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Ray Glasser is obsessed. A collector and documentarian of the highest order, Mr. Glasser bought his first Betamax recorder in 1976. This early adopter of video recording then began taping television broadcasts with a feverish intensity that only other obsessives can comprehend.

We stumbled upon Ray's YouTube channel while browsing through old '80s commercials on the video sharing site (on our lunch break—of course). We watched his brief introductory video and immediately knew we had to speak with him about his collection and his decision to digitize his material for the masses.

When we caught up with Ray, he offered his thoughts on collecting, taping off the tube, and uploading his gems for all to enjoy...

Hey Ray, where does your collection stand these days?

It's hard to say. I haven't labeled and/or numbered tapes in about 6 or 8 months...probably close to 2,600 Beta tapes. I'm now collecting and saving movies on DVD.

And this started in 1976 when you bought that first Betamax?

Yes... in June. It was tailor-made for night workers like myself. I could timer-tape shows while I was at work and play them back anytime I wanted!

When did you first run across YouTube?

I think sometime around the beginning of this year—2007.

Has the response to your videos been gratifying?

More than gratifying. I'm lovin' every minute of YouTube! Read the full profile...

Journalist, critic, blogger, podcaster, and Mr. CrankyPants. For a guy whose sole job is watching the boob tube, Tim Goodman sure has a lot of alter egos. The San Francisco Chronicle critic started his print career hating TV, and now he can't write or say enough about what he calls The Bastard Machine. The hardest-working man on the Web takes a break from his three TiVos, two kids, and a deadline to muse about the small screen… and the small screen.

So what do your parents think about you calling your blog "The Bastard Machine"?

(Laughs) Well, luckily or unluckily, they're both dead right now. They would've rolled with it, no problem.

What's the origin myth behind title, and how'd you get it by your paper?

A long time ago, I wanted to write a play and one of my characters was using that [term] to describe the television. And that was before I even started writing about television. How I got it by the Chronicle before the blog, I was already calling the television set the bastard machine, I was surprised when it got in the first time. And when it got in, I thought great, there was no going back.

You podcast, you blog, you still do a print column. You're a one-man convergence. Is this journalism five years from now?

I think in five years, all of us will be doing whatever's possible to stay employed, and whether that involves a paycheck or not… I totally resisted blogging for the longest time because I wanted to be paid for it, and I rightly assumed at the time it would be a second full-time job, and it is a second full-time job… Then I tried a reverse tactic: Maybe I'll blog and I make it a positive blog, and I could go back and ask for a raise. Which was a failure financially. Read the full profile...