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Dans Macabre
Apr 24, 2004


Sniped via Outlook's "This operation failed."

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Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.


Do nothing, or always do nothing?

Sergeant Rock
Apr 28, 2002

"... call the expert at kissing and stuff..."
Never always do nothing.

omeg
Sep 3, 2012

I think I can share some of the more intriguing errors/general software weirdness screen shots that I've collected over the years. Here's a sample:



Would it be bad form to dump ~30 of them into one post?

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

Sorry if this has been posted, but I forgot this abomination that remains in Windows 7 still, popping up after rebooting after having used msconfig to change startup settings:


(sorry for the crappy JPG screenshot found online, can't be bothered to reboot to provoke it)

A checkbox that says "Do X or Y"? WTF does it do then?

omeg
Sep 3, 2012

Yeah, 'questions' in some error messages can be awesome.







SavageMessiah
Jan 28, 2009

Emotionally drained and spookified

Toilet Rascal

Pilsner posted:

Sorry if this has been posted, but I forgot this abomination that remains in Windows 7 still, popping up after rebooting after having used msconfig to change startup settings:


(sorry for the crappy JPG screenshot found online, can't be bothered to reboot to provoke it)

A checkbox that says "Do X or Y"? WTF does it do then?

If checked, do neither. How is that hard to understand?

brap
Aug 23, 2004

Grimey Drawer

omeg posted:

I think I can share some of the more intriguing errors/general software weirdness screen shots that I've collected over the years. Here's a sample:



Would it be bad form to dump ~30 of them into one post?
maybe put it in an imgur gallery and link it

Rhymenoserous
May 23, 2008

SavageMessiah posted:

If checked, do neither. How is that hard to understand?

It's always been a mystery to me as to why that message is needed at all. Ever.

Geekslinger
Jan 30, 2005

One of the applications I admin decided to throw this email Nazi error on me a few days ago. Mind you what I was doing had nothing to do with email in any way, shape, or form.

Physical
Sep 26, 2007

by T. Finninho

omeg posted:

I think I can share some of the more intriguing errors/general software weirdness screen shots that I've collected over the years. Here's a sample:



Would it be bad form to dump ~30 of them into one post?
Not in one post. But that is what this thread is for, just space them out over a couple pages I guess.

omeg
Sep 3, 2012

fleshweasel posted:

maybe put it in an imgur gallery and link it

Sure.

http://imgur.com/a/3Eaoy

I have probably equal number of screens in Polish, but it would be difficult to convey why they are funny because it's mostly bad translation.

Pope Guilty
Nov 6, 2006

The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.

omeg posted:

Sure.

http://imgur.com/a/3Eaoy

I have probably equal number of screens in Polish, but it would be difficult to convey why they are funny because it's mostly bad translation.

The Bloodlines error is what happens if you run on a system with more than 4GB RAM without installing the 64 bit patch.

Pilsner
Nov 23, 2002

SavageMessiah posted:

If checked, do neither. How is that hard to understand?

Then it should have said "nor", not "or".

The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

Pilsner posted:

Then it should have said "nor", not "or".

Or works logically to mean "one of these or both". The sentence makes perfect sense. If you want to blame anything, blame English for having conjunctions with multiple logical uses.

"I must do this or that" doesn't preclude doing "This and that", even though "I must do this and that" does preclude doing only one of the two. "And" and "Or" do not have a perfectly reciprocal relationship. :eng101:.

edit: And thinking about it, it's doubly unsurprising that a software company would phrase the message that way, since a programmer would be quite used to using Or in its perfectly logical sense.

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre
Is there even an easy english way to state XOR?

Orcs and Ostriches
Aug 26, 2010


The Great Twist
One of A or B? Either A or B? Those are the best I can think of.

The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

This works, or you can say "A or B but not both".

pixaal
Jan 8, 2004

All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.


Or is already setup as XOR by context in many situations. The lunch special is you get a free soup or salad with a meal. You aren't getting a free soup and salad if you ask. You could ask for a free soup and order a side salad sure.

Language has context and human logic, code does not hence the need for XOR.

I'm not sure if other languages have this since I'm not a linguist but if the poster has errors in other languages I'm going to assume English may not be their first language and be why they found it funny when it is not (well text wise). The actual error is kind of funny because its pretty pointless to tell they user "Hey! You did this thing 5 minutes ago! Check this box and hit okay or I'm going to display this message again!"

LorneReams
Jun 27, 2003
I'm bizarre

pixaal posted:

Or is already setup as XOR by context in many situations. The lunch special is you get a free soup or salad with a meal. You aren't getting a free soup and salad if you ask. You could ask for a free soup and order a side salad sure.

Language has context and human logic, code does not hence the need for XOR.

The lunch special price is only valid if you spend $5 or purchase a drink.

Or seems to only be XOR with choices; anything with conditions tend to be or.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.
Someone on Reddit submitted this gem yesterday:

The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

pixaal posted:

Or is already setup as XOR by context in many situations. The lunch special is you get a free soup or salad with a meal. You aren't getting a free soup and salad if you ask. You could ask for a free soup and order a side salad sure.

Language has context and human logic, code does not hence the need for XOR.

