Microsoft Haiku

I received this as a fowarded message zillions of years ago.


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. Below, the essence of Zen.


Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

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

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


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


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

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


Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on. .
You ask far too much.

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


Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.


Yesterday it worked.
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