Why You Can't Name A File CON In Windows
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- čas přidán 19. 04. 2020
- The short answer is "backwards compatibility". The long answer is... well, it's the rest of this video.
MORE BASICS: • The Basics
Written with Sean Elliott / seanmelliott
Graphics by William Marler wmad.co.uk
Audio mix by Graham Haerther haerther.net/
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*Windows*
Pro: You can name a file *PRO*
Con: You can't name a file *CON*
Godamn it why did I laugh at this..
The same Joke like the top comment, but worse
NICE
This comment is underestimated 😂
@@Arterexius That's not what estimated means...
I'd totally buy Tom Scott Remastered 2020.
Someone needs to make this a thing
It's rigged, the loot boxes always have red shirts in them.
I have hundreds of hours in the original Tom Scott and love the game to death, but I can't deny that the controls are VERY outdated
@@zeppie_ I came to the comments only to say this!
Casimir Paul totally
In 2018, after finalizing my thesis, I thought of naming the three individual files that I would send to my groupmates "CON", "GRAT", and "ULATIONS". We didn't have a file format or anything since we had to physically print and hardbound the manuscript, so I wanted the names to be lighthearted.
CON.pdf wouldn't work and I got sucked into a rabbit hole of why files can't be named "CON". Ended up naming the files "CONG", "RAT", and "ULATIONS". This video reminded me of that time!
imagine someone seeing the file 'rat' anf then opening it to expect a rat image
@@cat1554 RAT
RAT.pdf
RAT
cong rat
Ironic that Windows is so cautious in making any changes that could affect the backwards compatibility of important documents, yet they seem to break my PC with almost every update they put out with pleasure.
There is a way to fix that, and it generally involves switching to an operating system that allows you to name files "CON".
Tom Scott: Have you ever wondered about why [obscure fact I've never wondered about]?
Me: Well, I sure do now
spoilt milk that’s how it is indeed
Thats tom scott for you
Hes wrong. You actually CAN name a directory "CON". From command line type "mkdir \\?\C:\CON" . This will create at folder 📂 at the root of the C:\ drive called CON.
I was like, whaaaaaat, let me try it
I was actually wondering before, because I somehow found out I cannot save certain filenames and folder names ("con" being one of them), I was actually trying to save those files as an abbreviation to something (I believe "con" was staying for "contact" or "connect" or something similar). It is possible to create those files (or folders) somewhere inside your file tree, but those objects cannot be accessed, nor can you save anything to these files, folders, you cannot remove them and cannot access them. That also means that access denied will deny also removal (it is possible to remove those bugged files and folders, but not with conventional methods). Reason is simple. System thinks you are trying to access a device port that no longer works (or method of access doesn't support that device or simply that device isn't installed), instead of accessing the newly created object. To remove that file or folder (or rename them or otherwise access them), you have to use another operating system (preferably Unix based). Windows/DOS based systems won't be able to interact with these files/folders. A bug in Windows (still present to this day) allows with a special way to create those sort of objects, with no seemable way to interact with them (not even for removal). Linux of course allows creation of those files (heck it allows for creating othwerise conflicting names because unlike Windows/DOS where all files and folders were originally only alphanumerical capital letters based names, the Linux file systems support case sensitive naming (so a file called "Larry" is different than file called "larry"). It is worth noting that it won't work on Windows based file systems (FAT32, NTFS). However, Linux won't check for the reserved file names so it will still allow you to create a file or folder named "con" and such.
It's not the computing museum without that static noise your ears can't pick anymore.
It's there tho. Can't you hear it?
The ping pang of the dial up. The sound of real connection.
* *Laughs in tinnitus ear ringing* *
@@potatoface4698 mood
@Domen Bremec
Every. Waking. Moment.
Naming folders CON on my linux machine to assert dominance.
I gotta say, that kind of backwards compatability is what makes much of my corporate work even feasible. Sometimes you need the one specific way of accessing a file that people stopped using a decade ago because its worse than the rest in 90% of cases but makes a workaround for the current situation possible.
Backwards compatibility is what allows younger generations access and explore what someone 20, 40 or so years ago worked on and gain knowledge from it.
At an infrastructure level systems that were put in place to manage telecom or power networks can be so dated that you need that backwards compatibility just to create new and up to date documentation and even then you keep the originals as reference material.
