#Techmoan

[eightiesfan]

Sony FH-7 Mini (mid 80's) via Techmoan video

[allothesis]

I feel that YouTube is trying to turn me straight with their abundance of average looking men talking at length about their special interests. I like them so much.

[crackpotopus]

Techmoan: "I hope this won't trigger a content id match"

Proceeds to put on Dead Poet's Society and watch it in its entirety. Pausing occasionally to talk about parts he was confused by and reminisce about the first time he watched it in theaters

[gaykarstaagforever]

Jesus Christ, Techmoan.

Dude is like 10 years older than me and he looks like he's aged 30 years in a month.

Must've been one hell of a flu.

I'd leave a comment on the video but ALL the comments on the video are people saying this, and I'm sure he doesn't need any more of that right now.

He's already talked about how his eyesight, hearing and sense of taste and smell are going.

Goddamn.

[leotuesday]

techmoan! found out I love using the crayon brush!! >:33

[numbersareimaginary]

I have a lot of opinions about youtube nostalgia bait videos that are still marinating but the trend of "prison tech" videos that just spinelessly gape about how cool the clear plastic is without like....... any discussion or acknowledgement of how actually fucked mass incarceration is really gets to me.

[mikshroomthesilly]

I love this song with all of my heart ahhhh </3

[textsfromhannibal]

My Panasonic RX-5031 - aka Deborah

I've seen some comments on my Peacefield clip video wondering about sourcing vintage audio equipment, so here's everything in my brain downloaded for educational purposes. :D

Last year around Christmas, I decided that I wanted to get into collecting physical media again. For the nostalgia and hobby factor, if nothing else. For some reason, my heart led me right past the vinyl and CD aisles and decided that I needed to make myself at home amidst the... fucking cassettes?

Examining my motivations, two factors influenced this decision. One is that I am privileged to live close to an amazing independent record store that has hundreds of vintage cassettes sitting there in bins, just ready for the picking, most priced between $1-$5. They also sell or can order all the recent physical releases, so I could pick up Brat and Short n' Sweet on cassette if I wanted.

(Tender mother, aka Deborah. Yes, that is Impera inside, and yes it sounds phenomenal.)

The other factor is that I stumbled upon... this darling. This glorious, almost physically immaculate Panasonic RX-5031 was waiting for me at the Goodwill auction website, which is a resource I find not a lot of people know about. Your local Goodwill might sell all the good shit via auction right here, folks. When it comes to electronics and bulk craft supplies such as vintage sewing patterns, I find this website is often worth a look.

I couldn't find much information about the Panasonic RX-5031 (I'm still in the market for a user manual). I have yet to pinpoint an exact production run for it this model, but I'm assuming early 80s due to the lack of Dolby noise cancellation and the analog cassette timer. However, by searching for the model number on YouTube I was able to find a video of a gentleman test-running his own recent acquisition, and the audio quality of his unit blew me away. For that reason, I decided to bid. Competition was fierce, people were on my ass all the way to the end, and at first I wasn't even sure I'd won her.

But I did. I won the auction, she was now mine to love and cherish.

She arrived still in fair working condition, with full radio capabilities (even shortwave!). All controls and readouts working, and zero corrosion. No one ever thought of putting batteries in this baby. The only thing wrong with the unit was the fact that the left audio channel wasn't working for tapes--both through the speakers and through the headset jack.

(Deborah has many buttons and dials, because she is a lady of class and elegance. Also, it is SO FUN to get that heavy kinetic feedback. All the clicks and ka-thunks really add to the experience.)

Luckily, again, I am privileged to live in a city where music is a big deal. Within half an hour's drive from my house are wizards who know the deep magic, who can service almost anything as long as it's not a modern flatscreen TV. (They've told me to my face to throw those out if they break, they're not worth repairing.) If you've got a cabinet tube TV from 1982, though, they can fix that right up for you. Any turntable or cassette radio, bring it on down.

So, for about $95, I got a full tune-up and restored cassette audio on the left channel. I'll admit, between purchasing such a high-quality vintage unit and the servicing, we're looking at a few hundred dollars in startup costs for this hobby. However, I'm looking at a new budget turntable right now that starts at $200, and a new portable cassette player that starts at $110; the best quality factory-new CD/cassette unit you can purchase, according to Techmoan, is this baby and it starts at $167.

For the fact that the Panasonic RX-5031 is vintage and has such great sound, I'm content with what I've spent. The fact that other bidders were RIGHT ON MY ASS until the very end of the auction tells me that other people were willing to spend even more than I did; I think I won by sheer luck of the auction timing out.

So now I'm having a lot of fun collecting new and vintage tapes. I've learned a lot, including how to fix some common tape issues (replacing pressure pads, etc.) and some pitfalls to avoid (mold is an issue in old tapes, if the cassette casing doesn't let you see that the tape is entirely devoid of mold, I wouldn't purchase it). I'd like to learn more about servicing the actual unit.

(A selection of the vintage tapes I've sourced -- pretty sure that George Michael one was purchased and never used, it sounds incredible.)

More groups are releasing to cassette for the novelty factor, and since the price point is lower than vinyl, I'm hoping that evolves into a steady cassette release scene. There are some gorgeous designs out there, and limited-edition runs that sell out very quickly (I dithered for a full day before I decided which version of Skeletá to preorder). Honestly, I've found myself enjoying the static, hum, grunge and warmth that comes through when I play music on tape. It's not the ideal format for longevity, but it's what I grew up with, so it still feels special to me.

