Richard's blog

Category: youtube

  • Running Somewhere

    Running Somewhere

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    If I run in a loop I will eventually have to run uphill and that can be strenuous. If I run in a straight line then I can run downhill for at least part of the hill and then a slightly shallower gradient uphill. I mention this because although my walks are loops my runs are linear.

    There are two rational reasons for linear runs. The first is that when you’re running you want to run where there are fewer people, and less traffic, because both people, and traffic slow you down. By running a linear route you don’t have this issue.

    The other advantage is that by running in a linear route you can get from one place to another. I know that if I run five kilometres I can get to the lake side if I run one route, the Chateau de Prangins if I run another, and the Port D’Abériaux with yet another. The result is that I can run from A to B, do something at B and then either walk home or take a publibike home, if they have the cheap muscle bikes rather than e-bikes.

    A few days ago I was thinking I would go for an easy three kilometre run and I ran from home to the Port D’Abériaux, looked at the lake and Nyon, and then walked home.

    The entire loop was 5km of running, followed by six kilometres of walking. Recently, I think on that run I beat my personal best time for 5k by a minute or two. I did push hard for almost the entire run. It shows by the personal best that I achieved.

    I took it gradually. I went from trying to run until I felt pain, and stopped, and then again, and again, and again. Now I’m running 5K and my time is getting better and better. I’m able to push without pain. It shows that the base work I put in is paying off.

    I expect that I will go for a run this afternoon.

  • Sliding from iOS to Android Despite Whatsapp and Signal

    Sliding from iOS to Android Despite Whatsapp and Signal

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Recently I switched from an Iphone SE from 2020 for a Fairphone 4 and the migration has been easy, except for two apps. Whatsapp and Signal. With Android it’s easy. You backup to Google Drive and you can slide between Android devices with ease. With iOS the backup is in iCloud so sliding between devices should, in theory, be easy to, but I don’t remember finding it that much fun. If it wasn’t for this apps we could slide from Android to iOS and back without a second thought.

    My biggest fear was losing the groups that I am part of but I found that groups on Whatsapp sync with ease. The same is true of Signal. Message history is lost when you move whatsapp and signal from iOS to Android and vice versa. Migrating means losing access to years of messaging history, until you slide back to iOS or Android.

    With almost every other app you can be simultaneoulsy one two or more phones at once. This means that whether you have a sim card or not you’re connected and active. With Signal and Whatsapp you can be across several computers at once, looking at message history without a second thought.

    Linked Devices

    As I wrote this post I decided to experiment with Linked Devices and it works. The concept of Linked Devices is simple. You have your primary phone that is connected to whatsapp. With Linked Devices you can use laptops, and now other phones as secondary devices. This gives us the freedom to slide between devices. When you are between Android and iOS this is a great feature to have because it makes sliding between plattforms simple.

    No need for Two Phones

    Yesterday I went for a five kilometre run. I got to the lake side, took pictures with one phone, but had to use the second phone to send them, so I took photos with the second phone. Signal has a huge advantage over Whatsapp in that if you slide between phones it will keep your message history intact until you log in again,

    Platform Specific Apps

    You might think “But what about platform specific apps, especially paid for apps?” . My biggest frustration is related to Car play and the cars I drive. You can’t swap OS on a car as easily as you can carry two phones. It’s the car that held me back on sliding to Android for months. I would love for cars to use car play when they detect an iPhone, and the Android equivalent when they detect an Android device. For now I need to have the iPhone when using cars.

    And Finally

    In practice things have improved since the last time I migrated from Android to iOS so the process is now simplified. We don’t need to migrate fully from one platform to another. It’s much easier to slide from one to the other and back.

    For those that need it, it is now possible to have two whatsapp accounts at once, on a phone. This could be useful with dual sim devices. It’s also useful to have a backup groups option when sliding between mobile phone operating systems.

