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For me it has to be while I was installing a microsoft product on win2k and witnessed the following error message:
The installation was halted because the following error occured: No Error.
I guess the installer got a bit confused.
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That's cute. Reminds me of one from a cryptic UNIX GUI in the 1990s:
+----------------------+
| Error 0 |
+----------------------+
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| No error text for "" |
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+----------------------+
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DEC's RT-11 OS (I'm showing my age) also had a text-based Help system. You typed: 'Help [Command Name]' at the command line, and you got a screen of text, usually with things like command line options. If [Command Name] was not recognised, you got back the single line: 'There is no Help for [Command Name]'. The programmer had a sense of humor. If you typed: 'Help Me', you got back: 'There is no Help for you'!
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I remember that! They also had error number 69 - no path to partner in their RSX system. Early networking.
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I prefer the old BIOS message "Keyboard not found. Press any key to continue"
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Yes!
This happened on booting old IBM XTs. If I recall it said
Keyboard error
Press F1 to continue
Maybe it was some laid back engineer's sense of humour?
Why make life more difficult than it is?
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This one actually makes sense, it makes sure you fixed the error (by plugging in a keyboard) before continuing.
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MS-DOS also had a "Screen not found" error message, which no one ever saw because it was meant to be displayed on the screen
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Yeah, but Windows took that one just one step further... I recall seeing the BSOD on my friend's computer, and I think it was Win95. It just read:
"It seems you have not plugged in a monitor. Please plug in a monitor and press a key to continue."
In fact, pressing a key wouldn't have done anything, but what has been troubling me for all this years now: HOW did the programmer meant this message - if it's conditions were really met - would be transported to the user? Magic Crystal Ball?
Needless to say, _we_ saw the message because there _was_ a monitor plugged in.
That seems to be a PEBKAC problem, Sir. Why don't you go and fetch a coffee while I handle the operation?
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haha I just got the following error while trying to load the link to this forum. LOL it totally took me off guard. I thought it was a joke and then I realized... "This is the worst error message ever." Worst Error Ever
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Really thats very funny..Ever Never heard like this dude !!!!
"Worship God But First Respect Human"
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On Windows 98 while doing a very dangerous operations (something regarding the file system, so very destructive ), an empty message box appeared with a question icon and two button: Yes No... this is the worst error message! You know something bad has happened, you don't know what the remedy was proposed by W98
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From TeX, the geeky typesetting program:
Sorry, Pandora. (You sneaky devil)
Pretend you are Hercule Poirot: examine all the clues.
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The worst I ever came across was from Quadbase (a 90's database system).
Should never get here.
At that point we knew we had really f-ed up the database.
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At least the message told you something relating to the error.
Years back I had a program that wrote data to Microsoft Access database tables. One day it quit working and gave this error message: "Invalid arguments." I scratched my head for a while trying to figure out what that meant. Finally I noticed that the size of the Access file is dangerously high (2GB). That was when I changed my app to use MySql.
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Delphi 5: "Catastrophic error." in a single message box with a ok button. Simple! Amazing! )
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Might as well have replaced the "ok" with "panic"...
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The worst message for me is no message at all: one time i got a error meeeage box with empty text, just error icon and "Error" caption with OK button. I don't remember where i got it, it was a log time ago, but this was the worst "error message i seen
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Oracle 7
Bad END statement
The problem was, "Label not found," I guess since it found the END statement before finding the label, it was the END statement's fault.
I used to wallpaper my cube with bad error messages from Oracle and a note saying what they really meant.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Watermark, a late 90's content management product, had an error message that read... "Thank You Sir, may I have another?"
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A few years ago I was developing a financial app. I asked my boss what the program should do if a particular condition arose. He replied that it couldn't happen so, don't worry about it. I put the following message in the program: "If you get this message, call my bosses name and home phone number". He received middle of the night calls for years.
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One of my favorite error messages comes from the mainframe world in the Natural environment from Software AG. Natural makes the attempt to not only tell you what's wrong, but what you may be able to do to fix the problem. I don't remember the exact text of the message but it was something along the lines of "an error has occurred". The memorable part is the suggested fix: "Check program and correct".
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My first computer book ever was call "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters". I had inherited a powermac 6100 with system 7.5. I really enjoyed all the bomb icons complete with an error number...how informative!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote: My first computer book ever was call "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters". I
had inherited a powermac 6100 with system 7.5. I really enjoyed all the bomb
icons complete with an error number...how informative!
My favourite error was a pre-OS X Mac bomb-type message
"An unexpected error has occurred because an error has occurred".
Genius
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