R.I.P. old friend April 26, 2010
Posted by joedob in general.1 comment so far
“Nothing Lasts Forever”
Many years ago (well over 20), I first ventured out of my safe, secure world of “Big Iron” & embarked on my endless journey into the world of personal computers. With much anguish, I had begun my task of learning a new type of computer. One that, as fate would have it, would change my life forever, but not necessarily for the better. So, with corporate credit card in hand, I went to the most accesible place I could find… PC WAREHOUSE.
As I walked in, I was immediately taken back the the plethora of new, shiny equipment, all of which was foreign to me. “I gotta find someone to help”, I thought. At this point, another revelation came to me.. EVERYONE IN THE PLACE WAS CHINESE. Had I taken a wrong turn & entered Wong’s Egg Foo Yung Palace? A quick appraisal proved that not to be the case. So I walked around listening intently to find someone who spoke a reasonable dialect of English. I singled out the sole person with this marvelous ability.
“Can you help me?” Sure. Not too long into the conversation, I realized that, although this person spokeEnglish, it was not the brand I was used to. I thought I was watching Wheel of Fortune. This person used every acronym in the book, & a number of which I had never heard & felt sure were bogus.
An hour later, I walked out, the proud owner of that day’s current technology… A brand new 486 machine with 8K of RAM, 500MB of HDD storage, a new SVGA 14″ monitor, keyboard, mouse & a shitload of cables. A powerhouse in it’s day.
Thus began my trek into the dark recesses of what would become the thorn in the side of every computer technician for that day. It is a trek that continues, even today.
Which brings me to today. I arrive at work, turn on the trusty old friend in my office, & proceed to start my daily routine. However, today was not to be like every other day in my humdrum life. After distributing the company daily reports, & making my morning tea, I return to my office only to find a dark screen where my faithful friend usually greets me. Realize that this old, reliable system contains the ever popular, albeit defunct, LOTUS 123 (DOS version release 2.3) software which I use to summarize the previous day’s activity for my employer. After calming myself down, & trying a vast number of fixes, I come to realize that the system is, as is the registered owner of LOTUS 123, DEAD ! Panic turns to resolve. OK, the hardware is dead, but the data on the drive should still be intact. A quick scan of the office revealed my salvation. A “new” machine. I must qualifiy the term “NEW”. New, in this context, means working. There, in the corner of my office, currently functioning as an end table, was another, more modern machine. This system was a speedy 586, with 512KB of memory. The rest of the components are irrelavant, since they’re never going to be used. I perform a quick surgical extraction of the original hard drive & transplant it into the new system, connect all the wires & cables & turn on my latest creation. Click, Click, Whirr, Whirr, & soon my replacement computer is ready to pick up where it’s predecessor left off.
While many of you are astounded by this feat of magic (as was I), realize that the old system, as well as the new, is running on an antiquated version of DOS (disk operating system 6.0). No fancy windows, no mouse, no blue screeen of death. Just a fully functional machine, ready to do my bidding.
So now, after a brief period of mourning, I will say a final farewell to my trusted old friend. You’ve served me well these many years. Now go join your other deceased amigos in the electonic landfill of peace. You will be sorely missed. SNIFF, SNIFF
