Mike Grindle

@mikegrindle@indieweb.social
221 Followers
25 Following
413 Posts

A writer. Just doing my thing in a quiet corner of the internet.


I don't do push notifications because they're annoying, so please be patient with responses.

Websitehttps://mikegrindle.com/
Supportershttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/mgrindle
Newsletterhttps://buttondown.email/mikegrindle
Pronounshe/him
Mike GrindleJun 19

"We have trend pieces about platforms used for writing; posts that aggregate other posts; news stories about things people say and do online; novels, poems, and memoirs that would not exist without having germinated on the internet.

But the literary qualities of online writing remain mostly invisible. [...] until the moment it becomes a book."

The literary world holds online writing at arm’s length. Maybe it shouldn't. A somewhat old but great read:

https://longreads.com/2023/10/24/30-years-internet-online-writing/

#writing #blog

Poets in the Machine

2024 marks the blog's 30th anniversary. Is it time to give popular online writing—from blogs to tweets and newsletters—the critical attention it deserves?

Longreads
Mike GrindleJun 17
Amin Hollon 🏳Jun 17

My main impression of people who use dark mode: the light modes on their websites are usually broken in some way.

Please test both, to anyone doing any sort of web design.

Show threadMike GrindleJun 11

So, I went ahead and turned the Eee PC into a writer deck with a little help from #debian And I'm pretty happy with the results:

https://mikegrindle.com/posts/writer-deck

#linux #retrocomputing #writing

Turning My Old Netbook Into a Writing Deck

Show threadMike GrindleJun 6

Since people seemed interested, here's a little blog post for a little computer:

https://mikegrindle.com/posts/eee

#retrocomputing #linux #netbook

Eee! PC

Mike GrindleJun 6
Say what you will about 90s #fantasy #books, but the cover art sure did go hard:
Mike GrindleJun 6
Andreas (82mhz)Jun 6

New blog post:

Linkdump No 58
http://82mhz.net/posts/2025/06/linkdump-no-58/

#blogging #blog #linkdump

Linkdump No 58 - 82MHz

Mike GrindleJun 5

New little addition to the household...

It's an Eee PC and it's kind of adorable:

#retrocomputing #netbook #linux

Mike GrindleMay 20

Felt cute, re-uploaded a bunch of old stuff:

https://mikegrindle.com

#smallweb #neocities

Mike Grindle's Webpage

Mike GrindleMay 16
Andreas (82mhz)May 16

New blog post:

Linkdump No 55
http://82mhz.net/posts/2025/05/linkdump-no-55/

#blogging #blog #linkdump

Linkdump No 55 - 82MHz

Mike GrindleMay 1
Jake in the desertApr 30
Yo man, you holdin? I just want the latest music lyrics, what you got
×
Mike GrindleJun 5

New little addition to the household...

It's an Eee PC and it's kind of adorable:

#retrocomputing #netbook #linux

Show threadMike GrindleJun 6

Since people seemed interested, here's a little blog post for a little computer:

https://mikegrindle.com/posts/eee

#retrocomputing #linux #netbook

Eee! PC

Show threadMike GrindleJun 11

So, I went ahead and turned the Eee PC into a writer deck with a little help from #debian And I'm pretty happy with the results:

https://mikegrindle.com/posts/writer-deck

#linux #retrocomputing #writing

Turning My Old Netbook Into a Writing Deck

Show threadStephen GowerJun 11
@mikegrindle So this now got me curious: could you do something similar with an old computer/laptop, but instead of installing Linux, install DOS? Like, pre-Windows DOS, with the simple menus and command prompt. I'd be interested in that, for something fun to try.
Show threadJake in the desertJun 11
@srgower @mikegrindle I'm not Mike (haha) but totally, I've seen it done - I don't think it's too tough, either, you'd just have to wipe the machine first. I wiped Windows off my wife's old work Dell and now it has Mint on it, was surprised how easy that was to get going, too. I do still have a machine with XP on it too hahaha. I'm sure other people would be more knowledgeable about this than me, though 😂
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 11

