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Around 2008 my friend's father had a cellphone wrapped in Ethernet cable on his desk. It always stood out as odd to me but after all these years, mystery solved.
@@michaeljones5681 around 2008 my friends father had an older flip phone phone wrapped tightly in Ethernet cable sitting right behind his keyboard, almost exactly like it was casually sitting there in the Google TV follow-up video. It was there for at least a year, maybe even longer. He was computer illiterate so it's very very possible he came across these videos and believed it. Where else could he have gotten the idea? It's beautiful... Lol and I just loooove how I've lived in the dark all these years. When I saw him wrapping the phone up it shot back in my head and I died laughing. GOT'EM!
If Infinte Solutions were still around before 2019, imagine making a hoax about a video gaming stream service made by Google, they'll probably pick a better name than Stadia.
Remember watching Infinite Solutions and believing everything on their channel at the time. Kept trying to do this "easter egg" on Gmail at the time. Mark and his crew with their humor and production values were ahead of their time lol
As a kid I got fooled by the "wrap an Ethernet cable round your phone to get Internet" hahaha, I genuinely believed it even after I didn't get anything out of it!
I had never heard of this channel but I love it in a way that is hard to explain. It's like troll royalty. Getting people to do something dumb but harmless, possibly never realising it was a joke. The cleverness, the acting, _even_ the small number of videos elevates the experience. Not all kings wear crowns.
25:05 Oh man, I LOVE the fact that he has a phone wrapped in an Ethernet cable in front of his keyboard here, both working as an Easter egg as well as "proof" of their legitimacy. EDIT// Well Michael just referenced it
Good old Fatal Farm. They made some really funny videos. A lot of people forget that around that time, there were many TV shows like Computer Chronicles, Dotto's Data Cafe, and others that released TV shows or segments in this format. Part of what made this series so believable was that it mimicked that since forgotten format very well.
The infuriating thing is, both has an equal chance to attaining success. Its already clear from that point onwards, why people do the things that they do.
Now these "Anti Piracy Screen" videos became really bland due to the kids trying to fit in trying to be "hip n kewl". True Story. Just like the "Kill Screen" videos too.
@@PainweedingPills the ones that are good are normal anti piracy screens, not “uh oh Mario is a serial killer and he’s after you now!” Ones, except for Mario Party DS.
@@reillymcwriting I pirate and I get none of those screens so it's fall Grandma personal Pirates 3DS games and Wii games themselves please don't tell the police I'm only 13
It must be admitted: Despite some giveaways, this hoax was really well done... And even amused the people that wrote that official statement at Google! Wonder if that spirit still exists in the company or they would send a nice little cease and desist letter to the video creators instead...
Actually, as a paleontology student, I can tell you the "tiny dinosaur" thing isn't actually that far from true. Not that there are tiny dinosaurs, just that there are certain species so ubiquitous in the fossil record that paleontologists tend to not bother to analyze the fossils of them bc there's nothing more we can learn from them at this time.
what? of course there are tiny dinosaurs. haven't you ever heard of the bee hummingbird? their nests are small enough to fit in a thimble - if that's not tiny, then I'm not sure what *is.*
@@thag_simmons Birds are descendants of dinosaurs, not actual dinosaurs. All birds have wings for example, even flightless ones. Most dinosaurs didn't have wings. There are other differences. Birds are warm-blooded, dinosaurs are thought to have been somewhere between warm blooded and cold blooded. Also, there's flight. Almost all species of birds can fly, almost all species of dinosaur couldn't.
Despite the fact that this was a joke, the idea was actually pretty damn innovative for 2007 and pretty much predicted how many of us use on demand streaming services today. I wouldn't be surprised if a tech company saw this and thought "Wait...they might be on to something.."
Oddly enough Hulu started doing something similar to that, later in 2007. IIRC the free account only had like the last 30 days of a show, but you could watch it on your computer, in 2007.
I did not know the same guys were behind Lasagna Cat. Lasagna Cat sometimes puts a lot of effort into their videos, so it sort of makes sense they made some effort to make these tutorials look real.
i mean, lasaga cat didnt put a lot of effort into praising gafield comic strips they put a LOT of effort into praising ONE specific Comict strip, but in such a way that it was very easy to deduct as satire or ironic. the rest of the Videos(minus the few OBVIOUS outliers) are just.... acting a Garfield strip in real life, show the OG strip. and them something weird.
You say it was obvious anyone wouldn't fall for this guy's trolling. But I was a dumb 10 year old with my very first PC and little parental guidance. I actually tried the 'recharge batteries' one.
I work in IT and linked the “How to Increase Your Wi-Fi Signal” video by Infinite Solutions in my email signature as a joke. Folks would email me back all the time saying how it did not work for them or somehow they thought it was helping their signal. My manager finally made me remove it. You'd be shocked how many of my non-networking co-workers thought it was legit.