Workarounds are bad though. That’s what causes crap like this to persist because someone didn’t want to actually just fix the problem.
Cons and pros of modern windows file convention.
Pro: you can use punctuation.
Con: you still can't use con.
More like
Pro: you can use punctuation.
The specified device name is invalid
Missed opportunity to say “con: there are no cons”
I think you can use punctuation in Unix/Linux systems
con: no cons
Why can't they just use ext4 :(
I know it won't fix the naming issue but ext4 > ntfs
Yea, it really sucks when it’s your name. The account user name couldn’t be Con either. Until I started using it as Kon.
Oh so I guess you don't have rainbow in a full 😂😂😡😂😂😡😡😂😡😡😡😡😠😂😉
@@kingvent5005 what?
Literally dozens.
Kingvent tf this guy on
@@kingvent5005 bruh?
Tom, you are correct. Some major financial institutions in the UK and US still need to use OS/2 for their computing needs.
I know its super crazy. I have a loan through a place that still uses some crazy old windows dos system.
@@Riverrockphotos What does the version of windows look like? Does it have a minus button on the left side of the titlebar?
Bank of America still uses Windows NT 3.51
The thing is - a company would have a program created to perform a function.
Once that program was in use - as long as it performed the function it was designed for - and didn't need to have modifications to it made - they could just keep right on running that program.
If they changed anything - they might mess it up - so they just kept everything running just the way it always had.
One problem here - is that the tools that were used to create the program and in fact the source code for that program might be archived on media that they were no longer able to access - as they no longer had a system that could read it.
Where a company can no longer access their archived programs and data, there are companies whose business is accessing older media - for a price.
.
@@Riverrockphotos it shows that you need old tech to have money to lend and the latest tech will have you looking for money from the old tech owners 😂
This is the exact reason why I always use some version of windows and have never switched to mac, even though I love the workflow that my friend has setup on her mac when producing audio and doing art projects. I am constantly hooking up old junk and using super old audio devices with very old cables, and its nice to be able to still hook up old things to run within the new software i use. Plus when I'm bored I start pulling out all my old computers, audio mixers, synthesizers, drum machines, and all manner of random junk in my computer room, just to play with it all and mess around. It's also awesome that I can still run DOS in windows ten to play old ass video games ^^
VMware hell of a drug, always used to have a hardware device for "off book" work kinda thing.. but it has to be plugged in to access something
doors swing both ways etc.. makes security take much longer than we all expected, heh
good thing we have genius coders out there, much appreciate them
It is awesome they added Linux on Windows you can actually create a very low risk env now
ah now i remember why i started commenting and reading at the same time
check out NDC conferences if you like smart people WOW they taught me so much just by putting their videos online. LESSONS FROM APOLLO and ARE THERE ANY QUESTIONS are soooooooo good
Agreed. But now I have a house full of old Macs because I need them and old Windows PC's because they are cool... I swear I'm not a hoarder.
Same. And even though it's clunky, I still like my old video recorders with the tapes. I bought boxes of tapes. It's good to be able to still download all that stuff.
I also run obsolete stuff quite frequently, most often games. Windows is excellent for that. I still have a 32-bit OS here 😅
I couldn't even set up Mac System 7, too confusing. Meanwhile, I can usually sort out compatibility problems on Windows.
As for audio software, I once wanted to run ancient versions of Ableton Live 🤭
When Tom said you could open a Word file from 30 years ago I thought to myself "Wait, they had Word in the '70s?" But no, 30 years ago it was the '90s.
This comment made me make dad noises.
MS-DOS came out in 1981, so you could be opening almost 40 year old text files.
My thought was “what computer has a spot for a floppy disc?”
80's. And how old are you?
Office 2010+ cannot open Word 2.0 documents. :(. It can still open Word 97 docs though.
"no ones expecting your Iphone to read punchcards"
Well, there's an app idea for someone.
Apple probably already has a patent for it...
