Retro Tech and Weekend Nostalgia
12/20/2025
It’s one of those cold, quiet weekends in Prague where the city feels like it’s holding its breath. No deployments, no meetings, no alerts—just the hum of the radiator and the scent of cardamom coffee drifting through my apartment.
And what did I do with this rare silence? I booted up an old machine running Windows 95.
Yes, really.
I keep it tucked away in a corner, mostly for sentimental reasons. But today, I wanted to revisit the interface that first taught me how to code. The flicker of the boot-up screen, the familiar chime—it all brought me back to weekends spent debugging Visual Basic scripts and convincing my parents I wasn’t just “playing on the computer.”
There’s something comforting about old systems. They’re clunky, sure, but they’re honest. No abstraction layers, no container orchestration—just you, the code, and a blinking cursor. It reminded me that programming was once a puzzle, a creative challenge, and a secret club.
I don’t know how long this nostalgic mood will last. Maybe just tonight. But I’ll spend it exploring primitive interfaces, revisiting some DOS commands, and sipping coffee from a mug that’s older than some of my junior devs.
And what did I do with this rare silence? I booted up an old machine running Windows 95.
Yes, really.
I keep it tucked away in a corner, mostly for sentimental reasons. But today, I wanted to revisit the interface that first taught me how to code. The flicker of the boot-up screen, the familiar chime—it all brought me back to weekends spent debugging Visual Basic scripts and convincing my parents I wasn’t just “playing on the computer.”
There’s something comforting about old systems. They’re clunky, sure, but they’re honest. No abstraction layers, no container orchestration—just you, the code, and a blinking cursor. It reminded me that programming was once a puzzle, a creative challenge, and a secret club.
I don’t know how long this nostalgic mood will last. Maybe just tonight. But I’ll spend it exploring primitive interfaces, revisiting some DOS commands, and sipping coffee from a mug that’s older than some of my junior devs.