Common sense goes out the window with non-tech people asking tech questions, they will hang off your every word because they think its all black magic and just want it to work.
@@zmansadventures As you get older your perspective changes and once a given year is a smaller percentage of your lifespan to the current point, it begins to fly by you.
I think that panning down shot of him typing the password on the keyboard was actually really more to capture the cell phone with the cord wrapped around it
You really get the sense of the shift in culture at Google from stories like this, this is the don't be evil Google who thought this was pretty funny and a well done prank, no way that would be the response today.
I think the biggest giveaway with the video response proof was that the camera image quality was identical to infinite solutions themselves, not many random people had good digital camcorders in 2007 and practically no one knew how to transfer Mini or HDV tapes, FF is a production company so they had the money for good cameras and it's clear both videos were shot on a high end DV camcorder, maybe even the same camera was used for both.
Every time I watch a current Thio Joe video today I still think about his original fake videos. His presentation style is identical and while his current content is very good I still can’t shake those feelings from years ago. It’s weird.
It's funny to think that 10 years I escaped network television to the land of UA-cam, where I could watch _what_ I wanted _when_ I wanted... for _FREE_ without non-stop _ADS_. I enjoyed it because it felt like real-life; free from the professionalism of network television. And now... UA-cam is pretty much the same thing network television was back then... only worse. It's not just UA-cam either... it's the entire world of the internet in general. Back in the early 2000s, everyone used the internet for fun; as a cool hangout space to share memes and laugh about popular things with like-minded people... free from the corporate landscape of the real world. Ever since the 2010s, companies started seeing the internet as a serious way to market their products, push their services, and even to directly make money from it themselves. The internet's not fun anymore, it's not free from corpocracy... the world of the internet is no longer a safe haven from the real world.
@@braelinmichelus I don't agree. I still find many good videos on UA-cam, such as this one. As for the "internet was better in the early 2000s" it's just nostalgia goggles. Current teenagers will be nostalgic about this era of Internet.
Wow, I genuinely remember this being real. I never signed up because it was "US only". That's literally the only reason I didn't look into it more deeply at the time.
Great video, really well edited. You've stepped up your game on this one. Whoever the original creators are, they did a great job creating the idea that modern streaming services are built on.
Boy, I remember UA-cam during this era. Back then you had a 10 minute video length limit and one of UA-cam’s main uses at that particular time was to embed videos on other websites. That’s why you see the videos URL and embed links on the right side of the video. This is unlike today where the vast majority of people watch the vast majority of UA-cam videos on UA-cam it’s self, whether it’s on the app or the website. Plus, a very large amount of videos were not original, long form content but uploads of old copyrighted material. The clips would be of such things as old sporting events from old VHS recordings, unofficial uploads of music videos from old VHS recordings and news coverage from old VHS recordings. This was before companies like Viacom (now Paramount Global) started really cracking down on the practice. There are still a very large amount of old television video footage today, but a very large amount of videos are now long form, original content. Heck you couldn’t even upload videos in HD, let alone in 4k UHD. As the video mentioned a very large number of videos were uploaded in only 240p. Today it’s very unlikely that a channel would upload their videos with a max resolution of 240p. The vast majority of videos are either uploaded in 480p, HD, and a number of videos are even uploaded in 2160p. So yeah I can not believe how much UA-cam has changed since it’s early days.
Holy shit the moment I saw the "I got google tv on my 114th try" guy I thought 'wow he looks like the lasagna cat jon actor', imagine my face when you revealed it was not only the same guy, but also the co-founder AND that both infinite solutions and lasagna cat were made by the same company
MJD makes some freaking great documentaries. I mean, by far the best one was the Bliss on 2022 New Year's Eve, but still, the depth he goes into and explains every single thing is amazing. Also, who else here is having an old mjd videos marathon? Lol, I have been watching his old videos for about 4 hours now.
infinite solutions radiates the same vibe as that one british tv show "look around you" there's occasional gags that make it obvious that it's a joke, while there's also small little details that help make the joke even funnier.
I love when continuity errors are pointed out in videos. Something about the "Look when x happens... Did you see that?" makes me feel warm inside. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird
Interesting to see how the name got recycled into one of the real products by Google😂 Edit: the video production was top notch, Michael. Never felt i was watching a boring documentary.
I own a book called: Visiting New York on $10 a day. I even thought about it to try it. Sightseeing on a bus, visit the horse-track, maybe win a few bucks. Maybe some thing have changed since it was printed, I must ask the New York Tourism Board for a list of the changes that were made after 1949.
Infinite solutions kinda feels like Tim and Eric sketches and “The Onion” Also, kinda reminds me of the old “VHS hack” clip from early UA-cam days. Ps. I miss video responses. Love your editing during the audio only “interview” segments.
