Welcome to the Same Old New

I have a bad habit of collecting domains that I think are good fits for my various interests and hobbies. I almost never seem to get around to the ‘setting them up’ part, though. This domain, primitivebits.com, is one of those domains that feel into the pit of good intentions. Originally, I thought it’d be a cool name for a site that involved vintage computers and consoles. Instead, I think I’ll set it up as a personal site for all of my interests. Remember in the 1990s when people set up their own website, instead of giving all of their ‘content’ to the closest social media site owned and operated by a narrsassitic, sociopathic billionaire? I’m just trying to reclaim a little bit of that, and maybe get a little bit of writing practice in at the same time. So…about those various interests and hobbies?

Old Computers and Consoles

I collect old computers and consoles. For the most part, these are all systems that I have some sort of nostalgic connection to. You can see a current list of the most of the vintage computers I have here. Part of the fun of it for me is upgrading these systems to their ‘maximum’ potential (within reason and budget, anyway).

I also have a few vintage consoles around here. I went through the ‘collection’ a few years back and got rid of about half of what I had. The great ‘cull’ was mostly getting rid of machines I didn’t use or really wasn’t that interested in. That was before the vintage computer and console market really went bonkers during the pandemic. Go figure. You can see the current list of the old consoles here.

Bicycles

I also own too many bikes, probably. You can find a list of them here. I’ve ridden the 520 across the state of Colorado twice, across Kansas on an aborted attempt to ride to the East Coast, and then all the way from San Francisco, CA to Yorktown, VA on a successful attempt. Before my daughter was born, my wife and I rode with some friends around the South coast and halfway up the West coast of Ireland. I picked up the new Diverge because I want to get back into bikepacking.

Software Development

I’ve done various aspects of frontend, backend, and full stack software development for about 15 years. I’ve worked with Drupal and Django CMS systems, I’ve done custom Javascript libraries, and I’ve done a lot of backend work in Python, often supported by frontend Angular applications. There’s a page with the current hardware I’m using here and the current software I’m using on them here This doesn’t include a couple of work laptops I have, but those are no fun because I can’t run whatever I want to on them. When I find the time and motivation to play new video games, I usually use one of the consoles listed here

This Site

This site is built with Hugo (a static website generator written in Go) using the Archie theme. I’ll probably end up modifying all-of-the-above, but for now, it’s a great way to jump into it. I’m looking into adding some connections to remote APIs (discogs, etc) and trying to integrate it a little more with Fediverse/ActivityPub apps (Mastodon, etc).