Richard's blog

Tag: Video

  • Instagram and Net Neutrality

    Instagram and Net Neutrality

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    When videos are older, or are not viewed often their quality will be downgraded until they are either viewed regularly or never at all. This decision showstype: posts that Instagram is forgetting that it should promote net neutrality rather than a two tier system where influencers get the red carpet, and normal human beings are treated badly.

    The idea of Net Neutrality is that all content is delivered from all sources to all people at the highest available speed and quality available. By choosing to downgrade old, less viewed content Instagram is instilling a two tier system that rewards influencers and clickbait, to the detriment of posts by normal people.

    When Instagram went from a chronological timeline to an algorithm based timeline it made my posts invisible, and now, with their new tweak it will make the videos I share of a lower quality. In theory it doesn’t matter, because I don’t share videos on Instagram.

    In reality this means that people that have less popular content will have low quality videos being shown, and this will discourage people to watch videos in full. The consequence is that it will give influencers an unfair advantage, and encourage further degradation of Instagram as a social network and social app.

    Years ago I posted at least one photo a day for years but that’s when the app was social. Now it’s noisy, and showing content by strangers. I see that they have hundreds, or several thousand views, and I get one or two likes.

    Not only did the app become less relevant, for following friends but it reinforced that feeling of isolation and solitude. During Lockdown I stopped using Instagram because within a few posts I felt bad about my life as it was then, and I never returned. Instagram is owned by Facebook and Facebook has a history of making people miserable or depressed. That’s why I quit Facebook too, and why I am weary of threads.

    “Smaller creators historically haven’t gotten their fair share of reach on Instagram, and we want to change that. So we’re making some changes to how we rank recommendations to give smaller creators a better chance of breaking through.”

    The thing about Instagram is that we’re not creators. We’re human beings with a human desire to connect with others, and follow friends. If Facebook does not respect our social use of Instagram then it becomes irrelevant. This is just another reason not to touch instagram.

    In private circles I call influencers binfluencers and instagram bingstagram. Sharing videos on Whatsapp, Signal and other apps is often a waste of time because of the degradation of quality.

    When you encode videos you can encode to three or four qualities simultaneously and it’s often the original video that takes up a lot of storage. Getting rid of videos that are not viewed often just means more time spent rendering later.

    The other consequence is that if TikTok and YouTube keep the best quality versions of videos, for all, then they will have an advantage as people who are not big on Instagram dump the anti-social network, like I did, a number of years ago. With preferential treatment, user engagement is lost.

  • The Need to Play with 360 Video

    The Need to Play with 360 Video

    Reading Time: 1 minute

    A few years ago I signed a contract to generate 360 content but the contract ended after just a month because the company restructured or something similar. I then bought a 360 camera and played with it to film interesting angles.

    I keep forgetting that I have this fantastic camera. It’s fantastic because with 360 videos you can either allow people to see what they want to see, or you can frame the shot just as you want it to be. With a normal camera you need to place it so that you can film what you want to film. With a 360 camera you film everything and then frame the shot.

    During the hike on Sunday someone said “Everyone, stand in a circle and I thought “maybe a 360 photo will be taken”. Nope, just a video where the camera spins to see everyone. I need to get into the habti of taking the 360 camera with me, to film the world from an unfamiliar angle.

    I believe that it would make filming things like Via ferrata much easier, and much safer. If you can have a range of motion of two to three meters then you can place the camera precisely where you want it, rather than being limited by where you can get to.

    You can use the pole to jib the camera around, and you can lift it up, to get a drone style shot, without the noise, and people complaining.

    I should practice using the 360 camera on normal walks, so that when I’m on a cliff I know what to do with ease.

    I think this summer season is over but Autumn walks with a 360 camera should be nice. The Tichodrome in Autumn should be nice. That’s the VF above Noiraigue, for reference.

  • Leaving Netflix Soon

    Leaving Netflix Soon

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    For the last week, or less, I have been choosing what to watch, not based on what’s new, or recommended, but on what is leaving Netflix soon. With netflix it is very easy to think “I don’t know what to watch” and “I don’t want to watch anything that is being recommended.

