Last weekend we did a trip down memory lane; a LAN party using period correct Windows 98 hardware and four old (also) period correct friends. I played a ton of LAN parties back in the day and was often the organizer of large ones, sometimes up to about 20 people. Then there was a big gap when everyone was busy building families and careers for a decade or two. But rest assured, it is still just as fun today as back then. It might be even more fun today, because grumpy old men like us have now learned to value time in a completely different way. I am hard pressed to come up with any better way to spend time than an event such as this.

Computer, DiaryRikard ÖqvistAugust 2, 2024friends, retro computers, gaming, tinkering, cultureComment

What’s the point?

My life for the past ten years has been an intense ride. Starting a family and changing the direction of your career has a steep price on the sleep account, among other things. The past week, however, one thing has been stuck in my head. If you never have time to hang out with friends or family, what’s the point?

Diary, ComputerRikard ÖqvistAugust 14, 2023friendship, retro computers, family, career, lifeComment

Two wrongs can make a right

Yesterday I decided to clean one of my computers, which had a thick layer of dust on every single component inside. I used compressed air, which is a very nice option. However, you must be careful not to point the jet directly at a fan, because it will spin up to extreme speed in no time. That’s why it is a good idea to block the fan from moving, before your compressed air goes anywhere near the fan. I was in a bit of a hurry and slipped with my blocking of the CPU cooler. In a couple of 1/10ths of a second I heard the sound of a fan spinning up from zero rpm to like 20000 and it instantly ripped itself to shreds. There were broken plastic fins everywhere. To assess the damage I decided to remove the heatsink and inspect the cooler. I loosened the fasteners and pulled straight up and BAM. The CPU was ripped out from its socket because the thermal paste had hardened to something resembling epoxy glue. I also bent a couple of CPU pins in the process. Two pretty serious mishaps happened in about one minute. However, I am grateful for the important lessons I learned.

Diary, Computer, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJanuary 17, 2023diy, repair, fixing, retro computers, electronicsComment

Computer necromancer vs Knitting

At the dinner today, I told my wife that I today had listened to a very interesting podcast about computer power supply units (PSU) with one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic. I might not be as painfully self-aware as James “Here’s an interesting fact about screwdrivers, for people who are interested in screwdrivers” May, but apparently enough to not be surprised by her bursting into laughter, with her mouth full of food. That kind of laughter you struggle to keep inside, because of the messy consequences. It is probably one of the nerdiest things she has encountered. Ever. Isn’t the internet lovely, that you can find such very high quality content on ANY topic within ANY micro-niche?

Computer, PhilosophyRikard ÖqvistJanuary 9, 2023vintage, retro computers, refurbish, pcComment

Are there similarities between restoring old computers and old cars?

Since I resurrected my old enormous RGB shining gaming laptop from the dead to a new life as a blog typewriter, I have been trying to figure out if there are any similarities between restoring old computers and for example old American cars? Old cars aren’t really usable as a daily driver either, I told my wife. Yes, but at least old American cars can be beautiful. An old laptop with RGB cannot. She has a point. It got me thinking: Have I ever seen a beautiful computer? I can’t think of one honestly, but I can think of several beautiful cars. Both are tools meant to be used, so what is it that cars have that old computers doesn’t seem to have?

ComputerRikard ÖqvistMay 3, 2021linux, dell, computer, retro computers, blogging, writing, focus, productivity, reuse, recycling, sustainabilityComment

Resurrecting the Behemoth

I am writing this blog on a laptop from 2006, running an operating system that was released in 2021: Linux Mint 20.1. I have been using PC:s since 1995 and I remember the “good old days” in the second half of the 1990’s. You bought a high-end PC for a small fortune and it would last a year or two until it became an unusable brick, at least with regards to gaming. The performance increases with each generation was extreme back then. But in the late noughties, things began to change with the release of multi-core processors, hyperthreading and 64 bit support. The growth has continued for sure, and Moore’s law implies the growth is exponential. But with regards to the user experience, to me it seems like the computers got fast enough to run most important software, even when they got old. It’s as if the hardware improvements grew much faster than the system requirements of software. I mean the kind of software that you need to have a basic computing experience and not the latest games or special applications.

EngineeringRikard ÖqvistApril 12, 2021linux, windows 10, operating system, hardware, dell, retro computers, linux mint, open sourceComment