I Hate YouTube!

You know, I hate Youtube. I hate YouTube for a variety of reasons.

The main reason is that YouTube will not let you block certain channels.  There are certain channels I hate but Youtube keeps feeding them to me.  There used to be a way to block channels are at least tell YouTube that you weren't interested in viewing content from a particular channel.  That changed awhile ago.

As well, they won't let you block individuals so that you don't see their comments.

I've been trying to use Rumble for viewing videos.  Rumble doesn't have as much traffic as YouTube.  As well, Rumble has no importing utility - it's an absolute pain to move videos from YouTube to Rumble.

As well, I've been trying to grow my YouTube channel but I do not want to be having to post every other day just to ensure I've adequate traffic.  YouTube's algorithm is making a slave of folks and I'm not even monetized.

I pray to God that YouTube gets slammed with some type of overreach charge in the future.  They're so large that there's no competition.

UPDATE (7/26/2025):  I'm pushing all of my content to Rumble now.  I'm also attempting to export all of my Youtube content so that I can import the videos to Rumble.  I'm also linking the Rumble content when posting to Wordpress.

PC Gaming - GHPC, Steel Beasts Pro PE, and VTOL VR

 This past summer, I've been trying different types of PC games.  Yes, I bought Battlefield 2042, but I've done Battlefield games since the original (BF 1942)...it gets old.  

Prior to this year, I was playing War Thunder, mainly Air - arcade battles mode, Air - realistic battles mode, and some dabbling with air- simulation battles mode, which requires a stick, a throttle, and head-tracking.  Sim battles is also VR-compatible and I've also done that - it's fun!

I quit playing War Thunder last fall.  In trying to fill the void, I started playing IL-2 Stumovik: Battle of Stalingrad and it's different maps/campaigns, and also bought some premium planes.  That game is also VR-capable, but is more difficult to configure for VR, but it flies extremely well with TrackIR too.

This summer, I saw a game being advertised called Gunner, Heat, PC!  It is a moderate level tank simulator.  It's not quite easy and not quite difficult.  It plays better than War Thunder's ground battles model.  I liked it so much that I decided to become one of their Patreon members, helping to report bugs and donating funds to help the game grow.  In being a Patreon member, I was able to play their Patreon version of the game (which was available before the game made it to Steam).  September 2022 was the Early Access release date, so you can get that game on Steam now.  It's in an alpha state, so there are bugs but the devs have created a roadmap for the game, so it'll be growing over time.  It's a great game - I highly recommend it.

Lastly, I've been playing a hardcore tank sim called Steel Beasts.  I've actually been playing versions of this game for a very long time, close to 20 years.  I bought it around the year 2000 when it was being sold on a CD.  I still have that disk, too.  The game has evolved over time to be quite hefty.  The consumer version of the game is called Steel Beasts Pro Personal Edition (PE).  It's an expensive game now (it was also expensive 20 years ago, too).  The game is $115 if you're purchasing the unlimited license.  You can buy limited licenses (1 month, 4 months, and 12 months, at $9.50, $29.50, and $49.50, respectively).  With unlimited licenses, they send you a USB dongle that houses the license, which is required to use to play the game.  As well, every three years, there are major version changes, which requires licensing updates, which costs $40.

Steel Beasts is over-the-top sophisticated.  Up until recently, it had this very convoluted install process that was straight-up painful.  With the latest version, released a few months ago, the install process is a lot more simple.  As well, the difference between v4.1 (which I'd been playing a lot the past 2 years) and v4.3 (the latest version) is drastic!  The game appears to be better optimized (plays smoother and loads faster) but the graphics are actually stunning.  There's now heat blur and haze.

I've also recently been playing with the mission editor as an attempt to learn things about the game that I've not yet tried.  Creating/editing missions is tedious but the reward if you create a good mission is astoundingly satisfying!  I'm just dabbling in mission editing and created a mission where I've a US tank battalion pitted against a dug-in Soviet tank company, where the US tank battalion is forced to funnel it's forces into a kill zone.  The enemy is out of reach when the US unit comes out of a valley and there's no cover (it's a desert map), so you've to plan a way to get within range of the Soviet tanks without losing all your tanks.  Not only are the  Soviet tanks dug in, they're hiding behind small hills.  It's a works in progress but it was fun building the mission and was also fun playing it. 

