Old Operating Systems Never Die...

This was wild. The ATM at my workplace was frozen on a welcome screen (in spanish, no less) and nothing happened when I slid my card or pressed any buttons.

Being a computer geek, I decided the thing just needed to be rebooted. So I found where the electrical cord was plugged into the wall and... unplugged it. I counted to ten and plugged it back in (half expecting an alarm to go off, followed immediately by the appearance of armed security guards...) and waited for it to boot up.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this:



I could hardly believe it! OS2/Warp? Didn't that OS die around the time Windows 95 came out? Well, apparently not. I wonder how much IBM makes from licensing OS2 on the billions of ATM's out there?

(It's times like this that make me glad for a camera-phone.)

Tag, I'm It! (And what the heck is a "meme"???)

Okay, so Connie's Daughter has "tagged" me. I thought tags were those HTML thingies that you use to make text bold, or italicized, or both! (I know they're used for much more than that, obviously.)

Anyway, now I'm "It" and I have to do a "meme." What the heck is that? Hang on a sec while I look it up...

According to memes.org, "A meme is any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another." They go on to say that Richard Dawkins, of all people, coined the term in 1976. Since Richard and I are not on speaking terms (owing partly to the evolutionary biologist's positions that God is a delusion, religion is a virus, and America has slipped back into the Dark Ages, but mainly because he wouldn't know me from Adam), I'm not going to comment on how this game of "tagging" someone with an odd challenge doesn't really fit the definition. (Egad, this is supposed to be a fun blog, after all!)

But, since I don't want to incur the wrath of Connie's Daughter, I feel compelled to comply. Here's the so-called "meme" that's been thrown my way:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

Before I quote from the book I'm reading, I have to point out the inherent imbalance and asymmetry of this challenge. Why, when the first two points use 123, do the third and fifth points use 5, and the fourth use 3? Why not find the sixth sentence (since 1+2+3 = 6) and post the next 123 words, or the next 6 sentences, and tag 6 people? And does "the next three sentences" mean to begin with the next sentence after the fifth, or is it intended to mean "post three sentences beginning with the fifth"? (Can you tell I don't really want to do this?) Really, the only thing that makes this a meme is the last point, anyway, which causes the action to be repeated. (More about this below.)

Okay, here it is, as demanded -- I mean requested. (**SPOILER ALERT** If you haven't yet read the first 6 books in the Harry Potter series, skip the next part!)

There is nothing like the trip "mile and miles" below Hogwarts we had in the first two books or the trip under the Whomping Willow or the fight far beneath the streets of London in the Ministry of Magic. We don't even get to portkey to a graveyard where most of the people present are underground as Harry did in Goblet.
But there are two underground scenes of importance -- or "one and a half" underground scenes, let's say.

From Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader by John Granger (of HogwartsProfessor.com fame).

Finally, I hate to "break the chain," but I'm not going to play Richard's game and be his puppet. In other words, as I alluded to above, I am not going to pass this silliness on to any other bloggers. The meme stops here. You can quote me.