:LOOK MA… NO HANDS!

Window’s Vista has been out. For a while now. That doesn’t mean much. Welcome to 2007, John.

I had some complimentary copies in the past when it was Longhorn and the subsequent various incarnations, and it was like, “Finally, Windows has caught up to OS X and KDE. Nice.” (And that’s as far as I’ll go on that debate. Maybe one day I’ll post the only objective Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux) But, I could never have it installed for too long because it would always crap out. And Vista apparently doesn’t have to worry about colon cancer because it is still crapping out with more regularity than the New York Times. (Now, whether that’s Microsoft’s problem or the software vendors’ problem is a whole ‘nother place I won’t go right now, but perhaps someday.) The moral of the story, though, is that I finally succumbed and converted my Windows computing environment to Vista, which is good, considering I bought my copy back in March or April.

Someday when I have the time, I’ll go back and talk about the good fun of Nazi-licensing, driver hiccups and barfs, and how some stuff not only doesn’t work (that I can handle), but completely and utterly does something that is not even anywhere near related what it’s supposed to do.

Anyway.

I’m no computer Kung Fu master (despite being a Computer Engineer/Scientist, most of the work I do is still pencil & paper), but I know my way around. And maybe sometimes you don’t need all fancy-schmancy. And maybe you grew up in a DOS-like world. Whatever the case, sometimes it’s easier dealing in a (bah, bah, bah…) command prompt environment.

While there’s an implied push to rid the world of command prompts (it’s been phased out of Windows ever since WIN95, Linux flavors like Ubuntu and Linspire are gaining prominence and KDE is prettier than ever, which is all right, and the major operating systems and desktop environments are putting all their might into their GUIs), sometimes it’s better to KISS.

I don’t know what it is about a black terminal screen with a blinking underscore cursor that makes me get my jollies.

There is a lot you can still do with a command prompt. There is a lot you can only do (right) with a command prompt. There is a lot you can more efficiently and effectively do with a command prompt. That’s another tale. I’m not trying to witness; I’m just sayin’.

Anyway.

If you’re like me, you have (been forced to have) learned how to cope in a mingled window- and console-based environment. For example, you are in Windows Explorer and need to open a command prompt window right there. You could do the whole Start –> Run –> cmd thing and then ls cd to the directory, but chances are it’s some insanely wild path like C:\Documents and Settings\John Tyndall’s Profile\The Key To FrontPage\Netscape Engineers are Weenies\

Windows XP had this handy little PowerToy to include a “Open Command Window Here” item in the context menu so that I could right-click on on the Netscape Engineers are Weenies directory and BAM… command prompt at said path. Of course, this is a simple registry hack, but we live in a CLICK-DOWNLOAD-INSTALL world. Whatever.

If you’ve used Vista before, you know that (like Internet Explorer 7 for you Vista scaredy cats) Windows is trying to get away from the well-established File-Edit menus. If you’re trying to be a good user and go with the flow, you may or may not know that you can press ALT to temporarily display the menu. If you didn’t, then go amaze your friends.

Along those lines, the SHIFT key is also a key of power in Windows Vista. Apparently Microsoft has included the “Open Command Window Here” for Vista (which is what they maybe should’ve done in XP). So they’ve seen the error of their ways. Yippee.

If you hold down the SHIFT key and RIGHT-CLICK a directory, you’ll get an extended context menu. One of the items is… you guessed it… “Open Command Window Here”. Select it, and it opens a command prompt… there.

Why it’s in a secret location is beyond the scope of my limited knowledge, but it’s there. And I just happened to come across it by accident. So feel good that you can save yourself some bandwidth and not have to download something.

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So here we go.

I’ve hesitated for quite a while when confronted with, “You should start a blog.” I mean, it’s the cool thing to do; high schoolers and grandmothers are blogging with more initiative and consistency than doing homework or knitting sweaters. Frankly, I guess I never had the time—or the ambition—to keep up with such a task. Once upon a time (when a blog was still an uncondensed web log and Google didn’t own Blogger), I attempted The Way It Is; but after one post (a meager endeavor at best), I abandoned it.

Here is a new effort.

I’ve reached that next stage in my life, a mid-midlife crisis of sorts, and with all the changes, now is as good a time as any to start saturating the web with the details of my life. I’m not sure what the direction, motivation, or purpose of this venture will be; however, I know that we’ll figure it out along the way.

This is the first post—a milestone—and I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with a decent topic. It’s just like episodic television: you need a basis, a hook, some kind of catalyst to keep the people coming back and wanting more. Most blogs I’ve looked at sort of just puke up out of nowhere: one day there’s nothing, and BAM—your cat ate all the Frankenberry. I like the effect, though; it’s like a remote, and someone’s just flipped on your life.

But what about 10 years from now (or even 6 months) when you go back to your first post for some inspiration and reflection and all you see is, “Today GreatStarts went from homestyle potatoes to hash browns and one giant egg blob to egg pieces”?  Actually, though, this is a bad example.

Here’s why.

Home-style potatoes represent days gone by of an era when one could spend Saturday morning cutting, boiling, and frying potatoes. Hey… sprinkle on some salt, some pepper, some garlic powder even. It’s time-consuming, but in the end, you’ve got some tasty suds. Take hash browns, then: some sort of conglomeration of potato-like substances, is that some sort of paste keeping things together, and preservatives packed inside a crispy shell. Hash browns are products of Fast Food—no time to cook, too busy to eat, always on the run.

Furthermore, we humans were once a civilization of wholes. That is, we were a giant egg blob of a happy family. Introduce war, pestilence, capitalism, and George W. Bush, and now the ties that have bound us together for so long—our very identities—have been shattered, ripped, and torn just like the egg pieces.

Despite the fact that the change in GreatStarts represents the downfall of a busy, separate society, I’ve found the reason to keep on going, motivation that things will one day get better, that the meaning of life will finally be revealed: Indiana Jones IV, baby.

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