Who is The Classic Geek?

So, who is The Classic Geek? I'm a happily married family man and lifelong geek. A product of the 1970’s, who grew up in the 1980’s, and a lover of all things we would now call “retro”. I have over three decades of experience working with, and later building, home computers, and about two decades as a general electronics hobbyist. That being said, I'm NOT an expert or professional at anything, just an average guy with a lot of geeky hobbies.

 

My fascination with computers started in 1981 thanks to my uncle, an electrical engineer for McDonnell Douglas, who happened to have a brand new Texas Instruments TI-99/4A setup in his basement workshop that I discovered during a long weekend family visit. I spent every waking moment during that visit sitting behind that machine, not just playing games, but really trying to figure out what made it work, tapping away on the keyboard inputting as many BASIC programs as I could so I could see what they would do. Having noticed my utter fascination with the TI-99/4A, my uncle bought me my first computer, my very own TI-99/4A!

From there my quest for knowledge led me to the wonderful world of Commodore and Tandy computers, and eventually to the more recognizable x86 computers we know today. I was lucky enough to own many different computers in the 1980’s and 90’s, mostly all second hand, and I eventually learned I could just build them myself early on in the 80386 days, and since my hometown had a few nice computer shops available, I stopped buying “modern” computers and started building my own, and never looked back.

My first computer may have been the TI-99/4A, but my all time favorite was the Commodore 64, followed by the Amiga 500. Those systems, as well as the 6502 processor, powered much of my childhood. Commodore dominated most of my attention, so it wasn’t until the days of the Tandy 1000 line that I started to give Radio Shack’s other computers a fair shake, like the highly successful Color Computer line. Sadly, I don’t own any of these machines anymore, though I do enjoy them via emulation, they left a huge mark of my growing brain.

During all that time, my father also got me interested electronics in general. It was a different world back then, when TV and other repair shops were a common sight, and people had their devices repaired rather than just chucking them for a new one. My father had a great deal of mechanical and electrical skills that allowed him to learn how to repair many of the electronics of the time, like televisions, all manner of radios, pinball machines, and movie theater projectors, just to name a few. As a result, I started to pickup and learn the basics of electronics and how to repair them, a skill that continued into a full blown hobby all the way until the early 2000’s when life and a lack of time intervened and shelved that hobby, until 2019, when I decided to get back into it again.

While I never stopped building and working on home computers and servers, the almost 20 year break in electronics meant I had some catching up to do. I decided to pick up my soldering iron once again so I could build a couple projects for my wife, an avid lover of all things paranormal, who I thought would love to have some of her own tools like those seen on modern ghost hunting shows, instead of paying the crazy high prices people charge for making them. Doing this made me realize how much I missed this sort of work and I dove back in with both feet, learning about the amazing Arduino and Atmel Microcontrollers, the highly versatile Raspberry Pi, and several things in-between.

Of course, this meant I had to buy all new tools and track down the parts I needed for my projects, and like so many people these days, my first stop was Amazon. Fast forward to today and I have several projects both completed and in the works, and most all the tools and parts I need.

I also enjoy writing reviews and sharing what I know and learn, and if it helps someone down the road, all the better. Hence the existence of this blog. It gives me a place to share what I want, how I want, and on my own schedule. I also contribute unpaid reviews on products sent to me by vendors for a couple different popular sites from time to time, but I no longer do reviews on my own purchases on sites like Amazon, there's just too much drama involved behind the scenes, so you'll find those kind of reviews here instead, when I decide it's worth doing.

Are blogs still a thing people do? No idea, but I'm doing it anyway! 

 Oh, and NO SOCIAL MEDIA! :)

This weird looking blog is where I'll share many of my projects, hobbies, product reviews, and "retro" related goodness, along with anything else I think may be worth sharing. This is something I do in my spare time and for my own enjoyment. Basically, you can look at this blog as one of my other hobbies. 

Remember, I'm not a professional anything, this is just what I do for fun. There will be grammatical errors, typos, and other mistakes from time to time, I'm just one old geeky human after all. I don't spend a lot of money on expensive gear, editing software, or anything of that nature, I just use what I have available. I write everything, take and edit all the pictures, create all the images, and do any necessary research all in my spare time, so keeping this as simple as possible, while still getting my thoughts across to the reader, is my primary goal. If you can't already tell, I'm also going for a somewhat "retro" overall look to the blog. Animated GIFs, pixelated awesomeness, blocky goodness, and whatever else I think looks the part.

I will do my best to include what information I can in case you want to try and duplicate any of the projects you see, including parts lists, links to the parts and information, and any example code that may be needed. I can get a bit “long winded” sometimes, and I apologize. I know many people would rather watch quick concise YouTube videos than read long articles these days, but this is the format I prefer and the only one I have time for. What can I say, I'm old school, I may watch YouTube videos on subjects I enjoy, but I still prefer reading.

Thanks for taking the time to browse around my little blog, and I hope you found something useful, or a least you were entertained for a short time. Cheers!