Dot Com’s
First Adventure!
Dot Com’s
First Adventure!
by Sharon Doughty with Roger Mills
First published in the UK by
The Miss Dorothy.Com. Publishing Company Ltd
Copyright C 1999 Sharon Doughty
Illustrations C 1999 MDC Publishing Ltd
The right of Sharon Doughty to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means without
the prior written approval of the publisher, nor be
re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any
form of binding or cover other than in which it is
published and without a similar condition being
imposed on the subsequent publisher.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in
Publication Data for this title is available from the
British Library.
The MDC Publishing Company Ltd.
Ground Floor Office, City Arms House,
127 London Road, Stone,
Dartford, Kent DA2 6BH
This book is dedicated to Neil.
Contents
Chapter One:
The Beginning ................ 1
Chapter Two:
The First Journey ............7
Chapter Three:
On The Inside .................17
Chapter Four:
New Friends .................... 29
Chapter Five:
Success For Doggydo’s .. 39
Chapter Six:
Dinosaur Dad ..................43
chapter 1:
the beginning
Dot Com sat with her nose pressed to the windowpane, her dog
Wizard was by her side. She was watching for the first sign of her
father’s car to appear round the corner of the road, but Wizard
was otherwise engaged. His eyes were glued to a rather fat and
lazy black cat ambling slowly past the drive. He was just thinking
exactly how to deal with this piece of impudence when Dot
shouted, "Here he is!" Lucky for the cat, thought Wizard, Dad
was home.
Dot ran to the front door and stood there waiting anxiously.
Wizard, a very handsome King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, very
rarely failed to bring a smile to the face of anyone who called at
the front door.
This evening he went to the door with Dot and prepared to
waggle his tail engagingly, as he did for his master every night.
But suddenly he realised something wasn’t quite right. Dot
looked worried.
She turned to him and said: "Come on boy, we’ve got to help
Dad tonight, I overheard mum on the phone and she said
something really terrible has happened today."
Wizard wondered what it could be. Well whatever it was they
would deal with it. There was nothing he and Dot couldn’t do
together.
She was a serious little girl for nine, with large glasses balanced
on her freckled little nose. She nearly always wore her hair in
bunches, pulled up high on either side of her head, so they
didn’t get in the way when she was reading.
1
Dot loved reading; she loved escaping into another world
through a book. Sometimes it was very boring being a child. It
was alright for adults because they were always busy, but filling
your day sometimes with nobody to play with was hard. It was at
times like these, that Dot liked to read, because the books
transported her from her bedroom in Barking Avenue to
fantastic places like Aladdin’s magic carpet and to secret gardens
that grown ups didn’t know about.
When she was reading Wizard liked to lie by her side, and she
always looked very serious. But when she didn’t have her nose
in a book, she had a cheeky grin that could make anyone smile,
and Wizard adored her. He rubbed himself reassuringly against
her leg. Whatever had happened to Dad, they would sort it out.
As Bill Com stepped wearily out of his car, Dot threw open the
door of number 97 Barking Avenue. An address, which very
much pleased Bill, a senior salesman at Doggydo’s Biscuits.
But tonight he did not look his normal cheerful self. He walked
up the drive with his head drooped on his chest, carrying a
strange black bag.
Wizard wondered what it could be. He knew something was
wrong but he couldn’t help being secretly pleased because
whatever was in the bag seemed to have made Bill forget
Wizard’s normal treat of a pack of Doggydo’s
biscuits and one of those leathery dog chews.
Wizard knew he should be grateful but he
much preferred chocolate cake!
Dot ran out to greet her father. "Dad,
whatever is the matter," said Dot. "You look
really down in the dumps."
Bill sighed, "Dot," he said, "Something terrible
has happened. Mr Elms at work has put me in
2
charge of Information Technology and he’s
given me this computer."
Dad waved the bag despairingly. "He came in
the office today and said we had to get
involved in e-commerce and we needed a web
page if Doggydo’s was going to stay ahead of
Petplus and all the other dog companies, and
he said I was the man for the job."
Dot giggled. "But Dad you don’t know
anything about computers, why did he pick
you?"
Dad looked miserable. "Well, because I do the
filing and I order the paper for the fax
machine at the moment and
keep it running and so he said
I should take over the I.T.
department."
"But Dad you haven’t got any other
computers at work, so who else exactly is in this
department?"
"Just me," said Dad. "And this is the only
computer we’ve got. His nephew gave it to
him at the weekend and told him
Doggydo’s needed to get into the 21st
century."
Dot hugged her Dad reassuringly. "Don’t
worry Dad,” she said, “Genie and I do I.T.
at school all the time and her parents use a
computer to run their doctors surgery so we
can help you." Genie was Dot’s best friend
and lived across the road.
"But surely you don’t learn complicated stuff
4
like this?" said Dad.
"We do," said Dot, "and e-commerce is only doing business
electronically on the Internet. It’s really easy. You can set up a
web page in no time, and an email address is only like your
postal address, but on the Internet. It’s not really complicated
at all."
Dad still looked slightly doubtful, but relieved.