What'd be more impressive is an app that lets your phone print punchcards
Well a punch card isn't that different to a very low tech QR code, so would definitely be possible.
dammit. you beat me to the -wait for it- punch! 😂
an app that decodes a punchcard with the camera is definitely doable
This was honestly an amazing way to talk about a story, the script or talking points or whatever it is was just so good in my opinion. I love how you wrapped everything up and got everything related to each other at the end, just amazing 🤩
Spot on and thank you for pointing this out for people. This is why I love Windows so much. The backwards compatibility is remarkable. My mother still manages her finances in a 2003 XP version of Microsoft Money that still runs on her latest build Windows 10 PC in 2021. I'd like to see a Mac user run an app from even the previous OS version, or worse yet, from a different architecture (M1 vs Intel vs PPC, SMH).
Rosetta let PPC OSX software run on Intel Macs, and Rosetta 2 lets Intel OSX software run on M1 Macs. At a performance cost for the translation processing, but it does work.
Speaking of PPC, it's hella fun that I can run most modern Linux programs on an old PPC Mac (given you have a way to install PPC Linux). I used Emacs on my iMac G3 to write a few school assignments.
My Abacus from 6000 years ago still calculating, now that's backwards compatibility 😎
I use software that was written in about 1996 on my modern Windows 7 computer
I'm not saying that Apple is as good at backwards compatibility as windows, but you seem to not know that Apple have built in emulation (called rosetta) for X86 applications so they can run on their new ARM processors, and it does it incredibly well.
You've basically made everyone try name a file CON, good job
Easily done.
The biggest con.
@@rossharper1983 You aren't running Windows, right?
And everyone else feel like they're superior because they either use OS X or Linux.
I think it's the french autocensor
if you name a Minecraft world "con" it will re-name it "_con_"
Makes sense.
Really.
I wonder if Notch had to put that in...
Magic
*printer starts making cutout origami blocks
@@evangreavu9621 My guess is not. But I might be completely wrong here.
Actually the 29/2/1900 bug comes from QDOS which is what IBMDOS/MSDOS was based on. The internal calendar QDOS used treated every fourth year as a leap year and Lotus which ran on MSDOS calculated dates using the MSDOS calendar.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. I have noticed many legacy control panels in Windows 10, but I didn’t know some went all the way back to 3.1!
"if you're using a windows computer, try this" ok. dammit. hes right.
Hes wrong. You actually CAN name a directory "CON". From command line type "mkdir \\?\C:\CON" . This will create at folder 📂 at the root of the C:\ drive called CON.
@Chris Stoble
I posted something similar, except for files rather than directories.
@@plogoo1 That method creates an unusable root folder in the system. Doesn't count dude!
@@mozzjones6943 totally count. I didn't say it was smart thing to do. Only that he's incorrect that it can't be done!
Microsoft: “Wait! Don’t change that code! What if someone needs to open their 30 year old word excel sheets!” Meanwhile at Apple: “Lmao who even uses opengl anymore?”
DoriNori" lmao who uses 32 bit apps"
@Богдан Кондратов apple isn't one of them.
@@GuardiaNES420 Most games CAN run on OpenGL. Most of them can run DX or Vulkan maybe. Like all Unity games, for example, can be switched from using OpenGL to render to using dx11 by launching them with the "-force-d3d11" argument.
I don't understand, why not make such compatibility optional so you could choose to install a library to open a specific old file instead of creating a dependency hell that would certainly hit them in the future? We use DOSBox for older files after all.
@@sacwingedbatsatadbitsad4346 except that not every game is made in unity...
Yip, I remember we had an old system that was set up to use two dot matrix printers, one to spit out invoices and another for shipping labels on pre-printed, continuous paper. The issue was you had to remember to flip the switch on the rotary printer switch and if you didn't, well chaos would ensue. It had been that way for years.
I came along and a little code change here along with the addition of a second printer port in the computer, and the printer switch and its mass of cables was history.
"And if you didn't, chaos would ensue" could be the title of any programmer's biography.
I discovered this 20 years ago when I was trying to create a folder called "Con" for my converted mp3 files. Didin't know why it didn't work until now! Thanks :)
I recommend the game Hypnospace Outlaw if you're feeling nostalgic about that time :)
"People don't like change"
I swear if Tom ever wears a blue shirt, I'm not watching ever again
Tom should absolutely wear a blue shirt on April fools Day and just say nothing about it
@@petermarsella6537 It would become the new most disliked video on CZcams.
