Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University

Windows™ Haikus
(10/18/99)
 Biosystems Home Afterhours
In Japan, Sony Vaio machines have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with their own Japanese haiku poetry. Each of only 17 syllables.

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

The Web site you seek
Can not be located but
Countless more exist.
------------------------

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

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask way 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. Both are blank.