Wizard, meanwhile was putout. These humans were strange
creatures. His best tailwagging was being totally ignored just
because of a computer! He didn’t know what
all the fuss was about.
5
6
chapter 2:
the first journey
After a nice sweet cup of tea and a sit down in his favourite
chair, Bill Com was feeling better. Dot had taken the computer
up to her room and appeared to know just what he should do
and there were some very reassuring smells coming from the
kitchen, courtesy of his wife Susie. Perhaps things weren’t so
bad after all.
But after 22 years at Doggydo’s Biscuits he really didn’t fancy
doing things the modern way, he thought things worked rather
well as they were. But he knew when Mr Elms made his mind up
there was no arguing with him, so he hoped that Dot really
could show him how to set up a web site. He really didn’t want
to tell anyone he was frightened of a computer!
Dot, meanwhile, was in her element. She was so used to sharing
computers at school she couldn’t believe she really had a laptop
in her bedroom. It was so simple to use, just stick the plug in
the socket and the wire in the back and you were in business.
Dot loved her Dad and she knew he was kind and caring, but
she couldn’t help wishing he was a bit more exciting sometimes.
There were times when he made her cringe with embarrassment
because he was so "uncool", like the time he picked her up from
the school disco in his brown corduroy trousers that were too
short at the ankle. But she knew, as parents went, she was lucky.
Dad had come up in her bedroom at first to see the laptop in
action, but she had sent him back downstairs to have a cup of
tea because the whole thing seemed to make him very bad
tempered. He had become very upset during the setting up
process when the computer said "press any key to continue"
7
and he insisted the machine was faulty because it didn’t have an
‘any key’!
With Dad safely back in the living room she was free to have fun.
The laptop was top of the range with a built in modem so she
just plugged the computer into the phone socket and clicked on
the web browser for the Internet. She was away.
The first thing she did was decide on her email address. With
Wizard curled up in her lap she smiled to herself as she thought
what she would like it to be. She played around on the screen.
She had always been teased at school because her name,
Dorothy Com, was Dot Com for short just like on the Internet.
Well now she would take advantage of it!
She typed up [email protected] – it made her giggle. That
was a lovely email address and nobody could forget that easily.
As for her Dad, well that was easy his email address should be
billcom@doggydo’s.Com.
Now that was decided, she should make a start on designing the
Doggydo’s web page.
She dug around in her homework bag.
Success! Her hand fell on her ‘Idiots Guide to Creating an HTML
WebPage’! She knew she had designed a web page once with
this book and if she followed the instructions carefully she knew
she could do it again.
Dot’s glasses slid to the end of her nose, as they always did
when she was concentrating.
Dad rather fancied a page showing a picture of a dog like wizard,
a Cavalier Spaniel, with a picture of a mouth-watering doggydo’s
biscuit and the slogan "Because dogs DO like Doggydo’s" written
across the page.
8
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
9
He also quite liked the slogan "Doggydo’s takes the biscuit!".
Well maybe she could fit them both in somehow.
Dot also decided to create a link on the page so browsers could
click on the screen to go to a Doggydo’s order form for their top
products. That would really impress Mr Elms!
Dot went to work. She was still hard at it when Wizard suddenly
sat up in her lap and cocked his head, bumping painfully into
her nose! "Ow," said Dot. But he was listening intently and she
wasn’t cross because she knew it was a sign that someone was
approaching her bedroom door.
Wizard was a wonderful guard dog and sure enough, about 30
seconds later Mum popped her head round the door.
"Hello darling," she said. "I’m really proud of you for helping
Dad. He’s so grateful and I thought as you were working so
hard you might want a snack in your room to keep you
going."
Mum produced a mouth-watering hamburger she was hiding
behind the door. Dot was delighted, hamburgers were a rare
treat in her house big and juicy and stuffed full of salad - yummy,
her favourite.
"Thanks Mum," she said. "It’s going really well, I’ll show Dad
everything I’ve done later."
Susie kissed the top of Dot’s head, looked slightly nervously at
the computer and left.
But Dot was so engrossed in her work, the hamburger sat
untouched by her side. By the time she had finished her plans
for the Doggydo’s web page it was stone cold and Dot realised
she was starving.
She couldn’t believe she had let her hamburger go cold. She was
just wondering whether it would still taste alright when she
heard a voice.
11
"Hey kid you call that a hamburger? You should see what a real
burger looks like in the States."
Dot shook her head. She must have been imagining it, she could
have sworn she heard a voice. She looked down in
the direction of the computer mouse, which was
where the noise had seemed to come from and
she couldn’t believe her eyes. The mouse was real
and it seemed to be talking to her.
It spoke again. "What’s your problem kid, are
you hearing me?" Dot shook her head. She
definitely heard a voice from that mouse and
the accent was American!
Then the strangest thing of all happened.
Wizard who had been dosing in her lap
suddenly sat up and said in the clearest
voice she’d ever heard
"Give the child a chance, she’s never heard a mouse speak
before."
Dot was rooted to the spot. She wondered if she was dreaming.
Her dog, her wonderful Wizard was actually talking and he was
talking to a computer mouse. Perhaps she was having delusions
after too long at the laptop. Surely she must be imagining it.
