Release Engineering Haiku

I was looking for some information in my company’s release engineering intranet website and stumbled upon this:

Haiku

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 three lines, 17 syllables: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third. Haikus are used to communicate a timeless message often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity-the essence of Zen:

            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.
            ---------------------
            Window's 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.

5 February 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments