Many apps have the saving Ctrl-Z function, allowing you to jump back a step to rectify that loopy idea to Delete when you meant Save; to un-resize an image you should never have resized; to Open a document you never should have Closed. Some apps like Photoshop have what is called an Undo stack, so you can do multiple Undoes. But Undo is not universal and especially when you are working on-line, where is a damn Undo button when you need one?

Copy and paste to oblivion

I just edited a poor article written by my good self many months ago, and I was very pleased with the new draft. After a couple of hours of digging deep for a new angle, I had revitalised a lame post about not being able to tell the difference between some mp3 players and a blood pressure monitor. The banal paragraph was turned into a witty tale involving a couple of geriatric pickpockets who lifted iPods from the arms of joggers after accidentally knocking them over in their wheelchair.

It was a relief to see the last edit made, and all was hunky dory. But just prior to publishing, I changed some link code, nothing to do with the article per se. Without thinking, I copied the code and for some reason, the old article too, and pasted the whole lot over the spanky new document. In a second of lunacy I had overwritten my revised award-winning article and preserved a piece of crap.

But I was cool. I would just undo my stupidity. Fat chance. Ctrl-Z was nowhere to be found on my 21st century blogging software. No sign of the 20kb article in 768MB of memory either? Come on. (Plus a few expletives and, if you know Fargo, a few beatings of a non-compliant appliance!)

Incomplete functionality

Why is it that without resorting to a mouse once, you can do useless things like copy, paste, italicize, embolden, and underline any text, anywhere, anytime in any application on or off-line using keystrokes. Why is it that with the memory of an elephant you can abuse keystrokes and take stupid screenshots, launch useless macros, open specific documents, open one app and close another and so on and so forth without ever breaking your stride while typing - but you can't Ctrl-Z to undo all work at all times? What is that all about?

It is about developers not writing a script, that's what it is all about. End of that debate!

Is this my Undoing?

I am not a pirate, but I wish I could have pirated OS X Leopard when I had the chance and kicked Time Machine, the instant back-up feature, into gear, That would have done the work neglected by the bloody app developer who left me high and dry. Listen to me, I am being corrupted all because of the lack of an Undo script that could have been written by a knowledgeable chappy in 5 measly minutes.

Now I have to decide. Do I let it go and move on, or do I lose another hour of my life redoing the article? An hour may not sound like much, but it is like an aeon when writing under that cloud that engulfs you when you are repeating work that was to all intents and purposes completely fine! Maybe today isn't a good day. I will let it go - for now. Relax....



I didn't know about the foam hammer, so all I need now is a Ctrl-Z function to Undo the crack in my screen!

What is the most work you ever lost to a computer-based flake out?

btw, not one single pixel was actually damaged in the creation of this article.

Update. I managed to somewhat salvage the iPod armband saga