@jake4480 @srgower @mikegrindle

I'm also not Mike, but I'm also pretty sure that something like FreeDOS is going to run perfectly on that machine. And then you can install WordStar and become a famous SciFi writer 😉

https://sfwriter.com/ws7.htm

Complete archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0

Complete archive of WordStar for DOS 7.0

Show threadStephen GowerJun 11
@82mhz @jake4480 @mikegrindle Haha! I completely know what you're talking about. Although I would probably use WordPerfect, that's what I'm familiar with (I doubt a working version of that is still available).
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 11

@srgower @82mhz @jake4480 @mikegrindle again, not Mike. 😅
Never doubt the internet...

https://archive.org/details/word-perfect-5.1-plus-5.1-1993-03-english-3.5-720-kb

WordPerfect 5.1 Plus ( 5.1+) for DOS : WordPerfect : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

WordPerfect 5.1 Plus ( 5.1+) ( 1993 03) [ English] ( 3.5'' 720 KB)Two incredible resources for WordPerfect can be found online at:WPUniverse.com - an...

Internet Archive
Show threadStephen GowerJun 11
@irgndsondepp @82mhz @jake4480 @mikegrindle thank you everyone who is not Mike (but also thank you Mike)
Show threadMike GrindleJun 11
@srgower @irgndsondepp @82mhz @jake4480 I would add something here but I think the non Mike’s have it covered 😅
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 14
@mikegrindle @srgower @82mhz @jake4480 Now that you're all talking about it, I also had to drag this cute little thing back from the cellar. 😅
I've been meaning to set this up as my blogging machine for a while. It's got a full GB of RAM and an 250 GB HDD (5400 rpm spinning disk, baby 😎).
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 14
@irgndsondepp @mikegrindle @srgower @jake4480
Great weekend project! Hope it works well with Debian despite the slow HDD and the limited RAM :)
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 14
@82mhz it works surprisingly good, especially without a Desktop Environment. I thought it would take longer to boot with the slow disk, but it's actually very reasonable. Around a minute, give or take.
Going without a DE is also a nice experiment for me. I'm pretty comfortable in the terminal and for what it's worth my WSL daily driver is also headless. But this is the first machine where I don't have quick access to a browser to look something up. I'll try getting one of these minimalistic terminal browsers set up next.
Oh and another surprise: this thing actually had built-in WiFi... and it's stupidly slow. 😬 But I can just attach my phone via USB and share the WiFi from that.
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 14
@82mhz well... and just like that it doesn't want to boot anymore. 😅
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 14
@82mhz fixed it from recovery. 😅 I guess I put it into sleep mode by accident.
Show threadStephen GowerJun 14
@irgndsondepp @mikegrindle @82mhz @jake4480 nice!!
Show threadMike GrindleJun 14
@irgndsondepp @srgower @82mhz @jake4480 a full GB of RAM? What a beast! 😂 In all seriousness, I’d be interested to know how you get on
Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 14
@mikegrindle @srgower @82mhz @jake4480 performance-wise it's surprisingly okay. I've even installed LXDE in the meantime and experimented with Lynx as a terminal browser and Dillo as a GUI browser.
The only thing that's thrown me off is that there only seems to be a years old version of Hugo that can no longer compile my blog. I'll need to check if there are still newer versions around for 32-bit systems. 🤔
I don't want to compile it myself. If push comes to shove, I'll just use my homelab as a poor mans CI and glue something together from Bash and rsync to make that somewhat comfortable.
So far I've spent a lot of time getting things set up, rather than writing, but hopefully that'll change in the next few days.
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 15

@irgndsondepp
Ah, if you have a 32 bit only CPU that's probably a limiting factor in more than one way. I have an Eee PC that is slighty newer and that has a 64 bit capable Atom.