Then Wizard turned to her and said: "It’s ok Dot, you’re not
going mad, you’re just on the Internet and anything is possible
in this world.
"It’s probably the mouse that threw you, he’s rather rude, he
really should have introduced himself."
The mouse looked indignant. "Hey it’s not my fault if the kid
ain’t so sparky. She should know she’s in the virtual world once
she’s logged on.
12
"Anyway does she wanna grab a burger in a decent joint or
not. Whaddya say we hit on a web site I know over in Texas?
Wizard nodded. I think she’s worked rather hard and she
deserves a decent meal. I’ll lead the way.
He turned to Dot who was sitting open-mouthed at her
terminal. "Don’t worry Dot," said Wizard "You can trust me I’ll
look after you. We’ll just take a short jaunt through the internet
to this hamburger bar, the mouse claims it’s where burgers are
best and I can assure you he knows what he’s talking about."
The mouse grinned "Hey, now you’re talking my kinda
language. Personally I’m sick of sitting on this desk."
Dot was in shock. But there was not doubt the voices were real.
She cleared her throat.
"Erm, what should I call you," she said to the mouse.
"Mister, will do nicely," he said.
"Oh," said Dot, "so its just Mister Mouse is it."
"Yeah, that’ll do nicely, now are you coming or not. I could use
a little action."
Wizard smiled at Dot. "Come on," he said. "We’re going on an
adventure. Clip my lead on and hang on to me, you’ll be quite
safe. Just try not to step on our rude little
rodent friend."
Dot picked up Wizard’s lead from the
chair and hooked it on his collar, it had
hardly locked on when whoosh they
were off. There was a tremendous rush
of wind and suddenly they were whisked
straight into the screen, and out onto the
Super Highway. Dot could hardly breath
she was so excited!
15
chapter 3:
on the inside
The wind was whistling past Dot’s face at incredible speed and
she was hanging on to Wizard for dear life, her long hair was
trailing behind her as they flew down the cable tunnels.
It was dark, but warm and at first there was an eerie silence.
Then the noise was nearly deafening as millions of packets of
Data suddenly shot by at the speed of light on their way to a
computer somewhere in the world.
It reminded Dot of being on the train when you saw a train
approaching on the next track. You knew it wasn’t going to hit
you, but the noise frightened you a little as it rushed past almost
taking your breath away.
Then Dot picked up a slightly different noise, a kind of strange
humming in the distance. They were definitely being sucked
towards it!
Wizard and Mister Mouse seemed perfectly at ease, but Dot had
to admit to feeling a little afraid. She gave herself a little shake.
She knew she was being silly because Wizard would never let
her down.
Just as she was becoming a little tired of the dark she saw a light
twinkling up ahead and they suddenly came to an abrupt halt.
She nearly fell over Wizard she was so close to him.
Dot rubbed her eyes. She was bang smack in the middle of the
biggest bank of machines and computers she had ever seen.
Endless corridors of whirring disks and flashing lights and
electronic dialling sounds. The humming noise was very, very
loud now!
17
At the centre of all the computers was the source of the light. It
was the biggest computer of all with a gigantic screen and on
the screen was the happiest sunny face Dot had ever seen. The
face looked in her direction and gave her a great big smile.
Then he spoke and the ground literally shook, so deep and
powerful was his voice.
"Hello," he said, "You must be Dot Com. I’ve been expecting
you."
Dot almost toppled over with all the vibration from his voice and
she pulled Wizzie closer to her on his lead. She had to admit she
was rather afraid, even though the face was smiling.
"Don’t worry Dot," said Wizard. "This is Samson, he puts the
power into the Internet and they call him Samson because he’s
so powerful. He’s a "server" and controls all the data as it
moves around The Super Highway.
There are lots of servers and they all have different names, but
we like Samson because he’s terribly kind and helpful. The only
trouble is, he gets dreadfully upset because he frightens people
when he speaks. He’s so powerful that his voice makes
everything wobble and vibrate when he talks.
"He’s really as gentle as a lamb though and he’s jolly helpful."
Reassured by Wizzy’s words, Dot tried as hard as she could not
to be frightened. But she could see Samson was about to speak
again, so she quickly held on to a nearby computer.
"YOU’RE ON YOUR WAY TO TEXAS AREN’T YOU?"
"That’s right," said Wizard. "We know we can rely on you to
point us in the right direction."
"YOU CERTAINLY CAN," said Samson. "BY THE WAY YOUNG
LADY WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO UPLOAD THAT WEB PAGE
YOU’VE BEEN DESIGNING FOR YOUR FATHER AND CONNECT
18
UP THAT EMAIL ADDRESS THAT YOU WERE HOPING TO SECURE?"
"IF YOU LIKE I CAN HOST IT ALL FOR YOU AND THEN
CUSTOMERS AND BUSINESSES ALL OVER THE WORLD WILL BE
ABLE TO VISIT THE SITE AND TALK TO YOUR FATHER.
"But more important, how about that domain you were
dreaming about – missdorothy.com. Would you like me to host
that for you, so that children all over the world can contact
you?"