    By noticing the films that are “Leaving Soon” the challenge of choosing what to watch is simplified. If you have to choose what’s vanishing within a few weeks then the choice is smaller.

    Last night I watched Mortal Engine and Running Man.It’s funny to watch Running Man today because at the time it took place in the future. The future, for that film was 2017. For everyone reading this post, that’s the past.

    ## Filter by Leaving Soon

    Netflix makes it easy to filter by “Recently added” and “coming soon” with e-mails and more but it makes it quite hard to see what is leaving. To see what is “leaving soon” you need to browse through films and notice that they have the red “leaving soon” banner. They should simplify the process of spotting what’s leaving soon.

    Lists are available to show you what’s leaving in the US, but not for other countries, so if you’re not careful things that you want to watch may vanish before you’ve had time to see them.

    ## Negative Effect

    Would it have a negative effect if Netflix made it easy to see everything that is leaving their streaming services? Cinemas have “coming soon” as well as “final play” for films so it would make sense for Netflix and similar services to let people know that a series or film is about to vanish from the service. Maybe if we see how many films are being removed we would have a negative reaction to the cycle of change.

    ## Hours Spent on Youtube

    > The impact is so significant, that in May of this year, 9.7% of all content viewed on televisions across America came from YouTube, according to a study by Nielsen. That’s a clear sign that viewership habits are shifting, and media companies can’t ignore it.

    [source](https://www.prdaily.com/scoop-youtube-toysrus-waymo/)

    The reason for which I am not as active on Netflix is that I still watch plenty of “content” on YouTube. YouTube has easy to view content that you can watch whilst having dinner, before watching something properly once you have finished eating. YouTube bites into the time that I would otherwise spend getting through series and films on Netflix.

    I saw something that struck me as misleading.

    > YouTube, which effectively invented user-generated content, claims a daunting share of overall media consumption. And it’s no longer just dominating the internet, it’s dominating the living room, too.

    [source](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/26/youtube-streaming-dominance-media-strategy.html)

    This is absolutely not true. User generated content has been on the web for a decade before YouTube came into being and decades before that if we look at the early days of the Internet, with BBS services and more. The writer wrote propaganda in favour of YouTube, rather than fact.

    The article wrote about YouTube’s growing dominance, which I disagree with. YouTube does have a monopoly but that’ monopoly position is fraying. I used to watch hours of YouTube content, sometimes a day, but that has degraded because the content that is being suggested is what I like to call “user generated crap”. Most of the content on YouTube now is sensationalist rubbish because the algorithms have gone for the lowest common denominator.

    ## What Does This Have to Do With Netflix “Leaving Soon”?

    YouTube encourages sensationalism and spammy behaviour. “Don’t forget to like and subscribe” and “if you want us to do more like this video” and “If you think Action A was good ‘like’ right now”. It’s clickbait content, with less and less actual content.

    The harder it is to find something compelling on YouTube, the better Netflix et al will do. If I am pushed away from YouTube then I am drawn to Netflix, and by being drawn to Netflix I can watch films that are about to be removed, before getting to the newer content.

    ## And Finally

    I can go for weeks, or even months without finding much to watch on Netflix. By allowing Netflix “leaving soon” to whittle down the choice I find it easier to commit to watching a film or series before it is too late.

    If you watch a lot of Netflix you need to know what’s arriving, but if you watch a minimum then knowing what to watch before it is too late works better. As YouTube chases the Lowest Common Denominator I feel myself drawn back to Broadcast quality content and cinema quality films once again.

  • Exploring the Titanic – A YouTube Video

    Exploring the Titanic – A YouTube Video

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Over a few days I have watched a few minutes at a time of a video on youtube. They used Unreal Engine 5 to model the entire ship. It’s a walking tour where you start on the grand staircase and explore the ship one deck at a time. It shows how the furniture might have looked, and gives you a sense of scale.

    Over a few days I have watched a few minutes at a time of a video on youtube. They used Unreal Engine 5 to model the entire ship. It’s a walking tour where you start on the grand staircase and explore the ship one deck at a time. It shows how the furniture might have looked, and gives you a sense of scale.

