Home
← BACK TO COMPUTER MUSEUMLIVING ARCHIVE · JULY 2026

PERSONAL COMPUTING HISTORY · EARLY 1990s–PRESENT

museum@author-lab:~$ The Author's Computing Lab

LIVING COLLECTION · RECORD OPENED JULY 2026

The Lab Today

COLLECTION HCL-2026
STATUS: ACTIVE / EVOLVING

This documented working collection contains current, legacy and experimental systems used for software development, the World Observer, the Computer Museum, gaming and infrastructure.

The museum and projects are built on real systems, maintained in a real home laboratory.

Wide view of the author's real home laboratory workspace and installed computing systems
THE WORKSPACEThe environment behind the systems — a real workspace where experiments, documentation and projects are created.

Current and legacy systems

PRIMARY WORKSTATIONS

CTHULHU
Author's current home laboratory workstation with a Linux desktop, multiple displays, laptops and surrounding equipment
Current primary Linux workstation used for software development, the World Observer, the Computer Museum and gaming.STATUS: DOCUMENTEDRETRO PCPreserved Windows 98 workstation maintaining a real legacy operating environment.STATUS: DOCUMENTED

Expandable collection

OTHER WORKSTATIONS

OTHER WORKSTATIONSPersonal and experimental systemsAdditional laptops, netbooks, Raspberry Pi systems,
single-board computers and experimental systems
documented as part of the growing collection.

Supporting systems

INFRASTRUCTURE

HOMELABPrivate service environment for the lab's local systems.STORAGERecord of current and retired storage media and tools.NETWORKDocumentation of the shared network and its system relationships.WORLDNODE
Intel Atom server systems from the home lab's earlier low-power infrastructure
Public hosting infrastructure operating beyond the home lab.ICQLegacy internet service connecting systems from different eras.

Historical and supporting records

ARCHIVE

COMPUTING TIMELINEVerified milestones in the collection's computing history.
RETIRED HARDWARERecords of systems and components no longer in service.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCEDated photographs documenting systems, modifications, operating environments and stored hardware.
ARCHITECTURELiving record of system roles and relationships.

REAL STORIES · REAL HARDWARE · REAL PROJECTS

FIELD NOTES & ARTIFACTS FROM THE LAB

PLANNED · GROWING

A growing collection of genuine workshop stories and personally meaningful technical objects, based on real events and real artifacts from the author’s computing journey.

OPEN RECORD →

The machines changed. The question did not.

How does this work?