Dot searched for her voice, but it came out rather squeaky. She
really was overwhelmed by the thought of her own domain on
the Internet. "Er….yes please" she managed to stammer.
"NO PROBLEM MY DEAR," said Samson. "IT’LL BE DONE IN A
TWINKLE," and he smiled his lovely sunny smile, which made his
eyes all crinkle up.
"YOU LEAVE IT WITH ME," Samson continued to beam. " I
EXPECT YOU’LL WANT TO RUN ALONG NOW, I DON’T WANT TO
KEEP YOU AWAY FROM THAT BURGER ANY LONGER THAN
NECESSARY YOU MUST BE HUNGRY."
Samson then closed his eyes for a moment and the most
beautiful shaft of light lit up the dark corridor ahead. Dot saw a
signpost appear in the light and it read U.S.A.
"Now we’re cooking," yelled Mister Mouse as he took off in the
direction of the light. "Burger here we come."
"Come on," said Wizard. "We’re off. Goodbye Samson."
"Bye," said Dot, as she felt her feet lifting off the ground. They
rushed out of the server’s massive output door and back into
the fibre optic cable.
Soon she was flying along again and she could think of very little
as the wind again sped past her face. She was actually starting to
enjoy herself. This was an adventure she hadn’t even dreamed
about.
21
But just as she started to relax, she heard Mister Mouse yell
"Lookout it’s the Cyberats get the kid and hit the deck!"
Dot felt Wizard pull her abruptly on to the floor. She could feel
all the cables beneath her in the darkness. She wandered what
on earth was happening and who the cyberats were, but
instinctively she laid low and kept quiet.
Just seconds later she heard a high pitched noise like the sound
of an engine and squeals of laughter as a group of creatures on
machines similar to a motorbike zoomed over their heads.
Their vehicles, although like a bike, had no wheels and appeared
to hover just above the ground. In the twilight Dot could just
make out the shape of the creatures that appeared to be half
man, half rat!
As their headlights illuminated the tunnel Dot could see they
were all dressed in black, but she couldn’t really see their faces
because they were wearing black helmets and goggles.
She was really frightened now, as the bikes came to a halt just a
short distance away from her. She tried to lay as flat as possible,
but she could feel the beady eyes of the rats fall upon her.
"Hey amigos what have we here?," shouted the lead rat. Dot had
no idea what was going to happen to her now and she couldn’t
see how Wizzy was going to protect her. But could see he was
just about to try and see them off when something slid past
them in the shadows.
She just heard a whisper "Hey brother let me take care of this
one, this is my department" Suddenly she saw a black cat with
flashing yellow eyes shoot past them and into the glare of the
headlights.
There was a piercing shriek as the cat seemed to almost double
in size and a huge black paw, complete with sharp claws swiped
at the crowd of rats. As they paniced and flew off in all
22
directions, the cat kept up his menacing stance. Within minutes,
the rats were gone, a group of about 50 of them sped past in a
blaze of noise and light, their long tails flying out behind them,
shaking their fists when they were a safe distance away.
The cat turned round and smiled at Dot, Wizard and Mister
Mouse, still hiding amongst the cables on the floor.
"Ghee that was close," said Mister Mouse. "I hope it’s rats rather
than mice that are your particular delicacy?"
The cat spoke for the first time: "Certainly are my man, let me
introduce myself to you both and the little lady.
Dot watched in amazement as his paw began to tap and he
rapped:
"Cursor the cat’s my name
I’m in the software game
Data Protection’s my aim
And catching rats ain’t no strain!"
Dot forgot she had just been frightened to death a few minutes
before and burst out laughing. "I beg your pardon," she said.
Wizard came to her rescue. "I think the gentleman works for a
software company catching the cyberats who spread viruses on
computers.
"Yeah," said Mister Mouse, feeling brave again, now he was
obviously not prey to this super-fit cat. "They’re not really
interested in givin you a virus honey, they got more serious
matters on their minds like "data corruption".
Cursor grinned. "Your little friend’s right, so don’t worry about
the cyberats. You can just think of me if you’re in trouble again
though and I’ll be there, OK?"
25
Dot smiled. "Yes, thank you very much I will, that’s very kind of
you."
Wizard nodded in his direction and then turned to Dot "Come
on," he said. "I think it’s time we were on our way, pick up the
lead again, we’re nearly at the first router station."
Dot hung on again for dear life. She heard Wizzy mutter under
his breath "not a bad chap for a cat really". She couldn’t help
smiling, the Internet was an amazing place because Wizzy
normally hated cats!
She closed her eyes and within seconds she was in another
computer station. This time they didn’t stop, they simply
followed a signpost that lit up and simply said "Texas". Thank
goodness, thought Dot they were nearly there.
As they rushed out of the router, Mister
Mouse yelled "Howya doing kid?"
"Fine thank you," said Dot who wasn’t
really sure she was fine at all, but she
certainly wasn’t going to let Mister
Mouse know that.
"Er..What was that last
computer station place by
the way?"
"Ah, just a router station,
there are millions of ‘em,
bit like road junctions
really," replied Mister
Mouse.
26
"You were lucky there, that was one of the more modern ones
that just has light boxes that automatically point you in the
right direction. Some of the old fashioned ones where you have
to wait to be told where to go are a real drag.
