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Author Topic: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages  (Read 15459 times)

Deozaan

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Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« on: December 07, 2008, 08:15 AM »
I thought for certain that we had a thread like this before but I couldn't find it. And rather than resurrect two similar threads from last year (here and here) I decided to start a new one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

I encountered this one a few days ago. I can't remember what application I was running at the time, but I think it was one of those free MMO games.

Useless Error Message.jpg

This one I got a couple years ago and once again I can't remember what application it came from.

Big Error.gif

And finally, this is one I didn't personally witness, but an online friend of mine sent me the image of this even more years ago. I believe this was a message that occurred during the installation of some software he owned.

Prodroduct.gif

fenixproductions

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2008, 09:27 AM »
2Deozaan

Interesting idea but, personally, I don't believe in many error mesages screenshots posted through Internet. It is to easy to create fake one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

Hm. Why screenshots? Ctrl+C works globally for all MessageBox dialogs in Windows...

tranglos

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2008, 09:55 AM »
An earlier version of Windows (could be 95) would sometimes display an error message when shutting down, to the effect of "The system cannot close, because [...] is still working". In place of [...] you would see the name of the process that was refusing to close. Sometimes though it was as if the system could not even obtain the name of the process, in which case the error message read "...because Unknown is still working".

This is still fairly innocuous in English, but in the Polish version of Windows the message gained a bit of chlling ambiguity. "Unknown" was translated as an adjective in masculine form, which could also be a noun (just like "rich" or "blind" in English), so at first sight you would interpret it as referring to a person. Efectively, the message read "The system cannot close, because the Stranger is still working".

It was a major ROTFL every time.


tranglos

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2008, 10:00 AM »
Also, for an endless supply of wacky error messages, check out the Error'd section from The Daily WTF blog:

http://thedailywtf.c...es/Error_0x27_d.aspx

(Make sure to navigate to previous months, there's years of material there)


Deozaan

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2008, 05:23 PM »
2Deozaan

Interesting idea but, personally, I don't believe in many error mesages screenshots posted through Internet. It is to easy to create fake one.

The general idea of this thread is to post screen shots of any genuine error messages you've come across that are funny, strange, absolutely not at all helpful, or even confusing. I'll start off.

Hm. Why screenshots? Ctrl+C works globally for all MessageBox dialogs in Windows...
-fenixproductions (December 07, 2008, 09:27 AM)

I didn't realize that Ctrl-C would work if the message box wouldn't let me select the text with my mouse.

As for the verity of those screenshots, I took the first two myself. So if you still think they're photoshopped or faked, thanks for letting me know you think I'm a liar.

fenixproductions

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM »
2Deozaan

I didn't realize that Ctrl-C would work if the message box wouldn't let me select the text with my mouse.
-Deozaan
Many people don't know either :)

As for the verity of those screenshots, I took the first two myself. So if you still think they're photoshopped or faked, thanks for letting me know you think I'm a liar.
-Deozaan

I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:
MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"
in notepad is not so hard :)

After all, I didn't say that I don't believe in all of them.
« Last Edit: December 09, 2008, 06:11 PM by fenixproductions »

app103

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2008, 02:05 AM »
Here are my 3 favorites that all occurred on my old pc:

AOL 5.0 would give you an error message if you tried to join an empty chatroom:

Hell is Empty.jpg

This is why I hate DRM. A music CD refused to allow me to play it in the media player of my choice, and insisted I use the player contained on the CD, instead. But there is only a few applications capable of playing CD's on that computer, and it sure wasn't on that CD.

CD error.jpg

Moving data from one drive to another can be a royal pain in the butt on that PC, sometimes:

error01.jpg

Deozaan

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2008, 03:01 AM »
I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:
MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"
in notepad is not so hard :)
-fenixproductions (December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM)

That might be true, but plain text is a lot easier to fake than a screen shot.

In any case, maybe we should open the thread up to some funny error messages that may or may not be genuine. But I guess there are already entire websites devoted to that.

f0dder

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2008, 06:36 AM »
Screenshots are more fun anyway, and some dialogs can't be Ctrl+C'ed anyway (some developers love custom dialogs and don't just use a MessageBox() call).

I prefer genuine error messages btw, the fake ones are often not that funny. I should have a search for the various BSODs and other oddities I've snapped around town :)
- carpe noctem

Josh

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2010, 12:13 PM »
Here is one that just popped up on me at foxitsoftware.com when choosing to "Purchase Foxit PDF Creator (Upgrade)".

Error.png

Seems like they do not have confidence in their products if they are already telling me the product is "Fail." ;-)

Renegade

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2010, 06:33 PM »
I don't think that. I am simply sceptical since I know that writing:
MsgBox "Can't joke properly!", 16, "Windows XP"
in notepad is not so hard :)
-fenixproductions (December 09, 2008, 06:09 PM)

That might be true, but plain text is a lot easier to fake than a screen shot.

In any case, maybe we should open the thread up to some funny error messages that may or may not be genuine. But I guess there are already entire websites devoted to that.

I think he means something like the attachment I'm uploading. It's a simple application to create fake error messages. You could change the message by changing this line:

MessageBox.Show(textBox2.Text, textBox1.Text, btns, icon, MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1);

Then recompiling. The way I have it though you can just choose from a drop down then get a fake error message.

* FunnyErrorMessages.zip (67.59 kB - downloaded 255 times.)

Fake-Errors.png

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mouser

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2010, 06:39 PM »

Renegade

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #12 on: September 28, 2010, 10:35 PM »
cough cough.. Dr. Windows:
(see attachment in previous post)

https://www.donation...DrWindows/index.html


Hahahaha~! That's awesome! I never saw it before!
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

mwb1100

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #13 on: September 28, 2010, 11:26 PM »
Funniest fake error message I've seen is courtesy of the old Back Orifice trojan:

  - http://www.unixbigot...org/humour/best.html

Don't forget to scroll down after reading the error message.

Deozaan

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2016, 08:18 PM »
NECRO THREAD ARISE!!!

I just encountered this one today while upgrading AdGuard from v5.x to 6.x:

AdGuard Useful Dialog Window.png

x16wda

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #15 on: February 26, 2016, 05:24 AM »
Had this happen to me just the other day, although it's really more of a fail message than an error message...  :P

clipimage.jpgFunny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
vi vi vi - editor of the beast

holt

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Re: Funny, Strange, and Confusing Error Messages
« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2016, 04:15 PM »
I think this definitely qualifies--