Here are some actual error messages seen on computer screens in Japan, where some are written in haiku. Aren't these better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation"?
I found this and do not know if it is true, but it sure is funny.
The Web site you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist. Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much. Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams. Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that. Your file was so big. It might have been very useful. But now it is gone. Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down. A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone. Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred? You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not here. Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will. Having been erased, The document you're seeking must now be re-keyboarded. Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
The Web site you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist. Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too much. Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams. Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that. Your file was so big. It might have been very useful. But now it is gone. Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down. A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone. Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has occurred? You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not here. Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will. Having been erased, The document you're seeking must now be re-keyboarded. Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Comments (2)
Actually, most (if not all) of these are from a contest which Salon.com sponsored back in 1998. They're not actual error messages, from Japan or elsewhere.
In any event, why would a Japanese error message, presumably written in Japanese, contain a reference to an English idiom like "death and taxes."
Posted by Shivering Timbers | May 9, 2004 10:53 PM
Posted on May 9, 2004 22:53
Shivering Timbers - you should have added the URL you emailed me:
Haiku error messages
Posted by Ken Edwards | May 9, 2004 11:49 PM
Posted on May 9, 2004 23:49