"I tell you if you wind up alongside old Bert, you haveta get the
low-down on his corns and his six children before he gives you
a clue where ya goin. Ghee that guy can talk!"
"You’re so uncharitable," said Wizard.
"Bert just likes to make the most of
company when it passes by."
"Now Dot, brace yourself we’ll be
there any minute now. That’s the
beauty of this place, the server’s in the
office so we can step right into the
bar."
Before Dot could blink she found
herself looking through the screen
of a computer.
Wizard said: "It’s ok the coast is
clear we’re free to go in."
Suddenly Dot was standing in an
office. It was full of boxes of coke;
hamburger cartons and on the desk
was a fairly large computer. Obviously
the server for the web site. Dot found
herself giggling. She couldn’t believe
she’d actually been served up at a
hamburger bar. This experience
was what her friend Genie would
have described as "wicked" and it
wasn’t over yet.
27
chapter 4:
new friends
Mister Mouse was looking through the door from the office into
the burger bar.
"Yep the coast is clear guys and no sign of that fat cat that lives
here either. Things are looking good," he said.
Wizard, Dot and Mister Mouse walked into the restaurant
unnoticed from the office. Dot’s mouth watered, as she smelt
the delicious aroma of sizzling burgers on the grill and saw the
huge milk shakes being served up.
They sat down at one of the booths. "You’d better order for all
of us," said Wizard as he settled at Dot’s feet. Mister Mouse
tucked in next to him.
"Better order a burger for you and we’ll share," said Wizard.
"Hey, who said I was sharing," Mister Mouse said indignantly.
"I did," said Wizard glaring at him.
"It’s ok," said Dot, "You should see the size of these things, we
could probably share with the whole street and still have some
left."
Dot ordered a double hamburger loaded with lettuce, tomato,
onions and pickles.
"Sure honey, coming right up," said the waitress, smiling at Dot.
"That sure is a funny accent you got there. You wanna coke or
a shake with that? We make the shakes with real fruit you
know.”
29
"Oh a strawberry milkshake please," said Dot. "Sorry about the
accent."
The waitress laughed. "Oh it’s kinda cute really. Is it one of
them London England accents, cos if it is there’s someone who
sure would like to meet you I think."
"Oh yes” said Dot. “It is a British accent."
The waitress who had been quite softly spoken suddenly
opened her mouth and yelled. Dot knew her mother would be
most cross with her if she was ever quite so loud, but it made
her giggle.
The woman shouted, "Hey Floyd get on out here honey, got
ourselves a real English person for you to talk to."
The kitchen door opened slightly and a teenage boy poked his
head around the door. Dot would never forget the moment she
saw him. The boy had floppy blonde hair which fell over his
right eye. His eyes were sparkling blue and as he emerged from
the door she could see he was tanned and very fit.
"This is Floyd," the waitress said. "He’s my son and he wants to
go to London England one day. He’s been hoping to find a
friend over there to write to."
Dot’s heart turned over. She would love to be Floyd’s friend.
"Hi," he said shyly. "You really from England?"
"Oh yes" said Dot "and I would love to write to you."
"Cool," said Floyd. "That’s really cool."
"Look why don’t you two get acquainted and I’ll grab the
burger for you," said Floyd’s Mum.
Dot thought that sounded a wonderful idea and she and Floyd
talked and talked. He knew all about computers and he loved
surfing the net, so they had heaps in common. He also loved his
30
skateboard - lucky Slam had told her so much
about them!
Dot was having such a great time, that when her
burger arrived she’d munched half way through
it before she felt a wet nose on her leg and she
realised she’d forgotten to feed some to
Wizard and Mister Mouse.
Floyd loved Wizard and helped Dot to
secretly put a generous portion of burger
under the seat so he and Mister Mouse
could eat too. They had to be very
careful because dogs were not really
allowed in restaurants, so they made
sure that Floyd’s mum didn’t see him.
Everything was absolutely perfect in
Dot’s world she had never had so much
fun. The only slight hiccup was when
Floyd asked for her address and she said 97 Barking Avenue,
Hounslow.
When he laughed and said, "No silly, you’re email
address" Dot wanted the floor to swallow her up.
But then the way strange things were happening
to her at the moment, she thought she had
better not think that in case it did swallow her
up!
Dot told Floyd her email address: "It’s
dot@missdorothy. com," she said.
"Hey that’s really neat, you’re Dot Com in
person and on the net."
Dot, who had never particularly liked her
name, suddenly loved it. Wizard spoilt her
moment by nudging her in the back of the
32
leg. Her heart sunk she knew it was time to go home, but she
didn’t want to go.
But she did know she had Floyd’s emails to look forward to and
they both had so much in common. Both their grandmothers’s
had lived in California. Dorothy had never been there, but Floyd
said it was a wicked place.
Another nudge from Wizard and Dot told Floyd she had to go.
"No problem," said Floyd "My Ma needs me in the kitchen
anyway. Hey I tell you what have the burger on us. She’ll never
notice."
Dot flushed, she hadn’t even thought about how she would pay.
