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by krastanov 1624 days ago
This very talented machinist (Clickspring's Chris) is recreating the device using tools from that age on their YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to...

It is an amazing playlist.

5 comments

Chris Budiselic and colleagues also wrote a paper https://bhi.co.uk/antikytheramechanism/ proposing that the front dial might be a 354-day lunar calendar rather than a 365-day solar calendar.
Clickspring is an absolute delight. The videos are straight up machining porn and the stuff that he builds is fascinating in its own right, the Antikythera mechanism being a perfect example. I cannot recommend this channel enough.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Clickspring/

This series is so good but it is unfinished with the last video being uploaded 5 years ago. I want for Chris to finish it so badly.
The most recent video in that playlist was uploaded in December 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkKgdq57uOo&list=PLZioPDnFPN... (before that the previous video was from October 2018; maybe you meant ~3 years ago)

There is also an 'antikythera fragments' playlist with the most recent video from September 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBDKmFG90U&list=PLZioPDnFPN...

Yeah, working on the paper put a real stop to the work, but it seems to be back up and running again.
All of his videos are behind a Patreon paywall these days, as far as I can tell. He's still working on the Antikythera mechanism, it's just only visible to patrons.
Patreon has gone from helpful support by a few to an exclusive club.
What an absurd posture. HN is full of people endlessly harping about the shitty quality of free, ad supported SEO-rigged mill content that sucks, but then a site that allows often hard working creators to ask for very modest donations so that you can view their material is labeled as "exclusive" and implicitly elitist. The people who try to make some money on Patreon don't owe any special favors to children without credit cards or to people in other countries without applicable payment methods at their disposal. They owe themselves a living, and their sponsors a decent presentation, nothing more. There are still plenty of free alternatives out there, instead of harping about one person hoping to earn some money for all the work they put into their videos/creativity.
Labelled "exclusive" -- merely for excluding people? The indignity.
> an exclusive club

The club is affordable. What makes it exclusive is the intellectual alignment required to unlock the value of the information. Not everyone has that. If you have it, consider joining the club while you are still alive so you can enjoy the benefits of membership and fraternity with people like you. After that brief period expires, the club will be truly exclusive for a long time.

For the donation of a single dollar, you are given access to all of his videos. I would not describe that as "exclusive," although I understand what you are saying.
It’s pretty alienating to the vast majority of underage minds who don’t have their own credit cards, as well as a tremendous amount of people outside the US who have different payment systems.

Personally, I use it to support public content, because I have the means to do so now, and because I didn’t always.

Why does Patreon block prepaid cards?
Probably some kind of interpretation of AML obligations. One could setup their own Patreon and pay themselves via cards in ways that banks, payment processors, and possibly law enforcement would rather you didn’t.

I come across this a lot when trying to pay for things with Cash App or Coinbase Card, as they are both classed as prepaid cards for reasons I don’t understand.

> For the donation of a single dollar..

x100 channels I may watch.

I can't afford to be a patron for all the channels I like. Maybe I'm in the minority for my salary but $100 or $200 / month is not a thing I can afford, or even half that.

edit: in a way it's the paywall of videos

It was always meant for people to be patrons of someone, like artists were back in the Renaissance. It's simply a way for people to be paid for their work, and what better way than exclusivity? That's basically the same as being able to use software only if it's paid for, like most SaaS these days.
SaaS feels like a huge scam, not sure that is the direction I’d go on that argument.

I miss buying Photoshop on a disc and it was yours forever.

Ok, then using your Photoshop example, it's like only being able to use it if you buy it. Same thing, doesn't have to be a recurring purchase.
It still beats the other main business model for content creators which is peppering things with ads and SEO spam by a country mile in my opinion.
The club is so exclusive it costs $5.
i'm 5m in to the first video and already hooked. incredible work... i saw the actual device in athens and the craftsmanship is still visible, and this is a fitting tribute. :)
Tools from that age? I’m on video 2, and it looks like he’s using a bunch of modern tools that wouldn’t have been available 2000+ years ago?
Keep watching -- he gets more into the period appropriate tools later in the series including home made drills, files, layout ink, soldering tools, etc
It's not exactly "making the whole thing with period tools" but rather "exploring how each part could have been made using available technology (but still doing the bulk of the work with modern tooling)".
The ancient tool series is another list of his: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZioPDnFPNsGnUXuZScwn...
Should shut off the camera first of all. I'm too pessimistic, sorry.
You're not sorry because you still hit Reply even though your comment wasn't constructive at all.