Whats brackin
You would love asmongold then
*Sorts Tom’s videos by oldest*
In French « con » means “moron”, so we just thought that Windows was a bit susceptible.
I've been scrolling through all the comments for this x)
I believed it, and thought it was dumb because way more offensive french swears were allowed.
Damn! I just wrote a comment saying the same thing 🤣👍
Using the proper quotation marks for each language huh? Neat 👌🏼
@@mrjohnbrush - Me too fck
U actually make my full concept clear and ur expression makes it more intresting
I love your story telling, dude!
lots of French people probably noticed you can't name a folder "con", because it's an insult in French some people tried to use that as folder names. Me at least.
I was searching for the french person that said this before me xD
@@kyoyeou5899 many French people pointed that out not only him
Vachement mes cons 😂👍
Please enlighten me as to what "con" means in english. Is it an untranslatable but generally insulting word, or is it directly comparable to something?
@@metroplexprime9901 it's "imbecile" but in way harder
The block is obviously there to stop con artists from saving their stuff on computers. ;-)
Now we know why Hunter used a Mac.
🤯
…
"Bill Gates unleashes new update for Windows. Con artists hate him."
lmao this cracked me up, ty
LPT stands for Line Printer, they were rotating cylinders with almost the complete character set and the number characters even twice around the circumference in 132 places along the the cylinder with 132 hammers that smacked all the characters required one complete line at a time, if only numbers needed to be printed it would be two lines per revolution, I cant́ remember how fast the cylinder rotated but it crazy spewed out up to four copies using three carbon paper layers in continuous form. The office girls were then asked to strip ... meaning to seperate the copies and carbon paper on a rewinder one layer at a time, good old days.
Tom Scott, master of backwards compatibility. Play his videos in random order, always familiar, always comforting.
The pros and ___'s of windows
Alexey Grosman hehe
Goose
porn
@Богдан Кондратов Yes. It runs all the games.
@@lonestarr1490 and practically all software. If it hasn't been ported it is either unimportant or extremely niche.
Fun fact: "Con" is the french word for "dumbass"
I always thought it was for censoring those names that we couldn't name a file "con".
User who don't know french needing to name the photo of a convention
Windows: *Censored*
More like a "Sad fact". How did you reach that idiotic conclusion?
The word "con" can be used as an insult in English, too. It means one who lies or scams you.
As in, "Some call President Trump a con because his statements so rarely match what fact-checkers say."
@@prebenjaeger .
@@prebenjaeger I can't believe someone made a mistake ! Clearly we should just execute them... I'm shaking, quaking even... such actions against humanity shouldn't got unpunished !
I like how Tom shows all the great examples of Microsoft backwards compatibility as I sit at my desk looking at a Zune, which has nearly no compatibility with newer versions of windows.
I love how I’ve never asked this question my entire life but still watched it.
You got conned.
I find the Tom Scott 2020 Remaster edition to have duller reds.
I found the handling to be a little slippery
So you're saying the new game is un-fair?
"You might even realize that my trademark red shirt is, in fact, light pink"
....
"One take!"
its to give it a grittier aesthetic
i see the appeal of the remaster but that doesnt change that i cant play it for more than about 10 minutes :(
“Headphone jacks get removed”
I’m still upset about this, even years after it’s become “normal”
The headphone jack is still a make or break for me... I vehemently avoid any phone/laptop that doesn't have it.
Same here
@@sonyxperiasmk the latest Samsung ones... Some of the Chinese brands as well... A lot of android manufacturers have adopted the no headphone design philosophy.
Oh, boo boo! Let me play a sad song for you on the world's smallest violin.
@@DDbenkoDD did u just insult your ownself?
I ran into this a few years ago. We had a project and the abbreviation for a part was Con. Our code broke when it tried to create a directory called CON. I remembered DOS reserved words, looked it up... and was furious.
5:05 this is how the Wii U works! It has a wii emulator in it. The Wii (I believe?) also has a gamecube emulator, and can run N64 games just fine.
This, sadly, did not extend to the switch.
Yay finally another Wii u user!
Backwards compatibilty: Exists
Apple: We’re just going to ignore that.
It is worth noting that a lack of backwards compatibility is why their products tend to run smoother and more organized than the alternatives. It's a trade-off to support and rely on very old software.
