Videos About Retro Computers

I am happy, honestly!

About Me

Hello! My name is Miles, I'm from the U.K. and I'm the creator of BoomerTec. I've been a computer user since my family bought an Atari 800XL in 1984, but in 1986 I got my own 2nd hand ZX Spectrum+ and developed an interest in programming. By 1989 this machine had been replaced by an Amstrad CPC464 and it was on this superior platform that my interest in computers really took off. Ultimately I ended up in university in the mid 90's as a Java programmer using Sun Solaris UNIX workstations, and after graduating in 2000 I immediately started my own company programming and hosting Internet applications and websites.

By 2010 I decided on a career swap and became a caving instructor. This sounds like a big change but the underground had always been a big fascination of mine and I wanted to do something on those lines to get me out from behind a console 14 hours a day. I still write software for small projects (like this website!) and I remain very interested in computing in general, especially PCs from what I consider their golden age (mid 90's to mid 00's). I've got quite a lot of PC hardware from this general period, and either side of it. I enjoy building and using older PC's and when time allows I like to make short videos about them. I'm very keen on preserving examples of older computer technology and want to save what little I can for future generations to enjoy.

Why make videos about old computers?

Like many others, I have a small channel on Youtube and I like to post up videos to it that I make periodically. I do believe in the benefits of collective knowledge, and platforms like Youtube have always been such a good vehicle to facilitate this. I really enjoy seeing what others can do with old computers and when time allows, I contribute to the community with my own content. Plenty of younger people are interested in older retro computers, which is a terrific thing that I will always encourage. But... us older folk who grew up on this stuff will always be a unique resource that, like the machines themselves, won't remain in running condition indefinitely. Perhaps in 100 or even just 50 years from now, Pentium III machines with 3DFX cards for example will likely be so rare that they will only exist in museums, infrequently or never switched on and thrashed through a round of Quake III. However, knowledge never need die so videos made now about this kind of equipment will persist for as long as the will remains to retain them. I think the whole period around the turn of the millennium was a very important chapter in computing history and even far into the future, there will remain historical interest in this specific period. So - recording what is left, especially while it still works, is no bad thing.

My Feelings on Youtube as it is today

I've always posted my videos to Youtube, and probably always will so long as it survives. I've known Youtube since it first appeared several decades ago and barely a day goes by when I'm not watching something that someone else posted up, to learn about something new that I'm interested in. Recently though, I think Youtube has become a bit of a victim of its own success. With the advent of smart phones with high resolution cameras, practically anyone can make a video about anything and post it up. And they do. Videos about cats falling off tables. People stealing boxes off front door steps. Water Skiers crashing into jetties. People competing for cash prizes. I even saw an 8 hour long video recently of a simple campfire burning, in 8k 60fps (I didn't have time to watch all of it). All this content is deeply fascinating of course... but it is a lot, and I really do mean a lot... of data.

Youtube doesn't have access to some amazing alien technology for data storage. They have to buy hard drives like everyone else does, and the sheer bulk in which they must do so might, at best, enable them to be obtained at a price per terabyte that is half that which regular retail customers pay. Their business model of storing any video, of any length, about anything (legal), uploaded by anybody, for free, and keeping it stored on live hard drives forever is a noble aim indeed. But we've seen an absolute explosion in the amount of content people are creating, because it's so easy to do now and so everyone is doing it. This is fine if data storage technology keeps pace, but it is not.. Data storage, even mechanical, is not coming down in cost-per-terabyte at anything like the rate that content creation is going up. In fact at the moment, the cost-per-terabyte isn't going down at all... it's actually going up. And the larger channels, who make content for a living, want revenue for their content of course. This is all cost that needs to be made back.

What does this mean for Youtube?

They are a business, not a community service, they exist to make profit. They will be under immense pressure to extract every possible penny from the platform to keep it viable, and keep their unlimited-everything-forever model. Adverts now have to cram every corner and bombard viewers without mercy. Personal search preferences are recorded and harvested wherever possible for profiling. Everything you watch is noted. How long did you watch it for? How did you interact with it? What was on screen when you clicked off it? This is all commercially valuable information if harvested in enough quantity. Videos that are uploaded are scraped for anything that can train AI models or add to search results. The algorithms seems to push content that has a higher probability of earning revenue than strictly matching your search criteria, every tiny drop of value has to be extracted from the platform to keep it going.

As a user and a contributor myself, I find interacting with Youtube today to be an exhausting experience. Everything is all about entertainment now, especially with the proliferation of AI generated content, mindless slop and rampant clickbait. The quest for knowledge is now a search for quick-hit endorphins. Attention spans are dwindling, videos are encouraged to be short with rapid delivery... ideally feature something funny to scroll through whilst sat on the toilet.

There was a time that I got a few pennies myself when people watched my videos, not very much as my channel was always very small, but I got about enough money for a nice coffee and a pastry on the high street once a month.  Youtube then decided that they were not going to pay me anymore for my videos, as my videos did not generate enough revenue to make it worth their while, so they just stopped paying. They did not, however, stop putting adverts all over my videos. Quite the opposite actually - it seemed to get worse. There are now multiple, unskippable adverts showing for every few minutes of my content and this renders my content barely watchable. When I say barely watchable, I mean this literally. Users are undoubtedly profiled to see just how much advertising they can tolerate before they snap and click off Youtube. This means that everyone is getting just under their own snapping-point of advert bombardment. What a place to be.

Frankly I don't know what the answer is for Youtube. I'm sure they have executives with bigger brains than mine pondering these problems right now. I think their model that has worked well for so long is now no longer serviceable in its current form, and they will know that making big changes is likely to seriously damage their user base. I'm glad I'm not in their position, I'm just a user after all.

I don't make videos for the money, I do it because I believe in shared knowledge and because I want to contribute, even in a small way, to the communities that I consider myself a part of. That's no shade either expressed or implied on those content creators that do make videos for a living. I personally know a number of people who earn their living from their social media content, some with millions of followers, and from what I've seen it's very hard work. Frankly, I don't think I could hack that level of stress, even if that is what I wanted to do, and it isn't.

Boomertec.org exists to give me, and perhaps others like me, somewhere to just put retro-computer videos up for others to enjoy without all the silliness. No adverts, no profiling, no slop, no AI generated content, no tracking, no user accounts, no region locking, no API calls to Google Analytics or Google Fonts or any of that. Not even cookies.. just back to basics. I want somewhere hassle-free to put my videos where people can just go watch one without being told how much they need Grammarly (which, ironically, isn't even a real word) or have to pay for the experience with cold hard cash, or indeed their soul, to do so.

I'm sure I'll still post any new videos I make up to Youtube too, but with this website there is another, simpler way for people to watch my content. Hopefully I can persuade other content creators to share their work on the platform too, and thereby make it a strong and positive resource for the retro computer community.