3 ms·

Best software error message ever

25 points by mattjaynes 19y ago

deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
webnrrd2k 19y ago
My Favorite: In an early version of Linux I used to get "Mr. Potato Head is on the loose!" every once in a while...
oditogre 19y ago
Pretty funny. I don't think anything will ever top the simple 'printer on fire', though.
dr 19y ago
I particularly like this one error I got in one of my ubuntu installs: "The program 'apt-get' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: apt-get install apt"
Xichekolas 19y ago
Pretty much sums up my entire history with Windows. How else could I explain my love of Gentoo? It's transparent in comparison.
mpfefferle 19y ago
Gotta love Vista. Blue screens on boot up have become part of my morning ritual.
mynameishere 19y ago
My favorite one was "Non-System Disk or Disk Error". It seems subtle, but it had everything: 1) Doesn't make any sense. 2) Doesn't point to a solution. 3) Isn't really an error. 4) Completely prevents the computer from working. 5) Happened routinely--millions of times a day, I'm sure. 6) Seemed to infect pretty girls the most, allowing me to heroicly solve the problem (by ejecting the diskette from the drive during boot up.) Good times.
- staunch 19y ago
  It's a pathetic error message but it does make sense I think. The computar tried to boot a disk but it wasn't a (bootable) "system disk" or it is a system disk, but it's broken.
  - Goladus 19y ago
    Specifically, it's pathetic because it's grammatically ambiguous and requires additional knowledge. It could easily be parsed grammatically as, "There was an error on the non-system disk or the disk" which makes no sense. Even when you parse it the way it was intended, you need to know that the PC tried to boot from a disk drive in order to comprehend the message.
Darmani 19y ago
A friend told me about once receiving a BIOS error like the following: Error: No keyboard detected. Press any key to continue.
- dcurtis 19y ago
  I got this one yesterday on a brand new Dell. "No keyboard present. Press F1 to continue or DEL to enter setup..."
  - derefr 19y ago
    I imagine they could still be entered through the serial console, though.
MuddyMo 19y ago
Give 'em credit for making progress, they don't have a "Reboot Computer?" button as the default selection ala: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86329 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86329
hello_moto 19y ago
Marc is still pissed at MS after these years. What a passion & commitment Marc.

25 points by mattjaynes 19y ago

deleted 19y ago

[deleted]

webnrrd2k 19y ago

My Favorite: In an early version of Linux I used to get "Mr. Potato Head is on the loose!" every once in a while...

oditogre 19y ago

Pretty funny. I don't think anything will ever top the simple 'printer on fire', though.

dr 19y ago

I particularly like this one error I got in one of my ubuntu installs: "The program 'apt-get' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: apt-get install apt"

Xichekolas 19y ago

Pretty much sums up my entire history with Windows. How else could I explain my love of Gentoo? It's transparent in comparison.

mpfefferle 19y ago

Gotta love Vista. Blue screens on boot up have become part of my morning ritual.

mynameishere 19y ago

My favorite one was "Non-System Disk or Disk Error". It seems subtle, but it had everything: 1) Doesn't make any sense. 2) Doesn't point to a solution. 3) Isn't really an error. 4) Completely prevents the computer from working. 5) Happened routinely--millions of times a day, I'm sure. 6) Seemed to infect pretty girls the most, allowing me to heroicly solve the problem (by ejecting the diskette from the drive during boot up.) Good times.

staunch 19y ago
It's a pathetic error message but it does make sense I think. The computar tried to boot a disk but it wasn't a (bootable) "system disk" or it is a system disk, but it's broken.
- Goladus 19y ago
  Specifically, it's pathetic because it's grammatically ambiguous and requires additional knowledge. It could easily be parsed grammatically as, "There was an error on the non-system disk or the disk" which makes no sense. Even when you parse it the way it was intended, you need to know that the PC tried to boot from a disk drive in order to comprehend the message.

Darmani 19y ago

A friend told me about once receiving a BIOS error like the following: Error: No keyboard detected. Press any key to continue.

dcurtis 19y ago
I got this one yesterday on a brand new Dell. "No keyboard present. Press F1 to continue or DEL to enter setup..."
- derefr 19y ago
  I imagine they could still be entered through the serial console, though.

MuddyMo 19y ago

Give 'em credit for making progress, they don't have a "Reboot Computer?" button as the default selection ala: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86329 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86329

hello_moto 19y ago

Marc is still pissed at MS after these years. What a passion & commitment Marc.