@Windows Xienna OMG? What?! Now that will make me reconsider bout upgrading my G4
Tell that to the old ass iPods still supported even now lmao
i miss the cinamon taost crunch app
what?
Microsoft: “We support old systems.”
Adobe: “What does that mean?”
Apple: "Who needs backwards compatibility?" *Rips out 32 Bit program support in macOS Catalina*
Hoi Kay Li I’m still so upset they did that. the only game I can play in my steam library is Garrys Mod and even that is wonky because I have to change the resolutions smh
Windows: “All our operating systems are built on top of the graveyards of the old versions so there’s so many bugs and exploits”
@@jacquesca Microsoft can fix bugs when they appear. I don't see Apple re-adding 32bit support.
@@vista9434 *Funny enough, it is opposite with Apple and older mobile hardware.* They support iPhones, iPads and iPod touches from four-five (!) years ago, while everybody else typically for a year or two at best.
Thanks Tom; that was fascinating & enlightening.
This feature caused me no end of headaches. I was writing files for part entities using a folder structure based on attributes, which was failing for the Condenser system (abbreviation: CON).
4:51 is the kind of slick editing you don't expect people to notice when you're actually creating it.
its so smooth
You sir have a speacial eyes, i cant believe u noticed that, congrats!
What did you see ? I didn't notice anything, now I'm curious...
@@vaclavholinka6301 An edited-on disc appears in his hand and slides into the Playstation.
I *swore* that was intentional. The fact that it came together that smoothly is just marvelous.
Everyone right now: *Trying to name a file CON*
Everyone: *Gets Surprised*
Exactly what happened to me
me: tries on chrome os
@@Trippik try mkdir \\.\C:\con\
it'll work
@@v1perys that's a folder, though, not a file.
I don't know why, but I did
One of the reasons I love Gnu/Linux. Userland never breaks. If your app uses the forward facing APIs, it will probably* never break.
* not for a long time, if not never
As someone with the initials LPT, i'm surprised this hasn't broken some school database or something yet.
Listen, printer, you're not fooling anyone.
At least you're not called Bobby Tables
Ok.. I used the node.js fs-api and created a file "con.txt"
now Windows does not let me delete it anymore...
Create the file:
fs.writeFileSync('con.txt', 'hello con!', { encoding: 'utf8' });
------
But you can delete it like this:
fs.unlinkSync('con.txt');
Your fault for using nodejs, I pity you
@@f1refly1337 people enjoy different things
@@f1refly1337 F's in the chat for the JavaScript boys
Don’t toy with the gods
"So why should I use Linux?"
"You can name your file 'con'."
You can name it in windows too
Actually all UNIX-like systems like Linux use device files for almost everything. But they are in the /dev directory
"You also don't have to rely on a corporation for a critical service but meh, who really cares about that these days."
UNIX > micros*ft
Also, UNIX filenames are case-sensitive and can contain almost any symbol (including :"\|?*).
Also, in text files you don't have to use a newline AND a carriage return character for a line break, as if your monitor was a _particularly stupid_ typewriter.
Also, it's a real™ operating system. POSIX or GTFO! :^)
You have just made me go back to a past that I have never actually experienced, but which I have always found fascinating.
And you have also made me reflect on something very important that I took for granted or unnecessary. Thanks Tom, glad to have discovered you!
Italian: Mi hai appena fatto tornare in un passato che non ho mai vissuto in realtà, ma che ho sempre trovato affascinante.
E mi hai anche fatto riflettere su qualcosa di molto importante che davo per scontato o inutile. Grazie Tom, felice di averti scoperto!
I don’t see any signs of you using a teleprompter of any kind, that’s an incredible level of presentation skills, hats off to you sir!
"You can't name a file con"
Spanish speakers: "Con qué?"
Con ventanas
@@calebf3655 Con el Micro Suave Ventanas, de Guillermo Portones 😂
Alvaro S. *Memo Portones
@@calebf3655 😂
JAJAJAKAJKAJSKAJSKAJDKISDJSjj
That's a darker red t-shirt. I hope you aren't planning on shifting to other color
It's probably to do with him using a screen screen and having to edit the video to look better compared to the background
@@fannyslam Ah yes. The famous screen screen.
That's the version of Tom Scott that's remastered for 2020.
