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, 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 16 actual error messages from Japan.
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The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.
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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.
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Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
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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.
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A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
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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.
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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.
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Now, isn't that better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation!"
haiku 2.0
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