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 last. Haikus are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity. This is 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.
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.
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.
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.