I love my screen screen, always there when I need it
He's becoming Edgy
Good job. I really enjoyed this presentation.
the way everything in this video tied back together at the end absolutely broke my brain
You're telling me Cornelius and Conrad made it in the obscure name list before me? Outrage I tell you, Outrage!
Don't worry, Con. We still appreciate you, brother!
I personally have known more than 6 or 7 connors in my life
Don’t forget Bort.
beware of walking robots
How is Cornelius an obscure name, has everyone forgot Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
“Unfortunately it’s April 2020” me: starts crying because it’s past April 2021 and it’s just even worse
what is even worse?
@@ky314 **cough cough**
Did you get your answer?
@Hotline: Finn Not everyone in the world is vaccinated. There are countries well behind the US for various reasons. Some countries are still in terrible spots.
@@VladiMatt that and it’s been over a year of COVID existing at this point; it wears you down
@@Bee-kv5tx Nope
Nicely played Tom, very nice!!!!
Such a fascinating video, thank you!!
"New stuff should also support the old stuff"
-Apple has left the chat
Indeed, Apple’s systems are saddled with less technical debt. That’s what makes them better than windows.
Ah, so that’s why they support their iOS devices for 6 years whereas most Android phones only get 2 years of feature updates. Oh wait...
JakeExpertGames I think they might be talking about the catalina updates, or when the iphone dropped all 32-bit apps a few years ago
@@yosoyysoyyo macos dropped 32bit too. dumb asf esp. when 99% of programs are still 32bjt
Eh otherwise they're gonna be stuck with it forever. they did it with PowerPC and survived so they know they can do it again... also it's not hard to recompile and update especially if it's on the App Store... which is also what they want :/ There are pros and cons to either approach but it could've been way worse ...
I actually ran into this-"CON" is the abbreviation for a school club I was a part of
club of nerds? :P
club of nincompoops? ....
Club of nonce? :o
Club of necrophilia
club of nuttingonhotgrandmasonyourarea
It's super cool that backwards compatibility is this important and that Windows has taken notice of it!
To figure out whether or not you should try this,
let's start by listing the pros and
Faults.
The idea that fixing a date bug from nearly four decades ago could wreck a major company's operations (even temporarily) definitely falls into the existentially terrifying side of the tech industry
its why internet explorer still exists someone a lot of companies actually have stuffed based on it
You didn't live through 2000 and the effort put into making sure the world didn't fall over when we went from 1999 99 to 2000 00.
@@adrienneclarke3953 All the supposed chaos when 2000 hit was greatly exaggerated
@@graphite7898 I think the point they're making is that things didn't go crazy because people put in a lot of work. It wasn't going to be like, computers taking over the world, but a lot of software used for fundamental things like bank transactions was going to break if they didn't update the software to interpret dates better.
@@graphite7898 I worked in banking and we had so many old system, we started planning 2 years out. We couldn't afford to have transactions fall over.
Tom, if you could explain everything about computers to my mom, that would be great.
Justin did you just quote that line of office space on purpose?
Great explanation! Thank you very much Tom! 😀👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
for anyone wondering, it's the same on Windows 11 Home 21H2
7:04 "If you change nothing, people will get bored, and move on to something else"
Sports video game players: Allow us to introduce ourselves
Fifa and cod lmao
@@zriraum no, Fifa and Madden. At least cod changes things, and that's a war game.
@@ARandomInternetUser08 CoD keeps changing, but for the worse.
To be fair, sports games do kinda sorta change things. Graphics get slightly better, player stats are updated, and that is it.
Fifa:
I can't name my folder PRN?
Well, gonna have to go with "Homework" then...
Really underrated comment.
@@TheValkyrie9001 Cap
@@TheValkyrie9001 Don't act like you have never watched PRN in your life.
@@erikhendrych190 what even is prn
@@Harlow. a religion
Yes, I've had a really tough time copying old prerelease screenshots of the game "Command & Conquer" off an old CD because the creators of the disc had shortened them to "COM" plus a number, heh.
Nicely done about control concerns
I'm almost impressed that Tom didn't use the word "legacy" even once in this video.
Also, as always, great work.
That's because Tom's not old enough. :-)
Hes wrong. You actually CAN name a directory "CON". From command line type "mkdir \\?\C:\CON" . This will create at folder 📂 at the root of the C:\ drive called CON.
