You had DOS? Damn, we had like, a room full of C64s. And then the year after I went from elementary school to Jr High they upgraded. >.<

When I attended public school the computer lab predated me too (it was my first exposure to 8-inch floppies). Most people had PCs at home running Windows 95 by then, so it was pretty sad. There was no period designated for computer lab every day either. The computer lab was just a place to go during recess if you wanted to play games on the computers like Oregon Trail or Pacman.

The computer lab at my first private school was new when I started second grade and all of the PCs were IBM. I don’t know if they were purchased by the school or if they were donated, but they ran MS-DOS. Computer lab was an hour long and the only class besides PE not taught by our classroom teacher. There was a half hour of study/discussion/quiz from the book (“What is RAM?” “How do you run a program?”) followed by a half hour where we could do whatever we wanted, like play computer games. I guess they couldn’t think of anything else better for us to do in the remaining half hour. LOL

But it did teach me the fundamentals of PCs at the time (hardware, relationships) and engaged me enough to continue wanting to learn more about them as I grew up.

That book taught you about relationships? =o Shucks… =(

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8806623.stm

^Didn’t Blizzard revert their real name policy towards the end of last week?

Yes, it was only canceled a few days after the initial announcement. I just felt like linking the comment on my diary since it relates more broadly to my feelings on Internet/videogame privacy rights.

Also, it is unrelated, but someone promoted the comment a few days after I linked it here, which lead to it being featured in A Week In Comments. So, I earned my Star on Kotaku with that comment. *L*

Congrats on earning a star on Kotaku. Surely you’ll have even more fans now! Besides me of coarse… =P

Ms. DOS is hot! Lol, sorta half-kidding about that. Cool book though, I wish they’d given me computer lab classes when I was little. We had Apple computers when I was in elementary school, that we could play educational games on during free time. Yes, it was public school. It was so fail…we didn’t even get Macintosh computers until like 5th grade. So between Kindergarten and like 4th grade, we only had the REALLY old Apple ii-e and ii-c or whatever they were called, complete with 5-1/4″ floppy drives.

Also: *eyes one of the comments* 8-inch? My, that sounds big, I don’t remember ever hearing about any 8-inch floppies…were these in use before I was born? ^_^’

Actually…I learned most of what I needed to navigate DOS before I even got into elementary school. My dad taught me when I was like…3 or 4 years old. We had a computer at home that I’d always play on, with more exciting games, and a few BASIC compilers to boot! Besides, who needs classes to teach you about DOS when you’ve got a really awesome dad?

I saw the C:\DOS\RUN thing on a shirt in a ComputerGear catalog, back when I was in high school. We ordered that shirt for me, and it’s still my favorite one. I used it as one of my online pseudonyms, and I think it stuck with me a bit. I think this is my favorite entry I’ve seen on your blog so far, Rachel!

Much love. <3

Docs

If I do have fans then you’re the president and only member of my fanclub! =P

Well, you and possibly AOClaus. He’s always complimenting my writing. XD

I don’t think that I have any “fans” on Kotaku though.

Des

Actually, I was partly motivated to write this entry because of you! Once I realized what I had, I was like, “OMG! I must show Des!” I remembered you mentioning your nostalgic fondness for DOS the last time that we played TF2 together (when you were using C:\DOS\RUN as your Steam name). I just knew that you would get a kick out of seeing the book and its goofy illustrations/descriptions. XD

Hearing about your Dad reminds me a lot of my own Dad. =) He also taught me how to use my first computer, and is always encouraging me to learn new things. I actually learned how to use an Apple before I learned to read! Of course, we had the benefit of a GUI, which made things easier. The first programs that I can remember using were Paint, Glider, and Reader Rabbit.

That’s really cute about the shirt too. XD Have you ever been to ThinkGeek.com? When I went through my Linux phase in high school I bought a Slackware shirt from there with Dobbs on it. I went there again recently out of curiosity and was surprised to see that they expanded their selection of shirts immensely. They also sell more than just clothing there now. If you want a good laugh, they have a section dedicated to some of the bungled C&D letters they’ve received.

