Blue Screen Haiku

Ed note: This was posted on my old site in 2004. Every time you think we are making progress in computing, read this :)

In Japan, they have replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages:

Your file was so big.
It might be very 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. Both are blank.