Some Days I Feel Older Than Others

[Ryan Mooney]

DOS lives! http://www.freedos.org/

You can still buy DR Dos http://drdos.com/products/dr-dos/ $35/seat hahaha no thanks.

And for the unix nerd (raises hand) who needs dos (puts hand down): http://www.dosemu.org/

[Belinda Barfield]

It may not be DOS, but that is what she said. She said everything is a function key stroke and she can't use her mouse for anything. She was told the reason they have this system is that is completely safe from viruses, etc. She can, however, take a photo of her receipt from a business lunch, send the photo to the home office and it goes into their accounting program (somehow, don't ask me), so they aren't living in the dark ages. It's a 400 million dollar a year company.

[Bill Edwards(2)]

It's probably a mid range, like an IBM iSeries. Without a GUI interface, very little mouse or graphic function. (It's where I live, work and play) There are a whole bunch of us out here.
People raised on PC's are often lost on this type of system. Ask her if it's "green screen" (green letters on a black background)

[Ryan Mooney]

Ask her if it's "green screen" (green letters on a black background)

I always liked the green screens better than the amber screens anyway, the amber had lower contrast for me

I've been using white (#F6F4F4) on dark blue (#0C108C) for a long time, I even had all of my DOS setups configured like that.

I would be moderately surprised (but not astounded) if they still had dumb terminals and weren't using an emulation software. Most of the folks I knew using dumb terminals had ditched them by the mid 90s because they were getting specialized enough to start costing more than the alternative hw+emulation software.

[Ole Anderson]

I always thought amber was cool, but it was so short lived when they came out with color. But do you remember dedicated word processors that still typed out using plastic ribbons? Lanier if I remember. Our company was one of the first to use an IBM 1130 with single platters and punch cards and using a flat bed plotter to do civil engineering drawings for water and sewer systems. Had to write all of our own code.

[Randal Stevenson]

They may be using Freedos as a terminal, or they may be aliasing dos commands to nix (Aix/Unix/Linux, or posix compliant), OSes. I've known a few people who did alias dos commands, as they grew up with it as the basis of (pre)Windows.

[paul cottingham]

Sounds like UNIX to me. Lucky person!

[jeff . whitaker]

I remember writing on papyrus with peacock quills.

HAH!! Ya whipper snapper... I 'member rit'n on ROCKS and ya had to use yor finger!! and walking up hill in the snow both ways when you wanted to to do a little dinosaur hunt"n!!!
(what? yes nurse I'll take my meds now.........)

[Ryan Mooney]

, or they may be aliasing dos commands to nix (Aix/Unix/Linux, or posix compliant), OSes. I've known a few people who did alias dos commands, as they grew up with it as the basis of (pre)Windows.

I used to know some folks who did that. It simply killed me to watch them do anything. One had even set it up with a shell function so if he did "cd c:\" it would take him to his home dir. Sooo much effort to avoid learning something a little bit different.

[Jason Roehl]

At least two of the local paint stores I visit (both of them are, or are owned by, large, global corporations) use ASCII interfaces on their POS and inventory control software. The experienced associates are generally pretty quick at using it because they have it memorized (along with product codes), and they don't have to switch between using a mouse and the keyboard. They'll even have new LCD screens hooked up to doorstops of computers to use as terminals.

[Rich Riddle]

Belinda, trust me, you are younger than many of the members here. Think moderators. Come here and feel young.

[Belinda Barfield]

Belinda, trust me, you are younger than many of the members here. Think moderators. Come here and feel young.

It is possible Rich, that I am feeling this way as I am about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my 25th birthday. Birthdays have never bothered me before but I can't quite get a grip on this one.

[Mel Fulks]

So THAT'S why you use that college photo!

[Rich Riddle]

It is possible Rich, that I am feeling this way as I am about to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my 25th birthday. Birthdays have never bothered me before but I can't quite get a grip on this one.

Belinda, I have the identical anniversary in September and come here to feel young and get the wisdom of the ages, or is that the aged? Happy birthday. You look quite young in your picture.

[Belinda Barfield]

So THAT'S why you use that college photo!

Belinda, I have the identical anniversary in September and come here to feel young and get the wisdom of the ages, or is that the aged? Happy birthday. You look quite young in your picture.

Thanks! That photo is actually pretty recent, it was taken last March.