Computer Haiku

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages.

Haiku has strict construction rules - each poem has only 17 syllables: 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, and 5 in the third used to communicate a pithy and timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity.

The essence of Zen...

No keyboard present
Hit F1 to continue
Zen engineering?

To have no errors
Would be life without meaning
No struggle, no joy

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

This site has been moved.
We'd tell you where, but then we'd
have to delete you.

Login incorrect.
Only perfect spellers may
enter this system.

Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.

Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?

The code was willing,
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.

A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

Windows NT crash'd.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No-one hears your screams.

Yesterday it work'd.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao--until
You bring fresh toner.

Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

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