WelshBloke
Lifer
- Jan 12, 2005
- 31,442
- 9,343
- 136
Its for people that hate fun!...if only they would sweeten. That's the part that irks me most.
Its for people that hate fun!...if only they would sweeten. That's the part that irks me most.
Hey!If there's someone there to help you, you could open a bottle of wine![]()
So I just realized it was my ten year anniversary hanging out with you
It's weird. I joined in 2004 & lurked before that. Some of the guys in my computer classes in college were on ATOT & got like the whole class to join because the IRL computer groups were so small at the time & plugging in here exposed us to such a larger community of like-minded people, tribal knowledge, Q&A posts, etc., & didn't require Usenet mojo to join & post at, plus I met more people IRL from here over the years (you know who you are!) & became Internet-friends with even more, which is why I generally like this community vibe more than places like reddit or facebook groups.
It's strange to see everyone from that time period move into their 40's, get married, have kids, have stable jobs, and become (largely) responsible adults. I miss having massive amounts of free time to spend on silly tech projects, but it's also nice to have a good hangout in my free bits of time, particularly between being on the road a lot with work, being married, and being an old fart with fried energy after I get home from work hahaha.
Cheers!
I'm 54. I was in my early 30's when I got into computers during grad school. Who knew I had that aptitude. The 2000s were just the time of the PC explosion. It was such a wonderful time. I miss the old AnandTech where Anand would actually have motherboard roundups.

I did computer stuff sporadically growing up in the 80's & 90's, but didn't build my first computer until after high school, I think it was like back in 2001, right around the time of the big "dot com" bust. It so was much fun discovering that building computers was like building Legos, except it actually lit up & you could do stuff with it & customize it by overclocking it, painting the case, installing different operating systems, etc.!
I actually really miss doing that stuff. The world is hardware is so different these days - I haven't upgraded in ages simply because there's no need for me to! My primary rig is a 2013 motherboard with a 6-core processor, 64 gigs of RAM, and a beta BIOS required to run my 5-year-old 1080Ti, which is the latest GPU it supports lol. But it's rock-solid, runs Windows 10 like a champ, and has all of the cards, storage, and accessories I want for DCC projects & neffing on ATOT lol.
My latest tech purchase was a $129 HDMI stick to hook up to my TV to act as a basic big-screen computer. It came with Windows 10 Pro, 8 gigs of RAM, built-in wifi, etc. Sort of like a Netbook but for TV's or a computer for grandma. Performance is not the best (quad-core Atom chip), but it's totally fine for what I use it for!
But I do miss researching all of the motherboards & chips & whatnot. These days (if you have the bucks), you can buy a 64-core processing chip, an 8TB SSD boot drive, 128 gigs of RAM, video cards with 12 gigs of vRAM onboard (if you can find them!), giant monitors (I use a 32" as my main screen, which I got for dirt cheap & looks amazing despite the low price lol).
And most people just use their phones as their primary computing interface! A few people have migrated to laptops & hardly anyone has a new desktop these days. We've kind of peaked on computing power for the majority of the population...gamers, video editors, CAD users, etc. will always need more power, but a simple iPad is more than enough to suffice for most people's computing needs these days!
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I'm like... what's next??
Yeah, that's been my problem for several years! I picked up the HDMI stick on sale for doing DDR on the TV with Stepmania & Crypt of the Necrodancer, as I'm always looking for more less-boring ways to stay in shape.
Lately I've been building out a mini Maker's Lab in my basement, with stuff like a laser, 3D printer, CNC machine, vinyl-cutting machine, etc. This scratches both my creative itch & my technology itch because it gives you a pandora's box of software to play with & things to make IRL
I've been winding down my IT business & switching over to BEC (Business Efficiency Consulting), which has given me more free time to be creative because I have more free time at home now, along with more available mental energy to actually work on things & not just dissociate for the evening hahaha.
It's been fun getting back into art & creative stuff! I primarily use a jumbo iPad with a pen to draw stuff (Affinity Designer for 2D vector stuff & Sharp3D for 3D CAD stuff), then I can cut or carve it out of wood using a spindle, engrave or cut it using a laser, 3D-print it, cut it out as a sticker or as a vinyl decal for a mug or tshirt, etc.
I have a few more tools I want to get (sublimation printer, resin 3D printer, etc.) but it's pretty fun because whereas computer hardware has sort of stalled out (again, my workstation is from 2013 & is more than enough for what I do, so it's been awhile since I upgraded!), these consumer creativity machines allow me to have fun projects to dabble with every week!
If you haven't played with any of these types of toys yet, you should look into getting either a 3D printer or a Cameo vinyl cutter. The vinyl cutter is pretty fun because you make make everything from stencils to use on birthday cakes to car decals, and you get to use your computer to do it! For 3D printing, check out the 4 million+ free models on Thingiverse:
![]()
Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects
Download files and build them with your 3D printer, laser cutter, or CNC.www.thingiverse.com
I never had shop class growing up, so I'm having a blast learning more about tools & fabrication & stuff, and being able to sort of "shortcut" things by using computers for design & computer controllers to drive the machines! Like the Cameo machine basically has a small Exacto knife & will cut out whatever you want, or you can even put stuff like pens in the tool holder & have it write out custom thank-you cards or whatever! Pretty wild stuff!
Its surprising how time flies. Now if we could only find a way to make it go backwards.
For sure... 10 years is way too long! 😊Who could last 10 years here?
I did computer stuff sporadically growing up in the 80's & 90's, but didn't build my first computer until after high school, I think it was like back in 2001, right around the time of the big "dot com" bust. It so was much fun discovering that building computers was like building Legos, except it actually lit up & you could do stuff with it & customize it by overclocking it, painting the case, installing different operating systems, etc.!
I actually really miss doing that stuff. The world is hardware is so different these days - I haven't upgraded in ages simply because there's no need for me to! My primary rig is a 2013 motherboard with a 6-core processor, 64 gigs of RAM, and a beta BIOS required to run my 5-year-old 1080Ti, which is the latest GPU it supports lol. But it's rock-solid, runs Windows 10 like a champ, and has all of the cards, storage, and accessories I want for DCC projects & neffing on ATOT lol.
My latest tech purchase was a $129 HDMI stick to hook up to my TV to act as a basic big-screen computer. It came with Windows 10 Pro, 8 gigs of RAM, built-in wifi, etc. Sort of like a Netbook but for TV's or a computer for grandma. Performance is not the best (quad-core Atom chip), but it's totally fine for what I use it for!
But I do miss researching all of the motherboards & chips & whatnot. These days (if you have the bucks), you can buy a 64-core processing chip, an 8TB SSD boot drive, 128 gigs of RAM, video cards with 12 gigs of vRAM onboard (if you can find them!), giant monitors (I use a 32" as my main screen, which I got for dirt cheap & looks amazing despite the low price lol).
And most people just use their phones as their primary computing interface! A few people have migrated to laptops & hardly anyone has a new desktop these days. We've kind of peaked on computing power for the majority of the population...gamers, video editors, CAD users, etc. will always need more power, but a simple iPad is more than enough to suffice for most people's computing needs these days!
View attachment 46784
So small they eliminated the Spellchecker ;sadface;