Oh, and Ms. DOS is the sexiest because she doesn’t take sass from anyone. >:P

Hehe awesome! I’m glad you showed me this, it really warmed my day up a lot when I saw it. Thank you, Rachel. <3

Also I think you have more fans than you give yourself credit for. I consider myself as both a caring friend and a fan of yours. (What rules say you can't be both?) From a few comments I'd briefly glimpsed on your Steam profile recently, I think you might have more fans in Japan and Korea too. A fan following is a good thing; it can give you positive encouragement, and it's also evidence that you're a very likable person, and not "unlikable" like Chell from Portal. (Although if anyone, GLaDOS or otherwise, calls you unlikable to your face, then are they really that trustworthy? Teehee.)

You reminded me of something, a few years back. I once fantasized about starting a family, and having a baby girl and trying to help her grow up to be a computer genius. I worried about how difficult it might be to teach her, especially if she doesn't show any interest. I'm not really looking to get married and have kids anytime soon though, now looking at it all from a more realistic perspective. Oh well…a dream is a dream, I guess.

I've never actually been to ThinkGeek, but the name sounds familiar. I might've seen it advertised before. I might have to check that out. And of course, I still have the C:\DOS\RUN thing in the body of my Steam profile.

And I like Ms. DOS because she can sneak ATOMBOMB.DAT around by disguising it as BUNNIES.AWW! No one can resist BUNNIES.AWW! XD

Daww you’re welcome. =B

I do get a lot of followers on Steam, but that is mainly because I admin a few servers. I think I gained the respect of some Korean players awhile ago because I changed some maps for them and such when their clan was practicing on Custom Soba (which is a Japanese server). Maybe they found it strange that there was an attempt at communication/accommodation despite the language barrier. I think that any other Soba admin would have been just as accommodating, though. =)

Ooo speaking of Portal, have you seen the videos for Portal 2? I was meaning to talk to you about those the other day. They added a bunch of videos showing new tools (goo that will make you slide or bounce, tubes that will suction up turrets) and introduced a new character called Wheatley, who talks with an Australian accent. XD I heard that they will be changing his voice though. Oh, and you’ll be able to play as a walking turret in the co-op mode, which will have its own unique story too. Let’s play together!

What I coincidence. I sometimes think about the unfortunate and unlikely occurrence that I might reproduce one day (having this inconvenient thing called a uterus), and like to imagine what kind of mad scientist offspring I might raise in that situation. >:B Mwahaha! Raising a geek would be unavoidable.

LOL!! Derrick (Docs_Fox) said the same thing to me. XD He said that if he actually saw a file called BUNNIES.AWW, he would immediately click it… and then be disappointed when he went *BOOM*

My school had a computer book, too, and they did teach us a lot. I thought my computer books were cute, but man yours is SO much cuter! I love that RAM, awww ♥

I read what you were talking about with the real name on forum issue. I completely agree. I wouldn’t want a prospective employer to find my facebook or whatever, or find posts that I made on game forums. I feel like I don’t need to give them any less reasons to hire me. Especially since to them, “games are for kids and immature adults,”.

Also, given my family’s situation and so on, when I used my last name on facebook I had cousins I’ve never even heard of try to add me and that felt so weird. I felt slightly violated that they could see what I’m up to, even if they weren’t really trying to do that, lol.

I totally understand where you are coming from because I have the same quirky sense of personal privacy when it comes to my own Internet activities, too. It isn’t that I feel ashamed about my activities online; I just feel apprehensive about the possibility of any relative or family member relying solely upon it to form an impression about me (and what’s scary is that this has already happened)! I like to think that there is more to who I am than my rambling thoughts about videogames or law. LOL

Sometimes I feel like I am the only Californian who doesn’t have a Facebook. I used to have a MySpace, but I deleted it a few years ago because I also had family members wanting to add me on it, and I didn’t want to offend them by refusing invitations. It worries me how pervasive Facebook has become in our society. I don’t like the precedence that they are trying to set in Silicon Valley with user information.