I remember being a naive 8 year old thinking these videos were legitimate. I spent hours trying to get an invite. There was even another guy on UA-cam who claimed he got an invite. Even at 8 years old I was suspicious about the “wrap an Ethernet cable around your phone to get extended wifi” trick, tried several variations with no success, trying to get our home wifi signal 250 miles away at our vacation house in New Hampshire. I even replaced the phone with a Linksys USB wifi adapter, with no success obviously
Unrelated but damn that made me remember USB Wifi adapters existed My mom had one and I remember dropping it which I can't remember if it actually damaged it but I remember being scared to death of that
@@rando843they still exist. I bought one a few months ago for a desktop that I couldn't run a cable to. I didn't feel like opening up the case and installing a card because they work just as well as PCI cards.
That was such a fun video to watch. Time flew by. Honestly this was one of the funniest stories I've heard, and see that Fatal Frame was behind it made me so happy I clicked on the video. haha Good job, mate.
The very second I heard "Fatal Farm" leave your mouth, it suddenly all made sense. These guys have been going all out for shits and giggles on youtube for so long, and the humor totally lines up with their other stuff.
This is the sort of shit that keeps IT help desk services in business. I legit had a lady wrap her laptops power cord around her wifi router for "wireless power" and she wondered why her laptop still lost power. The thing is her router was also in a completely different room. With a straight face she walked me through what she learned. " Oh all you have to do is wrap your power cord around your wifi router and then just connect to the wifi connection on the computer and presto wireless power!". She felt so stupid after I told her she basically took tech advice from a meme channel.
I remember this and still go back from time to time. The level of detail is astonishing, at least for the time. Like how in the update video they actually use havve a cellphone wrapped in an ethernet cable laying next to the monitor. Truly a gem in YT history.
I'm honestly disappointed that their defense wasn't full of "Try these for yourself to see I'm not lying!" tricks that seemed plausible but didn't work but had an excuse for not working like the whole "log out and log in again until it shows up" trick or something, that would have been hilarious
the quality of your videos still keeps on getting better, I think this one is one of the best I have ever watched from your channel, very well scripted and put together and very enjoyable to watch
27:42 realizing that i am technically in the Infinite Solutions universe because i called some random number and said something in morse code is definitely a way to kick my weekend off ngl.
i feel like your channel is another example of one that was notably small for a long time, and is just suddenly blowing up i've been here since more near the beginning because i'm just obsessed with floppies specifically and also old computing stuff, so i've noticed a lot of changes here
I don't think it gave anything away at all with the video that starts off "Welcome back". At that point for all anyone knew this could've been part of a TV show on locally or on public access in some random part of the United States that was getting uploaded for whatever reason and not all of the episodes were included or something. UA-cam was still the wild west then, you didn't always know where viceos were coming from or whether who made them and who uploaded them were the same people.
Oh man! You overlooked my favorite prank! In the "How to Prepare for Daylight Saving Time" video, the "Windows Server" is a freaking paper shredder! It's so hilarious!
I don't know how I have been unaware of Infinite Solutions up until now; as someone somewhat tech savvy and as a fan of "Look Around You" this seems right up my alley!
I came back to rewatch this video, and realized I was watching it on the exact same day the first 5 videos made by Infinite Solutions, just 17 years apart.
@23:24 Notice how he has a cellphone wrapped in an ethernet cord. He is really dedicated to the bit. 😂 That was completely different video too. Its almost like he was setting up a universe.
10:09 wait I saw this one unironically, while searching for things to help with wifi issues. I was beyond too young to do it but I thought as a kid that it checked out.
I remember an video of Mark at a convention by a fan recording or something and he was like still trying to get Google TV keep trying. Lol what a beast
I remember watching that in elementary school at a buddys house and really thinking that we missed out on limited beta. Shit I think there was even convo on the playground about it. I remember it specifically cause the dude "looked too nerdy" for me to think he was joking
Oh man... good times. I remember watching them and how funny their always straight explanations without breaking character were... What I can not remember is how I found out they were a hoax... Maybe it was the ethernet cable video because it was so over the top or someone told me, but all i remember now is watching them and just finding it utterly hilarious
I think "How to Unlock a Hidden Minesweeper Mode" is the REAL first episode of Infinite Solutions. because it starts with "Hello, I'm Mark Erickson and welcome to my tech tutorial series Infinite Solutions" (notice the "welcome" and not "welcome back").
I fell for so many of these back in the day, ESPECIALLY the WiFi one. But these were so well made that instead of being embarrassed or annoyed about it, I'm impressed. I was also a very dumb kid 🤣 Unrelated but related: thinking about it, that video was probably the first i watched that ever gave me ASMR sensations...huh.
Small correction - they uploaded fourteen videos to the channel, not thirteen. The fourteenth was a ten-second video with just their logo, which was deleted several months later.