Chris Stoble That sounds like a "bug" in the ported version or mkdir. Nice find. What happens if you try to use the folder? Rename/move/copy might break?
And those old obsolete systems are usually the ones propping up healthcare, banking, finance, industry, critical data and other vital resources. Like modern fighter jets using 20 year old hardware because that is what was specified.
Or the USA's ICBM launch facilities using floppy disks - the old, large, ACTUALLY FLOPPY type - until very recently because the system "just worked".
Isn't that the reason why the USA military is buying F-35's (relatively expensive) instead of F-22's (relatively cheap) because of old software development when the raptor was being designed?
Sometimes has advantages mind. The UK banking system used IBM's OS2 long after people had even heard of it which in some ways made it *more* secure. This was around the time that US ATMs where on Windows XP. Which would you rather hack into?
@@CalvinsWorldNews most atm's still are on xp XD
@@FreeManFreeThought and dont forget. the BSOD on ATMs
Just found your channel, February of 2022. Don't know how I missed it all these years. CZcams is too big! 😊
I wish I had a teacher as interesting as you in high school, I learned all this with more interest than anything I did in high school
I accidentally found out that you can't name a folder "prn". Don't ask how.
Why?
@@josephmarx4695 why do you think big guy
I think that is the most common one
*no you didnt*
prn is a spreadsheet file of the pre-internet days.
"Con is short for Konstantinos" Well I guess I am illegal then.
I thought it was Istanos, not Konstantinos
GET 'EM, BOYS
konstantinos reporting in, lets defend
Or, I guess you could say... “illegal instruction”!!
@Tsakeboya hello there, fellow greek.
4:51 this little animation edit using Tom's gesture is brilliant
3:36 didn't have the Con-cept
I didn't realise that the term "directory" was considered old-fashioned. I mean I know they're also called folders, but I use the two terms interchangeably. I guess that makes me... old.
I don't think it makes you old, but certainly it was the earlier name for it. I've never heard someone refer to a directory as a "folder" when talking about Linux at least. Seems to be more of a mainstream user thing to call it a "folder" (ie. Windows folders). I'm 23 and switch between directory and folder depending on the context
Then 21 is old as well.
i mean if you code just a little bit directory is a regular word. i know barely nothing about programming aside from some python and "pip install _" and directory is still a word used everywhere
It's more to do with what sort of software you interact with. UNIX, BSD, and Linux (GNU or Busybox) users are a lot more likely to call them directories if they use the command-line because all the commands for handling them refer to them that way. However, someone who's focused on graphical user interfaces will likely still call them file folders since that's how they refer to them. Directory isn't old-fashioned, it's just that someone's choice of term shows what field they're in.
Now, for a truly old-fashioned term, there's a catalog.
For me it depends on the GUI, so visual elements make me use either folder or directory, depending on what I see or the image in my head. Tricky to explain and weird, but that's more or less how it works for me. (I'm 22)
On the Amiga, we had "CON:" with a colon indicating that it was a _device_ and not a file in the current directory.
On Unix/Linux, device files are in the "/dev" directory, also avoiding this problem.
Amazing new technology: directories
Note also that UNIX is 10 years older than MSDOS. This "no directories" business was not because they were doing something new and unique, they just didn't think they'd need them back then so they simply skipped them. When they realized that they did need directories, they had to add this hack of "reserved files" that follow you around the hierarchy.
Microsoft has made a business out of supporting almost 40 years of kludges.
@@limejet They have literally made a business out of supporting 40 year old kludges, as in that is why they continue to dominate the industry even though people have been predicting their eminent demise for decades. Supporting stodgy old enterprises that refuse to, or simply can't, modernize their systems makes bank. And they manage to do it while still creating enough newness to keep their consumer business going strong somehow too. Frankly, it's an amazing balancing act they have pulled off.
This is misleading. Just because I place a file in /dev doesn't make it a device; a device file also has a type which identifies it as such. Even the reserved names (like /dev/null) aren't global like in windows - I can have a file called /home/dev/null if I want to.
EDIT: I guess I'm skirting around the real point here, which is that linux device files are real files in that they have a location. You can't place a windows device file anywhere because they haven't got a location
Yup, and also the concept of mounting the main drive at / and then extra ones within that directory structure. None of this drive letter nonsense. I believe modern Windows has something similar, but still defaults to drive letters.
