I’m going to be bespectacled and have been advised to reduce and limit my computer usage considerably. A bit of nostalgia set in on hearing this and I thought about my short journey so far in this wonderland of solid-state and otherwise.
First time I touched a computer.
> 1989, at school in 2nd standard
First command I typed on a computer.
> “dir”, 1990, 3rd standard
First game I played on a computer.
> “bricks”, 1991, 4th standard
First Colored game I played on a computer.
> “Dangerous Dave”, 1991, 4th standard
First program I wrote on a computer.
> “Hello, Ankit!” in basic, 1992, 5th standard(The pre-teenage rebel in me substituted the “world” by “Ankit”. Why “Ankit”? That’s a mystery
)
First time I held a mouse.
>1992, 5th standard, Windows 3.0
First Windows Program I used
>PaintBrush (MSPaint today), 1992, 5th standard
First “3d” game I played
> Wolfenstein 3D (or Wolf), 1993, 6th standard
First hack
> “Remote controlling” friend’s school PC by swapping the mouse cords, 1993, 6th standard
First movie I watched on a computer
> “The wonderful world of Plants” or something similar, 1993, 6th standard
First introduction to the internet
> 1994, 7th standard, A demo by an ISP to the whole school.
First site I opened on the internet
> disneyland.com, 1994, 7th standard
First commercial movie I watched on a computer
> “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, 1995, 8th standard
First introduction to Linux
> Suse 4.x, 1996, 9th standard
First self-taught language learnt
> HTML, 1997, 10th standard
First Computer at home
> Celeron 466 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 8GB HDD, for around 60k, 1998, 11th standard
First C program
> “Hello, Shantanu!”, 1998, 11th standard (Now, do you get it?)
First net connection at home
> 1998, 11th standard, ISP:Glide dial up. around 250 bucks for 5 hours at 56 kbps + telephone usage charges.
First Quake III Arena game
> 2000, almost at the end of 12th standard
First major gaming session
> 2000, QIII Arena, 11 hours straight, Tier1-Tier5, 2 days before my CET exam (Entrance test for my engineering college). For the record, I was so obsessed with QIII back then that I even had a quicky 5-minute game (DM17 map) in the 45 minute break I got during the exam as my home was quite near the exam center.
First “real” hack
> 2001, B.E., First year. Wrote and installed a TSR onto a friend’s system to print out “U R Doomed” whenever he typed something.
First Linux self-install
> Red Hat 7.0, 2001, B.E., First year
Longest Gaming Session till date
> December 2001, B.E., 2nd year. Deus Ex, 26 hours with 4-5 breaks spanning from 2-15 minutes max. Finished with all the alternate endings.
First major Q3 Arena lan-tournament
> Early 2002, B.E. 2nd year. At NSIT Innovision tech fest.
First Blog
>http://iamhuman.blogspot.com, 2004, B.E., Final year
First program in the corporate world
> Optimization and multi-channelization of H.264 stitching, 2004
First real project in the corporate world
> Epsilon, the new low cost BTS (Base Transceiver Station) by Nokia, 2004
First Laptop
> 2005, Compaq Presario R4025, AMD64 2.0 GHz, 1GB RAM, 128 MB gfx Card. US$1300
First Windows Mobile Program
> ShantzTodayChanger, 2007
Finally bought first domain name
>http://shantanugoel.com, 2008
These “firsts” aren’t anything big in themeselves but have been an important part of my life in one or the other way making my love for computers growing at an even faster pace. So what are your nostalgic moments with your beloved machine?
[tags]computers. nostalgia, history, games, programming, linux, corporate, commands[/tags]



Hey, very interesting!
Thanks Rohit, only that the gaps between more “firsts” will increase from now on it seems
Interesting firsts I must say you have been having quite a life buddy.
Thnx Keith
hey shantanu yeh sab yaad hai,,,,memory mai koi TSR to nahi laga rakha jo dump mar raha hai output,,but i must say impressive
haha..yeah factory installed TSR hai…about love for computers
Vow.. that’s too good
looong journey indeed !!!
Hello Sir.
I was reading and reading.. and couldn’t find one thing i did before you.
haha.
until the last thing.
I bought my first domain name in 2006.
muhuhhha.
but BUYING aint such an achievement lolz.
How’s you doing brother?
Doing good smitz…long time…
Very nice!!
Thanks Rohit,Interesting firsts I must say you have been having quite a life buddy.
If only I could remember all these intricacies of my life in such small detail.
Nice listing. My first self install of Linux though was Ubuntu. I was like “Oh Awesome they send you free CDs” lol…