I remember trying the Wi-Fi one when I was a kid! Even back then I knew that it didn't make much sense, but I decided to give it a shot. Once I didn't have a new network adapter showing up, it made more sense to me that Nextel were special and incompatible lol then just forgot about it. Also believed the Minesweeper one, but since I didn't play Minesweeper myself it wasn't something I tried. Frankly, considering how Google used to be back then... I would've fallen for that hoax too. But because it was (still is sometimes) _very common_ for services like those to just not be available outside of the US I just never tried.
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I would get a free trial of premium from you right now if i wanted to, but no thank you.
I love you
F
ps1
Yay michael's getting paid!!!!♡♡♡
Around 2008 my friend's father had a cellphone wrapped in Ethernet cable on his desk. It always stood out as odd to me but after all these years, mystery solved.
Hahahahaha
What? Please explain
@@michaeljones5681 around 2008 my friends father had an older flip phone phone wrapped tightly in Ethernet cable sitting right behind his keyboard, almost exactly like it was casually sitting there in the Google TV follow-up video. It was there for at least a year, maybe even longer. He was computer illiterate so it's very very possible he came across these videos and believed it. Where else could he have gotten the idea? It's beautiful... Lol and I just loooove how I've lived in the dark all these years. When I saw him wrapping the phone up it shot back in my head and I died laughing. GOT'EM!
@@UnderSquare oh no. Such boomer lol
@@UnderSquare that’s fuckin’ amazing haha, all the power to him 🙏🏻
If Infinte Solutions were still around before 2019, imagine making a hoax about a video gaming stream service made by Google, they'll probably pick a better name than Stadia.
Google gaming.
How about Google Play+ ;)
@@LastofAvari oh Lord that's a frightening thought 🤣
google playz
"Google Games PRO BETA" xd
Petition to make "Numberless Fixes with Michael MJD" a real thing
I need help on downloading more RAM
Signed
make it the sponsor segway
It should be an April Fools series
signing
Remember watching Infinite Solutions and believing everything on their channel at the time. Kept trying to do this "easter egg" on Gmail at the time. Mark and his crew with their humor and production values were ahead of their time lol
Me too!!! Haha
As a kid I got fooled by the "wrap an Ethernet cable round your phone to get Internet" hahaha, I genuinely believed it even after I didn't get anything out of it!
I was fooled by hidden minesweeper mode.
MARISA KIRISAME
LOVE SIGN MASTER SPAAAAAAARRRRKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had never heard of this channel but I love it in a way that is hard to explain. It's like troll royalty. Getting people to do something dumb but harmless, possibly never realising it was a joke. The cleverness, the acting, _even_ the small number of videos elevates the experience.
Not all kings wear crowns.
25:05 Oh man, I LOVE the fact that he has a phone wrapped in an Ethernet cable in front of his keyboard here, both working as an Easter egg as well as "proof" of their legitimacy.
EDIT// Well Michael just referenced it
Good old Fatal Farm. They made some really funny videos.
A lot of people forget that around that time, there were many TV shows like Computer Chronicles, Dotto's Data Cafe, and others that released TV shows or segments in this format. Part of what made this series so believable was that it mimicked that since forgotten format very well.
Fatal Farm is like the days slenderman, where stories of him were treated as real but were made up.
*Infinite Solutions: Satirical Videos with professionalism*
*Clickbaiters: Fake Engagement, Oversaturated expressions and unprofessional bait and switch tactic*
Pog face everywhere
The infuriating thing is, both has an equal chance to attaining success. Its already clear from that point onwards, why people do the things that they do.
@@eemeli7093"Will shock you!" everywhere
This was the "Faked Anti-Piracy Screen" trend of the 2000s. (1:43)
It was also the SiIvaGunner of tutorials.
Now these "Anti Piracy Screen" videos became really bland due to the kids trying to fit in trying to be "hip n kewl". True Story. Just like the "Kill Screen" videos too.
@@PainweedingPills the ones that are good are normal anti piracy screens, not “uh oh Mario is a serial killer and he’s after you now!” Ones, except for Mario Party DS.
@@reillymcwriting I pirate and I get none of those screens so it's fall Grandma personal Pirates 3DS games and Wii games themselves please don't tell the police I'm only 13
@@reillymcwriting mario 64 beta anti piracy screen : exists
kids : i can milk you
It must be admitted: Despite some giveaways, this hoax was really well done... And even amused the people that wrote that official statement at Google! Wonder if that spirit still exists in the company or they would send a nice little cease and desist letter to the video creators instead...
They changed it from "Don't be evil" to "Do the right thing".
@@raiisleep now “fuck it, we’ll take the cash”
A truly legendary channel
Hey it’s the whisk guy
I agree ✔️
I need faster internet for free 😩😩😩 plz maek moerr tuts
Hi
Could you create an updated verson of your ram doubling guide for windows 11?
Actually, as a paleontology student, I can tell you the "tiny dinosaur" thing isn't actually that far from true. Not that there are tiny dinosaurs, just that there are certain species so ubiquitous in the fossil record that paleontologists tend to not bother to analyze the fossils of them bc there's nothing more we can learn from them at this time.