"Well that’s terribly kind of you," she said.
"Hey forget it and don’t forget to email me," he yelled as he
disappeared into the kitchen where Dot could hear more yelling
from his mother.
As soon as Floyd disappeared Dot looked round and sneaked
towards the office. When they were safely inside, Mister Mouse
said: "Well thanks for the burger kid, nice of you to remember
us."
"Oh ignore him," said Wizard, "We’re just glad you had a good
time, but we really must get back, your
mother will be looking for you soon."
"Hang on," said Wizard.
Dot hung on to Wizard for dear life and
they were off again back down the
Internet heading for home.
Dot was starting to get used to this
cyber travel when they reached another
router station and she was horrified to see
Mister Mouse disappear off in a different direction.
33
She and Wizard were sent one way and she just saw Mister
Mouse’s tail go off the other way.
It was so noisy in the router she could hardly hear herself think
as masses of data packets rushed through in all directions. But
she summoned up her biggest voice and yelled out to Wizard
that they’d lost Mister Mouse.
"Don’t worry," called out Wizard, "the chance would be a fine
thing. We haven’t lost him they’ve just put him on another route
home. Professor Protocol at Internet HQ and his assistant Netty
Quette will make sure we all end up back at the house.”
And sure enough as they landed in a heap on the floor in Dot’s
bedroom, seconds later Mister Mouse landed unceremoniously
beside them.
"Don’t you just hate it when that happens," he grumbled. "they
should really give you more warning when they’re gonna split
a party up."
But Wizard wasn’t listening to Mister Mouse’s grumbles his ears
were cocked and his head was on one side.
"Whoops action stations," he said "your mother’s on her way up."
Dot grabbed her uneaten burger and hid it under her bed.
Wizard flopped on the floor and feigned sleep and Dot had just
put the empty plate on the table and jumped into her seat,
when Mum opened the door.
Dot looked round in panic for Mister Mouse. He had almost
crawled back into his computer shell, but she watched in horror
as she saw his hand dart out to grab his cap, which was still in
full view on the desk!
Dot held her breath waiting for her Dad’s shout or her Mum’s
scream.... but neither came. Bill and Susie Com were so busy
looking at what Dot had created for the doggydo’s web page
that they wouldn’t have noticed an elephant skateboarding
35
along the window ledge. “this looks fantastic Dot”
her father raved!”
“Absolutely marvellous dear” said Dot’s mum,
“but it’s getting very late. Your poor dad fell
asleep in his chair downstairs, he’s had such a
bad day. I think we had all better look at this in
the morning.”
Dot did suddenly feel very tired, but it had
nothing to do with setting up her father’s
web page, she had just been on the best
adventure of her life.
Her mother was talking again. "You’re
probably still hungry too, you’ve only
had a little burger, I could bring up
some milk and a sandwich."
Dot was actually full to bursting after her trip
to Texas.
"No really Mum," she said, "I’m just tired, I
think I would like to go to bed now, I can show you and Dad
what I’ve done on the computer in the morning."
As Susie settled her daughter down for night and Wizard hopped
up onto the bed she said to Dot: "Perhaps
you could show me how to do some
shopping on that machine as well.”
"Genie’s mum tells me she hardly
bothers to go to the shops these days,
she just orders it all on the Internet,
then she has it all delivered. Sounds like
heaven to me, but I’m not sure your father
would like it."
37
"Mmmm, no problem Mum," Dot mumbled as she snuggled
down. She was really was so tired, she felt Wizard give
her a little lick on the cheek before he settled down
on the duvet.
Her last thought before she drifted off to sleep, was
that she couldn’t wait to tell Genie about the
Internet. She hoped Mister Mouse could make it
happen for her again.
She heard her mother close
the door... her mind was
racing. She couldn’t
believe what had
happened to her. She
thought about who she
could trust at school.
Who was it safe to tell about
her adventure? She could
definitely tell Genie. Genie could always be
trusted and so could Pearl and Slam.
38
She smiled one last sleepy smile. Slam was so
mad about basketball, perhaps they could go to
watch a really super cool team in America. Pearl
would want her to go to Barbados so she
could see where her Dad came from... and
then there was the London Eye... She was
dying to see the view from there... and
then it was nearly Christmas... Maybe they
could all visit Father Christmas! Wow...
that would be so cool...! She wondered
if he would give up his reindeer and
start using the Super Highway if she
told him her secret! She smiled to
herself... and then ...zzzzzzzzz....zzzzzzzzz
39
chapter 5:
success for
Doggydo’s
The following day when Bill Com saw his web page and his
email address he was absolutely amazed. He had no idea his
daughter was so clever.
By the end of the week he was even more amazed because
Doggydo’s was inundated with orders through the Internet. Dot
was helping him answer his emails every night from customers
all over the country and they were even starting to get enquiries
from America for some of Doggydo’s more upmarket lines, like
their low fat biscuit selections.
Samson had kept his word and he was now making sure
Doggydo’s was on The World Wide Web!!
Mr Elms said this was e-commerce at its best and he had asked
to see him that very afternoon.
Bill went in to Mr Elms’ office quite sure he was going to get a
pay rise.
