The Amp Hour Electronics Podcast

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#23 – The Innovation Speculation

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  2. I give the AmpHour a free pass when it comes to ranting and bitching, I listen to hear Chris’ opinion but take Dave’s with a grain of salt.

    Why? Not because I don’t like Dave, but I know that Dave is working towards making the EEVBLog his full time job, so I have to judge with that in mind.

    Since The Amp Hour (right now) is not generating revenue you can be more like Consumer Reports, where Dave/EEVBlog has (to learn how) to balance his ranting/off-topic to not isolate his viewers (I believe he makes more money from viewer click thru sales, than advertisers) and eventually his advertisers as well.

    I vote with my purchasing decisions on EEVBlog, I probably have spend $1000 in test equipment/hobbyist electronics in the last 9 months and would have been happy to be more supportive of EEVBlog if it were more in tune to my liking.

    Now of course Dave will say if you don’t like it don’t watch it, but really he knows his viewers are ultimately his customers. Filler stuff like non-electronics rants (keep the on topic rants coming), building shelves, videotaping a lame conference, etc just turn send me elsewhere.

    Credit where its due, when Dave is focused on electronics you can’t get me to “change the channel”. That’s why I watch EEVBlog. And why I get bummed when the newest video is a yawnfest when the last episode was so awesome!

    I have nothing against sites that are out to make a buck, Adafruit does a brilliant job, as does Sparkfun.

    I know website hosting fees aren’t free, but there are plenty of sites that just aim to recover their costs thru advertising or donations (which I support). Of course sites are are just advertising extensions of bigger companies are a different story but they need to understand their audience as well, which I think The Amp Hour does a good job of exposing.

    Final point of why I’m a Chris fan is that even though he doesn’t update his web site that often, he’s not trying to make a living from advertising dollars. He’s sharing his passion and knowledge without trying make a buck off of me for referrals.

    Keep it real, thanks for letting a listener rant.

    • I think you expose a key point in the content we consume on a daily basis. As content producers, the thing that incentivizes us the most (money usually) is also the thing that can sway our opinions the most. Hardly a topic that is new or needs review, but an interesting point all the same.

      I won’t speak for Dave but I will speak as a viewer of his stuff: The moment people think he’s throwing the game, he’s done for. And he knows it too, which is good. It’s the audience that keeps us honest. For every person who makes money from blogging or videos or anything, they know it comes down to which audience they’re trying to please. Sometimes it’s the viewers, sometimes it’s the advertisers; neither group likes when it’s not them. While you might not like every video Dave makes (that’s your right, of course), I think Dave is doing a good job of keeping honest; what’s more, I know he’s very cognizant of the balance he must strike. I’m sure Dave will have some things to say, but I enjoyed the discussion. Thanks for ranting!

      • As content producers, the thing that incentivizes us the most (money usually) is also the thing that can sway our opinions the most.

        Money plays a big part, for sure. Especially when your work gets to a point where you know it can produce money for you.
        Unless you are so rich that you don’t have to work, then your money (and time) has to come from somewhere.
        I would LOVE to be rich and not have to work, and not have the ads on my blog. But I live in the real world where I am not going to pass up some money for some ads that almost every one of my viewers accepts and hardly ever complains about.

        But I kinda disagree about it being able to sway my opinion at least.
        Unless it’s a HUGE amount of money, like life changing huge, I would rather tell my financier/employer/advertiser to politely F-off than have them sway my opinion.
        I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’s me!
        I’d much more likely to have my opinion swayed by one of my viewers through reasonable argument than by money.

        Would I still be doing the blog if it wasn’t making money? Of course I’d try to, just like I’ve produced much web and magazine content over the decades for little or no financial gain. I would only stop if I lost interest in it or ran out of free time to do it. But it’s likely I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about it after more than a year and half if the money wasn’t there. That’s a rather long attention span for me. Nor would my wife be so generous about not complaining about the time I spend on it any more because she can see it could one day lead somewhere that helps support us financially, rather than just another silly aspect of my hobby that I waste time on.

        Would I still be doing the blog if it had no audience? Almost certainly not, as there would be no point producing content for no one. So the exposure, sense of sharing, and viewer feedback are big parts of doing the blog too. In fact I’d say they are by far the biggest part. And it always has been for the 20 years I’ve been producing electronics content for others. That is why I would not take a paid job producing electronics content for some site that gets no viewers.

        Dave.

    • While I have to agree with Zyvek’s observations, I have to say I watch eevblog just for those reasons, I like a bit of offopic rant or banter as it makes Dave’s blog all the more human. I have regular training in my job as well as read other blogs, and find the “all business approach” very dry. the advertising? well its not excessive as of now, but It could get that away I suppose. So I have to dissagree and say thats what I like about eevblog- ya never know whats up next.

      • So I have to dissagree and say thats what I like about eevblog- ya never know whats up next.

        And that’s the trick I’ve come to learn, something of which I suspect Zyvek doesn’t quite fully understand, being from the non-content producing end.
        As a viewer, it is of course natural to want any blog/show/whatever to give you exactly what YOU want as a viewer.
        But ultimately you have to understand that EVERYONE wants something different, even when it comes to “on topic” electronics content. In fact its is more so for on topic content as there are so many areas.
        Many plead with me to only do beginner tutorials. Others plead with me to do advanced theory. Others plead with me to only do product reviews. Others plead with me to do more industry advice. Others plead with me to do more drive time rants and live shows, and off topic rants etc.
        If I only just did *insert category* (e.g. beginner tutorials) it would piss off half my audience and they’d leave.
        Ideally I’d have to have half a dozen different channels/feeds for specific content just to satisfy everyone, so they don’t “accidentally” see content they don’t like. But that won’t work well because it dilutes the audience among other reasons.
        So what am I left with?
        No choice, but to continue to have a random mix of stuff on the show, and tell people who complain to simply ignore it and not watch. And producing random on and occasionally off topic content just happens to be what I enjoy the most too, and ultimately if I don’t enjoy it, the blog will cease to exist.

