Blinking cursors and tea in the evening

I’m “sat here”, as my English friends would say, having a cup of tea and staring at the cursor in this text editor. It’s blinking, just like that C:\> prompt did on the family 486. Had I been born a decade prior, I might have first stared at a blinking cursor near a READY, or ], or A>, or maybe even $. Throughout all those intervening years, and despite the attempts of so many people to change, reinvent, or even obfuscate that prompt, I find myself at it again this evening. My prompt has more colours, columns, and characters, but it’s still ultimately the same thing. I dunno, I find that oddly comforting. It’s a common thread throughout. Well, until you reach far enough back to punched cards, I suppose. By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2026-05-26.