There's a reason you can buy ammonite and trilobite fossils on the side of the road literally anywhere.
what? of course there are tiny dinosaurs. haven't you ever heard of the bee hummingbird? their nests are small enough to fit in a thimble - if that's not tiny, then I'm not sure what *is.*
@@thag_simmons Birds are descendants of dinosaurs, not actual dinosaurs. All birds have wings for example, even flightless ones. Most dinosaurs didn't have wings. There are other differences. Birds are warm-blooded, dinosaurs are thought to have been somewhere between warm blooded and cold blooded. Also, there's flight. Almost all species of birds can fly, almost all species of dinosaur couldn't.
I'm going to take this as proof that there are tiny dinosaurs and there's nothing you can do to stop me.
@@paulh2981That is a lie they are just very distinct ancestors.
Despite the fact that this was a joke, the idea was actually pretty damn innovative for 2007 and pretty much predicted how many of us use on demand streaming services today. I wouldn't be surprised if a tech company saw this and thought "Wait...they might be on to something.."
Oddly enough Hulu started doing something similar to that, later in 2007. IIRC the free account only had like the last 30 days of a show, but you could watch it on your computer, in 2007.
Hulu was founded at around the same time, and they were initially ad-supported free to view.
This guy wasn't a hoaxer, he was a futurist.
Now Google officially does pranks by shutting down your favorite Google services! It's so funny that only the people at Google are laughing!
Its always fun to hear a company like Microsoft go like: "wtf - how are we gonna deal with this very convenient way to watch shows"
I did not know the same guys were behind Lasagna Cat. Lasagna Cat sometimes puts a lot of effort into their videos, so it sort of makes sense they made some effort to make these tutorials look real.
i mean, lasaga cat didnt put a lot of effort into praising gafield comic strips
they put a LOT of effort into praising ONE specific Comict strip, but in such a way that it was very easy to deduct as satire or ironic.
the rest of the Videos(minus the few OBVIOUS outliers) are just.... acting a Garfield strip in real life, show the OG strip. and them something weird.
@@weberman173 eventually leading up to onscreen childbirth lol
@@matcha6710 that was part of the "obvious outliers"
@@weberman173 I was just clarifying for people so they don't get bombarded with a Catholic schoolgirl's genitals like I did lol
You say it was obvious anyone wouldn't fall for this guy's trolling. But I was a dumb 10 year old with my very first PC and little parental guidance. I actually tried the 'recharge batteries' one.
I work in IT and linked the “How to Increase Your Wi-Fi Signal” video by Infinite Solutions in my email signature as a joke. Folks would email me back all the time saying how it did not work for them or somehow they thought it was helping their signal. My manager finally made me remove it. You'd be shocked how many of my non-networking co-workers thought it was legit.
@Bold One lol a suspension? Calm down Karen.
@Bold One Jokes bad we get it, now go away
Common sense goes out the window with non-tech people asking tech questions, they will hang off your every word because they think its all black magic and just want it to work.
@Bold One It was different in the 90's and early 2000's.
Of course non-tech-savvy people would think it's real...
"So what did this guy get up to?"
"Lasagna Cat"
oh
Video Responses were so useful, back in 2009 I was part of a YT community and the VR option made it so much fun so easy to engage with each other.
yeah they should really bring it back.
XP backgrounds, IE, late 2000s my god where did the last 14 years go.
Where has my country gone? It was right here just a second ago.
The past...
@@lol-ih1tl It was also a wine field at the time of the photo, but was cleared between replanting.
The last 14 years felt slow though. Maybe because I was born 14 years ago...
@@zmansadventures As you get older your perspective changes and once a given year is a smaller percentage of your lifespan to the current point, it begins to fly by you.
(18:50) Yeah, I think they edited that "Welcome to Gmail" e-mail.
(32:50) I find it amusing how you portrayed the roommate as a MSN Messenger contact.
I think that panning down shot of him typing the password on the keyboard was actually really more to capture the cell phone with the cord wrapped around it
You really get the sense of the shift in culture at Google from stories like this, this is the don't be evil Google who thought this was pretty funny and a well done prank, no way that would be the response today.
Sad
Infinite Solutions NEEEEEEEDS to make a comeback. That would be the combact of the century
I think the biggest giveaway with the video response proof was that the camera image quality was identical to infinite solutions themselves, not many random people had good digital camcorders in 2007 and practically no one knew how to transfer Mini or HDV tapes, FF is a production company so they had the money for good cameras and it's clear both videos were shot on a high end DV camcorder, maybe even the same camera was used for both.
Well, Thio Joe started his UA-cam career just like this.
Also Household Hacker (RIP)
wait, you mean i cant play ps4 games on xbox 360?
