My workstation

A bit late, but Lorelle’s blog challenge on describing my computer setup is something I’ve been thinking of doing for a while now. So here’s a bit of show-and-tell regarding my personal workstation though the years.

For most of my life, my computer has been a shared family computer, until I got my first quasi-laptop. The first things I knew about computers were how to go to the Games directory in DOS and start games, as well as Lotus Spreadsheet, which I used like a simple text editor. I don’t know what happened to our first computer, but I wrote my first story in there. My older sister laid it out and printed it, just like a real book. (It was only a few pages.)

I started really using the computer at around sixth grade. Still without Internet, the computer ran Windows 98, and I again wrote my stories inside. I started diary files, which I password-protected, and the worst (best?) password I came up with was around 50-70 characters. It was so bad (good) that I can’t open that document to this day.

Our computer room was a mix of the guest room and study, and the computer was on a plain computer desk in one corner of the room. During my third year in high school, we got connected to the Internet, and in late 1998, I started making websites. The guest/study room was soon renovated, but I also went off to college and lived in a dormitory room with my older sister for most of the week. Since I was taking up Computer Science, I carted along the computer that I then shared with my sister.

In our room, the computer was always right next my bed, since it also served as my desk. I went through two desktop machines then, and during my last year in college, I got a portable desktop, an Asus Degatto. We still had the desktop machine in the dormitory room, but I never went back to desktops after that.

Back at home, I would be working in the study, along with my sisters. On the left is a photo of the study–two computers at each corner of the room, with some space in the middle for a laptop (that’s my Dad’s). Later on, I would work be using the right corner for my Asus Degatto, and much later on, I’d move to the mini-loft at the top of the study. This is my Degatto in the corner:

In mid-2007 I moved to Singapore, and my mom helped me settle in and buy furniture. On the left is my workstation, and you can also see my bookshelf (there are a lot more books on it now). I transitioned to using a MacBook, and the widescreen LCD you see was added early 2008. External drives are on the shelf above the LCD, as well as a few more odds and ends. The whiteboard, I use for quick notes and reminders, such as the $6 I owe a friend (pictured). You can click on the photo to get to the Flickr page, which has quite a few more notes on the picture itself.

In about two month’s time I’ll be moving to another house, and my computer setup will likely change, but not by much as I’m bringing my furniture with me. I wish I had more computer photos from way before. :/