    Such a video is interesting because it brings the ship to life. It takes us back in time to when the ship. The project is part of the [Titanic HG Vintage Digital Revival](https://titanichg.com/) project. At the time of writing this post they have modelled 50 percent of the Titanic.

    For those with a more powerful computer you can download the file to explore the ship yourself. I am content to let someone else explore it for me.

    As I watched this video, and saw all the detail I thought about how this could be used as a framework for a game or potential film, using the ship’s model as a set.

    The ocean can be seen moving, and so can the engine room, but for the most part this exploration is of an empty ship, that is furnished, but without food, water, liquor bottles or other things.

    Imagine if they worked on the sound scape, and on crewing the ship to make it true to the time period.

    “The most famous ship ever built is about to surface — welcome aboard! Titanic: Honor and Glory is a first-person open-world historical recreation. With a fully explorable, fully interactive and historically perfected RMS Titanic at your disposal, walk her decks and experience her opulence as very few did.”

    I would liken this to Endless Ocean Luminous. The aim of the “game” is to explore and experience something that some people would not otherwise experience.

    This is a nice way of bringing history to life.

    Such a video is interesting because it brings the ship to life. It takes us back in time to when the ship. The project is part of the [Titanic HG Vintage Digital Revival](https://titanichg.com/) project. At the time of writing this post they have modelled 50 percent of the Titanic.

    For those with a more powerful computer you can download the file to explore the ship yourself. I am content to let someone else explore it for me.

    As I watched this video, and saw all the detail I thought about how this could be used as a framework for a game or potential film, using the ship’s model as a set.

    The ocean can be seen moving, and so can the engine room, but for the most part this exploration is of an empty ship, that is furnished, but without food, water, liquor bottles or other things.

    Imagine if they worked on the sound scape, and on crewing the ship to make it true to the time period.

    “The most famous ship ever built is about to surface — welcome aboard! Titanic: Honor and Glory is a first-person open-world historical recreation. With a fully explorable, fully interactive and historically perfected RMS Titanic at your disposal, walk her decks and experience her opulence as very few did.”

    I would liken this to Endless Ocean Luminous. The aim of the “game” is to explore and experience something that some people would not otherwise experience.

    This is a nice way of bringing history to life.

  • Deepest Airbnb Video

    Deepest Airbnb Video

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Recently I watched [a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-4yrSVMwis) of two people going to sleep 1375 feet (about 400 meters deep) down in a cave that had once been a mine.

    As they descend they go from daylight to tunnel shafts, to walking in darkness until they get to places where they need to go along cables, with a big drop beneath, wade through water along a pipe, walk by a pump that provides the airbnb place with power.

    At one point they need to zipline along a cable and at another one person, and then another need to belay down a shaft where the lead person is alone, and then has to wait for the next to arrive. Eventually they arrive to the Airbnb place.

    You can get [more information](https://www.go-below.co.uk/deep-sleep.asp) if you’re curious about the experience.

    I find the idea of sleeping within a cave, after exploring it interesting. It makes a change from walking to mountain huts or chalets to sleep. I believe that I would enjoy the experience. You can only stay in the cave from Saturday to Sunday and from what I gather, the food is rehydrated camping food. This makes sense as it has to be carried into and out of a cave by hand.

    I think such an experience is worth trying at least once. We will see if such projects multiply. Old disused mines are common enough.

    [Another video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjsK5BZjELY)

  • HowNOT2 Videos – Climbing Safety

    HowNOT2 Videos – Climbing Safety

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    In scuba diving and aviation safety is a discussion that takes place before and after every dive or flight. It is discussed every time divers meet up. With climbing safety is important too but the focus is different. “This is how you should belay, this is how you should climb, this is how you should set up the top rope, and more.

    With climbing I know what the safety rules are but I don’t necessarily know what the numbers mean. As an example, it’s because I read construction instructions for how to setup a Via Ferrata that I learned how safe they are.

    It’s because I went with a VF maintenance crew that I learned about the safety steps to ensure that a VF is safe before the season begins.

