Windows no CON do

Reader Mathias Schwarz offers this explanation:

It's not that weird. 'con' is a reserved word from the old DOS days, simply meaning 'console'. If you wanted to create a new text file in DOS you could type 'copy con newfile.txt' meaning copy from the console to newfile.txt

This would let you type some lines and when you ended the file with ^Z (DOSish for 'end of file') you would have a file called newfile.txt containing whatever you wrote in the console. This is indeed still possible in the Windows XP console, and can you see what mess it would cause if you let files or folders have the name 'con'? What would 'copy con newfile.txt' then mean? BSOD?

Russ Watts confirms the suggestion, giving this list of other DOS devices that can't be used as folder names:
CON, PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9.

Source: The Enquirer, 19 October 2005

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Another more thorough explanation

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Postscript

The whole "con" issue reminds me of a chat I had with 3neonangels the other day about the letter "k" and the spectator-like role it plays in our language today. There's no doubt it came into English via its Germanic ancestors because Latin abandoned it almost completely, preferring the use of "c".

Until someone questions its existence nobody seems to realize that there may or may not be a real point to its use/existence. But it is there because it used to play an important role, or had a useful role at one point of time. But what do you think?

Should we get rid of k?

The End of an Era!

Ben Bernanke is the new chairman of the world's most powerful central bank - the US Federal Reserve.

As a student-economist, I am ashamed to say I had never heard of him before. He takes over from Alan Greenspan, often touted as the world's most powerful man, who steps down after 18-years at the helm.

The good news is that the markets have responded favorably. In America, "the Dow Jones index surged 114.6 points to highs of 10,329.8 as rumours of Bernanke's appointment began to circulate."

It will be interesting to see just how well Bernanke can follow in the giant footsteps of his predecessor, Alan Greenspan.

EDIT:
Bond markets are slightly down due to expected higher interest rates.