A couple of months ago, we were having lunch with some friends, and someone mentioned how fun it would be to make a web site that functioned like a command line. We starting drafting plans as soon as we got back to the office.

People tend either to love the command line or to fear it like Death itself. This is obviously an exercise geared more to the former group, but we're hoping a few of you in the latter camp might dip your toes in the water. So far, all the bash users we know think it's terrific.

But whether or not you'll ever use a real bash shell, we think you'll be surprised that this kind of interface can be supported in a web browser with garden-variety tools. And we think you'd be stunned to learn how easy such things are to implement, if you know what you're doing.

And that brings us to the real point.

User interfaces can and should be geared to the audiences that use them. Sometimes a simple and novel take on the interface design can make something commonplace seem worth experimenting with again.

So, give it a shot. If you play around with this interface for more than a few minutes, we guarantee you'll forget you're interacting with a web site at least once.