He got me good with how to play xbox game on pc lmao
Every time I watch a current Thio Joe video today I still think about his original fake videos. His presentation style is identical and while his current content is very good I still can’t shake those feelings from years ago. It’s weird.
@@wizdude same
GoogleTV is UA-cam. And sadly, its getting more like TV every day.
It's funny to think that 10 years I escaped network television to the land of UA-cam,
where I could watch _what_ I wanted _when_ I wanted... for _FREE_ without non-stop _ADS_.
I enjoyed it because it felt like real-life; free from the professionalism of network television.
And now... UA-cam is pretty much the same thing network television was back then... only worse.
It's not just UA-cam either... it's the entire world of the internet in general.
Back in the early 2000s, everyone used the internet for fun; as a cool hangout space to share memes
and laugh about popular things with like-minded people... free from the corporate landscape of the real world.
Ever since the 2010s, companies started seeing the internet as a serious way to market their products,
push their services, and even to directly make money from it themselves. The internet's not fun anymore,
it's not free from corpocracy... the world of the internet is no longer a safe haven from the real world.
@@braelinmichelus The internet became too corporate and too "mature".
@@braelinmichelus the only case of that I see is the occasional sponsor you can fast forward through. i don't see your point...
@@braelinmichelus I don't agree. I still find many good videos on UA-cam, such as this one. As for the "internet was better in the early 2000s" it's just nostalgia goggles. Current teenagers will be nostalgic about this era of Internet.
@@braelinmichelus your comment gave me the feels..
I wrap ethernet cables and tape my phones to salad bowls all the time! What do you mean it doesn't work?
My grandfather used to that and I wondered why. Now I know
1:43 Don't tell me I didn't notice that rickroll in the fake GoogleTV article, lol
Good one, MJD
I think you’re the first one to catch that, good eye!
Wow, I genuinely remember this being real. I never signed up because it was "US only". That's literally the only reason I didn't look into it more deeply at the time.
Great video, really well edited. You've stepped up your game on this one. Whoever the original creators are, they did a great job creating the idea that modern streaming services are built on.
Pretty sure they’re associated with Fatal Farm l
Boy, I remember UA-cam during this era. Back then you had a 10 minute video length limit and one of UA-cam’s main uses at that particular time was to embed videos on other websites. That’s why you see the videos URL and embed links on the right side of the video. This is unlike today where the vast majority of people watch the vast majority of UA-cam videos on UA-cam it’s self, whether it’s on the app or the website. Plus, a very large amount of videos were not original, long form content but uploads of old copyrighted material. The clips would be of such things as old sporting events from old VHS recordings, unofficial uploads of music videos from old VHS recordings and news coverage from old VHS recordings. This was before companies like Viacom (now Paramount Global) started really cracking down on the practice. There are still a very large amount of old television video footage today, but a very large amount of videos are now long form, original content. Heck you couldn’t even upload videos in HD, let alone in 4k UHD. As the video mentioned a very large number of videos were uploaded in only 240p. Today it’s very unlikely that a channel would upload their videos with a max resolution of 240p. The vast majority of videos are either uploaded in 480p, HD, and a number of videos are even uploaded in 2160p. So yeah I can not believe how much UA-cam has changed since it’s early days.
Holy shit the moment I saw the "I got google tv on my 114th try" guy I thought 'wow he looks like the lasagna cat jon actor', imagine my face when you revealed it was not only the same guy, but also the co-founder AND that both infinite solutions and lasagna cat were made by the same company
MJD makes some freaking great documentaries. I mean, by far the best one was the Bliss on 2022 New Year's Eve, but still, the depth he goes into and explains every single thing is amazing. Also, who else here is having an old mjd videos marathon? Lol, I have been watching his old videos for about 4 hours now.
26:48: "ooh, Fatal Farm, so that's the Lasagna Cat guys! No wonder it seemed well made and funny!"
10 seconds later: Jon appears on screen :D
I'm pretty sure I did the wifi solution 14 years ago when I was 14. I'm laughing to myself now
k u are a grandpa
@@imSomebody-m4c roblox profile pic?
You are under 13, Go to youtube kids.
@@lotus_flower2000 look at my vids first this pic was roblox cuz idk what to put also too lazy to change descprtion and this is out of the topic
@@imSomebody-m4c OK zoomer
“Michael MJD Presents……2007”
Thank you for the year 2007 Michael
infinite solutions radiates the same vibe as that one british tv show "look around you"
there's occasional gags that make it obvious that it's a joke, while there's also small little details that help make the joke even funnier.
I agree! Great show that
I love how at 24:57 you see the cell phone just roped up in Ethernet wire to “boost your internet “
I love when continuity errors are pointed out in videos. Something about the "Look when x happens... Did you see that?" makes me feel warm inside. I don't know, maybe I'm just weird
Love this style of video! Great work Michael, keep it up!!
Thanks Matt!