  • Charging Electric Cars in Switzerland

    Charging Electric Cars in Switzerland

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    After some trial and error I finally managed to get an electric car to charge at public charging points. The first success was at an evpass charging station where I was able to charge 13.1kW/h in an hour and 14 minutes using the app on my phone and a credit card for 8.48 CHF. The second time was with the TCS eCharge RFID tag that I ordered from the Touring Club Suisse for free. In that case I charged 11.1kW/h for 5.89 CHF.
    With evpass the cost is 0.65 CHF per kW/h and with Swisscharge the price is 0.35 CHF per kW/h but with a 2 CHF connection fee for each charge, Without that connection charge Swisscharge would cost 3.89 CHF for 11.1kW/h and be competitive with evpasss. As things stand Swisscharge make you pay an extra 5.7 kW/h per charge.
    According to perplexity “… the 0.35 CHF per kWh charger with a 2 CHF connection fee becomes more cost-effective after charging approximately 6.67 kWh. In practical terms, this means that if you plan to charge more than 6.67 kWh, the first charger is the better option despite its connection fee.”

    The Charging Curve Effect

    When looking at the stats I see that the charging curve effect is clear to see. When I charged from thirty percent to 80 percent I used 13.1 kW/h and from 80-100 percent I used 11.1 kW/h. This could be because the 2 CHF charge is counted in kW/h or it could demonstrate the charging effect curve.

    Teething Problems

    When I first tried to charge in Signy Centre I failed because I didn’t have the app, and then I had an RFID tag but it failed to register properly so I tried with a second tag, that I knew was paired to the right app. You are also required to have your own charging cable. With the TCS echarge card it took seconds to start charging.
    With the charging point with evpass in Arnex sur Nyon the experience was more positive. Download the app, create a user account, add a card, choose which charger to use, start charging, wait.

    And Finally

    In an ideal situation I would have a charger in the garage. I would plug the car in when I am not using it, and it would charge during the night as everyone sleeps. In reality the building was not setup to have multiple EVs charging at one. If I install a charger I might need to remove or modify it when others choose to have their own. The cheaper alternative is to use public charging points.
    This morning I was surprised because when I parked the car at home, and saw that it was at one hundred percent I smiled. It’s somehow liberating to know that I am no longer trapped for 10 hours on some trips, waiting for the car to charge sufficiently to be used. As I said, I don’t have range anxiety, I have charge anxiety. I had charge anxiety.

  • Running With the Apple Watch SE

    Running With the Apple Watch SE

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Apple push us to get the Apple Watch Series 10, the Ultra 2 or the Apple Watch SE in third place. If you’re a runner, and you don’t feel like spending on the Ultra or the Ten then it makes sense to get the SE instead.

    Although the SE is the cheaper option it still provides us with plenty of running metrics. It provides heart rate, pace, power, cadence, vertical oscilation, ground contact time, stride length, workout time, distance, elevation gain, average cadence, average pace, average power, active kilocalories, total kilocalories and more.

    That is more information than the Garmin Instinct Solar, Suunto Peak 5, Garmin Forerunner 45s and other devices. It’s also more convenient than using the smart band 9 and smart band 8 in pebble mode. It also has the advantage of connecting to Gentler Streak and other related apps on iOS.

    Gentler Streak is a good app to see whether to push, or take it easy. Training Today offers the same type of information. The point here is that the Apple Watch is not just a device with one app. It can be shared with multiple apps on your phone, as long as you have an iOS device.

    It does have the disadvantage of having a touch screen rather than buttons, so in cold weather, or when in wet conditions, it can be more frustrating to use. It can also get false pauses due to clothing. When the battery gets low it might die mid workout.

    It also requires daily charging. The Garmin Instinct can go for weeks without charging if you’re in Spain and leave the watch in the sun when you’re not running, hiking or other.

    The difference in price between the SE and the 10 is about 150 CHF at the time of writing. The cheapest SE is about 200 CHF and the cheapest Series 10 is 378 CHF.

    The point of this post is not to say “get the SE” but to say, the budget version Apple Watch SE has a lot of functionality that may make it interesting for people that do not want to spend 378 CHF on a watch that they may replace within two to four years. My Series 4 lasted four years and I expect my SE to last four years. In theory that’s 50 CHF per year if you get the 200 CHF model.
    And Finally
    If I was to spend 600-800 CHF on a watch I would get a Garmin Fenix 8 or similar because I expect Garmin not to make a watch obsolete as quickly as Apple will. According to ChatGPT the life expectation for both is about 5-7 years but the Apple watch battery is expected to be noticeably worse after four years. This is especially easy to spot, due to the Apple watch having a one day battery life, rather than one month, with the right sun conditions, or even 99+ days when in Spain.