I'm having so much fun with Steel Beasts that it will probably quickly replace War Thunder as my favorite game.  Note:  Steel Beasts is more of a training aid than a sim.  There's a lot to the game and you'll not be able to play it without studying up and running through it's training guides.  It's not something you're going to be able to play in 30 minutes, unless you can find user-created missions that are strictly designed for short duration gameplay.  The manual is close to 250 pages, so if you're interested, be prepared to study.

I also play VTOL VR, a VR PC flight sim that is flown using the VR controls!  The graphics fidelity is a turn-off for some folks but the game is highly immersive, mainly because the cockpit can by manually manipulated (ie, cockpit buttons can be actuated virtually, using your VR controls).  The game is also extremely popular.  There are three planes you can choose to fly, as well as a helicopter. 

I don't have a lot of footage of VTOL VR because it taxes my system badly.  With VR PC games, the PC renders the game footage, and also pipes it to the VR display.  The gameplay isn't bad in itself but playing the game and also recording it puts huge stress on the system.  I'm currently researching ways I can offload recording to another system (USB recording hardware).  Initially I flew this game while the VR headset was tethered to my gaming laptop.  I later determined how to play the game without a USB cable (I use Virtual Desktop, which enables me to play it while wirelessly connected to the gaming PC).  Flight footage of this game can be found on my Twitch channel.

My VR headset is an Oculus Quest 2 w 64 GB of storage.

My Twitch channel that I stream to -  unixfool - Twitch

I also have a YouTube page that has some recorded War Thunder gameplay:

War Thunder RB - Full Matches - YouTube

War Thunder - My ace matches - YouTube

iMovie & Mac Mini M1

I've a YouTube channel. Who doesn't, right?

Well, I did something I haven't done in awhile.  I recorded footage using my Logitech C922 Pro Stream, but using Photo Booth on my Mac Mini M1.

I've used Photo Booth in the past to capture footage but it was on my iMac 27" Core 2 Duo system...was decently fast in the day but always generated a bit of lag when recording footage that was long in duration - lag meaning that an audio delay developed.  The audio wasn't matching what was occurring on video.

I also used iMovie for the first time on the Mini M1.  It was super quick in rendering footage as I edited.  I did nothing complicated, though, but there's quite a bit of YT videos showing how well the M1 SoC works when manipulating video, so that's no secret and I won't get into the technicals.  The video footage was recorded as 1620 x 1080 and was 1.65 GB (18 min in duration).  iMovie encodes to YouTube as 1920 x 1080, so it crunched down the resulting YT video a tad.  I cut maybe 10 min of footage off the backend, added a title page, added a transition between that page and the video's beginning, and also added a fade to black at the end of the footage.

The iMovie process was super easy, but no different than that I remember - again, though, what made it a great experience was that there was zero lag when editing or rendering the video.

I will try to work more with iMovie.  I wouldn't mind buying something with more options/frills, but I need to be able to justify buying nice video editing software from Apple, since that software isn't cheap.

Browser Extension - Workona Tab Manager

Since I've been using the Mac Mini and Macbook Air, I've migrated my browser usage to Microsoft Edge.

Why?  I like the way Edge manages tabs.  I can have many tabs but the tabs that aren't being actively used are disabled until you begin to use them (they're on standby, using minimal memory).

I decided that I wanted to use the same browser and tab manager browser extension combination on my gaming machine, which runs MS Windows 10 Pro.

The results were disappointing.  While the browser extension works, it also apparently kills YouTube audio.  No matter what "fixes" I applied, the only solution that allows YouTube audio is removing the Workona Tab Manager browser extension.  When I removed it, I regained audio.  When I reinstalled it, I lost audio.

I left the following review for the Workona folks:

So, I can either continue to use Workona's Tab Manager on the Macs and find another for the Windows box, or I can find a good one for all three.  I haven't decided what to do yet.

UPDATE:

I decided to stop using Workona's products.  I've been using Tab Session Manager the past 3 months.  It's simple enough to use and doesn't have any bad side affects.

UPDATE 2 (12/10/2023):

I noticed maybe 3-4 months ago that Microsoft Edge has something that is very similar to Workona, called Workpsaces.  I'm able to use the workspaces based on the types of projects I'm working and can swap from one to another at my whim.  I'm using this in conjuction with Tab Session Manager.

