In A Land, Far, Far Away…
January, 2019. I was unemployed, out of work going on 3 months, bills piling up, with no real work prospects to speak of for an employer, becoming more and more anxious with each passing day, as fear began to consume me. I was early in recovery from alcoholism, when an old guy at an AA meeting suggested that I get a hobby, to combat idle time and help with the brain-swimming evenings when I would have bouts of ‘rough’ moments.
I am a software engineer. It’s what I’ve done since I was very young. Code. If I wasn’t writing it, I was learning it. I was studying other’s code, reading as much as I could on the subject, and buying books like candy bars on the latest cool languages coming out. I’ve been doing this since I can remember the first Atari computer in the 1980s.
I am frugal, to a fault when it comes to computers. I’m also a bit of a geek because I love building computers. Actually, recycling old machines and turning them into little powerhouses. Many of my machines were donated by friends (windows users) who have replaced the machine with a new model because it ran so poorly on Windows. So, having this many machines with no cost is something I’m quite proud of.
Linux is my go-to operating system. Even my old (really) Macbook pro is now thriving and performing well on Mint linux. You’re probably already aware of the myth that Apple slows the computers down over time to get sales up. Well, that’s how my Macbook Pro 2016 came to be. $300 for it on a Facebook yard sale.
Shoestring budget – get it done!
OK, so I’m this cheap old nerdly guy who likes to write code, and needs a hobby. I was broke, so the idea of buying anything was out of the question, for now. Without a job and no income coming in to speak of, I did not have the luxury of spending a dime on things. A real challenge that I faced, but learned how to work around it with what I already owned.
I remember sitting in my garage in White House, TN and listening to one of the streaming music services. I distinctly remember I had no control over what they were going to play next. I wasn’t fond of that thought, and it became a reason to get my hobby.
I said to myself “I want to hear what I like, and be able to control it like a radio station.” Then it hit me, and I began researching the topic of internet radio software. A lot. I mean a LOT! Hours and hours I combed through StackOverflow and researched ShoutCast radio software, and researched Internet Radio stations and hardware requirements.
The Race was on!
I suddenly found myself going on an adventure! I began to have wild brainstorming sessions and started building a machine with which I could begin building something to use for my newfound hobby. Many times during the night, I would wake up and an idea would come to me, and I would hurry to the computer to look it up and see if my idea could be done, and write it down so I would not forget it in the morning.
With encouragement from a good friend, John W. in Laverne, TN, I began to see my “hobby” project more clearly. I kept notes and wrote it in a journal, complete with questions to ponder and scenarios, choices to be made and information that required more research. We discussed things at length over text messages, later we moved the conversation to a Telegram chat (more on that later).
I drew pencil diagrams on legal pad paper of how things were to be working which servers, networks, tasks they performed, etc so I could get a clear picture in my mind of the scope of the project.