Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Hi-tech Haiku

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules - each poem has only 17 syllables; 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third. They are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity. Here are 13 actual error messages from Japan.


The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

--------------------------------------------

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

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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.

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Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

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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.

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You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

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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.

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Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.


Isn't that better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation?"


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