A Noisy Welcome

When I was a kid, any time I opened a file from a floppy or fixed disk, the heavy beige box that was my PC made noise—clicks, whirs, sometimes a high-pitched screech. You could hear it thinking—if thinking is what you want to call it.

The fixed disk clicked (and if it made any other sound, something was probably going very wrong). But the floppy drive? That thing had character. It sounded like it was malfunctioning half the time, clunking and grinding like it was on the verge of breaking.

Personally I loved those sounds. Most people, though, went out of their way to silence their machines. To each their own, I guess.

So I named this place Floppy Noise. It was partly for nostalgia, it fit the subject matter I carry on to my wife about until her eyes glaze over, and partly because the domain was available (I felt like I won the registrar lottery).

Though the DOS days are long gone, sometimes I fantasize about the world collapsing and society having to fall back on these old systems. And there I am, saving the day with my knowledge of obsolete, overpriced vintage junk. Honestly, even in my fantasies, I can’t come up with a good reason why we’d ever need to rely on old computers again. But it’s my fantasy, and I don’t need a reason. All I need is a website.

This website.

This is where I’ll stash my thoughts on DOS games, retro code, aged hardware, and whatever else I’ve been obsessing over lately. Some of it’s organized. Most of it isn’t. Anything goes.

It’s noise—clunky, nostalgic, and occasionally useful. Like a floppy drive, it’s the sound of me thinking…slowly.