Old Fashioned

After TimBL created the modern web, things went downhill way too fast. Some of us old enough to remember the antebellum before the Browser wars have a particular nostalgia and fondness for those early, simple style websites. This is an attempt to create one.

I set out by deciding I wanted it to:

• Run on what could reasonably be called vintage hardware
• Employ only fundamental web technologies (HTML, CSS)
• Be optimized for decent performance (gzip compression)
• Run on a proper, secure, up to date Unix-like OS

So I did the only reasonable thing and went with OpenBSD on a 2005 first generation Mac Mini. This particular server has the following mesmerizing specs:

• PowerPC G4 single core CPU @1.42 Ghz
• 1 GB RAM
• 100 Mbit/s Ethernet
• 256 GB Kingston mSATA SSD (by means of an IDE/PATA adapter)

I got the machine used for a nominal sum, lubricated the fan, cleaned the inside of the machine when installing the SSD and swapped out the CR2032 PRAM battery while I was at it. That's it, we're off to the races!

The software stack is simple and dependable. OpenBSD comes with httpd and relayd, acme-client takes care of the TLS certificate and a very simple python script called makesite.py generates content from markdown using low level familiar Unix tools.

I'll go into more details on how these pieces all fit together as time goes by. Because computers and networking is fun!

When I get around to it, I'll add other stuff. I'm not in a hurry.