UPDATE 3 (5/24/2024):

Noticed awhile ago (maybe 8 month ago) that, if I switch to another Mac and use MS Edge, the workspaces I created and use on one Mac is accessible fron other Macs.  I basically no longer lose track of browser tabs.

iMovie and GoPro

So, I got me a new toy (several, actually):  a GoPro Hero 2 HD Motorsports Edition.

I've been getting some driving footage during my commutes to/from work, just to get a feel for how to use the GoPro.  I got about a bit over an hour of footage and only wanted to collect up the footage of my car's exhaust (Subaru Impreza STI).

I tried to use VirtualDub on the Alienware, but VirtualDub doesn't like the .mp4 format that the GoPro utilizes.  I tried to use VideoPad, but and it's conversion tool (converting it to .mpeg) but Windows Media Player doesn't like the conversion.  So, I tried using the tools on my Macbook...bad move.  For one, the Macbook seems to be seriously under-powered when it comes to video editing.  My Macbook also doesn't come with iMovie (using Snow Leopard...the max OS X version it can utilize, which doesn't come with iMovie).  What's funny is that the wife's Macbook DOES have iMovie, and is an actual C2D system, while my Macbook is just a Core Duo system, which came in the first generation Macbooks.  So, next I tried my iMac.  I found that it had iMovie (it is running Mountain Lion).  It also did not bog in the least when it came to creating the montage I had in mind.  It was much easier to use than VirtualDub, as the interface is decently intuitive.

It took awhile to get the video footage from the SD card of my GoPro to the iMac, though...the files were rather large (recorded in 1080p at 30fps), so I went to bed while the files were transferring.  The next day, after work, I began to edit the files, which didn't take all that long.  I took about 8.5 minutes worth of clips and consolidated them, putting in the transitions I wanted.  I then finalized my project at 1080p/30fps, which took about 3 hours to do (went to bed while it was finalizing).  The next day, I reviewed the final product and it was very nice.

I uploaded it to YouTube.  It is here. While it is not raw, there is no music (I wanted to capture the that boxer rumble), as well as no annotations or text comments.  There's no title either.  I'll experiment with all of this sometime soon.

I'll be messing with iMovie a lot more when I get more footage, as I plan to use the GoPro when I have autocross meets and when I ride the motorcycle.  Maybe I'll play with VirtualDub and VideoPad a bit more, but I'm thinking iMovie is the best of the three tools...I do want to try to use the Alienware to edit videos, though, especially when/if I'm not home.  The laptop is my strongest system, so it may just outperform the iMac when using iMovie.

Now, let me tell you about this particular GoPro.

It is NICE!  I bought some accessories with it:  16GB SD card, as well as 2 extra batteries and a wall charger.  The Motorsports Edition comes with a bunch of accessories as well.  It comes with a suction cup mount, which has several bendable joints, including where the camera attaches to it.  It comes with several more permanent mount points (straight and curved) that you can stick to almost anything.  It comes with a back plate that allows sound into the protective case (the standard back plate makes the case water-proof, though).  There's a charging cable that I can use to connect to a computer to download the pictures from the camera, instead of removing the SD card.  That same cable will also charge the battery within 4 hours (provided the camera isn't currently being used).

The camera can take pictures, can be adjusted to take, for example, a picture every second or every 5 seconds (for time lapse vids)...up to a picture every 60 seconds.  It has various HD video configurations or can take VGA video.  It can do up to 60fps with certain HD video settings.  I believe it can take up to 11 megapixel pictures.  The max size of SD card allowed is 16GB.  I can take up to 4 hours of video footage, depending on how I'm using the camera.

The suction cup mount can be used on my motorcycle's fuel tank (that's about the only place it can go, since I've no fairings, although I could mount it on the tail of the bike, if need be).  The tank might be the best mount place, since I've seen much bike video footage that has a LOT of wind noise.  I can purchase several mounting accessories for motorcyling, too (helmet mount or chest-mount straps).

About the only thing I'm worried about is if the suction cup fails if I decide to mount the camera outside the car.  I'm thinking of fashioning a tether, but I don't want a huge dent in my car's aluminum, either.  I'm gonna have to think this through.

I really can't wait to test this thing out some more, but I'm going to have to wait about a month before I can do autocross footage.