LEDGER COLUMNIST

Go ahead and ask me what I think is the most useful part of today’s many software programs.

It’s the “undo” feature.

The “undo” feature is sort of like a digital magic wand. If you’re working on a project and make a mistake, you can simply click on the “undo” button and the mistake is wiped away. And if by some odd occurrence, it turns out that what you did wasn’t a mistake at all, you can again click on the “undo” button and there will be a sub-heading for “re-do” you can click that will put everything back as it was before.

When the “undo” button first began appearing in software, it would only allow you to make one “undo.” In other words, if you made two mistakes before you realized it, you could click on “undo” and it would eliminate the most recent one, but you were on your own to find and correct the one before that.

But then, some computer genius came up with the notion that maybe adding multiple undo capabilities under the same button might be a good idea and thus the “undo” button became multi-dimensional. Now, not only will it allow you to go back and “undo” numerous mistakes, there is a setting that will allow you to set the number of “undos” you want the software to allow.

I know, I know, some of you (at least the ones who haven’t stopped reading yet) think this sounds incredibly boring.

But before you put the paper down and head into the kitchen for a snack, consider this – what if there was a real-life “undo” button? How cool would that be? Huh?

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Now it gets interesting, right? So put down that Orville Redenbacher (I’ll come back and check the spelling of the last name later, but in case I forget, let’s just pretend it’s spelled right, it’s the popcorn guy, OK, who doesn’t know the popcorn guy?) and mull over the concept of this in-all-cases real-life “undo” button.

I have actually, on occasion, said to myself when tackling a project, “Hey, if I mess it up, I’ll just use my ‘undo’ button,” before it occurred to me that the “undo” button works only in computer applications. For example, the other day I was installing some headlights on my SUV even though I know absolutely nothing about auto mechanics except how to spell it (I DID spell it right, didn’t I?) and after I had taken some things apart and unplugged some wiring, I began to wonder if I would be able to put it all back together correctly. “Well, if I can’t, I’ll just hit the ‘undo’ button,” I said to myself.

But there’s not one.

And there should be.

How handy-dandy would a real-life “undo” button be? For example, say you and a buddy were hanging out at the water cooler and began to discuss how much you hate the new VP that the corporate office just reassigned to your district and before you knew it, you had compared the guy to, let’s see, maybe a four-legged beast of burden commonly known for its braying sound, and in the meantime the new VP had just rounded the corner wearing his “silent movement, no-skid, no-squeak, sneakup on-’em” shoes and had stopped just within ear range to listen to the conversation. And when you turned around, there he was, and there you were, and suddenly you were able to identify with that “Want to get away?” question asked by Southwest Airlines.

How much would you pay for a real-life “undo” button now, huh?

Or say you had finally gotten that lovely lady who lives in the apartment above yours to finally agree to go out with you and just as you were about to kiss her good night at her door, the “death blow burrito” you microwaved for lunch suddenly started working its way back in the direction from whence it came and right before your lips met, there was an explosion of south-of-the-border colors, flavors and textures all over her brand-new dress.

You would love to have that real-life “undo” button in that instance, wouldn’t ya?

So I think the government should put some of our most brilliant minds on this and sink into it however many billions of dollars it takes to develop it.

And if for some reason it doesn’t work out, we could just “undo” the effort and get our money back.

Klonie Jordan (editor@gaffneyledger.com) is executive editor of The Gaffney Ledger.