        Dave.

    • You don’t think Chris would not want to (or is not trying to) take TheAmpHour or his blog full time?
      I won’t speak for him, as you can ask him yourself, but I reckon you can bet your arse he is!
      He already has Google ads on his site, and has blogged professionally for EEtimes.
      I’m much closer to taking it full time in reality than Chris is, but I actually don’t try very hard at it. I reckon Chris might be much more eager at doing this than I am!
      For me, I’m essentially just “letting things happen”.
      What hobbyist wouldn’t want their hobby to pay a full time living? There would be some I’m sure, but I reckon the majority would be over the moon.
      Jeri Ellsworth is another example, she has clearly taken it up a notch on her blog and I’m sure would love nothing more than to have her content pay the bills and hence be able to spend even more time on content.

      Because I see my blog possibly going full time at some stage, does that make my opinions any less trustworthy than Chris or some other hobbyist blogger? (And surely that would only be for product reviews?) Everyone can of course judge for themselves, but speaking for myself, I don’t think so, and I believe I’ve proven that up until now.
      In fact I think I’m much more willing than most (including Chris) to slag off at anyone and everyone and speak my mind, just as I always have. Even if they are “the hand that feeds me”. That includes advertisers, manufacturers who give me product, and even loyal viewers who unfairly criticise me or otherwise just piss me off. I think I’m much more likely to shoot myself in the foot (financially support wise) than Chris or many other bloggers, but that’s just my view.
      I usually have no hesitation in saying what I think, even if it is to my detriment – financially, long term, or employment wise etc, that’s just my tactless outspoken nature that is very hard to break.

      Should I just keep my blog at the “cost neutral” position? Well, it’s already way past that if you don’t count my time. Speaking of which, I am feeling a LOT of pressure to produce content now that I have many thousands of viewers anxiously awaiting every new blog. And I probably can’t this up indefinitely, it takes up a good chunk of my free time. And circumstances are changing in 2011 that mean I will have even less time to work on the blog.
      So if it ever does make it to a full time thing for me then I see that as nothing but a GOOD thing, as it means I will have a lot more free time to produce better and more content, whilst still doing it simply because I like to. I’m trying my best to ensure that any full time venture will not change a thing in terms of my impartiality or outspoken style. In fact, I would not want to do a blog or content where I was constrained in my free speech, that does not appeal to me at all. I’d rather continue to work 9-5.

      FYI, I have already had an offer to seriously discuss taking my blog and producing electronics content “full time”, but I have turned them down, as I want to do things MY way, not someone else’s.

      Dave.

      • haha, indeed Dave. It’s always been an option, just as you said, you’re further ahead. Dunno if I’d enjoy doing only that though. I’m too fickle. I’ll never be happy doing one thing. So who cares? Let’s keep talking about electronics!

  3. Well Put, Chris.

    I hope I didn’t come off as Anti-Dave, perhaps I’m a too demanding fan that only want to see Dave when he is on his ‘A game!’

    • I hope I didn’t come off as Anti-Dave, perhaps I’m a too demanding fan that only want to see Dave when he is on his ‘A game!’

      The problem with that is that your your idea of “A-Game” is different from everyone else’s. EVERYONE has their own idea of what they like to see.
      It would be physically impossible for me to do a show that pleases everyone, every time.
      I get emails and messages saying people LOVE the cupboard building and the conference videos etc, and want me to do more…

      My ever increasing viewership tells me I’m doing something right at least.

      Dave.

      • There is an old quote (and I don’t know who to attribute it to)…

        “I write to have my work read. Some people praise my labor. Some people criticize it mercilessly. I have succeeded in both cases.”

        Continued success, Dave.

      • Well let’s just say I’d much rather Dave is world famous as the King of ‘no-holds-barred’ Test Equipment Reviews instead of the King of Ranting. But I can settle for both.

  4. Do you suppose, idk, with quantum supercomputers and stuff, that in 600 years, we don’t even need to store anything anymore? We just analyze all content and create a fractal computation for it. Then destroy the original. And you can simply say to a computer: “Hey, show me The Big Bang Theory episode #70” and the computer will simply generate it from scratch.
    Or else they’d just need to come up with ways to store several bits in one atom. For example, it rotating left is 0 and rotating right is 1, and it jumping up is 0 and jumping down is 1 and so on, so an up-jumping, right-turning atom stores the bits 01.

  5. 3D video calls? Doubtful….

    I’m sure we can pull it off technically.. but it will never gain traction. Hell we live in a world where everyone seems to own a cellphone and you can connect instantly to anyone in the world. Yet how does the majority of people choose to use this technology? By sending little text messages to each other. So rather than pressing a few buttons and actually talking to someone we choose to text to them instead. You think people are going to go in the opposite direction and start 3d video calling? No way…

    BTW that 4-station workbench was freakin awesome. 😀

  7. I recently found out about The Amp Hour, and I love listening to it! Right now, I am using a 555 AM transmitter and transmitting this into a late ’30s to early ’40s vacuum tube/valve radio! The radio’s speaker uses a field coil.

  8. Nitpick here, holograms are images that give you depth perception on a flat surface, such as your standard laser holograms; whereas the display technology you guys were talking about are actually volumetric displays.

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