Mr Elms beamed at him.
"My nephew says you’ve done a marvellous job Bill, can’t
believe you had it in you.
"But I always knew you did. In fact you’ve done so well I’m
going to put you in charge of this company’s IT Department
and Doggydo’s biggest event of the year..
41
This year we’re sponsoring the Munchenmeat Dog Awards and
I want you to take care of the whole event on the Internet.
Mr Elms slapped him on the back. "What do you think of that
old boy, eh, quite something for you to organise. But we know
you can do it. Must dash now. See you Monday."
Bill tried to smile but his face was frozen. How was he going to
manage? What on earth had Dot got him into!
42
Dot Com tips for
Dinosaur Dad
@ The symbol on the computer keyboard representing the
word “at” in an email address. It is used to separate the person’s
name from the domain name in an email address (eg:
[email protected] my name dot is separated from my
domain name missdorothy.com or your name billcom is
separated by @ in your email address, so it reads
[email protected] - doggydos.com is your domain
address)
Attachment A file which is sent with an
email message. It could be a document
you have written, a picture or a
spreadsheet. When you have written
your email message you will see the
symbol of a paper clip and you can click
on the paper clip and it will allow you
to attach any file you choose before you click
on send.
Browser A program which translates HTML into pictures and
text on the screen. It allows code to be translated into human
language (for example you have Internet Explorer on your
computer Dad, but you could choose a different browser like
Netscape Navigator instead if you wanted to.)
Click To press down once and then release the left hand button
of the mouse.
43
Double-click To quickly press and release the left hand button
of the mouse twice.
Right-click To press and quickly release the right-hand button
of the computer mouse. (By the way if you were left-handed
Dad, you could change your mouse to work the other way
round!)
Cursor The little arrow on the screen which you can move
around. You can move it by moving the mouse and when you
want it to stay in one place to begin working in that area you
simply click the mouse. The cursor sometimes changes, for
example, when the computer is busy doing something you have
asked it to do, the cursor changes into an hourglass shape.
When the task is done the cursor changes back into an arrow.
Some computers can have cursors in different shapes for
example changed into a rocket or an animal.
Dial-up A connection to the Internet via a telephone line.
Domain Name the part of your email address which gives
information about the person or company. It tells you where it
is, (for example .co.uk or for Poland it would be .co.pl) and
whether it is part of a commercial organisation (.com) or
government (.gov) or educational (.edu) or even a charity (.org)
So the domain in your email address is doggydos.com because it
is commercial.
44
Download To copy information or files from the Internet onto
your own computer. Upload is to send information the other
way from your computer to another computer on the Internet
(the Net).
e-commerce electronic trading, or buying and selling via the
internet.
Email Electronic mail - this is a message sent between two
computers over the Internet. Your email address has to be
unique to you - nobody else in the world can have the same
address. That is why people sometimes put a hyphen or a dash
or an underscore in their name to make it different from
somebody else. So if there was another [email protected],
he might want to make his address [email protected] so
there would be no confusion with email. An email address is
usually written without capital letters, all in lower case. There are
no spaces in email addresses because it would confuse the
computers, so people put dots in between words to separate
them. So you could be billcom or [email protected], but I
thought plain billcom was simpler!
File Anything you save in the computer such as a software
program, or a document or a picture. It is the electronic version
of the paper file that Mavis your secretary used to put in the
filing cabinet!
Hard disk The part of a computer which stores software
programme and files. It is like your filing cabinet.
HTML (Hyper Text Mark Up Language) Everything on the World
Wide Web is written in HTML. It was invented so computers all
over the world could write in the same computer language and
could then share information. HTML is a programing language
which we don’t see on our screens. The software programs on
45
our computers convert the computer code into our own
languages so we can read it easily. The doggydos web page on
the world wide web is an HTML web page - that means it is
written in that particular code so it can be read by computer all
over the world.
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) This is the protocol (or set
of codes) which allows the hypertext document to be sent over
the Internet. That is why all web page addresses start http:// so
the full doggydos website address is http://www.doggydos.com
Home page The first page or the opening page of a web site or
the first page, you see when your browser takes you to the
Internet.
Internet The Internet is the network which is the transport
system connecting a group of computers in different places all
over the world. They are linked to each other and can share
information available on the world wide web, they can
communicate using electronic mail (email) and they can form a
discussion group (news group). Once you add your computer to
this network, you can share all these advantages and every
computer linked to the Internet has a unique address. Nobody
else in the world can have the same address.
46
IP Address Every computer connected to the Internet has an
IP address, which is written in dots and numbers. The computer
reads the code, but it is converted to words for people to
understand on the screen. So when you are seeing words that
you type onto the screen those words are read by the computer
as a number like this ..193.164.167.140 this means in human
language missdorothy.com
ISP Internet Service Provider - a company that sells access to the
Internet
Free ISP - Free Internet Service Provider - some companies give
you a CD Rom to put in your computer and that allows you free
dial-up access to the Internet. But remember you still have to
pay for the phone call while you are connected to the Internet.
These companies get their money from a share of the telephone
charges and sometimes from advertising.
