Dodgy fellow! I’d love to see the pic of the ssd that’s duct-taped to the laptop.
I thought everyone used gaffer tape to attach SSDs? 
I literally used Scotch tape at first before I got more fancy. I think Stephen still has emotional scars from seeing that picture.
Original:
Fancier version:
I’m so OCD about neatness that that would put me into convulsions. 
that first one is a true crime
Very good episode. I got a few tips out if it:
- I will check out Shortcat—again. I tried it before, years ago, and bounced off it, but maybe I’ll like the new version better. And even if I don’t stay with it, it’ll be fun to play with for a bit.
- I don’t use Downie often but when I do use it, I love it. My primary use is, as Stephen said, to download interviews from YouTube, convert them to audio, and save them to my podcast player for later listening. Previously, I did the conversion with QuickTime; doing it in Downie itself will save me a step.
- I subscribe to a couple of high-volume discussion mailing lists (still! Here in the 21st Century!). The discussion of email gave me a couple of ideas for managing that volume.
- It didn’t even occur to me before that I could have Watch notifications separate from phone notifications. I mean, I knew that was possible but it never occurred to me before that I could make use of it. I have already switched off some of my Watch notifications while continuing to have them activated on the iPhone.
I’m sorry to hear @tjluoma went through a rough patch but glad to hear he’s doing better.
Enjoyed this one a lot. TJ’s rapport with you both is very obvious, and lovely.
Someone please clear this up for me. It’s been bothering over the course of several shows.
Downie
How is this not theft from the content providers? My son makes a living on YouTube videos. He gets paid every time someone watches his videos. These videos cost time and money to produce.
What am I missing?
Good question. I would say that if it falls under fair use, its OK. But don’t ask me to define or explain it in more detail.
It’s probably looked at as the internet version of recording a show on a VCR and fast forwarding through the commercials. You can find “Top 20” lists of software and websites that allow you to download videos from all kinds of sites. It may be wrong but there is nothing to prevent it.
It seems to be clear violation of YouTube policies, and content theft from the creator, unless a YouTube premium member, in which case the content provider still gets paid.
I just searched YouTube and it seems to be a clear violation.
Downie + Patreon or affiliate link usage is much more pleasant way to support a channel than having to view on Youtube.com. I bet your son makes some money off of people who use Downie or youtube-dl, and I don’t think he’d have many views from those people if they were forced to sit through the ads or subscribe to YT Premium. I can’t deny it’s a terms violation.
A fair question and I agree that Fair Use can come into play. For example, I only download videos that I’m going to use as part of a presentation for school staff or parents, or for an education related conference. My reason for downloading is that I don’t want to depend on an internet connection when making an important presentation. I believe, and certainly hope, my use case is ethical. I certainly would not mean to do anything unfair or unethical.
There are an average of 640,000 hours of video streamed by YouTube users every minute. On the list of things YouTube tries to police, hate speech, pornography, misinformation, etc. downloading videos probably doesn’t rank near the top.
I don’t condone the practice but someone would probably have to be a really serious offender to even be noticed.
A realistic alternative for a number of people who might download YT videos is Play. You’ll find it on the app store for Mac, iOS, iPadOS. Essentially it’s a fancy database. See a YT video you like: there’s a “share to Play” option added to browsers. You can tag videos and easily organize them via tags and some advanced filters. This makes it super easy for me to “keep” the videos I want, easily find them, and then when I want to play one of them it takes me directly to the relevant YT page.
I know it doesn’t “do” the same thing as Downie, but it does allow people to very easily organize and find videos they’ve found and like and would like to view again at some point in the future.
More here: https://marcosatanaka.com
I assume YouTube gives your son data related to his videos (# views, etc). Do they provide him with the number of times his videos are downloaded? This could help him understand the extent of the problem.
I enjoy the shows where TJ is on. We need to have more episodes along these lines.