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 line, 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:

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

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

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

�������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.

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


�������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.

�������(...and my personal favorite!)

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

������---------------------------------------------------

�������Now, isn't that better than "your computer has performed an illegal operation"?

Go Linux!

How 'bout some Sadaam haiku:

Cold forty-five in hand
One good shot is all it takes
Peace is now restored!