[foone]

Mx. Foone, in a recent video of mine I cited you as the person who "has probably every storage medium ever made" and I'd like to know how accurate that statement is, furthermore because I mention you having that weird big tape that's proprietary for a specific manufacturer's model of TV. So, are there any that you're missing?

It's surprisingly accurate for how huge a field that is!

But my collection isn't super complete for things like analog audio storage: there's a bunch of weird audio formats I don't have any of (Techmoan has me beat there). And since the pandemic ended my plans of a third exhibit (after my first two of floppy storage and optical storage), my collection of flash-based memory isn't complete, because the remaining ones I don't have any of are kinda expensive, because they're designed for high-end video storage.

Anyway, probably the "biggest" (in terms of popularity, not size!) storage that I don't have is LD-ROMs and LV-ROMs. These laserdisc variants were used with the BBC Domesday Project and the Pioneer LaserActive console, but they're rare and expensive enough that I don't have any.

I'm also missing out on most of the mainframe harddrive formats. Mainframes have never been my focus, and those are similarly rare and expensive, so I've never really bothered trying to collect them.

Also I'll have to check out that video!

[objectum-culture-is]

objectum culture is figuring out you want to kiss computers due to your special interest being old technology. michael mjd, lgr, bringus studios, and techmoan made me realize i was into computers. it cannot get funnier than that

.

[its-a-me-dre]

Tech youtube is my favorite kind of background noise. Why? Well, here's how it goes, you put a video on as background noise, and what happens next can be divided in the following phases:

1) *Not listening* "Uh uh, tell me more"

2) *Something catches your interest, like a raccoon that's just seen a shiny™️, your eyes snap towards the screen* "UH UH, TELL ME MORE!"

And if you aren't already on eBay looking for whatever it is the youtuber is talking about, then congratulations! You've just finished watching a two hour video on video CD's stumbling first steps on the western market.

I LOVE this kind of content. After so many years of tech and gaming youtube regurgitating only the most basic of trivia tidbits, which, to add insult to injury, were often incorrect or biased, we finally have people who are passionate and interested enough to make deep dives into devices (Like the oh-so overkill Japanese cell phones) and formats the Average Joe has probably never even heard about, incredibly thought out video essays on games that span the length of multiple feature films, multi-part series on computer features nobody ever used (The Quick Start series, also by Cathode Ray Dude!), joy of joys!

Since you've made it this far, here are some channel recommendations:

Technology Connections has made videos spanning so many topics that you'd think he pulls them out of a hat, he busts myths and dives deep into everyday tech and appliances that is way more interesting under the hood than you'd ever fathom. Anything from Christmas lights to microwaves, camera flashes to window awnings, electric heaters, he even bought a freeze dryer

Cathode Ray Dude does videos on electronics you'd find in homes and businesses: computers and related peripherals, phones, specialty tech built for incredibly specific use-cases (like an HD VHS player) and the above mentioned Video CD, great guy and a total vibe.

I'm cheating a bit with this one as it's not strictly a tech channel but you gotta love DankPods, he's a drummer and audio nut that injects humor into his videos in a way that is going to make you crack up or at the very least endear you to him. He digs up the jankiest pieces of audio stuff you'll ever see, from a rubber duck-shaped ipod dock to the worst MP3 players you ever will see. Great fun, and somehow, in recent weeks, he just so happened to drop a video just when I was having a miserable day and needed a pick-me-up. Crazy.

He also has a car channel

f4mi, a fellow european, does high quality and in-depth videos about early 2000s tech and gaming, besides being fantastically edited they go over topics that are usually mentioned in videos about other subjects but rarely recieve coverage in and of themselves: like the incredible cell phones produced in Japan in the early 2000s, or PC peripherals that have long gone the way of the dodos.

EDIT: I almost forgot the OG, Techmoan! He goes way back, and his videos are incredibly relaxing. It's always cool to see him cover stuff like appliances and stuff: a digital pinball table, a fancy japanese toaster, the world's smallest dishwasher, a smart mug, a desk buddy robot, and more!

And since I "cheated" a bit with DankPods, I'll include Lazy Game Reviews as well! He covers games, of course, but also a myriad of computer related oddities (most recent being a BEASTLY mini PC) and software like the iconic aquarium screensaver. His videos are well edited and feature an irresistible smooth jazz soundtrack.

He also streams from the camera facing the birdfeeder in his garden. It's oddly enthralling.

[kornwulf]

One of my favorite things is old science fiction stories completely neglecting the mundane technologies in their world. For example, photographic film and microfiche is all over the place in classic era science fiction

However, the most absurd example I can think of is a novel I read when I was young that used a *magnetic wire recording* as it's McGuffin (I want to say it was Heinlein? But honestly it could have been anyone). That recording technology was dead and in the ground by 1954, and I distinctly remember being confused for *years* as to what they were talking about. It took randomly running across a techmoan video to figure it out.

[deeps-repus]

I love when techmoan talks about being a huge hiphop fan in the 80s and 90s because at face value he seems like some bland guy who only listens to the beatles

[eraserheadbabydriver]

techmoan i beg of you. please review burger briefcases for your 3rd briefcase video. you can expand from a technology channel to a burger channel too oh fuck i forgot he’s british nvm post abandoned