That must have taken so much effort for a joke I respect that
a video about infinite solutions? this has made my day, one of my favorite channels on the site and it's honestly a tragedy that it didn't live on.
Infinite Solutions need to come back, they were a genius at fooling people
Interesting to see how the name got recycled into one of the real products by Google😂
Edit: the video production was top notch, Michael. Never felt i was watching a boring documentary.
fujiwara no mokou lel
@@Lucy_LostWord uh...😳
I mean, it wasn't exactly a super obscure name, it's literally the number one most obvious choice for a TV-related Google product.
I own a book called: Visiting New York on $10 a day.
I even thought about it to try it. Sightseeing on a bus, visit the horse-track, maybe win a few bucks. Maybe some thing have changed since it was printed, I must ask the New York Tourism Board for a list of the changes that were made after 1949.
Man... makes me feel old that there are kids watching who fell for the intro. Because they were born after or during 2007
omfg 2007 was 14... 14!!!!!! years ago omg. I was thinking, nah, just like 6 or 7 years... man, how TF I didn't notice the passage of time 😰
What's so important about 2007?
i was born in 2007 and i knew that was fake, hopefully most people know its fake too
@@thermometerman1824 The internet was a different place back then.
@@amoliski yeah it was, who knows, maybe i wouldve fallen for it back then
The sponsor part was great. Someone who knows how to have fun with their sponsorships. I enjoy this content a lot
Thank you, glad to hear that!
1 year later and this is still one of the best videos on the channel, please make more videos like this
For the curious, at 8:08 the small text that comes on for less than a second says 'or those MP3s that you downloaded 100% legally'
Infinite solutions kinda feels like Tim and Eric sketches and “The Onion”
Also, kinda reminds me of the old “VHS hack” clip from early UA-cam days.
Ps. I miss video responses.
Love your editing during the audio only “interview” segments.
It's like Something Awful with College Humor in it.
Video responses!
22:58 not the ethernet cable wrapped around the cellphone, that level of ingenuity and dedication are incredible!
Applause for the well researched video and a hat tip at those end credits. Nice work, Michael!
I appreciate it! Thanks so much!
I remember being a naive 8 year old thinking these videos were legitimate. I spent hours trying to get an invite. There was even another guy on UA-cam who claimed he got an invite.
Even at 8 years old I was suspicious about the “wrap an Ethernet cable around your phone to get extended wifi” trick, tried several variations with no success, trying to get our home wifi signal 250 miles away at our vacation house in New Hampshire. I even replaced the phone with a Linksys USB wifi adapter, with no success obviously
Unrelated but damn that made me remember USB Wifi adapters existed
My mom had one and I remember dropping it which I can't remember if it actually damaged it but I remember being scared to death of that
@@rando843they still exist. I bought one a few months ago for a desktop that I couldn't run a cable to. I didn't feel like opening up the case and installing a card because they work just as well as PCI cards.
2007: How to sign up to Google TV Beta
2021: GOOGLE'S HIDDEN MEDIA STREAMING SERVICE!!!???
That was such a fun video to watch. Time flew by. Honestly this was one of the funniest stories I've heard, and see that Fatal Frame was behind it made me so happy I clicked on the video. haha
Good job, mate.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it! : )
The very second I heard "Fatal Farm" leave your mouth, it suddenly all made sense. These guys have been going all out for shits and giggles on youtube for so long, and the humor totally lines up with their other stuff.
This is the sort of shit that keeps IT help desk services in business. I legit had a lady wrap her laptops power cord around her wifi router for "wireless power" and she wondered why her laptop still lost power. The thing is her router was also in a completely different room. With a straight face she walked me through what she learned. " Oh all you have to do is wrap your power cord around your wifi router and then just connect to the wifi connection on the computer and presto wireless power!". She felt so stupid after I told her she basically took tech advice from a meme channel.
It's like I watched a modern "Forensic Files" or "New Detectives" episode on Google TV! 😂
I remember this and still go back from time to time. The level of detail is astonishing, at least for the time. Like how in the update video they actually use havve a cellphone wrapped in an ethernet cable laying next to the monitor.
Truly a gem in YT history.
I'm honestly disappointed that their defense wasn't full of "Try these for yourself to see I'm not lying!" tricks that seemed plausible but didn't work but had an excuse for not working like the whole "log out and log in again until it shows up" trick or something, that would have been hilarious
Oh i will always remember too when Google Japan made a port of Maps for the NES, but, sadly, it was an elaborate April Fools joke
the quality of your videos still keeps on getting better, I think this one is one of the best I have ever watched from your channel, very well scripted and put together and very enjoyable to watch
27:42 realizing that i am technically in the Infinite Solutions universe because i called some random number and said something in morse code is definitely a way to kick my weekend off ngl.
