I get the part about no coffee yet, though! :)

Open a DOS command line.

Format C:\ /L
is the command to erase and reset (Format) everything on your main hard drive and overwrite it (/L(ong)] with digital zeros so it's completely gone. If you do this, undelete programs won't be able to recover the data. Most of the time you would never, never, never want to do this.

When you try to format a disk the operating system prints out a message asking whether you really want to do this, and reminding you everything on the disk will be wiped. The command >> nul can be placed after any other command that normally generates a text response from the computer. It tells the operating system to send its normal warning message to the nul location, which means not to print it and to discard it, so the operator won't see it.

| Y pipes (sends) the answer Y(es) to the question the operating system always asks when you issue the format command - are you sure you want to destroy everything on your main drive?

So
Format C:\ /L >> nul
| Y

tells the operating system to erase irrevocably everything on the main hard disk, don't bother me with warning messages, and do it even if I haven't looked at the warning message.

This has been known to happen when people haven't had their morning coffee.

Enough hooky. Back to bringing in plants. Frost is possible tonight. I've noticed I move much faster with brandy in my coffee, but I also get distracted by Orchid Board.

Estación seca: That is like a foreign language to me. I was 20 in the mid-90s, when everyone seemed to start really using computers, and for some reason, it just didn't interest me at all. Now, I'm 42, and I'm (re-)starting to finish my engineering degree (near-fatal auto accident on my 86-mile each direction commute to school has had me sidelined since then, but I'm not going to go back to the same school I was at before, because as my classes got more difficult, that commute really was making life difficult. The drive between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is too much to do every day. Engineering school tends to require classes that are rather homework-heavy, and some days I’d spend a total of five (a few times during Mardi Gras, it could be even longer). As a result, I'm changing my school to one in New Orleans, but it doesn't offer a chemical engineering program, so I'll have to settle for a mechanical engineering degree, and possibly I'll be able to have a concentration in materials (I've already taken the classes required for that at LSU) with it, but I will have to speak to the department head about it. My reason for this non sequitir is that I have no clue how to do any coding, or really anything on a computer, and I'll have to take three 4-credit classes involving the use of computers to… compute? I learned how to use MATLAB, but I'm told by friends of mine who are engineers in varying disciplines that nobody uses that anymore, it's obsolete, they use CAD and others that I’d never heard of. I'm scared to death, but I can't give up now, nor do I want to, because I only have two years left, tops. If I don't finish my degree, it'll be difficult to repay my student loans. Perhaps I should study up on CAD before my first semester back at school. Oh, and thank you for your advice on orchid care. I lurked here for years before I got up the nerve to make an account, because I'm finally no longer the orchid murderer I once was. I'm more like a Dr. Jack Kevorkian [sic?] except my intent is to SAVE the orchids, not euthanize them. I even bought a fully-in-bloom Vanda from Lowe's today, and a nearly-dead mini-Phal for $3. The thing is, the Phal has eight tiny leaves that are perfectly healthy and stiff, and even has a perfectly healthy root system, just needs a better pot, new media to grow in, and the dead flower stalk cut off. $3. Maybe if they'd water the poor things, they'd be a bit happier, as they're in the 1.5" net pot packed with Sphagnum moss, dry to point of crispiness. On my way home with my acquisitions now, Nashville to New Orleans, I won't get home until next year! Happy New Years to you, and all (on this 7 year old thread or however old it is)!