Link (Hypertext link) A piece of text or a picture you can
click on to go to another web page. When you click on a link,
that document will be displayed, played or downloaded
depending on what it is. You know when you have found a
hypertext link because the cursor changes from an arrow to a
hand with the index finger extended ready to click the mouse.
Modem A device which allows a computer to communicate
with another computer over a standard telephone line. It
changes the signals so they understand each other. (You have a
modem in your computer Dad so it can connect to the Internet,
but some people have to buy a modem and attach it to their
computer). It converts the digital information of the computer
into soundwaves (MODulates - MOD) to allow it to be carried
across the analogue soundwaves back to digital information
(DEModulate or DEM) for the computer to understand so
MODulate/DEModulate or MODEM ... neat eh?
47
Online is when you are connected to the Internet
Offline is when you are not connected to the Internet
Router If you think of the Internet rather like a rail nework the points of the railway track are like the routers sending data
in various directions and the computers are like the stations on
the track. The data (or information in packets) moves around
with a label on it, a bit like the name on the front of the train,
and the routers know where the data has come from and where
it is going. The passengers inside the train would be like bytes of
data inside the packets. The routers - route or direct - the flow
of information.
Search Engine A specialist website which allows you to look
for information on the web. It is like a catalogue which displays
items in categories such as education, entertainment etc or you
can use key words to find information eg type in biscuit and it
will find you sites with references to biscuits. Some of the better
known search engines are Yahoo, Google, Alta Vista, Excite and
Lycos. There are safe search engines too for example
Yahooligans or Ask Jeeves for Kids which stop kids like me
looking at sites that aren’t good for me!
Server a computer which contains programs/information which
can be used/accessed by other computers elsewhere on the
Internet or the network.
URL Uniform Resource Locator - the address which describes
your page or your site on the World Wide Web. So the URL for
the Doggydos website is www.doggydos.com
Web World Wide Web - the name given to pictures and
information that are all available in the same computer language
and are connected to each other by click through links.
48
You can view these pages of information by connecting to the
Internet.
Webpage This is one page of information on the World Wide
Web
Website This is a collection of pages usually connected to one
company or organisation. For example the Doggydos website
has a number of pages - pages of information about the
company, pages for ordering products and pages of information
about animal welfare. So the collection of those pages is called a
website.
Window An area of the screen containing boxes or buttons
This is just the beginning Dad - learn these and I’ll help you with
some more!
But don’t worry we can learn together.
t
o
D
love
xxx
49
Dot Com Rules for
Surfing Safely
Things I must remember when I am on the web we all have the right to feel safe all the time - and that
includes when we are in cyberspace. I will put a
picture of one of my friends by each rule to help me
remember.
I will not tell anyone things such as my
address/telephone number, parents’ work
address/telephone number, or the name and location
of my school without my parents’ or guardians’
permission.
I will tell a trusted adult right away if I come across
anything that makes me feel uncomfortable and think
“uh-oh” that isn’t right.
I will never agree to get together with someone I
“meet” online without first checking with my parents.
If my parents agree, I will be sure that it is in a public
place and bring my mother or father or guardian
along.
I will never send a person my picture or anything else
without first checking with my parents or guardian.
I will not respond to any messages that make me
think “uh-oh” this person is mean or that makes me
feel uncomfortable. If I receive a message like that, I
50
will tell my parents or guardian right away so that
they can contact the online service.
I will talk with my parents or guardian so that we can
set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the
time of day that I can be online, the length of time I
can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I
will not break these rules or access other areas
without their permission.
I will not download anything from anyone I don’t
know.
I learned these rules from PC
Bonnett who comes to see me
at my school and I know I
must remember them
because they will help to
keep me safe.
51
Here are some of
the new characters
meet them in dot’s
next adventure
Edex
Springer & Constable
52
Nan Com
Mrs Redman
Neighbour
Genie’s Dad
53
Dear Friend
I hope you have enjoyed taking part in my adventure. Perhaps
you could write a story or poem about an adventure that has
happened to you. I would also like to hear about your family and
how they are coping with computers and the Internet. You can
write to me at Miss dorothy.com, The MDC Publishing
Company Ltd.
Ground Floor Office, City Arms House, 127 London Road, Stone,
Dartford, Kent DA2 6BH or visit my website at
www.missdorothy.com. I will print the best stories that are sent
to my website so that everyone can enjoy them too.
[email protected].
t
o
D
e
v
o
l
xxx
54
As Dot Com, a nine year old girl tries to help her
“Dinosaur Dad” understand the Internet she
accidentally finds herself in an amazing new world. She
is quite literally sucked into the computer screen and out
onto the Super Highway.
Join her on her adventures in Cyber Space and around
the world with her friends Wizard, Cursor the Cat and
Mister Mouse. But watch out for the bad guys, the
Cyber-rats - their dirty business is data corruption and they really
hate children and teachers! If you have lost any emails lately you
can blame the cyberats - they’re after you!
Why don’t you visit Dot’s website www.missdorothy.com
UK £4.99
The MDC Publishing Company Ltd.
Ground Floor Office,
City Arms House,
127 London Road, Stone,
Dartford, Kent DA2 6BH