YouTube: Tips for Making a How-To Video

This is my first and possibly only foray into the madness that is constructing a YouTube video. I’ve been watching the Vlog Brothers for years, and I’ve never appreciated the effort that goes into it. Pick a topic, write a script, animate the graphics, trim clips, find background music, and also, cut around all your foul language because YouTube does not take kindly to that.

I did that after doing a lot of other research on the basics of YouTube for a non-YouTuber.

So, as a supplement to this VBA video tutorial, I’ve condensed my background research for anyone out there who might also be considering a jump from WordPress to YouTube.

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VBA: How to Jerry Rig an HTML Scraper

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I’ve found that many people see Python, the programming language, much the same way they see Pythons, the scary-ass snakes. If you haven’t dealt with it before, chances are you’re going to think it’s not to be trusted. There’s no way I could convince my mom, for instance, to open up a .py file on her computer.

She will, however, open up a Word document no questions asked.

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VBA: What Exactly is a FileSystemObject?

I really wish Hyperbole and a Half was still posting.

It’s friggin’ magic. FileSystemObject is how you run scripts on your files and folders in VBA. You want to create 100 files on your desktop automatically? It’ll let you do that. You want to delete files with specific names in a directory? It’ll let you do that too. It’s also pretty crucial to viruses like Anna Kournikova and the Love Bug, which I’ve been looking at recently. So here’s how to make a FileSystemObject.

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Malware Anatomy: The Anna Kournikova Worm

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I don’t advocate the use of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, or anything else that can screw up someone’s system or violate their privacy.

It’s oddly satisfying to peak inside them though. Like disassembling a clock.

Kournikova was my first pick because she’s written in Visual Basic, which isn’t too painful to read. She’s also so old it’s unlikely anyone would be able to use this walk-through to create something malicious. Old in malware years anyway. In human years, she’ll be seventeen next month.

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