A blog post from Tangerine Toad mentioned the old “Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?” DOS failure message, and reminded me of this classic computer problem.
From Wikipedia:
The message would prompt the user to hit “A” to abort the operation, “R” to try reading the data again, or “F” to attempt to proceed without the necessary data…The Ignore option would just hand some ‘default’ data back to the application that requested the operation, and the user would have to hope that this ‘default’ data would not interfere with the operation of the program.
Most users, including myself, rarely had luck with any of the methods. But looking back, I see a bit of a personality test.
Which option did you choose?
Abort: You likely pressed “A” faster than any of the non-Abort DOS users pressed their respective keys. You freak out easily. What were you thinking trying to execute that command in the first place? Time to spend a couple weeks away from the computer. This might be a good thing. The last time your daughter got dysentery in Oregon Trail, despair drove you to plunge your wagon through an impassable river.
Retry: You’re a blind optimist. Luckily, your family came to expect long absences, as you endlessly pecked away at the “R” key. One day, a loved one bursts into the room: Windows 3.0 to the rescue. Unfortunately, you refuse to fail, continuing your never-ending stay in Dos purgatory.
Ignore: Your life is in shambles. You ignore anything negative in your day-to-day life. “Everything’s cool” is your mantra. If only your computer obeyed commands like your Geo Metro. It’s supposed to smoke like that. Now if they could just route the “I” button to a gas pedal…
Fail: You’re a Microsoft user for life.