Here are 14 actual error messages seen on the computer screens in Japan, where some are written in Haiku. Aren't these better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation"?
1. The Web site you seek cannot be located, but countless more exist.
2. Chaos reigns within. Reflect, repent, and reboot. Order shall return.
3. Program aborting: Close all that you have worked on. You ask far too
much.
4. Windows NT crashed. I am the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your
screams.
5. Yesterday it worked. Today it is not working. Windows is like that.
6. Your file was so big. It might be very useful. But now it is gone.
7. Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is
down.
8. A crash reduces your expensive computer to a simple stone.
9. Three things are certain: Death, taxes and lost data. Guess which has
occurred?
10. You step in the stream, but the water has moved on. This page is not
here.
11. Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will.
12. Having been erased, The document you're seeking must now be retyped.
13. Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared.
Labels: geek
posted at 11:47 AM
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I believe that this orginally appeared in the Washington Post several years ago. As I recall, the haikus were submitted by readers. They are too clearly American humor to be real Japanese haiku!
By Simon, at
11:44 AM
I was wrong. It was from a 1998 Salon: http://archive.salon.com/21st/chal/1998/02/10chal2.html
By Simon, at
11:51 AM
But oh don't you wish they were for real...? ;-)
By Carol Naylor, at
12:09 PM