@ajroach42@retro.social
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ajroach42

@ajroach42@retro.social

Trying to reshape the future of television.

I write and build stuff.

Est. 1990. (He, Him, Etc.)

http://andrewroach.net

Original posts CC-BY-SA 4.0 - Share them, but link to the original.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

ajroach42, to random
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I've met several people who went to ivy league schools. I've known a few of them pretty well.

They were no better than me, or you, and in many ways they were worse.

Meritocracy is a myth. The rich built a system that favors themselves and pretended it was based on merit.

ajroach42, to random
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Dungeons and Dragons:

https://archive.org/details/dungeons-dragons-1983

ajroach42,
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Galaxy Rangers:

https://archive.org/details/the-adventures-of-the-galaxy-rangers-1986

ajroach42,
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Centurions:
https://archive.org/details/the-centurions-1986

ajroach42,
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Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars (this one needs to be split in to individual episodes. )

https://archive.org/details/bucky-ohare-and-the-toad-wars

ajroach42,
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Dark Shadows (1239 episodes, at an average of 600MB/each, for nearly a TB of a horror soap opera.)

https://archive.org/details/dark-shadows_202210

ajroach42,
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COW Boys of Moo Mesa: https://archive.org/details/wild-west-c.-o.-w.-boys-of-moo-mesa-complete

ajroach42,
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Police Squad: https://archive.org/details/s-1-e-1-a-substantial-gift/S1E1+A+SUBSTANTIAL+GIFT.avi

ajroach42,
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@Rycaut It's great.

ajroach42,
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@Rycaut There aren't many of them, the jokes come very quickly, it's well done.

ajroach42,
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@Rycaut Give it a shot.

ajroach42, to random
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Have you heard this?
https://etherdiver.bandcamp.com/album/psychedelic-ghost-stories

ajroach42,
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(I'm not associated with it, I just thought it was neat.)

ajroach42,
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@etherdiver oh, I bought it a while ago.

ajroach42, to random
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Have you checked out any of the bands that my record label release?

I founded Analog Revolution 10 years ago, with a little zine, a handful of printed top CD-Rs and real-time dubbed tapes in a little room off the side of an all ages DIY venue in Kennesaw GA.

These days, we still have the zine and the printed top CD-Rs (now with robotic duplication) plus way more tapes, and Vinyl.

We release music from the likes of @DoctorDeathray and Hurly Burly and the Volcanic Fallout, and The New Clear Lawn Chairs and Eli Pop and Red Hot Empty and Small (and soon, Pharmacy and Michael Cera Palin and who knows who else?)

Anyway, our bookstore just did a blogpost highlighting some of the bands we release: https://www.hemlockbazaar.com/2024/05/14/product-spotlight-analog-revolution-records/

There's a huge variety in this music, and I think you'll enjoy it.

ajroach42,
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Especially in times like these, when sales are slow (and therefore things are hard), it does me some good to look back at where we came from and realize how lucky we are.

Everyone is struggling, everywhere is struggling, we're not unique in that respect.

But we have a huge, very supportive community. We're releasing music from wonderful people.

I'm lucky enough to exist in a time when I can run a television network on a shoestring budget. Where no one can stop me from pressing records and publishing magazines and writing books.

I'm lucky enough to have a little bookstore in the middle of the mountains where I get to spend my day surrounded by nature and people I love.

ifixcoinops, to random
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Got a CRT telly with a HDMI input a couple years ago as a Goodwill impulse buy for 99 cents. Works and everything, tested it in the shop.

It's sat under a pinball for two years while I find room to set it up, I never once tried plugging anything into it

Anyway I've found somewhere for it to live and started making plans for a stand and figured I'd test it and found out it's a piece of shit lol

ajroach42,
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@ifixcoinops is Sony the only company that made a decent HDMI CRT?

ajroach42, to random
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So is the issue that NTFS is a bad filesystem, or that Microsoft refuses to let it be a good filesystem on non-windows platforms?

I think it's the former (incompetence) rather than the latter (malice) but ... am I right?

ajroach42, to random
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Do you want to run a television network for your community? (That might be a local community around you, or a community that is separated by geography and united by a common cause.)

I do it (https://newellijay.tv) I wrote a book about it (https://communitymedia.network) and I want to help you do it too.

We're looking at getting our network on local cable, and once that's accomplished I'll update the book with info on how we did it.

We're also looking at establishing other affiliates. You wouldn't be , but you'd have access to the videos and archives in exchange for offering the same to us for things you produce, and using some NETV affiliate branding (Like your local NBC or CBS affiliate does.)

ajroach42, to random
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The problem with federated alternatives to centralized services (and also one of the main problems with centralized services which lead people to look for an alternative) is Discovery.

Etsy and Twitch and YouTube provide an audience, supposedly. With the right pitch (and the right advertising dollars) you can get your own slice of that audience. (For as long as the algorithm graces you, and as long as you're willing to stomach the other things your viewers will be algorithmically suggested.)

ajroach42,
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Independent creators on YouTube or Etsy live or die on the whims of a faceless and unaccountable algorithm.

Independent creators on Independent platforms live or die on their ability to carve off an audience from centralized platforms.

In the meantime, bigots and sweatshop dropshippers rise to the top.

ajroach42,
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I've been working on an article about this for ( https://impractical.computer ) and ... I can't figure out how to end it.

I don't have a suggestion. I don't have a solution. Connecting people with the things they want to find is not a problem that scales.

The solution is human curation. Word of mouth.

But then how do the people doing the curation find the things? (At digg, it meant working 18 hour days.)

ajroach42,
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I don't think there is an answer to this question. I think scale is a trap.

I think that the fediverse, a bunch of small neighborhoods through which things bubble around and eventually reach escape velocity, is the closest to a real solution we're likely to find in the real world.

(Hell, I wrote about hyperlocal BBS systems as a potential solution for content discovery 8ish years ago, and then ended up on the fediverse and updated the article to indicate that it was working.)

ajroach42,
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Here is the piece I wrote in 2016 about this problem https://ajroach42.com/how-to-fix-new-content-discovery/

I don't agree with everything I said there, but human scale networks have certainly helped the problem!

The issue at hand today is how to facilitate those connections, strengthen them, and make sure that everyone in the chain is being treated fairly.

ajroach42,
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@djsundog @whitneymcn dmoz was nice when it existed.

ajroach42,
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Human curration is what makes bookstores and record stores work.

Staff picks move books, even at a big chain. Reviews move books on Amazon, and get people to theaters.

But what incentive is there for people to undertake the act of intentional curration?

Film reviewers get paid to publish in magazines, but most magazines aren't turning a profit anymore.

No one gets paid for Amazon reviews. Rarely does anyone make money on their zine or their blog.

How can we support the people who help us find things?

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