CERN Accelerating science

This website is no longer maintained. Its content may be obsolete. Please visit http://home.cern/ for current CERN information.

Contents
Index

Editorial Information
Editorial
If you need help
Physics Computing Desktop Computing Internet Services and Network Technical Computing The Learning Zone User Documentation Just For Fun ...
  • Computer Haikus
Previous:Just For Fun ...
 (If you want to print this article)



Computer Haikus

(From the Internet, combining two lists of uncertain date and origin)
http://www.rakkav.com/homeworlds/funnybones/pages/haiku.htm


Abstract

What about replacing the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages ? Instead of making you want to throw your computer out the window, they have a calming effect.


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. It is used to communicate a pithy, timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity (the essence of Zen).

Some examples:

Your file was so big.
It must have been quite useful.
But now it is gone.


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.


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. All is blank.


I ate your Web page.
Forgive me; it was tasty
And tart on my tongue.



For matters related to this article please contact the author.
Cnl.Editor@cern.ch


CERN-CNL-2003-001
Vol. XXXVIII, issue no 1


Last Updated on Mon Apr 14 10:45:43 CEST 2003.
Copyright © CERN 2003 -- European Organization for Nuclear Research