I still run it with an old version of Ubuntu because it just feels more "authentic" this way, and then I ssh into my homeserver if I want to do stuff the old netbook can't do.

And you know, I always feel like setting everything up is the most fun bit of the experience ;)

@mikegrindle @srgower @jake4480

Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 15

@82mhz
Interesting. I... didn't even think that the processor might be 64-Bit capable. Now that you mention it... there was a 64-Bit Debian on the HDD before and it booted fine. I'll need to check if I can just go to 64-Bits too. My processor is also an Intel Atom... 🤔

@mikegrindle @srgower @jake4480

Show threadIrgndSonDeppJun 15
@82mhz reinstalling Debian 64-Bit now. 😁
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 15
@irgndsondepp
💪
Show threadJake in the desertJun 14
@irgndsondepp @mikegrindle @srgower @82mhz heck yeah! Awesome heheheh
Show threadAnita LewisJun 11

@mikegrindle

That was a fun read, Mike. Great idea.

Show threadMike GrindleJun 11
@ajlewis2 thanks, Anita!
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 6

@mikegrindle

Nice! I had this exact one back in the day, and then a 900a a bit later which had a bigger screen. Now I have my sister's old 1000something here, I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it and it works great :)

I remember the keyboard of these smaller ones being horribly cramped and uncomfortable to type on, so I'm curious to hear how you're going to get by with it.

Show threadMike GrindleJun 6
@82mhz I've hear other people say the same. I haven't found it to be an issue yet, but we'll see when I try writing something long-form on there.
Show threadAndreas (82mhz)Jun 6
@mikegrindle
If your next post is full of typos, then we know how the experiment went ;)
Show threadBoomland JenkinsJun 5
I remember my old EE, 9.7" screen size if I remember correctly
Show threadMike GrindleJun 5
@uo This one has a 7" screen I believe, and comes with 'Xandros' Linux installed.
Show threadthoJun 5
@mikegrindle did you take that picture on a phone from 2007? 😄
Show threadMike GrindleJun 5
@oht well I was thinking of taking it on my twenty-year old digicam but the phone had to do 😄
Show threadSebastiaan Ammerlaan 🇳🇱Jun 5
@mikegrindle I still have a similar machine by Acer in a drawer somewhere... What are you planning to use this for?
Show threadMike GrindleJun 5
@bammerlaan Well, I've really fancied something like a portable 'writer deck' for a while now, but they're so pricey. So my plan was to stick linux and vim on the cheapest, smallest netbook I could find. And I found this for £20...
Show threadSebastiaan Ammerlaan 🇳🇱Jun 5

@mikegrindle Ah, yes, I imagine that's a great purpose for it! I don't have any writing ambitions—at least not at the moment—so I guess mine will stay in the drawer for now.

It's an Acer Aspire One, and was my introduction to #Linux, back in the day! Its specs were so low that they couldn't even sell it with Windows if they wanted to, so it came with Linux pre-installed. I spent many hours learning the Linux ropes on that machine, while writing papers for university on it.

Show threadMike GrindleJun 5
@bammerlaan Funny enough, I'm using an Acer Aspire 1 right now, but it's one of the later laptop versions. Specs wise it's trash (though a behemoth compared to a netbook) and couldn't run windows 10, let alone 11. But I got it for free and stuck Peppermint linux on it and now I use it daily.
Show threadmr_daemonJun 5

@mikegrindle I have the shittier Surf version of this somewhere, with an incredible 4gb of disk space.

I used it for years purely because it was so extremely cheap

Shockingly, it was surprisingly usable once with a dwm-like tiling window manager and the addition of an SD card.

Show threadMike GrindleJun 5
@mr_daemon It's amazing what you can still do with these little potatoes with the right software (and a little external memory).
Show threadmr_daemonJun 5
@mikegrindle Yeah shockingly -- the low screen resolution was starting to be an issue near the end, and whenever you used a browser it had to be The Only Thing you Did, but otherwise, a great little terminal