In real life the "Nevada girl" is a teenage murderer. At 12, she lured her friend and classmate into a classroom, slit her throat with a box cutter, and (I think) just went on her way to another class. She was mad because her friend had posted something about her on the internet. When she was taken away (I don't think she ever tried to hide her involvement), she was wearing a blue-hooded sweatshirt with "NEVADA" in big letters on the front. Since her name was not released (at the time, it may be now), she had to be referenced to by "nevada." As facination with the grusome and grotesk is prevalent amongst some segments of Japanese society (at least more than in America or Europe), amateur artists soon drew their own comic and art versions of her, turning her into an icon, if not some sort of -- fictionalized -- heroine. On the internet, such things spread wide and quickly.
The OS-tans are similar, some website (probably 2ch) characterized the OSes as mascots, which became really popular (especially Me-tan), and thus have spread similarly.
If you're wondering, the -tan suffix is the same as the -chan suffix. It's a cwootsie wootsie way of saying -chan, much as a child would do.
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Anonymous2005-03-01 15:12
I really appreciate your reply ^^ thank you!
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Anonymous2005-03-03 8:28 (sage)
>>4
Some of that information is a bit inaccurate. This site (http://shii.org/nevada) gives better datails.