The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group
Tom's top ten truisms
Tom Coleman

These ten commandments represent the basic laws of using a computer, according to me. I have no doubt that others would have included different commandments. This is because they see computing through different eyes. These commandments are just a bit of an ego trip on my part.

I remember that when I started out computing I listened to others spouting their egotism. I was not always sure which bits applied to me and making an allowance for the-one-eyed-bigot factor was not always easy. However I am grateful for what they said.

In order to make this opinionated waffle sound noble I will attempt to pass it off as a thank you to all those who have helped me.
  1. The first thing on the command line is a command.
  2. Pressing the Enter key executes whatever is on the command line.
  3. No subdirectory is an island.
  4. Knowledge is what you get when you read the instructions. Experience is what you get when you don't.
  5. Computers are used to run application programs. Operating systems are a non event.
  6. You don't deserve to use Melb PC Dial Help if you haven't got the nous to have a floppy disk that fits in drive A: and will boot your current version of DOS.
  7. Putting boxing gloves on the operator solves most computer problems.
  8. The best thing about DOS is that it hides just how awful Windows is.
  9. It will be no coincidence that your hard disks will crash the day before the day you intended to do a backup.
    1. People make backups. They use computers to do the job.
    2. If you think that by making copies of your files that you are backing up, you are mistaken.
    3. Never upgrade until it hurts today not to have it today.
    4. If it wasn't for games most of use would still use XTs.
    5. If you were the sole winner of all the lotto draws for the last ten years, Bill Gates would still have earned more than you.
    6. What is the point of having a processor that runs a hundred times faster, when we cannot tell the difference between one-tenth and one-thousandth of a second response.
  10. People who count in Hex are nerds.
Reprinted from the October 1995 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

[About Melbourne PC User Group]