Well that’s the first draft of my XENIX script-y doo dah done. Now to  shoosh it up a bit and then make a bloody video out of it. Easy…  right?!

I’m going to take my new Mac Mini M2 out for a spin over the next few days. My current video editing software is Adobe Premiere Pro, however now that I’ve finished with Back to the BBS, I may consider trying one of the following below options. Before I do that, do you have any other software you would recommend, or do you have any thoughts? I’d love to hear from you!

Davinci Resolve

Pro Points:

• Free of cost (unless the studio version), works across Mac, PC and to a lesser extent Linux (I never did get it working with NVIDA drivers).
• Apparently used by Hollywood

Bad Points:

• Doesn’t use the power of the new M2 silicon (yet?), so will use Rosetta on the mac, so it will render slower than both Premiere Pro (compatible with M1) and Final Cut

Final Cut by Apple

Pro points:

• Apparently easier to use than Premiere Pro but still provides good results
• The quickest option, uses the native hardware on the Mac Mini, so both editing and rendering will be super zippy

Bad Points:

• Only available on the Mac, so I can’t edit on anything else. Might not necessarily be a deal breaker

It might amaze you to know that Microsoft were once the biggest seller of UNIX in the world. Moreso than AT&T, BSD and all the other big players in the field during the early to mid 80s. They had a product called XENIX which was a true multi-user, multi-tasking UNIX variant and it was available for microcomputers, including the Intel platform. This was around 1979/1980, so before they even brokered their deal with IBM for PC/MS-DOS. I’m going to spill the beans on what happened with and to XENIX in my next video on Al’s Geek Lab. And you lucky Patreons are going to get a first look. If there’s anything you’d like to know about or see specifically in the video, then please let me know, I’m still working on the creative direction, but this is a video I’ve been dying to do for a long time.

And now I have my new editing powerhouse (yes, a Mac Mini M2!), I should be able to edit this content a lot quicker than my 13 year old PC, which was what was powering all of this before.

Well fans, it’s been a really long time coming, but Back to the BBS part 8 is finally upon us!

Here’s the link to the video (Premiere): https://youtu.be/gOghuaxh88U, and here’s a teaser trailer! https://youtu.be/sV4LDWkxjfI

Usually, I do an early release for Patreons, however this is a social event, marking the end of the documentary series. So I’m throwing a bit of a Premiere showing event. Hopefully you can all join me at the following timezones for the live chat and some good times!

1445 PST (Fri 23rd December 2022)

1745 EST

2245 GMT

23:45 CET

0845 Brisbane Time (Sat 24th)

This episode covers the ANSI and ASCII art scene. In the 80s and 90s, people found a way to make art from text! And they  would share this art online on Electronic Bulletin Boards (BBSes). This  episode talks about how art is made from text, the various art types,  about what this art scene is like today, as well as what it was in the  past. This episode also meets some of the people and art groups, and  shows you how you can get involved too.

Premiere link: https://youtu.be/gOghuaxh88U

Just imagine for a second if Apple didn’t invent the Aqua theme for MacOS X, imagine if it stayed with the Platinum look of former Classic MacOS releases. Imagine no more! My next video shows that this was (for a short while) a very true reality. I show you how you can also install it on your own computer and play about with this amazing hybrid. Which I personally love, because I still love the old Classic MacOS look and feel.