you to add it to the video since it is Clint, you know, just to keep the spirit of his audience.

No, YouTube Auto-Generated Caption sucks and they don't work well.
I've posted this about ten trillion times before (and apologies if that sounds snarky, I honestly don't mean it to be), but here's the situation with closed captioning on Ars.

Our videos are produced with the help of CNE, Conde's video production arm. They do all the heavy lifting and edit/prod work, and they have a pretty well defined workflow to handle videos from all over Conde. The way closed captioning specifically is handled is that CNE uses rev.com to generate a proper CC/SDH stream after the edit is locked, and that stream is automatically encapsulated with the video when the video is played with the Conde Nast player (something that you can experience right here, if you'd like).

We used the CN player for Ars page embeds for a while, but the overwhelming majority of you guys hated it and requested that we instead embed Youtube's player, so we switched to Youtube. However, the video publication workflow we're constrained to use doesn't include a way to package the rev.com generated CC/SDH stream and ship that to Youtube. Why? I don't have an answer for you. It just doesn't, and there's not a way for me to make that happen because I have no insight into or input in the CNE video pub workflow.

So, if you watch the video on youtube, you get youtube's auto-generated subtitles and I have no way to fix that for you. If you watch the video on the CN player, you get the nice hand-crafted CC/SDH stream. If this makes a material difference to your enjoyment of the video, I suggest you use the CN player to see the "good" subtitles.
 
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45 (48 / -3)

Renzatic

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
8,620
Getting a like out of me and I haven't even watched it yet :) I'm a fan of LGR, The 8-Bit Guy, and some other retro folks.

I like 8-Bit Guy just a little more, because while LGR is great for learning about the commercial history of all these old machines, he gets down to the brass tacks on how those computers actually worked.

I feel like LGR is fun and entertaining, while I gain functional knowledge from 8-Bit Guy.
 
Upvote
2 (3 / -1)
Post content hidden for low score. Show…
You should be including the closed caption for LGR video. Clint includes closed captions in his video to keep it accessible for users. It felt weird that I am seeing Clint without the closed caption, I implore you to add it to the video since it is Clint, you know, just to keep the spirit of his audience.

No, YouTube Auto-Generated Caption sucks and they don't work well.
I've posted this about ten trillion times before (and apologies if that sounds snarky, I honestly don't mean it to be), but here's the situation with closed captioning on Ars.

Our videos are produced with the help of CNE, Conde's video production arm. They do all the heavy lifting and edit/prod work, and they have a pretty well defined workflow to handle videos from all over Conde. The way closed captioning specifically is handled is that CNE uses rev.com to generate a proper CC/SDH stream after the edit is locked, and that stream is automatically encapsulated with the video when the video is played with the Conde Nast player (something that you can experience right here, if you'd like).

We used the CN player for Ars page embeds for a while, but the overwhelming majority of you guys hated it and requested that we instead embed Youtube's player, so we switched to Youtube. However, the video publication workflow we're constrained to use doesn't include a way to package the rev.com generated CC/SDH stream and ship that to Youtube. Why? I don't have an answer for you. It just doesn't, and there's not a way for me to make that happen because I have no insight into or input in the CNE video pub workflow.

So, if you watch the video on youtube, you get youtube's auto-generated subtitles and I have no way to fix that for you. If you watch the video on the CN player, you get the nice hand-crafted CC/SDH stream. If this makes a material difference to your enjoyment of the video, I suggest you use the CN player to see the "good" subtitles.
Sucks that an .srt is totally available for this video (https://dp8hsntg6do36.cloudfront.net/5f ... c7e6cc.srt), and YouTube supports uploading .srt files ...
 
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10 (10 / 0)

marsilies

Ars Legatus Legionis
24,531
Subscriptor++
We used the CN player for Ars page embeds for a while, but the overwhelming majority of you guys hated it and requested that we instead embed Youtube's player, so we switched to Youtube. .. If you watch the video on the CN player, you get the nice hand-crafted CC/SDH stream. If this makes a material difference to your enjoyment of the video, I suggest you use the CN player to see the "good" subtitles.
Is there a way to include a link to the CN player in the caption for the Youtube embed? Like, instead of "Click here for transcript" it's "Click here for transcript, and click here for for a Closed-Captioned version."
 
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5 (5 / 0)

talon_262

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,330
The only YouTube channel I currently support on Patreon is LGR. I dig it that much. My personal nostalgia channel - especially the thrifting episodes.

Oh, and Clint has one of the best Duke Nukem impressions I've ever heard. :)

And he also likes "the big knob" (Mackie's, that is) ;-P

Seriously, Clint is one of only four that I currently do Patreon for (the others are Steve Shives, Shives' Late Seating/The Ensigns' Log collaborator Jason Harding [Lemme Listen Podcasts], and Robert Dunn of Aging Wheels); I've also been thinking about adding Techmoan, The 8-Bit Guy, and Technology Connections for a while, but I just haven't yet.
 
Upvote
4 (5 / -1)
LGR deserves his youtube success. In reading this article, it made me wonder what makes LGR videos so popular. To me, his commentary is friendly and fine enough, but not particularly funny or in-depth, so what is it? What do y'all think?

I feel the LGR secret sauce is probably 3 things 1) he's just so prolific: there's no substitute for volume of nostalgic tech content, 2) his soothing voice, kind of 'tech ASMR', and 3) the projection of his genuine 'collector' style love for all these nostalgic things that at one time generated tech-lust in our younger selves.

How many of us would want a boxed voodoo 3 card? Probably 90% of ars readers wouldn't take it even if it was free... but as a youtube video, we can let the tube aglo sooth us, watch and go, 'oh yeah I remember when I wanted one of those, huh, yep that exists'.
 
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15 (15 / 0)

methodmadness00

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
172
Subscriptor
Clint is the man - really looking forward to watching this after work!

LGR, Techmoan, The 8-Bit Guy, Technology Connections, Retro Man Cave, Retro Recipes, Nostalgia Nerd... For all its faults, I thank the stars that YouTube exists so we can enjoy all this great tech / retro content for free (although I'm a patron for most of these channels on Patreon).
 
Upvote
7 (7 / 0)
LGR's videos manage to scratch that nostalgia itch that would otherwise have me filling my house with retro tech. In a sense his videos act as a museum that I can revisit time and again. And as a sanity check on my hoarding tendencies.

Techmoan is another Youtuber I hope you get the opportunity to interview. His and many of the other Youtubers videos covering aging electronics never cease to amaze. Some refresh memories of much loved kit I had back in the day, others tell of technology I never knew existed. Techmoan's digital HD video on a VHS format being one such example of the later.
 
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7 (7 / 0)

talon_262

Ars Scholae Palatinae
1,330
trolling obsessive bullshit

Dude, WTAF is wrong with you, trolling Ars staff and stinking up the joint about a certain ex-staffer on this article/thread with LGR (who, as far I know, never did a damned thing to you and doesn't deserve your bullshit)?

Is this really the hill you want to die on?

[moonsharksays]It's the hill they're buried under now, let's move on from off topic trolling[/moonsharksays]
 
Upvote
9 (10 / -1)