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Comment by mohn | Hacker News Reader

This was great reading, I really enjoy this style of content: someone with expertise tearing down electrical and mechanical equipment and commenting on which parts are well done or poorly done.

I'll definitely be on the lookout for other write ups from Ben Einstein. To anyone wanting more content like this, I also recommend the "Bored of Lame Tool Reviews?" (BOLTR) series of videos from YouTuber AvE:

https://www.youtube.com/user/arduinoversusevil

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You might like the EEVblog teardown videos. There is indeed something strangely compelling about a knowledgeable person providing an unbiased running commentary on somebody else's work.

Also, if you enjoy teardowns of cheap Chinese crap, big Clive's got your back:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtM5z2gkrGRuWd0JQMx76qA

What I've learned watching his channel: Don't skimp on your USB chargers, get Anker or IKEA ones (seriously, the IKEA charger was amazingly well-designed).

Absolutely! I think my introduction to Big Clive's channel was a review of one of those electrode heater deathtraps for rapidly boiling water. I need to check out more of his stuff.

As an electrical engineer, I find EEVblog to be pretty salty. He complains (like huge rants) about pretty minor things. I prefer MikesElectricStuff. His criticisms are usually more valid and he is sure to praise ingenuity when he sees it.

Right... also, during a tear-down, he'll occasionally leap to some conclusion about how something was done, complain about it / praise it, and then completely contradict himself a few minutes later (or in a text overlay) once the facts emerge. Still, it's good entertainment.

Totally agreed. His rants are usually fairly superficial as well, and he tends to get a lot wrong. It's fine to get stuff wrong, and it's fine to rant, but doing both at the same time is tacky.

I think it's because he had a lot of success with his early rants, which were generally pretty on-point. As time went on they get more and more salty and inaccurate as he ran out of good ideas.

TheSignalPath is a great EE channel as well.

As a firmware engineer, I second the MikesElectricStuff recommendation. More depth, cooler stuff. His voice is also much less annoying...

Thanks for the recommendation, I look forward to checking out MikesElectricStuff.

I have seen a lot of EEVblog videos, but only a small fraction of his output, prolific guy. I definitely agree, too much grousing at times. Though he did seem to be appropriately outraged in the first one I watched (#822, about a terrible medical tablet PC):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o8MDCIlOEk

I just watched that man thread a potato into a potato. He's full of the dad jokes -- really entertaining. Not sure I can handle more than one in a row!

Thanks for that.

That was the first of his videos that I saw, too! I think it's a good introduction, but I'd say it's one of the least serious out of all of them. I suppose it's an acquired taste -- I had some difficulty convincing my dad to check out the channel, but recently he told me he was enjoying "that Canadian 'keep your dick in a vise' guy".

We would often sit down as a family and watch The Red Green Show during my middle school years. With its TV run now long over, I'm glad that there's another Canadian continuing in the grand tradition of workshop shenanigans.

So am I! Canada's changing. Maybe it's just nostalgia now -- the folksy jokes and all. Still, I've got a soft spot.

If thats your flavour of comedy, I have to recommend Letterkenny. If you haven't heard of it, it's a show on CraveTV based on the part of the country I hail from.

(I know I'm digressing from the main thread... but a small sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KLSbCtinXs)

Red Green is archived on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/user/RedGreenTV

That video gets about 100x funnier if you watch it at half speed.

The potato bolt is AvE at his most intolerably Canadian. He tones down the persona quite a bit in the more technical videos.

Either way I'll be sure to check out some more. I got to practice a bit of machining at a former job. It's satisfying to see something come into such perfect, useful shape -- it's almost animal.

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