Number 245 - October 2003

Japanses Error Messages
In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achievmg a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity . Here are some actual error messages from Japan.
The web site you are seeking    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. (My favorite!)    No one hears your screams.    Yesterday it worked.    Today it is not working.    Windows is like that    Your file was so big.    It might be 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 retyped.    Serious error.    All shortcuts have disappeared.    Screen. Mind. Both are blank.    Isn't that better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation" ?
Number 245 - October 2003