{"id":8251,"date":"2026-08-07T17:07:54","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quantum-bits.org\/?p=8251"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T17:01:04","slug":"on-retro-computing-amstrad-cpc-464-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quantum-bits.org\/?p=8251","title":{"rendered":"On retro-computing: Amstrad CPC 464 (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I haven’t posted for quite some time. Actually … over a year. It’s been challenging<\/strong> and very difficult times, where I had to take care of the health of both of my parents. My sweet Lauraine<\/strong>, the love of my life<\/strong>, has been incredible throughout these months. I cannot stress how grateful I am for her to be in my life. She supports me more than I can wish for, and warms my heart each and every second. It is still an almost day-to-day challenge situation, but things are getting better. We feel now confortable enough to take a bit of time off … and therefore I’m posting again. I missed that. A lot.<\/p>\n

Let’s move on to more cheerful news<\/strong>, shall we?<\/p>\n

I’m more than enjoying<\/strong> my day job<\/a>, which now also includes fighting back<\/strong> against old nemeses<\/strong> of mine (M$ and its lobby proxies) in various standardization<\/strong> bodies<\/strong> and European<\/strong> organizations<\/strong>. Nice! I’m also working with a CEA research lab<\/a> on some state-of-the-art data related technological subjects. And my PhD student<\/strong> brilliantly defended<\/strong> his thesis<\/strong>. He was recently awarded<\/strong> a well-deserved innovation prize<\/a> for his brilliant<\/strong> work. I’m so proud of him! <\/p>\n

On the hobby<\/strong> front, retro-computing has been such a big part of my moments of peace, that I started a YouTube channel<\/strong>: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@quantum-bits-org<\/a> ! <\/p>\n

Nothing big<\/strong>, achieving a shy 99 members<\/strong> at this very moment. Yes, after almost one year, this may not seem very, very impressive. Still, I’ll be so proud<\/strong> to reach the 100th subscriber milestone soon !<\/p>\n

For now<\/strong>, the channel only deals with retro\/vintage computing<\/strong>. Hopefully, also on some of tech \/ science and nerdy stuff. After all, the moto of the channel is “Quantum physics, Retro computing and Geeky stuff<\/strong>“. We’ll see how it goes !<\/p>\n

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It is still rough<\/strong> and not<\/strong> at the level I wish it were. I don’t have a sound-proof studio and my voice sounds like shit<\/strong> when recorded. And … I’m not even mentioning noise from the street or the occasional barks from my dog. Recording sound is hard work. <\/p>\n

For now<\/strong>, I’m using a text-to-speech<\/strong> tool for voice overs<\/strong>. And to be very clear, because the subject is controversial : not LLM junk<\/strong>, but good old-fashion TTS<\/strong>. No AI slop is used<\/strong>, neither for images, animations, drawings nor writing texts. Still, even though TTS has done a lot of progress, I am not<\/strong> happy with the results. Therefore, I’m working at this very moment on better sound equipment, and … you’ll be hearing my own voice and French accent soon enough.<\/p>\n

I’m also learning video editing<\/strong>. The first videos were made using iMovie<\/strong> (yes, I’m still a freaking Apple fanboy). I’m currently switching to DaVinci Resolve<\/strong>. Things will get better, but my workflow is still very slow<\/strong>: only 4 repair videos have been published.<\/p>\n

And … let’s start with the first ones. Which – of course – were dedicated to the Amstrad CPC<\/strong>, my first home computer. <\/p>\n

First video: Amstrad CPC 464 – Case & Keyboard<\/span><\/p>\n

Please, don’t be harsh ! This was my very<\/strong> first YouTube video, and it is very amateurish<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I had previously worked on a Commodore 64<\/a>, therefore I felt that I HAD to spend more time<\/strong> with my beloved Amstrad CPC 464<\/strong><\/a>. I decided to start the channel<\/strong> with a 3-parts video<\/strong>, starting with taking care<\/strong> of the case<\/strong> and the keyboard<\/strong>, which had seen better days:<\/p>\n\n\n

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