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REAL ENVIRONMENT · 1998–PRESENT

museum@author-lab:~$ How Everything Connects

One environment across decades of computing

SIMPLIFIED ARCHITECTURE

One environment, many layers

INTERNET
   │
STARLINK / INTERNET CONNECTION
   │
HOME NETWORK
   ├───────────────┬────────────────┐
   ▼               ▼                ▼
CTHULHU         HOME LAB         RETRO PC
Arch Linux      Linux services   Windows 98
Workstation     Samba · Docker   ICQ 2000b
                  │                │
                  └─ OSCAR server ─┘
                         │
                    Pidgin client

INTERNET  ───────────────▼
                     WORLDNODE
                       Debian
             Website · Observer · Museum

This is a conceptual service map, not a physical network diagram or a security configuration.

Hardware

Workstations, the rack, storage, network equipment and remote servers make the physical foundation visible.

Software & protocols

Operating systems run applications; Samba, OSCAR, HTTPS and other protocols define how those applications communicate.

People & services

Infrastructure exists to support people: learning, preserving software, publishing work and maintaining useful connections.

A system is rarely one computer

Modern computing is a network of hardware, operating systems, applications, protocols, services, storage and people. The The Author's Computing Lab uses one real environment to show how those layers can span decades without losing their individual histories.