Jon from Lasagnacat popping in to validate the hoax is one hell of a twist
i feel like your channel is another example of one that was notably small for a long time, and is just suddenly blowing up
i've been here since more near the beginning because i'm just obsessed with floppies specifically and also old computing stuff, so i've noticed a lot of changes here
I don't think it gave anything away at all with the video that starts off "Welcome back". At that point for all anyone knew this could've been part of a TV show on locally or on public access in some random part of the United States that was getting uploaded for whatever reason and not all of the episodes were included or something. UA-cam was still the wild west then, you didn't always know where viceos were coming from or whether who made them and who uploaded them were the same people.
Oh man! You overlooked my favorite prank! In the "How to Prepare for Daylight Saving Time" video, the "Windows Server" is a freaking paper shredder! It's so hilarious!
I don't know how I have been unaware of Infinite Solutions up until now; as someone somewhat tech savvy and as a fan of "Look Around You" this seems right up my alley!
i just screamed “THEY MADE LASAGNA CAT???”
Hopefully we'll see some WebTV content in the future. That was my first experience with the internet.
The dial up loading screen and music was amazing!
Check The Oddity Archive
@@Nadia1989 thanks
Oh my gosh I was completely fooled by this channel as a kid especially by the battery one.
The fake Google TV service reminds me of the real TurboNick service from around the same time.
23:20 - that mobile phone wrapped in an Ethernet cord just tucked in behind the keyboard killed me.
Considering how popular TV streaming services are now, I think this wouldve taken off.
I came back to rewatch this video, and realized I was watching it on the exact same day the first 5 videos made by Infinite Solutions, just 17 years apart.
@23:24 Notice how he has a cellphone wrapped in an ethernet cord. He is really dedicated to the bit. 😂 That was completely different video too. Its almost like he was setting up a universe.
bro this is toooo funny. I can see my dad doing this shit, then being pissed when I say "dad he's lying" and him not believing me 😂😭
There are 2 people who are great: Michael MJD and How-to basic.
This was such a wild throwback. Completely forgot about all the fun I had watching their videos back then!
10:09 wait I saw this one unironically, while searching for things to help with wifi issues. I was beyond too young to do it but I thought as a kid that it checked out.
r.i.p
Why do you have a teen character's buttcheek on your channel banner
I've already watched this 2yrs ago but I'm watching it again, one of your best videos I think
I remember an video of Mark at a convention by a fan recording or something and he was like still trying to get Google TV keep trying. Lol what a beast
I remember watching that in elementary school at a buddys house and really thinking that we missed out on limited beta. Shit I think there was even convo on the playground about it. I remember it specifically cause the dude "looked too nerdy" for me to think he was joking
Seeing that FF in "Mark's" XP profile told me everything I needed to know. Time to watch Lasagna Cat.
Imagine if you made up the entire “Infinite Solutions” channel and all these videos just to make this video
Oh man... good times. I remember watching them and how funny their always straight explanations without breaking character were... What I can not remember is how I found out they were a hoax... Maybe it was the ethernet cable video because it was so over the top or someone told me, but all i remember now is watching them and just finding it utterly hilarious
I have to say, the last thing I expected when going into this video was a direct connection to the surreal nightmare of Lasagna Cat
Infinite solutions? More like “Infinite Logins”
I love the phone still wrapped in ethernet cable in the google tv update video. Huge commitment to the bit
I loved Infinite Solutions! Their rug repair video was my favorite to share.
I think "How to Unlock a Hidden Minesweeper Mode" is the REAL first episode of Infinite Solutions. because it starts with "Hello, I'm Mark Erickson and welcome to my tech tutorial series Infinite Solutions" (notice the "welcome" and not "welcome back").
I fell for so many of these back in the day, ESPECIALLY the WiFi one. But these were so well made that instead of being embarrassed or annoyed about it, I'm impressed.
I was also a very dumb kid 🤣
Unrelated but related: thinking about it, that video was probably the first i watched that ever gave me ASMR sensations...huh.
I'm more impressed that someone was able to make a 35-minute video out of a moderately successful online prank from 14 years ago.
Small correction - they uploaded fourteen videos to the channel, not thirteen. The fourteenth was a ten-second video with just their logo, which was deleted several months later.
Oh man, 2006 era UA-cam. I joined during that time, and what a glorious time it was
This was one of your higher quality videos, I really enjoyed it
Glad to hear it! Thank you!
just the idea of Microsoft panicking over a fake Google product is hilarious, they're usually very slow to react
I remember trying the Wi-Fi one when I was a kid! Even back then I knew that it didn't make much sense, but I decided to give it a shot. Once I didn't have a new network adapter showing up, it made more sense to me that Nextel were special and incompatible lol then just forgot about it.
Also believed the Minesweeper one, but since I didn't play Minesweeper myself it wasn't something I tried.
Frankly, considering how Google used to be back then... I would've fallen for that hoax too. But because it was (still is sometimes) _very common_ for services like those to just not be available outside of the US I just never tried.