I'm not sure if other languages have this since I'm not a linguist but if the poster has errors in other languages I'm going to assume English may not be their first language and be why they found it funny when it is not (well text wise). The actual error is kind of funny because its pretty pointless to tell they user "Hey! You did this thing 5 minutes ago! Check this box and hit okay or I'm going to display this message again!"

Some would argue that this is not so much "different meaning in context" as "Many English speakers have a terrible grasp of their own language and speak with a great deal of imprecision."

But your second point is taken, that window is annoying because I know full well I just made changes.

tjl
Aug 6, 2005
Not an error message per-say, but I was troubleshooting an Exchange server and ran across this gem:

You mean to tell me there isn't a single external hard drive to be found at the dawn of the 17th century? This is affecting production!

pixaal
Jan 8, 2004

All ice cream is now for all beings, no matter how many legs.


tjl posted:

Not an error message per-say, but I was troubleshooting an Exchange server and ran across this gem:

You mean to tell me there isn't a single external hard drive to be found at the dawn of the 17th century? This is affecting production!

Wait how is this even possible. Time 0 is the last moment in 1969.

tjl
Aug 6, 2005

pixaal posted:

Wait how is this even possible. Time 0 is the last moment in 1969.
Yeah, the jury is still out on that. Also this server just shows empty black squares for .rdp and .bat icons. :iiam:

The MUMPSorceress
Jan 6, 2012


^SHTPSTS

Gary’s Answer

pixaal posted:

Wait how is this even possible. Time 0 is the last moment in 1969.

Some systems use a different point in time for Time 0. It's actually going to cause an issue for certain software toward the end of the 21st century when the formula they currently use for conversion from the other time to the more standard 1969 calculation will no longer give correct results.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

pixaal posted:

Wait how is this even possible. Time 0 is the last moment in 1969.
The interesting thing is that UTC didn't exist on January 1, 1970. :420:

Nintendo Kid
Aug 4, 2011

by Smythe

pixaal posted:

Wait how is this even possible. Time 0 is the last moment in 1969.

The epoch is January 1, 1601 for NTFS, COBOL, and Win32/Win64.

Other notable epochs besides the UNIX 1970 one are:
January 1, 1753 for MS SQL server
November 17, 1858 for VMS, United States Naval Observatory, and several astronomy related things

Small White Dragon
Nov 23, 2007

No relation.
^^^^ It's time-travel ready!

LeftistMuslimObama posted:

Some systems use a different point in time for Time 0. It's actually going to cause an issue for certain software toward the end of the 21st century when the formula they currently use for conversion from the other time to the more standard 1969 calculation will no longer give correct results.
Personally, I'm looking forward to Y2K38.

Crowley
Mar 13, 2003

Small White Dragon posted:

Personally, I'm looking forward to Y2K38.

I'm retired by then. :smug:

Edit, no I'm not. :cry:

omeg
Sep 3, 2012



Also



Don't think I can wait a month for that to finish...

Nam Taf
Jun 25, 2005

I am Fat Man, hear me roar!

omeg posted:



Don't think I can wait a month for that to finish...

Why not? That's how long it'll take to save and load models your Engineers eventually produce if they start using the FEA capabilities (never mind actually running for solutions)!

Goon Matchmaker
Oct 23, 2003

I play too much EVE-Online


Not really an error message but it still bothers me.

Lum
Aug 13, 2003

Factory Factory posted:



Do nothing, or always do nothing?

Apple probably have a patent on doing something when you plug your phone into a computer.

asari
Jul 8, 2008
About 10 years ago I was installing a DOS based voicemail by a company called Telrad and the installer kept crashing. The error message that would come up was "Telrad is always the best". If you pressed any key on the keyboard it would just print it again on the screen. When I called tech support and told them the guy must of laughed for 10 minutes.

BOOTY-ADE
Aug 30, 2006

BIG KOOL TELLIN' Y'ALL TO KEEP IT TIGHT
This particular one (may have been mentioned already) always slays me - mainly because it's not usually a restriction causing it, it's normally from modified registry keys and/or a default browser change:



Have seen this a lot in the past when Opera or Chrome are installed and set as default browsers, but instead of MS saying "hey, change your default browser", it spits this out.

stevridie
Mar 29, 2007
Get me a dooberry, Quick you fool....
From a 'basic' SBS box @ work.




Turned out to be bad RAM.

Double Punctuation
Dec 30, 2009

Ships were made for sinking;
Whiskey made for drinking;
If we were made of cellophane
We'd all get stinking drunk much faster!

Ozz81 posted:

This particular one (may have been mentioned already) always slays me - mainly because it's not usually a restriction causing it, it's normally from modified registry keys and/or a default browser change:



Have seen this a lot in the past when Opera or Chrome are installed and set as default browsers, but instead of MS saying "hey, change your default browser", it spits this out.

Funny thing: I've had almost that exact message appear when trying to install an MSI package that didn't download completely. It's like that's the fallback exception handler they chose for everything.

Lowclock
Oct 26, 2005

LorneReams posted:

Is there even an easy english way to state XOR?
You could also call it modulo 2 addition? Not that it would help anyone who didn't know what XOR was in the first place.

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Small White Dragon
Nov 23, 2007

No relation.

Lowclock posted:

You could also call it modulo 2 addition? Not that it would help anyone who didn't know what XOR was in the first place.
I always thought "either ... or ..." meant one or the other, but not both.

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