  • Replacing Social Media with Solitaire

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Recently I have noticed that I like to play Solitaire for many games in a row. It has replaced my social media habit. I know that solitaire is a solitary game but at the moment I enjoy it. I tried several versions on iOS and android but my current favourite is the Netflix version of Solitaire.

    I find that I can spend hours playing Solitaire as I watch TV and films. It seems to give more pleasure than social media. Social media no longer brings as much pleasure as it used to because the communities that I have been part of have migrated to other platforms, or given up on social media. The result is that I can spend hours scrolling, or I can play Solitaire.

    Solitaire is a game that allows you to think, and listen, as you play. It doesn’t take that much concentration to win. It’s a good means of spending time being mindful.

    The paradox is that sometimes I lose quite a few games in a row so I should be discouraged and give up, like I would if I was playing other iOS or Android games.

    A key difference is that there are no ads. It’s adverts that encourage us to give up and move on. Too many iOS apps feel like they’re designed to make us lose so that we either give in and watch apps, or give in and pay not to see ads anymore.

    With Solitaire I lose regularly with the Netflix app but I am not punished with ads and that is appreciated. Other versions give us a higher win to play ratio but I don’t mind losing. I think it might be a relaxing pass time.

    This is a game that has been on most of our computers for decades, so we have all played at some point. I expect that I will grow bored of it again, and then play some other game.

  • The Dystopia of Child Influencers

    The Dystopia of Child Influencers

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Today I saw the headline “Content creator camps help kids become online influencers” and to me, this represents a nightmare, rather than a dream. It represents a nightmare rather than a dream because the notion of creating content to sell, to influence, and to market, rather than to amuse, inform, educate and entertain seems wrong.

    YouTube and Instagram are awful. They’re awful because people are creating content to get views, likes and subscribers, rather than to produce individual videos of special interest. Social media should first and foremost be about connecting people, having conversations and establishing strong bonds, that, with time, become friendships in the physical world, rather than online. People should create content that is fun and entertaining.

    On YouTube, Instagram and other platforms people create a video where they keep saying “Don’t forget to like and subscribe, more than once. In some videos they tell us to do this at the start of a video, and again half way through, before telling us to do it at the end. In many circles, and for people of my generation that practice is clearly spamming. I’m curious about views, and comments, but I don’t give a flying duck about likes and subscribes. That’s not why I create content. My aim is to share moments, nice sites, thoughts and experiences. It is not to be a binfluencer. I have no desire to be a binfluencer.

    There was a time when I hoovered up YouTube content, watching up to three or four hours a day. Eventually I stopped. At the time content was content, and it was fun and interesting to watch. With Google Prime I found that everything that was being pushed on me was junk with millions of views. In one series of YouTube videos the idiot drew one eyed trouser snakes in everything he did. In another the person always did eccentric things, that eventually bored me. In a third case I saw that an English content creator created a clickbait headline. Before that I liked the content, and after that I blocked the channel from being recommended.

    It’s the same with Instagram influencers. I went to Instagram to share nice photographs from my walks and adventuress. With the coming of Facebook, binfluencers, and more there was a cultural shift to the illusion of opulence, rather than ordinary life. As more and more junk was pushed towards me I quit. Is that really what we want to teach children and teenagers?

    The Alternative

    People shouldn’t be taught to be influencers. They should be taught to be creative artists. They should be taught about the art of film, documentary and television. They should be taught about story telling, about editing, continuity, shot types, sizes and more. They should be taught how to write good scripts and more. They should be taught to create content that is not just about views, likes and subscriptions. They should be taught to create individual pieces that are beautiful to watch, or interesting to watch. It shouldn’t be about selling. It should be about living in the moment. It should be about fun and pleasure.

    I recently found a photography group on Facebook where skilled photographers share photographs because of their love of beautiful images. As I look at those images, and given that to have Facebook and Instagram would cost 15CHF per month, rather than 9CHF, I would be tempted to dump Instagram, since so much of that content is influencer garbage.

