A little about this account, Y2Kable, and me
First off, I want to thank everyone who’s followed me recently. I went from around 30 followers to over 600 in a couple of days because of a video of my little cable TV project. I genuinely wasn’t expecting that kind of attention, and seeing people interested in something I’ve been making for myself has been pretty cool.
With that said I figured now would be a good time to explain what this account actually is, what I’m trying to do with it, and set some expectations about Y2Kable and my other projects.
What this account actually is
This isn’t exclusively a Y2Kable development account, and I don’t really want it to become one.
I like old computers, CRTs, video games, anime, and generally messing around with technology from the late ‘90s and 2000s. That’s what I was posting before Y2Kable blew up, and that’s what I’m going to keep posting.
A lot of my content is genuinely just stuff I’m already doing. If I’m playing Smash Bros. or Tekken, it’s nothing for me to prop my phone up and record a clip. I’m not necessarily sitting down thinking about what content I need to manufacture for Instagram that day.
That said I do want to keep growing the account and getting my projects in front of more people. If I didn’t want attention, I wouldn’t make a public Instagram account after all.
So you’ll probably notice me working Y2Kable and Y2K Station into otherwise ordinary posts. If I want to post an old Naruto opening, I might show it playing through Y2Kable instead of just uploading the opening itself. If I’m playing a game, I might show it launching through Y2K Station. If I’m showing just something on my screen the Windows XP theme is obvious. Some of those videos might seem repetitive to people who’ve already seen my projects. That’s intentional.
I’m not trying to turn every post into a development update. I just want to show off things I enjoy while getting the name out there.
I’m not making money from any of this. At the end of the day, all I really have to gain is getting my name and projects out there. I think what I’m making is cool, and I’d like other people to enjoy it too.
A little about me
For a little background, I have a full time career outside of all this, and computers aren’t my main hobby.
If I made a personal Instagram account documenting everything I do, probably half of it would be guns, outdoors stuff, and whatever else I’m getting into.
I spend plenty of time away from my computer. Sometimes I’m out doing something, sometimes I’m playing games, and sometimes I’m just watching TV.
Y2Kable and my other projects are just one part of what I enjoy doing.
I think that’s worth mentioning because I don’t want people getting the impression that I’m sitting in front of a computer working on this stuff 24/7.
Is it vibe coded?
Yes, the art is mine done on my iPhone because I can’t get behind AI art, however this project is vibe coded. I mostly only ever made Lua scripts so C++ is a process I’m learning while I do this. To code it myself with my other interest and job, I wouldn’t be able to justify giving it away for free. Even now I’m spending months combing through everything, looking for bugs, reiterating, and adding things. I’m not one of those guys that calls a half baked vibe coded program done. I’m taking ownership and project managing + QC. I understand being against LLM use, if that’s your prerogative, fine that’s why I put this up here so no gets attached to something they’re fundamentally against. However the idea that this is some lazy attempt at a project would be disingenuous. I want to release it first before messing with the architecture, then see if I can apply some things I learned from Lua. Like consolidating repetitive code into reusable functions before I start hacking away at it.
About Y2Kable and development
Something I want to make clear is that I’m actually using Y2Kable myself.
I didn’t start making it because I wanted to launch a software company or become a content creator. I wanted to recreate the experience of having cable TV with my own media collection, and I started building something that could do that.
And now that it works, I actually spend time watching it.
I’m not sitting at my computer every waking hour grinding out features. Sometimes I’m watching cartoons, sometimes I’m playing games, and sometimes I don’t feel like working on anything. So please temper your expectations a little.
I’m not going to post an update every time I fix a bug, add a button, or change something behind the scenes. I’ll share meaningful progress when I have something interesting to show, but I don’t want to turn my hobbies into another job.
Y2Kable will be released when I feel it’s ready. I still want to test it with people who aren’t particularly tech savvy before making it public, because those are the people I’m ultimately trying to make this accessible to.
And yes, it’s going to be free.
Why Windows?
I’ve gotten a lot of suggestions about Linux, Docker, web applications, and cross platform support.
I appreciate the suggestions. I understand why people want those things, and I’m not saying they’re bad ideas. But I think there’s an important distinction between cross-platform compatibility and accessibility. Making something available on more operating systems doesn’t automatically make it easier for ordinary people to use.
My goal with Y2Kable is to make this whole DIY cable concept accessible to people who wouldn’t normally bother learning how to set up a media server.
Think of someone whose entire relationship with computers is doing homework, browsing the internet, or using Microsoft Office before turning the computer off and playing PS5.
Or someone like my grandma, who knows how to use a Windows computer but isn’t going to spend her afternoon learning Linux or Docker just to watch television.
Those are the kinds of people I’m thinking about.
Also Windows is what I’m familiar with, and it’s what most of the people I know are familiar with. So that’s what I’m building around.
There’s also a lot more going on with Y2Kable than just playing scheduled television. It interacts with hardware, uses custom IR remote software, has its own playback and display controls, and integrates with other programs I’m making.
I’ve already experimented with web interfaces, and there’s functionality I can expose through a browser. But that doesn’t mean I want to move the entire program into one.
Tunarr already does browser based television pretty well. I’m trying to build something that feels like an actual cable box while still letting you use your Windows PC normally.
There’s also a larger ecosystem I’m working on that I haven’t completely shown yet.
I don’t want to redesign everything around a different architecture before I’ve even finished what I originally set out to make.
I’m also not some software wizard
I think some people might be overestimating my experience because they’re seeing a relatively polished interface.
I’m not a software developer. I’m just an idea guy that’s putting different pieces of software together,testing it , trying to simplify it, then test it again. I barely understand C++ and I’ve only really messed around with Lua before this. I’m learning as I go.
That’s another reason I’m sticking with Windows. It’s what I know, and I can actually make progress with it.
I’d rather finish a functional Windows program than spend the next year trying to rebuild everything in a framework I’m unfamiliar with just so I can say it runs on Linux. An idiot in motion is better than a genius at rest or whatever.
Suggestions and open source
I also don’t want any of this to discourage people from suggesting things. I’m absolutely open to ideas.
If you’ve got a cool feature or quality of life improvement that you think would fit Y2Kable, feel free to suggest it.
I might add it. I might not.
But adding features to the existing Windows program is at least somewhere in my skill tree right now. Completely redesigning the architecture for another operating system is a different story. That’s not me dismissing Linux users or saying their ideas are bad. It’s just me being realistic about what I’m personally capable of maintaining.
The good news is that Y2Kable will be open source when it’s released.
I plan on making the source files available. I’m not interested in obfuscating my work. If someone wants to take what I’ve made and get it running on Linux, macOS, or something else, by all means, go for it. I’d genuinely think that was cool. I’m just not personally committing to building and maintaining all those versions.
Anyway
I guess the point of this whole ramble is that I’m grateful people are interested but I don’t want anyone getting the wrong impression about what this account is or what I’m trying to accomplish.
I’m not running a software company. I’m not trying to sell you anything. And I’m not going to suddenly stop posting random gameplay clips because a cable TV video got popular. I’m going to keep making things, playing games, watching old television, and posting whatever I think is interesting.
Sometimes that’ll be a new feature. Sometimes it’ll be a minute video of me playing Smash Remix on a CRT. sometimes it’ll just be me showing off something I’ve already made because I want more people to discover it.
If you’re here specifically for Y2Kable don’t worry. I’m still working on it and theres more to it than I first showed.
I just want people to understand that this is something I’m doing because I enjoy it, not because I’m obligated to. I’m merely a man lol
Thanks again for all the support.