Talk:1360: Old Files

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 22:20, 26 April 2014 by 108.162.221.32 (talk) (Clearing up the "AIMD Direct Connect" thing.)
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Actually, the "AIM Direct Connect" is in reference to the file sharing system that the AOL Instant Messenger used to use. A quick Google would have found that. 108.162.221.32 22:20, 26 April 2014 (UTC)Slacker

I notice backup and recovery files. I once had a folder on my father's computer that housed everything I did. When the drive crashed, I managed to recover it and store it to a CD-ROM (this was before thumb drives). I copied everything onto my first computer within my main folder (I don't use My Documents), and I continue to move my main folder into a new main folder each time I migrate between computers. I have so many nested memories. I, too, have incomplete fan-fiction and instant message logs. Oh, and a dream.txt. 108.162.237.218 04:47, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I don't have as much of a problem with the "old files room", because I keep nearly all of my files on my laptop, but my hard drive is almost full. Another hard drive replace the CD drive, but this computer won't last much longer (bye cd drive workaround). I'll have to build an "old files room" sooner or later. Z (talk) 05:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Back in the... early '90s, I think it was... I recall there being someone like a buddhist monk (or someone claiming to be someone like a buddhist monk, and the religion could have been something else) who set up an internet site (not necessarily a website) as a temple for "all lost data". The files you had accidentally deleted, the floppies that got damaged or otherwise corrupted, forgotten formats on old drives that you'd lost the wherewithall to access them. Between this and the "hoarder" behaviour exhibitted in the above XKCD folder we encompass all long-term computer users. At the same time. I know I regret the dead USB sticks (with irreplacable content) and yet I stare in hopelessness at the folders "GStick" and "FStick" within My Documents, that really need looking at again. (No, they don't contain the lost material. Datestamped at 2009.) But they're two of fifty-three separate subfolders (and a helluva lot of loose files) in that level. "WebRedo"? I remember that. That site hasn't even been active for about a decade. 141.101.89.224 06:50, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Explanation

I think the point of the comic doesn't come across in the explanation. It's not just that he's sifting through files, but that he's finding files nested deeply in his folder structure that just came to pass because he always copied contents of an old computer to some folder on the next computer and then ignored its contents.

I.e. in his "Documents" folder, there is the "Old Desktop" folder from a previous computer, which contains the "Recovered from drive crash" folder from another previous system, which has another "Mu Documents" folder within, ... etc. The nesting aspect should somehow be integrated into the explanation. --108.162.229.57 09:59, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

The shape of the panel is vaguely reminiscent of a hard drive, this may be intentional, being emphasized by the increasing size of the individual layers. In which case there might be some metaphor construed by the placement of the two characters based on their location in the structure of the hard-drive perhaps involving the catalog index. 108.162.216.35 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)


It should be pointed out that the AYB folder is directly referencing https://xkcd.com/286/ 108.162.238.211 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I have done this before on my hard drive(s) and I always find my old qbasic programs. Anyone knows of an emulator for qbasic so I could see my old programs running again? Bigfatbernie (talk) 13:56, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

DOSBox will run QBasic programs if you grab the QBasic 1.1 interpreter from either an old copy of Windows 98 that still has it in its dos utilities folder, or just download it from here: http://www.qbasic.net/en/qbasic-downloads/compiler/qbasic-interpreter.htm 108.162.219.42 17:01, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

Qbasic was "hardwired" in IBM PC's and/or PC/AT's. If the PC did not find some bootable device, it would start Qbasic from a chip. 108.162.219.55 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Anybody know what Citadel is? 108.162.219.42 16:58, 25 April 2014 (UTC) Citadel is historically a BBS package. Today it is an open source groupware system, but some people are still using it as a BBS. Google "Uncensored! BBS" to find a well known one. IGnatius T Foobar (talk) 03:19, 26 April 2014 (UTC)

Can we get some instructions on how to edit the page?

It makes no sense to me whatsoever, and it's unlike every other page on the wiki. I can find the list we use in the transcript, but I can't figure out how to add the explainations 199.27.130.204 18:19, 25 April 2014 (UTC)

I did remove that templates from this page, the explain is still very bad — but now you should be able to post your adds. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:23, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
I am the person who added the templates. I figured that on a xkcd wiki of all wikis one should feel free to use some more advanced Mediawiki features, to keep from redundancy (here, repetition of data between the explanation and the transcript)... Oh well. Apparently the definition of "to make sense" is "to make sense to others". Also, semicolons are used for definition lists, not for headers. 141.101.89.217 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
By the way, the current transcript is wrong. The items listed under "No header" headers belong to the "named" headers on the parallel side. There is no dichotomy like that. If you insist on reflecting the visual layout of the comic in the transcript, I suggest something like this (uncapitalised, unsorted, and unformatted, because it is just a quick illustration):

 

documents

Megan:
"You OK
down there?"

 

  • misc.txt

old desktop

  • video projects
  • facebook pics

recovered from
drive flash

  • pics from
    other camera
  • temp
  • misc pdfs
  • mp3
  • temp

my documents

  • work misc
  • audiobooks
  • downloads
  • ayb
  • ev override
  • angband
  • kazaa shared
  • gigs

high school
zip disk

  • fight club.wmv
  • aim direct
    connect files
  • elasto mania
  • 4chan
  • icq logs
  • lovenote.txt
  • gorilla.bas
  • aol
    • citadel
  • nyet
  • jokes.txt

aaafiles

  • korn midi
  • photos3
    • prom
  • dream.txt
  • james.txt
  • qbasic

 

txt

Cueball:
"Oh my God.
I wrote poetry."

 

141.101.89.217 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Done Davidy²²[talk] 21:07, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
Thank you! In fact, I just noticed that rows didn't reflect one filesystem level! They should be moved one level up. I will fix that (and capitalise and sort the labels.) ‎141.101.89.212 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Done. ‎141.101.89.212, too--I really don't like this insistence on signing (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
The unsigned template contains instructions on how to properly sign your posts. If you are against signing for privacy reasons, at least use five tildes (~~~~~) to mark off each of your messages as distinct comments. Your IP is logged anyways by Mediawiki, but casual observers will not see your IP. Davidy²²[talk] 21:41, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
Uh, little question. I just read the source, and the html for your table contains no closing tags. Do you have something against them or something? Also, I removed the bullet points when I added the table to the transcript because strictly speaking, the comic doesn't actually contain any bullet points, so we're adding punctuation that isn't present in the comic. Davidy²²[talk] 21:54, 25 April 2014 (UTC)
Unsigned IP's producing a great chaos here. No READER does UNDERSTAND. Please keep it simple as possible, NO new template for a single comic. I will bring back some edits I've done, respecting edits have done later. But right now I can't see there is any proper attempt to do an explain other could understand.
Please focus FIRST on the readers here, then focus on possible editors (don't understand), and then tell a new IP how to behave here. It's not my invention, but please try to keep this page at a basis on some standards. --Dgbrt (talk) 22:22, 25 April 2014 (UTC)