    The Significance

    In previous decades film and television were well-funded mediums that people invested their time and money in. There was the notion of being media professionals, of high production values and more. Now we have shifted towards a different age. It’s the age of the Cult of The Amateur, as Andrew Keen called it in the zeros but it’s also the age of community video on an international scale. To a large degree binfluencers are making community videos that have global reach. Instead of aiming for work in film and television people are going for the bottom of the barrel, social media.

    It’s the Goal, Rather than the Medium

    In the 21st century, whether you use iPhone Pro Max like Apple for its keynote, or a broadcast camera, doesn’t make much difference on a laptop or mobile phone screen. It’s only on 4k, UHD or Apple Vision Pro that it will make a difference. Rather than creating content for the pleasure of working with the medium people are creating content to sell. They’re being trained to spam and market, rather than enjoy the medium for what it is.

    The Danger

    If you search for influencer on Google News you will find stories about people endangering themselves with horses, dying after liposuction, gyms banning selfies, and more. I just searched for “influencer”, nothing more.

    Financial Risk

    To be a social media influencer you need to get a mobile phone, probably the highest spec possible. You also need to buy your own camera gear, sound equipment, edit suites, and more. You also need to pay for transport, accommodation and more. Social media influencers take on all of the financial risk, without any of the guarantees on the other side. You might spend thousands on creating a dream experience, but if it’s not picked up by normal users, then that money was wasted.

    In conventional broadcasting models people come up with an idea, sell the idea, and it’s someone else that puts the money forward and accepts the financial risk. It might take more time to pitch ideas and get funding but in the end you’re paid as a content creator, for creating content, rather than after the fact, for behaving like a spammer. “Please hit the like button, click the bell and punch the subscribe button” when said in every video, is spam. Writing clickbait headlines is spam. Catering to the algorithms, rather than creating content for the sake of content is spam.

    Clickbait Headlines

    Almost every video on YouTube that is recommended on the front page is written as clickbait. It uses sensationalism, as well as titles that give a glimmer of what the content is about, without telling you. The headlines are sensationalist, rather than factually relevant. “I crossed the Deadliest Jungle”, “girls smile in front of their graves…”, “10 things you must never do with your watch” and more. All of these headlines are designed to make you click, without giving you the reason behind the click. Clickbait.

    A Quick TikTok Mention

    Plenty of influencers use TikTok but for me this isn’t a video sharing site. It’s thousands of people doing the same dance to the same song at the same time, to be like everyone else, without anyone having a conversation or dialogue. I saw something about book TikTok and more, but to find these conversations takes time and effort.

    Facebook Reels

    Instagram and Facebook have reels and I almost never watch them because they’re usually short, tabloid videos. Their only reason to be is to inflate views, likes and spam habits. It is more sensationalist rubbish.

    And Finally

    Content creation is fun. Creating videos is fun, as is photography. By encouraging people to see themselves as influencers rather than content creators we’re training them to think in a utilitarian and immoral manner. We’re training them to be spammers and scammers, rather than honest content creators. When I was a child we didn’t have edit suites and other technology easily at hand, so we had to improvise. I learned camera work through filming theatre productions and then making copies for those that wanted them. I didn’t have the goal of sharing to YouTube because the internet was still very young. I didn’t try to be an influencer. I enjoyed the media I played with, and eventually it became my career, just at the end of the age of television.

    I think that focusing on Social media is a mistake. I think that rather than think of social media, we should create content that is shared via topic driven websites. As a case study I would look at [OnebladeShave.com](https://www.onebladeshave.com/) and their use of video. The videos are hosted and shared via YoUTube but they’re also integrated within their website. Rather than making content for social media, they’re making content that illustrates their product in a number of videos that cover different aspects. I find this approach more interesting because there is no sensationalism, no “like and subscribe” and other junk. You watch a video to get information, and then you move on. That’s how it should be. Liking and subscribing should be a self-driven decision, not a result of nagging.

  • YouTube and Ad Blockers

    YouTube and Ad Blockers

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    One of the pleasures we would enjoy many years ago was to browse YouTube, and eventually find something worth watching. This was possible for one key reason. There were no ads being loaded that would block us for thirty seconds or more. Today I read that YouTube test threatens to block viewers if they continue using ad blockers.

