How My First Computer Experience Instigated My Learning Process
My First Computer:
My first computer was the budget HCL computer introduced in India, for INR 10000 and odd. (~ $ 160 at current rates). This was in Jan 2006. The PC was launched in Aug 2005, came to local stores by Dec 2005, and delivery was made on the 1st week of January.
The configuration was:
995 MHZ VIA Processor
40 GB HDD
128 MB RAM (32 MB of it was used up for V-RAM, leaving 96 MB for the OS)
15″ CRT
I was in my Class 9 when I got this. At that time, I didn’t even know how to turn it on or off. A friend of mine installed Windows XP on this machine and gave the CD for XP.
Becoming delete “mahaan”:
Next few days were completely occupied with me clearing up more space on my system by deleting those ‘unwanted’ files in Windows folder and Program Files folder. Yes, I was killing the OS slowly. With these activities, one of my friends gave me the nickname “Delete Mahaan” (A Saint in Deleting :P)
installing windows – just about 75 times over few weeks
Naturally, Windows refused to start now. I tried re-installing Windows XP by recollecting the steps my friend followed while installing. I found it fun at that time. So, my next few weeks entirely consisted of me erasing and re-installing Windows XP on my machine (Yes, jobless I know).
Gaming at < 10 fps
Then I started gaming. Max Payne, Harry Potter, Mummy, Age of Empires etc. Ofc the game avatars which are ‘running’ on the other system would be crawling in mine 😛 But that made the gaming easier sometimes.
Then came movies. I went to browsing centres to download movies. I also got some random encoding software (I had no clue what they were, but still got them to checkout). I came home and tried encoding the movies. Sometimes, the movie size came down drastically, so did the quality, but I didn’t care. I was, at last, found a way to store a lot of movies on my disk.I went about this encoding business as well, in addition to the gaming now.
Ubuntu incoming
Then I was introduced to Ubuntu 5.04. In those days, Ubuntu’s installation was pretty much text-driven like it’s for the server edition. Again, I fell into the loop of erasing and re-installing OS. It was fun.
This went on for another 6 months, and then I got a new PC, after using this one for 1.5+ years (mid 9th std. to the time when I completed my 10th std.) . A year later, I got Internet, at a time when most parents would be disconnecting their Internet/Cable anticipating the 12th std board exams 😛
A year and a half later, into my 2nd semester at college, I started using Internet for learning, rather than gaming.
Few years down the line, I’m now using Computer for gaming, blogging, movies, work, social media, music, notes, banking and what not. These days, almost my whole life is with computers. So much so that my companion and few friends wonder if I’ve been replaced with a Robot, and have nicknamed me as “Matrix Head” or “Chitti v2.0”.
Instigation:
All said and done, my first computer experience is something I still cherish till date, for it insitilled in me the experimental attitude - “What would happen if I do this?”, which still drives me to keep experimenting and keep learning.