In The Beginning...

Back in the days of the 8086 and 80386, I used to upgrade computers with new hard drives, graphics cards (remember the Hercules monochrome graphics card?), math co-processors(!?), RAM, and other sundry items. My first computer was an IBM PC with a big red switch on the side and a 64Kb motherboard. I was the geekiest guy on the block, however, because I had two 5.25" floppy drives and a daughter card that carried an additional 256Kb RAM! The damned thing cost me something north of $4,000 and took about ten minutes to boot. I was in hog heaven the day I replaced one of those floppy drives with a whopping 5Mb hard drive.

Along about 1994 or 5, I decided to rejoin the human race, left the practice of law, and became an IT consultant. As a consultant, I built any number of computers, both servers and workstations, from ordered parts. I remember in about 1996 HP servers came in pieces; a case with PSU and MOBO, a separate box for RAM, another box for hard drives, yet another for the CD reader (DVD? What DVD? I don't gotta show you no stinkin' DVD!).

Later, I became an in-house developer. Things changed then, though so subtlety that I didn't notice at the time. For one thing, whatever organization I was working for usually provided me with a desktop or two and, more often than not, a laptop. With the hardware provided, I no longer had any reason to build computer systems and I spent my time learning how to be a better coder. See my coding blog, Fractal Sea, for a peek into my life as a coder.

About six months ago, I realized that I hadn't really futzed with the inside of a computer in years. So, without any real intent, I began nosing around the Internet (something that didn't even exist, at least not outside of DARPA, when I got my first computer), looking at PC gear vendors, DIY builder blogs, various hardware fora and websites. At the time, I yearned to build a screaming machine with the latest technology and all the bells and whistles.

For financial reasons (Ah, the life of a consultant!), I have yet to build my dream machine. But, while browsing here and there, I came upon something about which I'd never really given any thought. All those many computers I upgraded or built over the years invariably came in butt-ugly beige or grey boxes. What I discovered was a whole wild and woolly universe of case modders.

WOW, WTF(reaking)F! Some of the case mods out there were simply unbelievable! Anyone with any interest in modding has surely heard of the Orac3 mod by Peter Dickison. Or, how about the sculptured cases by Katsuya Matsumura? It wasn't long before I said to myself, "I gotta get me one of those!"

Well, I may be crazy but I ain't insane. I can't draw a straight line with a ruler and, at my advanced age (phbbbth!), my hands ain't as steady as once they were. Before I go nuts buying crazy stuff and trying crazy things I've never done before, I need to try something simple, small, modest as it were.

So...