    YouTube video surfing and channel surfing are the same thing. You hop from channel to channel, or from video to video, until you find something to watch. You watch a few seconds at a time before deciding that you prefer some other form of content. The issue with ads is that they slow you down. If you watch 3 or four videos and see 30 seconds of ads before watching five seconds of video then you spend all of your browsing time watching adverts, rather than content.

    Pay For Premium, Get No Ads

    That’s fantastic in theory, and in practice this is a good alternative to ad blockers. The issue that I have with this solution is that we’re paying to have clickbait pushed on us, rathre than actually browse YouTube. We’re facing the same problem as with ads. We’re still struggling to find worthwhile content.

    Ads Encourage People to Leave

    When I grew tired of seeing ads I left YouTube for days or even weeks at a time. It’s only because I used ad blockers that I came back, and I still felt that I was being conned. The first con is that the content is UGC, User Generated Content, or as I prefer to call it, User Generated Crap. A lot of the content that YouTube pushes on us is crap. You would never watch it on television.

    The second problem is that the ads themselves are crap. For all of the data that Google has on me, their ads are completely off the mark. They market products that I have no interest in using. The ads are also of low quality. In some cases the ad is a music video, that is being played before you watch the content you wanted to watch.

    YouTube Ads Don’t Need to be Video Ads

    YouTube makes the mistake of playing video ads when there is no need to. Other types of ads would be just as effective, and would not detract people from watching the videos that they’re watching. Plently of videos on YouTube are product reviews. Given that this is the case those videos, can, in and of themselves be seen as adverts. If we watch a video about barefoot shoes then that content should be seen as an advert. That’s what it does. Imagine if advertisers paid content creators, when their videos are played, after someone searches for a specific product. The idea that you need to play an ad, for ad revenue, is obsolete at this moment in time.

    Content as Advert

    To elaborate on the idea, if I watch three videos about types of shoe then the brand that is being covered in the video should contribute financially to that video. I’m watching a promotional video, about a product. I don’t need a pre-roll add before watching a video about a specific product, or a specific lines of product.

    YouTube said that they want people to either get premium, or see ads, to pay for content creators to create content. I think they’re missing the purpose of an entire segment of YouTube videos. Tutorials, hiking videos, cycling videos and more are already marketing products, without ever needing to show ads. In some cases the ads are paid for by being mentioned directly in the videos themselves. I tend to skip those ads, though.

    Why Do We Skip Ads

    One of the questions that YouTube and others should ask is “why do people skip ads?” Why do I force quit iOS games to avoid seeing ads. Why do I avoid seeing ads on YouTube. The short answer is “because I have seen manscaped adverts hundreds of times, because I have seen the iOS game adverts once per game play. If the adverts were updated, and if we had more ads to watch, then we wouldn’t skip them. The reality of the situation is that we’re skipping ads that we have already seen. In some cases I will see the same ad when playing iOS games, ten times, in ten puzzles solved or failed.

    US Influence

    People in the US have an extremely high tolerance for being bombarded with ads. American football has adds every few minutes. European Football has ads after fourty five minutes of game time. You’re watching the sport, and ads are put at reasonable intervals in Europe. If people use ad blockers, reduce the frequency of ads, and increase the rotation of ads, so that they see five to ten adverts, rather than one advert ten times.

    Pre-Roll Ads Before We Have Even Committed

    One of the things I hate most about YouTube and other video sharing websites is that they play 30 seconds of video before you watch the content. Sometimes it starts to play without you deciding to watch the content in the first place. More often than not, if I get a pre-roll ad, before I have watched the video I will not watch the video at all. Sometimes you’re about to watch a 45 second, or a 1 minute 30 second video, and you have 30 seconds, to a minute of advert.

    And Finally

    The question that YouTube, Google, Daily Motion and others should be asking is not “How can we force people to watch ads or pay for premium access to our content?” but “Why are people so aggressive about blocking ads?”. The reason is simple. Ads are invasive, ads are too frequent, ads are always the same. Facebook should be working to make ads appealing, rather than threatening to block users.

