Extreme Computing
Dispatches from the golden age of computing, retold by someone whose mind still lives there.
Now publishing irregularly.
About the blog
Extreme Computing is a love letter to when computers were still fun, when computing was still an interesting subject for weird people, before it became too mainstream for its own good. XC recounts the stories of the machines, the software, the people, and the communities that typified nerd culture between 1993 and 2013, with an eye toward the Apple and Linux communities. Think of this site as Good Old Days Magazine for the Twitter generation.
I bought this domain name after seeing that the former Extreme Computing, once an Awful Link of the Day at Something Awful, was no longer online.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I expect to find here?
Reminiscence over times gone by. Love letters to machines and software that live on in the collective memory. Occasional stupid tricks and dumb challenges with old computer hardware.
More pro-Apple posturing than the usual tech blog.
What does your tech stack look like?
My mid-2026 tech stack consists of:
- M4 MacBook Air (macOS Golden Gate) – my primary laptop
- M4 Pro Mac mini (macOS Golden Gate) – my primary desktop
- Razer Blade 15 (2020) (Ubuntu MATE 26.04) – my gaming laptop
- Custom gaming PC (2024) (Ubuntu MATE 26.04) – my gaming desktop
- iMac G5 1.8 (Mac OS X Leopard) – writing workstation
- Asus Chromebook (2021) (Ubuntu MATE 26.04) – portable typewriter
- A bunch of other Macs and PCs – various supporting roles
- iPhone 17 Pro Max
- AirPods Pro 2
- Apple Watch SE Series 3
What is your favorite computer of all time?
I have three answers – a laptop, a desktop, and a server.
- Laptop: PowerBook G3 (FireWire, 2000)
- Desktop: Mac Pro (2013)
- Server: Supermicro X8DTL-iF with dual Xeon X5680’s and 96 GB RAM
What is your favorite operating system/other software of all time?
- Modern OS: macOS.
- Mobile OS: iOS.
- Legacy OS: Mac OS 9.
- Editor: GNU Emacs.
- Browser: Apple Safari.
- Mail client: Apple Mail.
- Word processor: Microsoft Word.
- Spreadsheet: Microsoft Excel.
- Version control: Subversion.
- Terminal emulator: Apple Terminal.
- Programming languages: Python, C.
- VPN: Proton VPN.
What do you listen to when you write?
Carefully curated playlists that make me think, help me concentrate, lift up my mood, or some combination thereof. Links to publicly shared Apple Music playlists will be posted to this FAQ at some point.
In rotation right now: Ellie Goulding, Clairo, KT Tunstall, Florence + the Machine.
How do you draft your posts?
I post to the site via WordPress, invariably accessed via Apple Safari on one of my Apple silicon Mac computers. I draft most of my posts nowadays in Pages ’09 on my iMac G5.
How did you learn all this stuff?
I’ve tinkered with computers and the software that runs on them for the past 25 years. I’ve learned a lot by taking things apart, putting them back together, and doing all of my own maintenance – software and hardware.
I also got a computer science degree from the University of Tennessee and a CompTIA A+ certification. Don’t feel like you have to pursue a college degree to know a lot about computers – you absolutely do not.
How do you afford so much Apple hardware?
I’m an idiot who’s willing to buy it.
I buy the overwhelming majority of my Apple gear secondhand.
What do you use to run this site?
For web hosting, I have been a Linode customer since 2016 and find their service to be exemplary. The Akamai buyout has only made a great company better, a rare example of the M&A circuit not completely destroying a company.
Extreme Computing is hosted on a virtual private server running Debian Linux, the nginx web server, the MariaDB database, and the PHP programming runtime. In addition to serving as its editor-in-chief, I am also the site’s webmaster and system administrator – if something breaks, holler in my general direction and I’ll fix it.
To manage the site’s editorial aspects, I use Apple software and hardware.
How can I reach out to you?
Email mail@tnwae.us. I reserve the right to showcase your response here on the site if I feel it is particularly good – or particularly bad. Keep it civil.
I’m not on social media. Don’t go looking for me there.
Comments are disabled and will stay that way. If you’ve ever had to moderate website comments, you already know why.