    I came across [HowNOT2](https://youtu.be/-Ea2jwZoOtw?si=oXoIj3udx15wU4k_) on Youtube and watched a few interesting videos yesterday. These videos have value because they test equipment, as it’s meant to work, and then when people make mistakes. It shows how different the performance on safety gear is.

    In one video they show safety gear that is over a decade old. He mentions that it’s rated to 20km but when it is tested it lasts to just 13kn or so. The effect of age on that sling is clear.

    A few years ago I belayed at an IFSC World Championship so I practised falling, and belaying. I learned how to catch a fall dynamically, rather than violently. Violently might not be the right term. The point is I learned to assist a fall, rather than give a hard stop.

    ## Via Ferrata Safety

    In climbing part of the fun is to push, and fall, but in Via ferrata the opposite is true. In VF you’re meant to stay within your comfort zone, and use a sling to rest. You’re not meant to fall. [Via Ferrata Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5w9Kkd-f2w). When you do Via Ferratas the sling is there in case of emergency, to stop you from falling to your death. If you fall in VF you will fall to the next “queue de cochon”, pig tail in English. Your shock absorber will then deploy and you will smash against the cliff.

    ## Falling Versus Safety

    In climbing falling is part of the sport, so if you get used to falling without fear then you can push further. You can make progress with your climbing style and go up to more challenging grades.

    With VF the kit is there in case you slip and fall. It will keep you in situ but you may be stuck. That’s why it’s good to be with others, but also why it’s good to know your limits.

    In VF I have seen people get stuck two or three times. In both cases we needed to use ropes to get the person back onto the VF in one case, and beyond a challenging bit on a second VF.

    ## And Finally

    My reason for watching such videos is to get a better understanding of how safe what I am doing is, but also how dangerous mistakes can be. If you understand the risks you’re more likely to do things the right way.

    It’s like the zip line I could have done a few days ago. I had everything I needed, but I haven’t done it for so long that I had to remember how to do it safely. You put the tandem speed on the cable. You attach your sling to the tandem speed and then you add the via ferrata set behind the tandem speed. You hold the top of the tandem speed, check that everything is in order and then [zip across](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VbOxCJCpCQ). It’s a lot of fun, once you overcome your fear. In some places you can do them more than once. You can repeat the fun part. It also allows people to share their equipment.

    When climbing and doing dangerous sports either get someone you trust to show you how to be safe or get a professional guide to guide you the first time.

    My first VF was with a guide. So were my first climbs. It’s only when I understood the principles that I went with groups of enthusiasts.

  • YouTube suggesting Six Videos at a Time

    YouTube suggesting Six Videos at a Time

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Yesterday when looking at YouTube over lunch I noticed that they now show six videos at a time, compared to the 20-30 videos they used to show, back in the good old days. This means that you have six videos to choose from. The algorithm is cutting down our choice constantly from 30 videos down to 20. and now 6.

    ## Pigeon Holed

    If we watch one channel’s content then that content will be shown exclusively until we grow tired of it, and then we will have to choose from a dozen or less content creators. Sometimes videos will appear in three or four categories. It’s hard to browse when there is so little choice.

    ## Plenty of Choice

    In the days of renting DVDs for a night or two we would go into the shop and there would be a few recommendations but then we could go into the library and search for a while, trying to find content by genre, mood or more. Today that browsing experience is getting worse.

    When I look for something to watch on YouTube or Netflix and Prime I want to have a real choice. I want to see a breadth of choice within a single screen. I don’t want to be forced to watch what algorithms force people to watch. If you recommend content because it’s popular, but it’s popular because it has been pushed on people, then it is not popular. It is spoon fed. The algorithms are cheating us and content creators. We’re being cheated because we have no choice, and content creators are cheated because they are invisible.

    ## The Paradox

    What I liked about YouTube is that it provided us with a breadth of content to choose from. We might have browsed for a few minutes and skimmed through thousands of videos but we had real choice to find ideal content. Now, with six videos being shown at a time we’re forced to pick out of six. This isn’t choice. This is scarcity. Thousands of hours of content are uploaded to youtube every minute and yet the algorithms get everyone to watch the same thing.