  • Hiking With Cats

    Hiking With Cats

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Usually when we hear of people hiking with cats we think of them walking with the cat, or cats, on a leash. In a Pass Moi Les Jumelles (PAJU for short), we follow two guys who go for a walk with four cats. The report is funny because the cats, or some might even say kittens, are allowed to roam and explore with the human companions. They can leap across streams over and over. Occasionally they, the cats, fall into the water. 

    It is refreshing and fun to see a report like this because it shows that cats can roam with humans, without harnesses and other equipment. They automatically follow the humans. 

    Of course there is a flaw with walking with cats. They’re nocturnal, and sleep a lot. This means that you have to walk at a different rate than you would usually walk. At one point the two principle people decide to have a siesta in the middle of the day, because the cats are lazy and tired after playing so much the previous day. 

    We see them walking with their cats on the back of their bags, in order to rest and recover. 

    As I watched this short documentary I was led to believe that the person who filmed this loves cats. You can tell they love cats because they know what to expect, they know what cats will get up to and capture it. It’s a fun and pleasant documentary, especially if you understand french. The visuals are nice too. 

    I enjoy the idea of hiking with cats, without leashes, of expecting them to stay around, rather than stray too far. I like the idea of them galivanting, exploring and playing on a linear walk. It is amusing to think of them sheltering in sleeping bags to keep warm. 

  • YouTube and the Million Follower type

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    I used to really like YouTube. It was a place where normal people could share videos of their normal lives, for normal people to enjoy, and to discover organically. Today YouTube is a way of forcing people to watch adverts before watching content that has been seen half a million to a million times by people with a million subscribers who keep saying “i have a million subscribers” and showing off. This makes most YouTube content unpleasant.

    Don’t boast about your audience, or about your community. Give me good quality video content that I want to keep watching. Give me content, not boasting about how you got awards, got a big audience etc. I am not on YouTube to flatter your ego. I am on YouTube to watch content that is interesting as I eat dinner. If you don’t fill this niche then I can slide towards another content creator, or video network.

    Content viewing, at this point in the pandemic has become hard. If the content is about friends and family then this is a long distant memory, in the middle of the pandemic, with no hope of an end.

    Documentaries would be fun, if they weren’t edited by a hyperactive bumblebee. If I watch a documentary, speak, give me information, and don’t sensationalise it. If you do I will tune out within minutes, or even seconds in some cases.

    I would watch films but either modern story writing makes them so dull that I lose interest within a few minutes, or they make me long for pre-pandemic, or post pandemic life.

    Content is not made for single people living in solitude during a pandemic but it should. Good documentaries, good films, good series.

    I enjoyed watching people play computer games for a while, but then eventually I grew tired of the content. I felt that at least one or two people were playing towards a stereotype, rather than being genuine, Eventually I stopped watching.

    I often listen to audible books as I cook. Recently I thought about listening to audiobooks as I ate, or even in the evening, rather than watch video content. The beauty of audio books is that they’re 3-20hours long. Find a good book and you will be entertained for a week to 20 days.

    Recently I have been listening to Louis L’amour books and I find them fun. They’re not the genre I used to listen to. I am in the right frame of mind. I like these books because they’re light, easy reading. They’re not like Gulag, or other books. It’s a trip back in time to frontier America, when bison were plentiful, land was being taken away by the Whites, and more.

    As I read Louis L’Amour I know that some topics may anger or frustrate people who feel that the writing is from another age, and it is. Listening to such books is a cultural trip to see what life was hypothetically like, and to explore a different genre. I usually read factual books.

  • Perm 36 YouTube Video Visit

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Last night I watched a video about a visit to Perm36 but it covered just the trip. The video below is far more complete and informative. I am currently reading Gulag by Anne Applebaum, rather than The Gulag Archipelago, like she mentions. I started reading it decades ago but never finished it. I read A day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch in a single day.

    Reading Gulag, The Gulag Archipelago and other books helps give some context to what Soviet Russia was like. As I read Gulag by Applebaum I get the feeling that Soviet Russia was about enslaving people to make profit for some whilst everyone else suffers. From this perspective what the Soviet Union would morph into, at the end of the Soviet age would make more sense.

    I recommend watching this video. It is informative.