13 Greatest Error Messages All Time
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Messages of All Time They're rarely helpful. Actually, they usually add insult to injury. But what would computing be without 'em? Herewith, a tribute to a baker's
Best Error Messages
dozen of the best (or is that worst?). By Harry McCracken | Thursday, error messages best practices September 18, 2008 at 5:28 am "To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer."
Funny Computer Error Messages
So goes an old quip attributed to Paul Ehrlich. He was right. One of the defining things about computers is that they-or, more specifically, the people who program them-get so many things classic error messages so very wrong. Hence the need for error messages, which have been around nearly as long as computers themselves.. In theory, error messages should be painful at worst and boring at best. They tend to be cryptic; they rarely offer an apology even when one is due; they like to provide useless information like hexadecimal numbers and to withhold facts that would be useful, types of error messages in computer like plain-English explanations of how to right want went wrong. In multiple ways, most of them represent technology at its most irritating. In fact, people have an emotional attachment to many of them-like Proust's Madeleine, an error message from a machine out of your past can transport you back in time. That's a big part of why people form clubs to celebrate them, have them tattooed on their person, chronicle them for Wikipedia, and name albums after them. An entire company, the wonderfully-named Errorwear, exists to emblazon the images of such classic errors as the Blue Screen of Death (in four variations!), Guru Meditation, Red Ring of Death, and Sad Mac on T-shirts. And then there's this article-my stab at rounding up the major error messages of the past thirty years or so. I ranked them on a variety of factors, including how many people they bedeviled over the years, their aesthetic appeal or lack thereof, and the likelihood that they were notifying you of a genuine computing disaster. Your rankings probably differ from mine, which is why this story ends with a poll on the last page. Ready? Let's work throu
eye-catching, and ironically, often gain popularity among users, in spite of the trouble they have to go through because of those. Here are the top 13 error messages for consoles and computers. Blue Screen of Death (Microsoft Windows®) – This is
Computer Error Messages List
perhaps one of the most famous error screens in the world. The ominous blue screen with common computer error messages white lettering that greeted users every time Windows® encountered a serious error has actually become sort of a fond memory in the minds of many dedicated
Shut Er Down Clancy She's A Pumping' Mud
Windows® users over the years. 404 (Page not found) – While this error simply tells you that the page you tried to visit isn’t there, the message has a much more widespread appeal. So much so, that some users have even composed http://www.technologizer.com/2008/09/18/errormessage/ poetry on it. Sad Mac (Macintosh computers) – When the Mac encountered an error during startup you would receive a Sad Mac error. The image that represented the error was so cute, that most Mac users have still remembered it fondly. Red Ring of Death (XBox) – The popular gaming console from Microsoft has only one fatal error, but getting that usually means that the console needs to be replaced. Its occurrence has ceased somewhat in recent times, but many users are still haunted by http://www.liutilities.com/articles/13-greatest-error-messages memories of this error. Kernel Panic – The answer of UNIX/ Macintosh to the Windows® Blue Screen of Death, the Kernel Panic throws up a “Grey Screen of Death” (so to speak) with the error message in 4 languages printed on it, along with the superimposed image of a power button. RPC Service terminated – This error, indigenous to Windows®, revealed its existence with the emergence of the “blaster” worm in 2003. The worm would shut down Windows® within a few minutes of booting up. Does Not Compute – Possibly one of the most famous fictional errors, the DNC error was first showed in the famous sitcom of 1964 titled “My Living Doll”. The error message simply meant that the unit throwing up the error could not complete a certain task. lp0 on fire – In the earlier versions of Unix, this error was quite prevalent. Whenever Unix could not contact the printer due to some connectivity problem, it would show this error. However, thankfully, no Unix users have been reported as having to douse his printer till date. Failwhale – The image of a blissful white whale being carried away in a net by a group of helpful birds is quite popular, thanks largely to the server overload error flashed by Twitter, the microblogging utility. Power On Self-Test Beep – PCs give off certain sounds when the power is switched on. These noises can be used to detect whether the PC is working properly. The tiny internal system speaker of PCs
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