Ah, DOS

Sometime I am glad I learned how to use computers before the Mac took over, before windows ruled the roost, before WYSIWYG. I mean, I know that the GUI was a great innovation, and I do really love my WYSIWYG apps, but every now and then I am faced with a problem and I am really glad that ages ago I used to write things like this:

10 ?"DAVID ROCKS "
20 GOTO 10

or maybe things like

COPY A: *.* C:/MYSTUFF/*.*

Does that make me an irretrievable geek? I think not. I mean there is still a use for such things today. Occasionally (although less often now due to some Blogger innovations) I have to type things like

[img src="http://members.aol.com/dboevers/TrinityWeb.jpg"]

or

[a href="http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/" target=" blank"]The PTM Newsbeat[/a]

and really that's about the sum total of what I know of HTML. But it is very much like a word processor I used to have for my Radio Shack Color Computer, or like EMACS when I learned it on the TOPS system at CMU before Andrew swallowed all of campus computing. All systems that you have to kind of have the keys to in order to function, and systems where if you get maybe one thing out of place start to fail.

You know, at least in windows - even XP, that stuff is still there. Sometimes you notice it when you are working in word. You'll backspace through nothing and the font will change or some other change. You've backed over some invisible control code. Used to happen more than it does now, but I still feel like I am catching it from time to time.

The other day I was downloading a file onto my desktop. I got tired of waiting and so I quit the browser, but the file icon was still there. I tried to delete it but the computer insisted that an application was currently using the file and stubbornly refused to let me do away with it. Here's what happened next:

I tried to drag it to the trash - failed
I tried to delete it from the pop up - failed
I shut down every app from the task manager and repeated the prior attempts - failed
I found the icon in the c:\documents and settings\user\owner\desktop directory and tried to delete it - failed
I rebooted the machine and tried to delete it - failed
I went to the command line and tried to delete it manually - failed
I booted the computer into safe mode and retried everything above - failed

At this point I am getting to the end of my toolbox. Then, ah, DOS - the dark place. Being a stagehand at heart I guess I am comfortable in the dark place...

reboot to command line only
CD..
CD..
CD..
CD DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS
CD USER
CD OWNER
CD DESKTOP
DEL (whateverthefilewas).(whatevertheextensionwas)

and then poof! It was gone. Ah, DOS, thank you DOS. I know I could have typed the whole directory string at one time, its an anti-typo behavior I can't shake.

Now, I don't think for a second I am any kind of computer programmer, or any kind of IT guy. But I am fairly sure I know people that would have lived with that icon on their desktop until they bought a new computer before they got even halfway though that troubleshooting procedure.

Do yourself a favor. Embrace some meaningless jargon now and then. Someday it might come in handy.