Humorous error messages diminish the irritation a bit: this “You are lost” 404-variant from The Telegraph made me smile.Fail Whale is a similar example. It wasn´t exactly funny, but over time Fail Whale had a similar effect on me, eliciting a “Hello again Fail Whale” response rather than peevishness. Many of its fans agree.
Scrambling to get something–anything!–in the product to deal with problems users might encounter, we fall back on standard error messages, overly general or technical text, and confusing functionality.
The post goes on to offer a good overview of things to consider when, why, and how, borrowing a bit from Scott Burken´s The Web Shouldn´t Be a Comedy of Errors. Recommended.
Error-message hits list
One could go on to reiterate the importance of tone (fault-free declarative or imperative) and the balance in the amount of information presented — but instead here is a little error-message hits list, as that is way more fun.
lp0 on fire (aka Printer on Fire) (Unix) – an error message with a legacy is still generated on some Unix/Linux operating systems for select printer errors. Line printers of yore used alcohol so a friction-related fire was thought possible. The original “printer on fire” message was a purely motivational message to users, trying to get them to check the printer under conditions Unix considered dangerous. No actual fire was occurring or necessarily imminent. Today, a CPU thermal failure can still yield “CPU#0: Possible thermal failure (CPU on fire ?)”.
Not a typewriter(Unix) – Haven´t received this myself, but imagine the surprise of learning this as you sit in front of your modern machine. (I think I would have to yell back at the machine “No kidding!”) Its origin is in the fact that “Typewriter” was what early UNIX systems called a terminal. The error message persists today, used to indicate that an attempt has been made to use a non-TTY device as a TTY device.
Fail Whale – Twitter. A must on any list for its iconic standing, and its innovative place in web 2.0 history.
Digression: Am actually planning some of my own, with hopes that the IT-dept will be willing to deploy during the platform migration arriving at a theatre near me. Yep there is bound to be some stress involved with NTNU´s upcoming migration from Escenic to Liferay, and why not have some fun with it.
Make your ownerror message with the Atom Smasher´s generator.
Per your request, I did an extensive search regarding monkeys that are native to Canada. Unfortunately, I could not find the required information within the allotted 20 minutes.
Excellent service, right? This answer received by Wired’s Chris Hardwick after only one hour, as he tested outsourcing via the Ask Sunday service. The answer also included: rental car reservation, information about two Moose Lodges, and a store address, per his 4 question request. This tempting service lets you make up to 15 requests-almost anything that’s doable in 20 minutes for a small monthly fee.
Chris Hardwick’s enjoyable review of 3 books about time management: Get Things Done, Never Check E-Mail In The Morning, and The 4-Hour Workweek, is a good read. What sticks with me though is this anecdote above.I don´t have my own assistant, but am imagining the possibilities now. What I do have is Twitter and MSN. My network is my “personal assistant”. Google and Wikipedia are now like air — second nature. I probably search these resources 20 times in the course of a day with out thinking about it. I am not alone, in my increasing use of these tools to find answers, and work smarter.
The rub though, is that they can be deemed distractions. Any briefly intentioned look at Twitter, Google, or MSN can quickly entice one into “checking something out”, reading an interesting tangential post, or starting on a new project after being inspired by something you read. In other words distractions. If I had an assistant I could avoid said distractions and stay focused, right? Wrong. We need these small distractions. My “breaks” entail learning, and I almost always, find that these breaks pay off in some way or another. I do stay focused, entranced really, writing, coding and fixing sometimes for 10 hours at a time. My real problem is procrastination for those tasks that aren’t so fun anymore. The answer I think: finish them fast, so you can get on to the more interesting jobs. I’ll tell you how it goes.
read the article: Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek.
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s guest appearance on the Daily Show was immensely entertaining. Far beyond the typical academic, Goodwin is a great story teller, who just draws one in. Ever ask where are all those who would be statesmen? Or sigh and shrug in disgust thinking politics is dirtier and more shallow than ever? Ha! Apparently we are right on par with the smear campaigns of the 19th century. What we don´t have is the songs.
… They used to have these great songs, like “I like Ike cause Ike is easy to like”. Oh and my favorite one is “Get on the raft with Taft”. Now Taft weighed 350 pounds and if you get on a raft with Taft, you’re gone. … Van Buren was corrupt, so the jingle was: “Who would for gain, his country sell, deserves the lowest place in hell. Van Buren.”
[ ... This campaign is ] no where near as dirty as the old campaigns. [...] When Thomas Jefferson ran, the other side, the Adams people, said he was a howling atheist …
About Doris Kearns -From doriskearnsgoodwin.com
Doris Kearns Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, which was a bestseller in hardcover and trade paper. She is also the author of the bestsellers Wait Till Next Year, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. Ms. Goodwin serves as an NBC-TV news analyst and lectures around the world.
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