The Geekorium

Ruben of the Nerd proposed a quiz, as like the blogues of old.

This is mine attempt to answer the call.

? Question the first: Have you ever proposed a blog quiz, or sneezed while riding a unicycle?

No sir, I am a gentleman.

? Question the second: Sweet or savory?

Yes.

? Question the third: What are three legacy consumer tech devices you’d love to see brought back into the mainstream?

There are very few devices I miss that haven’t been superseded in every way by the phone I have in my pocket. Almost anything I’m nostalgic about - such as the portable Sony walkman I had as a teen - don’t make a lot of sense in the modern age.

I get that this isn’t what the question is about but I don’t really miss anything so much that I would want to go back.

That said, I miss the Commodore 64. It had a tactility I’ve tried to recapture with my clacky keyboards, and a simple aesthetic that’s come to embody that retro-future feel that was captured in many movies from my childhood. Drop an old C64 or Atari in a control room and you’ve got an instant “future destroyed by war” feel for your setting.

And that brings me to something I would like to see back in the mainstream: big switches and dials. I’d love to power on my microwave with the satisfying metallic click of a switch. I want the tactile satisfaction of the control board of the Death Star laser while I’m sitting in my Teams meetings. I wanna mute my mic with a big green button and share my screen with a toggle switch. My mouse is boring and keyboard shortcuts aren’t fun.

? Question the fourth: Do you have a lucky number, colour, or day of the week?

No. But a bright canary yellow makes me happy, and Friday is the day we get my favourite takeaway. Do those count?

? Question the fifth: Free space

852.9 GiB on one, and 52.6 GiB on the other. Around 50% on each.

? Question the sixth: What’s something you genuinely tried giving a go, but never grokked?

The secret is to never really try.

? Question the seventh: Do you have a favourite virtualisation tech?

I genuinely enjoy using modern containerisation. Podman, Docker, Toolbx, my Kinoite install. My experimentation with new technology above my skill level always used to leave me with a broken system, crawling back to a clean install of Windows. Containerising everything means my system has been stable and fun far longer than ever before, and lets me try out so much that would once have been a tangle of conflicting python versions and C libraries.

? Question the eighth: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever planted?

I’ll have to come back to this one. I can’t even think of a clever way to make this a question about something else.

? Question the ninth: What’s your favourite instrumental song? Or if you don’t have one, what’s your least favourite instrumental song? If you don’t have one, what’s your favourite instrumental song?

I’m sorry but I will not pick one.

Dance of the Knights by Prokofiev, particularly this version by PIANOlimonCELLO. Just a goddamn banger. It’s a shame PIANOlimonCELLO didn’t put much out.

War Photographer by Jason Forrest. This music video made by Joel Trussel featured on Channel Frederator (monthly cartoon anthologies during the 2010s), and the combination with the visuals made it an instant fave.

プーチ by The Kuricorder Quartet, it’s just such a lil bop. I found this group from their super cute version of The Imperial March which I adore. Which is a good place to say how much I love a good portion of John Williams movie music too.

I love chiptunes from the C64 and my childhood. I learned a lot of classical music this way, and the themes from Wizball are among my favourites, as well as the SID chip wizardry from Ben Daglish in Krakout.

In the same vein is the whole album Mekatsune by Thaehan. You’ll know immediately if it’s your kinda thing. If I had to pick one I’d say try Goblins.

I’m also a sucker for electro-swing. It’s not always strictly instrumental, but it feels like it is frequently even when some of the samples used include words. But the vibe is instrumental right? Faves include Caravan Palace, Swing Republic, wait I should move this out of this question into it’s own post. Hold please.

In the meantime, I like a lot of stuff by Skeewiff, and the track The Queen’s Croquet Ground from their Alice In Wonderland inspired album Skeewiff in Wonderland is as good as it gets.

I’ve just braindumped my coding playlists here. I hope there’s something new for you to enjoy in one of those.

? Question the last: Have you lied in any of these questions?

I was sitting up the whole time.