Dying from cholera, dodging trash, and other formative but fun moments
Thanks a lot, Google. Looking for an implement to complement your last-minute PowerPoint presentation, printable greeting card, or poster board? Well now you have one less image source: Microsoft is replacing clip art. “The Office.com Clip Art and image library has closed shop,” employee Doug Thomas wrote Monday in a blog post that also promotes Bing Images, in a hat tip to using search engines for just about anything these days.
Since the announcement, Twitter tributes to the colorful but often mocked illustrations have ranged from reminiscing over terrible fliers from years past to celebrating the end of something so ‘90s. While we’re on that subject: What else do ‘90s kids remember about their weekly pilgrimages to the computer lab?
Start picturing rows of slowly yellowing Macintoshes and chunky iMacs, and watch my four favorite elementary-school programs in action.
Ugh, with FIRECRACKER and all the sound effects, creating was so fun back then.
In addition to honing my addition and subtraction skills, Math Blaster also helped me develop a strong distaste for floating trash.
I never really appreciated the historical features behind these typing tutorials. For my class, it was always a race to finish a lesson then dawdle with something else.
Whenever I played, someone in my group almost always managed to get cholera and the sound of death freaked me out. But I’ll always remember jockeying for that coveted disc in the computer lab.
What was your favorite program when you were in school? Leave a comment with any memorable computer lab stories.
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