    The problem is that I don’t know what I want to watch for half an hour to an hour so I don’t have key words that I want to look for. If I’m forced to see six videos, rather than browse, then I’m likely to give up rather than search. Usually we look at YouTube and similar sites to discover new content.

    ## Prime

    YouTube wants us to pay for prime but they take our ability to choose. They use algorithms that, because content is pushed on us, become worse and worse with recommendations. We can give feedback, but not proper feedback. I sign up for Prime, enjoy it for a few weeks, and then it becomes toxic and I take a break. The algorithms pigeon hole us, rather than learn about us.

    ## And Finally

    I love the medium of video. I love well produced content. I love content of a certain type. Google’s algorithms looks at users and recommends the content that it would give to teenagers to 40 years olds, and vice versa. The recommendation engine knows our age, and our viewing habits over a decade and a half. If people are worried about privacy, just look at ads and YouTube recommendations and you will realise that algorithms know nothing about us. Algorithms, by now, should know that I hate sensationalism. I realise that hating sensationalism is sensationalist. The point is that if recommendations for content are bad, then we are likely to take a break.

  • The Cow and Pheasant

    The Cow and Pheasant

    Reading Time: < 1 minute

    Today I went for my daily walk and I came across a couple of pheasants. One was female and the other was male. I was actually standing right next to the female and didn’t realise until she flew away from me. I was startled but no more. I was more focused on the male pheasant.

    [![A pheasant near cows — A pheasant near cows](/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_4950-300×225.jpg){.alignnone}](/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_4950-300×225.jpg)

    I walked closer, to try to get a clearer photo but didn’t succeed. Instead it went into a field with some cows and when one of the cows noticed it went up to investigate. I thought it was chasing the pheasant and eventually it was. It was an amusing sight to see. A cow running after a pheasant.

    it got better. When the pheasant went into the next field the rest of the herd came across to look at the pheasant.

    [![A herd of cows looking at a pheasant — A herd of cows looking at a pheasant](/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_4958-300×108.jpg){.alignnone}](/richard/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_4958-300×108.jpg)

  • Flying a Toy Plane 22 Miles

    Flying a Toy Plane 22 Miles

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    James May is interesting. People like me know him from Top Gear and Grand Tour with Clarkson and Hammond but his side projects are interesting. Instead of farming like Clarkson, or driving cars with his daughter Clarkson plays with grown up toys. When I say toys I don’t mean adult cars, planes and more. I mean actual toys. In the video below James May sets himself the project of building a model plane that can fly 22 miles.

    The video shows footage of him as a child playing with a model plane, and then as an adult playing with a slightly bigger model plane, then a prototype and then the finished project. In the episode I watched he built and played with a model plane but in others he tries to build other things and succeeds.

    What I like about Naked Science, produced by Pioneer TV, is that they produce proper documentaries, rather than breathless crap like so many others do. This is television production quality content, rather than youtube content. I recently noticed that youtube content creactors use the same sound effects, the same music, the same editing, the same chaotic jumble, that makes their content tiring to watch.

    In contrast when you watch James May play with model airplanes you get a well produced, well edited, well paced documentary that is interesting to watch. This is a fifty three minute video where you don’t stare at your phone, or get distracted. You watch it from the start to the end without being distracted, or fatigued.

    There was a time when I would watch every documentary in the morning, and then do something else on satellite TV. I don’t do this anymore. Too many programs are designed to distract people from adverts so they’re constantly repeating themselves.

    I loved watching Mythbusters but that was the decline of Discovery Channel Documentary making.

    What makes James May’s Naked Science shows stand out is that they are watchable by a “dinosaur” like me. When a documentary is well paced, and edited to be watched without commercial breaks it becomes engaging. YouTubers should strive to make content that is equal to television rather than scrape the barrel of throwaway culture.

    ## And Finally

    The premise of my post is simple. We live under the illusion that content has to be sensationalist to be worth watching, and we live under the illusion that youtube content needs to be sensationalist to stand out but that notion is wrong. Television quality content should be edited and produced to be shared on YouTube. In this day and age the notion that something has to be two minutes is wrong. The notion that something has to be in “YouTube style” to be noticed on YouTube is wrong. In my eyes we should produce long form content that is well produuced, for YouTube and social media.

