posted
This is a joke that has been circulating by e-mail. My friend who is very into Japanese culture sent it to me. It made me laugh
quote:Tokyo, Japan, April 4th - Sony has announced its own computer operating system now available on its hot new portable PC called the Vaio. Instead of producing the cryptic error messages characteristic of Microsoft's Windows and DOS systems, Sony's chairman Asai Tawara said, "We intend to capture the high ground by putting a human, Japanese face on what has been-until now-an operating system that reflects Western cultural hegemony. For example, we have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with our own Japanese haiku poetry."
The computer haiku messages are just asinformative as Microsoft's and they make you pause just long enough that you're able to fight the impulse to put a fist through the screen. The chairman went on to give some examples of Sony's new error messages:
A file that big? It might be very useful But now it is gone.
You seek a Web site. It cannot be located. Countless more exist.
Chaos reigns within. Stop, reflect, and reboot. Order shall return
ABORTED effort: Close all that you have worked on. You ask way too much.
Yesterday it worked Today it is not working Windows is like that.
First snow, then silence. This thousand dollar screen dies So beautifully.
With searching comes loss. The presence of absence. "June Sales.doc" not found.
The Tao that is seen Is not the true Tao until You bring fresh toner.
Windows NT crashed. It is the Blue Screen of Death. No one hears your screams.
Stay the patient course. Of little worth is your ire. The network is down.
A crash reduces Your expensive computer To a simple stone.
You step in the stream But the water has moved on. Page not found.
Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, But we never will
Having been erased, The document you are seeking Must now be retyped.
Serious error. All shortcuts have disappeared. Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Three things are certain: Death, taxes, and lost data. Guess which has occurred.
posted
BeOS (a hobbyist OS) had a web browser that gave haiku error messages. In fact the opensource remake of the OS will be called Haiku, in honor of then
posted
What I find funny is that I was in on the creation of this list, ages ago, as part of a contest on Salon. Here's the link, which includes attributions for the original haiku: http://archive.salon.com/21st/chal/1998/02/10chal2.html (Note: now edited to work correctly.)
Let me repeat: the link above actually gives credit to the authors. While it's great to see this list resurface years after all the poems in it were written, it'd be nice to see the people who wrote 'em get a nod now and then.
posted
Tom, your first link is the same as the last one, and I think not what you had in mind.
I've seen this list floating around for years (never attributed), and one of my favorites has always been the 404 one! And now I know who wrote it.
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