George R. R. Martin's Darkest Secret - His 30 Year Old DOS Computer

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George R. R. Martin is now reaping the rewards of the millions of words he shaped into the epic fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire, but there’s one thing he won’t be spending his newfound HBO series money on- a new computer.

Martin is content to hammer away on a 30-year-old DOS computer, using WordStar 4.0 to create all of his works from the good old days of Wild C.A.R.D.S. to his newest epic fantasy, and he says it's all because he hates newfangled features like spell check.

His admission is bound to raise a few questions, chief among them for many teens- what's DOS?

-Via 22 Words

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Oh man, I really hope he doesn't use floppy disks for backups...

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I just wish he'd stop going to all of these conventions and doing interviews,etc. and sit his butt down and finish his books. The heat is on! The tv show has nearly come up to where he left off in book 5 and he's not done yet!

You can be super famous after you've finished your books, Mr Martin. You started the ball rolling and you had best finish the run soon. Otherwise, the way the tv show is going, they will make up the story they want to happen and I doubt that would make you too happy.

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We designed and built those computers with components intended to last 20 years with 24/7 use. These days the mean time to failure is five years.

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This also explains why it takes eight (or more) years to write each book.

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Sounds like a great idea. He doesn't have to worry about hackers since that computer isn't connected to the internet, writing fantasy novels with spell check sounds like a complete nightmare, and he doesn't have to deal with "updates" where the program you are used to moves everything around on you.

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