    YouTube is big enough for content that appeals to my generation and others to be produced and thrived. Algorithms should take this onboard. I want YouTube’s algorithms to provide me with content that is relevant to my age group and interests. I want more content recommendations such as the video above.

  • Andrew Keen And The Scarcity of Choice

    Andrew Keen And The Scarcity of Choice

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    I recently noticed that I had Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur book as an audiobook on Apple Books. I have had the book for at least a decade but have only got around to reading it recently. Over the last week I have listened to him speak about the closing of Tower Records and it encouraged me to write more about the scarcity of choice, that comes with online browsing and shopping.
    When I lived in Weymouth I would go to WHSmith and look for new books, and then when I lived in London a few years later I would look for books at Waterstones. I spent hours in that book shop and often wanted to buy plenty of books but resisted temptation. The beauty of book shops is that you can look within a section and quickly see hundreds, or even thousands of books.

    Scarcity of Choice With Books

    Compare this to book browsing today. Book shops are rare, and supermarkets have a very limited choice. It does get worse. When you shop for books online you get plenty of the top selling books recommended, but it’s hard to find the least popular titles. It’s hard to find the long tail of books. it’s hard to browse through niche interests and topics because algorithms force us to see the top selling books, rather than browse.

    Lending Libraries

    That’s why the lending box in Eysins, Borex, Crassier, Founex, several in Nyon and other places are so good. They do have niche books, and they do have niche books. In the age of unlimited choice our actual options are limited to what algorithms think we want to read, rathre than what we would stumble upon in a physical book shop. Today we need to know what we’re looking for, rather than exploring, and finding it.

    YouTube and Content Creators

    He discussed YouTube and content creators that are creating content for free on YouTube, rather than being paid to generate it. What he didn’t explore so much, related to YouTube and amateurs trying to be professional about content production, a decade and a half later, is that broadcasters and independent companies are cutting costs and reducing their output thus reducing the number of jobs available for media professionals in mainstream media and more.

    Coming of Age At the Right Time

    I often wish that I had come to YouTube half a decade later than I did, maybe even later than that. When I wanted to break into the media the model was still focused on mainstream media. Now it has flipped around and the opportunity, and challenge, is to think of content that would attract people to view content. If YouTube had been what it is today, when I was 18 then I would have studied the same thing, but I would have pivoted towards independent content production much sooner. I have books on the topic, but independent at the time meant finding investors to pay for ideas. Today the barriers are inspiration and motivation.
    Paradoxically, despite the barrier to entry being very low, to post content on YouTube or other video sharing platforms. there is a wall. The wall of tabloid sensationalism. I watched one content creator until I noticed the clickbait nature of the headlines. In another case I stopped watching several content creators for going on and on about their million plus subscribers. The barrier to entry is the same as the barrier to watching the content.

    Getting Beyond The Noise

    The patience to sort through the tabloid and sensationalist crap, before getting to content worth watching. On YouTube there is a scarcity of choice, because to please the algorithms you need to be a tabloid sensationalist to appear in search results and to be recommended. Failing this you are invisible. Failing this you need to drive traffic via blog posts or other means.

    On Books And Video

    I speak about the challenge of finding books despite having a backlog of hundreds of books. As I have often said, finding a book you want to read takes seconds, but actually reading it takes hours. Some books require thirty hours of reading. Usually they require seven hours or so. Books require an investment of time.
    My real challenge is with video content. That’s where I struggle to find what I want to watch. In the past we would watch TV and see “What’s coming next” or we would read about new shows. Now we don’t, so we just have to browse until we find something. This isn’t a new problem. I had it when looking for films in video rental shops. In another lifetime finding something to watch was easy. Go to Discovery Channel and find documentaries to watch. Problem solved.

    And Finally

    As I read The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen I thought that it should be updated for the 21st century. Instead of doing this he just wrote a few new books, one in 2018 and the second in 2020. I would purchase them but I might as well finish the book I am reading now, before getting yet another book. The Cult of the Amateur is an interesting look into what was perceived around 2007. The new books would reflect more modern visions.