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<iframe width="1" height="1" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i9qOJqNjalE?autoplay=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>The study. That's what we called it; it was a combination of an office for my dad, a library, and a [[computer]] room.
It smelled like old books; it was full of my mom's [[mystery and fantasy collection]], her art history books, foreign language dictionaries, [[film guides]], and great American novels.The Apple Macintosh IIsi. It was our first computer. My parents bought it in 1992, over a year before I was born. My sister was about 18 months old.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Zh9RnIL.jpg" />
In 1997 it was replaced with a [[Windows 98 PC]], our second computer; and it was moved into the laundry room for storage when we got a [[third computer]] in 2002.
It now sits in my bedroom at my parents' house.Anne McCaffrey, Dick Francis, [[Sue Grafton]]
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</div>I was especially frightened of the Sue Grafton mystery novels. Along with their covers' late 70s hyperreal imagery of murder and intrigue, I was struck by the author images of Grafton, which always featured her holding a gun. (Having just murdered someone, I had to imagine.)
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/XCSz7VQ.jpg">I don't recall these ever being pulled off the shelf, but there they were.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/ViTpRPX.jpg" />This is where you would see the KidDesk [[virtual desktop]].
Clicking the phone would allow you to leave [[voice messages]] for other users. There was also a Rolodex for storing contacts with [[phone]] numbers (as if a kid would have contacts with phone numbers), a calculator, a theme selector, a calendar, a notepad, and a clock.
The purpose of KidDesk was to essentially act as a [[parental control]] on the computer. It is called a "virtual desktop" since it is a pictorial representation of a literal desk, and because it acts as an extra layer on top of the Mac software desktop. Parents could set which applications would appear on the desk, mostly games such as [[KidPix]] and [[Thinkin' Things]].<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IzryUWg0Bjg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C8044S4uEYE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>(not [[clickable]].)
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Idb300K.png" style="width:100%;" />In KidDesk, you could record messages for other users with the Mac's built-in microphone, which sat in a holster attached to the side of the monitor.
In particular, I recall playing back messages of my sister and I wishing our dad a good day at work.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/UWKK3X8.jpg">In my house, phones were used by adults, not kids. My parents had a cell phone that looked like this:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/ZG8nKyj.jpg" /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/GZKQbAm.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/zZGk0lO.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/OUkvhEW.jpg"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/r4f3M1T.gif">