Blogs Posts by Nick McHardy
Welcome to my blog, where I cover tech, games and whatever else that’s interesting in the universe like vinyl, fusion jazz and side projects.
This website is inspired by the web of the late 90s - no, not just the style of the site - but also harking back to a time when people would set up websites (probably on Geocities or similar) and write about anything that interested them. Most of the websites looked terrible (my first few sites were no exception) but it was so liberating having your own site. So here’s my modern-day version of that late 90s vibe.
Not sure where to start? Here are some blogs to get you started:
There’s also a 🍊 Garden Diary to check out. It’s sometimes updated as the seasons change.
Latest Posts
📅 Posted 2026-01-29
(6 minute read)
… or at least it was for me.
Crucially (pun intended) before the giant DRAM price spike in late 2025, I built a new gaming PC. There was really completely wrong with my old PC and it had lasted me many years but it was just at that age of starting to show struggles with the latest games like Blue Prince. Blue Prince doesn’t feel like a very taxing game, however my PC did struggle to render the outdoor scenes where there was a lot of scenario in the frame. I’m using parts of my old PC right now to draft this blog and it continues to serve me well despite having a GTX 1070 from who-knows-when.
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📅 Posted 2026-01-22
(8 minute read)
For the past few years, I’ve really bulked up my CD collection. And just because it’s 2026, I’m not going to stop right now, at least not until I have all the albums I’m really keen on. Problem is, I keep discovering more albums I must have!
Why I collect CDs in 2026
While perusing the CD racks in an op-shop, there is a dopamine hit when you find something really good, you haven’t got, or is worth a bit on the used market. Sometimes I’ll check, mostly from a “is this CD even worth buying for $1 or would it be a waste” perspective. Sometimes I’m torn about buying something without listening to it. I haven’t got as far as bringing a Discman along, but I guess that’s an option.
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📅 Posted 2026-01-15
(6 minute read)
While I’ve never signed up to a paid subscription of Spotify (or similar streaming music service), I’ve missed having ready-access to my music collection for a long time now.
Growing up, I had a lot of music playing out through a classic setup of a bunch of MP3s and Winamp on my PC. You know, the software that really whipped the llama’s arse.
It was an unbeatable combination at the time for a high school / uni student, in a world where streaming services didn’t exist and storage wasn’t cheap. 128kbit MP3 didn’t sound “CD Quality” but it had to do. The cloud wasn’t really a thing and accessing music from your PC at home wasn’t really practical on a dialup modem.
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📅 Posted 2026-01-08
(7 minute read)
Recently, I’ve been really getting into disc golf. Also known as Frisbee golf. Also known as frolf.
I’ve never been into sportsball. PE (Phyiscal Education) was such a struggle at school for me and I was always strangely sick exactly on the day of the athletics and swimming carnivals. Non-swimmer was never an option growing up in Australia but that’s a longer story.
I’m still active as I love walking and riding a bike, but I’ve never been big on playing team sports nor watching sport on TV.
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📅 Posted 2026-01-01
(3 minute read)
I’ve never been one for ’new year’s resolutions’. But suddenly, I feel inspired.
This blog has largely been ignored for a long time. I’ve been focusing on other non-blog things and outside of keeping the lights on and things patched in my CMS, it’s been zero features delivered for a few years now.
The feature image for this blog is of a house we inspected in 2025 which we rather liked a lot. However, it was very much in need of lots of TLC as you can see from the giant cracks in the walls. But totally worth saving as it had fantatic Federation style features to restore and make good again in the very charming suburb of Summer Hill 2130. And those hand-painted patterned walls - wow. Reminded me of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and I have to say, they were equally striking and calming at the same time.
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