And then you can, if needs be, use symbolic links to change the version of a sub-tree as needed (Windows definitely also has both soft and hard links these days).
I haven't used windows on my primary machine since school ever since I typically run Linux. Great refresh into windows I honestly don't miss it but occasionally help my mom with her windows machine.
Its true... Tom Scott's channel is becoming number 1 for all the right reasons.
Old systems do become outdated
2020: we need COBOL developers
Dolphins have returned to Italy
Meanwhile in a remote meeting: "Our team has been informed that users are increasingly using IE6 to access our sites".
Truth
It honestly depressed me a little when I heard about that and learned what COBOL is. You'd think they would at the very least have a cold/warm site somewhere to continue while upgrading to a much better system, right? These are state governments too!!
that is depressing
@@tyisafk Dont be depressed, they are upgrading, they just didn't expect a pandemic before they are complete (2022-2024)
Back in the 90s a friend in school wrote a program to replace "AUX" by "BUX" in memory, so we could hide games in an AUX folder which the admin was never able to enter or remove.
That's actually a really cool way to exploit this
Based.
Was he the hacker 4chan?
Could you give us the program?
I tried it right away. 25 years in IT. Didn't know this. Kudo's to you!.
Our alignment rack hardware still requires a parallel port connection to the computer that operates it…we’ve tried adapters, cables, cards, and so on…but it doesn’t like them. Not easy to find a modern PC that comes with a native parallel port, but we did get one finally from a local computer guy that worked some magic for us.
"iPhones shouldn't be able to read punch cards"
I see this as a challenge to some CZcamsr. Just the other day I saw someone making a Linux terminal on a typewriter.
@Kevin Counihan my friend sent this exact video to me yesterday
I’m still pissed at Marc for that one, I’ve been thinking about doing that for the better part of a decade, but I was never able to find a teletype local enough to me to have it shipped... :)
iPhones can read punch cards easily, just make a program to read the image of the card and thats it
Douglas Martins but that’s the easy way of doing it
(Edit) also I saw that video too
@@lucasthompson6405 But building a Bluetooth or USB punch card reader is going a bit far in the other direction.
Imagine trying to save a PNG of a convention called "con."
conventioncon2021
Concon it is.
Kon
Conjunctions
Dashcon
Absolutely amazing
The company I work for still depends on an old DOS application, and part of my job is keeping it running. Right now, that's done by using either a VM running 32-bit Windows, or DOSBox, depending on user preference.
My favorite story is that Microsoft specifically reintroduced a DOS bug in Windows 95 after having fixed it, just so that SimCity that relied on the bug would continue to work.
what bug
Eben, kindly link to the story or cite your sources please
not trying to be rude but that was a simple google search
I googled, "simcity windows bug"
@@Belioyt This isn't a research paper. It would be kinda weird to cite sources on a CZcams comment, and if you want to find a story you can search it for yourself.
This video should be in a world record, where 1M+ people have tried naming a folder CON.
Which also happens to mean idiot or twat in French, so bilingual bonus?
I havnt
Simon WoodburyForget ‘CON’ is different than ‘con’ for a computer.
@@SimonWoodburyForget Let me guess... linux?
@@junaidfarooqui1993 not for windows
5:28 i like that you display the calendar of February 1900 correctly. Nice detail!
A couple years ago I worked in IT for the city and a certain department required internet explorer to be installed on the new windows 10 computers because there was some software they had to use that would only work on IE
"World's Best Cornelius."
The humor in your attention to detail is amazing.
Timmy P Pornelius Hubert
Sadly not Kornelius :(
Khan: What’s the one file name you cannot use?
Captain Kirk: CON
Good one! 🤣
Khan and CON sound the same to me when spoken in an American accent, but in a British accent they are different.
mericet39 Shatner is Canadian, so to Captain Kirk they sound about the same.
Much to my dismay! I was saving reference images for the 6 ability scores in D&D for a PDF I was making for my party.
I still have rs232 and LPT prots in my pc built a couple of years ago - I added a PCI expansion card as I have old gear like a vic20, CPC6128 and amiga etc to talk to
Along with a heap of industrial stuff