Chapter 2: Disks, Drives, and Operating Systems
Archie grumbled as Edith and he walked into the house. "I can't believe that computer cost us $5,000!"
"I told you they'd be expensive," Edith warned.
"Oh, it don't matter. We put it on credit, anyway. Besides, we need this thing to take us to the future," Archie said. He carried the computer box inside and placed it on the floor. "I'll go to the basement real quick," he said. He went down to the basement and returned with an old wooden desk, which he positioned by the window. He moved the couch out of the way and placed it on another wall where there was free space. Archie took the computer out of the box and read the instructions on how to hook it up. "Okay, so I plug wire A into the toy-minal, and then, I plug wire B into the bottom thing here, and then the other end goes into the TV screen here, and then wire C goes from the bottom thing into the wall outlet. What!" Archie complained. "That thing didn't make the least bit sense!"
Edith looked at the computer. "Archie, we didn't need a new TV. We've already got one. Besides, I thought we got a computer."
Archie glared at Edith. "This is the computer, dingbat! It's just the screen that let's you see stuff!"
"Ohhhhhh…" Edith said, sounding marveled. "Have you got it working yet, Archie?"
Archie showed all the loose wires snaked around the table and the computer parts in disarray. "Does it LOOK like it's working yet? Huh?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Archie. I'll leave ya alone until you get it working."
"Get me a beer, will ya, Edith?"
"Oh, sure, Archie!" Edith said, going into the kitchen.
"Stupid dingbat," Archie muttered as he continued to read the instructions, still trying to figure out how to set up the computer.
One hour later, Archie finally figured out how to set up the computer, and he was ready to use it. Edith stood by, waiting to see the amazing new invention. Archie flipped the switch, and the computer made a loud whirring noise. The computer did nothing for a while. The cursor appeared but did nothing. Archie tried to type things in, but nothing appeared on the screen. "THAT'S IT?" he exploded. "We bought a $5,000 computer, and all it can do is THAT!"
"I told you not to buy it, Archie," Edith said.
"Shut up, Edith," Archie said. At that moment, a message appeared on the screen. "Missing operating system," Archie read. "What the hell's an operating system?"
"Archie, I found this disk that says operating system on it," Edith said.
"Gimme that!" Archie snapped, snatching the disk from Edith. He looked at it for a moment, and then put it in the disk drive. He then pressed enter on the keyboard. He heard the disk clicking away and loading inside. In an instant, the IBM logo appeared on the screen, and the cursor appeared at the bottom. Archie typed, "Get me a beer." At the bottom of the screen, the message, "Bad command or file name" appeared. "What the hell is this?" Archie wondered. "I told it to get me a beer." He typed it in again, only to have the same error message show up.
"Maybe you can ask it nicely," Edith suggested. Archie looked at Edith with a funny expression, but decided to try her idea anyway. The computer still gave the same error message.
"This darned machine!" Archie thundered, and hit it.
"Oh, Archie, here's some more disks. They say Lotus and WordStar on them," Edith said.
"Let me put in the Lotus thing here," Archie said. He put the Lotus disk into the other drive. He then saw the letter A next to the cursor and figured that was the drive letter. He typed B: and pressed enter. The disk in the other drive loaded, and then, Archie typed in Lotus. The program loaded, and asked Archie if he wanted to use the database. Archie pressed "Y" for yes. But then, the program shut down, and the computer froze. Archie yelled louder than he'd ever yelled before.
