In 1960 I was messing around on the home computer and cause one of those reels to despool all over the place. My dad put me through a fkn wall. Hoo boy. I had to shoe shine for a week to restore it.
All this time i thought she was a real person. So what’s a Mavis? and why does it need a beacon? maybe mavis stands for “Man, All Vocations Insist on [freakin mad] Skills.” Just a thought. and im gonna start spreading it as fact. Do amy jobs still test your WPM?
idkrash, sorry, I call snow job. In 1960 even my dad’s office didn’t have a computer. They got their room-size Univac sometime around 1964, I think. It had drum memory, an entire wall of Hollerith card punch stations, and a blinkenlights sign. It made so much heat that they were able to shut off the heating system all winter.
I am devastated to hear this – I kind of had a thing for Mavis Beacon, back in the Amiga 500 days… It was like she was teaching this really boring thing but she knew some secrets she was willing to share… if only you could make the car go over 60 words per minute, she’d tell all
August 21st, 2009 at 1:01 am
Surely you mean 5.25″ discs, right? Unless you habitually cut a little more than a tenth of an inch off the side of yours…
August 21st, 2009 at 2:26 am
HAHA!
Randall, you goof ball! You crack me up every time!
August 21st, 2009 at 2:49 am
Wikipedia says she is correct, so….
August 21st, 2009 at 2:50 am
I guess not…
August 21st, 2009 at 2:50 am
As in, I was reading Wikipedia wrong.
Sorry.
August 21st, 2009 at 6:55 am
A natural mistake; 5 1/4 = 5.25.
Nobody real ever called them 5.25 though.
I still have a 8″ one around here somewhere…and a 2,400′ reel of 1/2″ 6250bpi tape…and 8-level punched paper tape from 1970
August 21st, 2009 at 9:47 am
don’t worry girl, your day will come!
August 21st, 2009 at 10:23 am
I didn’t know until just now that that Mavis Beacon was not a real person. I had always assumed she was some expert typist or educator.
A bit silly now that I actually *think* about it.
I’m not sure if I should be grateful that Girl has educated me, or irritated that she shattered my comforting illusions.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:59 am
Girl is always shattering my comforting illusions, so I guess that makes two of us today, ol’ bean.
Software Toolworks lied to us all.
August 21st, 2009 at 12:43 pm
No no no, Girl, YOUR nostalgia makes SOMEONE ELSE rich.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I wanted to do a report on Mavis Beacon for Black History Month in Middle School. the nostalgia has made me rich
August 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Well at least Frank Borland is real… *google google* DAMMIT.
Ok… Peter Norton? *google google* WHEW!
August 21st, 2009 at 5:38 pm
In 1960 I was messing around on the home computer and cause one of those reels to despool all over the place. My dad put me through a fkn wall. Hoo boy. I had to shoe shine for a week to restore it.
August 21st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Next you’ll tell me that Betty Crocker isn’t real…
August 22nd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
All this time i thought she was a real person. So what’s a Mavis? and why does it need a beacon? maybe mavis stands for “Man, All Vocations Insist on [freakin mad] Skills.” Just a thought. and im gonna start spreading it as fact. Do amy jobs still test your WPM?
August 22nd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
[...] story: Mavis Beacon was not real. [Software [...]
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:36 am
Mavis Beacon isn’t real?! Noooooooo!!!
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:09 pm
A home computer? In 1960?
August 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Heh, I thought she said Mavis BACON at first. Mmm, bacon.
I had never heard of that typing software until this strip–how educational!
August 24th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
[...] I always thought Mavis Beacon was a real person, too. http://catandgirl.com/?p=2144 [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Mavis Bacon teaches cooking.
Francis Bacon teaches logic.
August 27th, 2009 at 12:52 am
idkrash, sorry, I call snow job. In 1960 even my dad’s office didn’t have a computer. They got their room-size Univac sometime around 1964, I think. It had drum memory, an entire wall of Hollerith card punch stations, and a blinkenlights sign. It made so much heat that they were able to shut off the heating system all winter.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Mavis Beacon always frightened me. She was just way too excited to teach me typing.
January 7th, 2010 at 1:46 am
I am devastated to hear this – I kind of had a thing for Mavis Beacon, back in the Amiga 500 days… It was like she was teaching this really boring thing but she knew some secrets she was willing to share… if only you could make the car go over 60 words per minute, she’d tell all
August 7th, 2010 at 6:29 pm
A Marx Brothers reference and nobody picks up on it? For shame.