• (cs)

    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    "This computer does not support this operating system" or something similar is commonly displayed when trying to use the backup CD that comes with a name-brand computer to install Windows on a computer from a different manufacturer.

  • (cs)

    This is truly the best Error'd in a long, long while.

  • Tei (unregistered)

    printer:

    Yea. Imagine. You are the smarter printer on the world, and you are forced to print BORING THINGS!.

    phparena-captcha:

    Thats what I hate about how people that hate safety create overzealots stuff that don't work and don't add to safety.

    Warning:

    That actually impresedme. If only tooltips where not text limited.. imagine tooltips with huge ascii-art images.

  • (cs) in reply to Tei
    Tei:
    You are the smarter printer on the world, and you are forced to print BORING THINGS!.

    "Let's print a cake!"

  • Treeki (unregistered)

    That's because the answer to the bottom captcha was (((((((((o))))))))) not OOOOOOOOOOOOO.

  • (cs)

    the empty desktop can actualy have unused icons. it is posible to hide al your icons, so they al become unused!

  • Foo (unregistered)

    The real WTF is the blue desktop image, it's a PNG but it has been scaled down slightly, just enough to smudge the text...

  • WtfReader (unregistered)

    Really funny! I saw the ASCII art as a robot until my eyes focused. The optical illusion captcha at the end is the best.

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    It also showed "There will be cake"
    Brilliant
  • (cs)

    Concerning the prize-winning ads: That's not a WTF. That's an accessibility feature for people with MPD.

  • (cs) in reply to DOA
    DOA:
    Someone You Know:
    It also showed "There will be cake"
    Brilliant

    que another Brilliant! / Brillant! debate...

  • rohcQaH (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    Concerning the prize-winning ads: That's not a WTF. That's an accessibility feature for people with MPD.
    or for that matter, printers with MPD.
  • Anon (unregistered)

    The real WTF is a printer with an LCD display to give you messages instead of a bunch of cryptic lights that have to be decoded with the manufacturers super secret decoder ring?

    Actually the thing about personalities is a real error message. I was decoding my printers cryptic lights yesterday and I noticed that one series of lights corresponds to exactly that same message.

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Sounds like some people at your work are as obsessed with cake as I am... Or you work at Aperture Science.

    WtfReader:
    I saw the ASCII art as a robot until my eyes focused.
    I saw it as an alien.
  • (cs)

    Of course that "OOOOOOOOOOOOO" doesn't solve the captcha problem: There's only 10 O's on the screen!

    And well, here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to print pages! God, this is so depressing!

  • Khanmots (unregistered) in reply to Grovesy

    You mean cue?

    (given the nature of your comment I couldn't resist)

  • not having a good day (unregistered) in reply to badpazzword

    www dot reprap dot org (and others).

    Actually, the printer thinks it's an engineer: Q: What do engineers use for contraception? A: Their personalities.

  • (cs) in reply to Tei

    Not sure if that printer's supposed to have Genuine People Personality, myself. It's probably just programmed to sigh contently or huff admonishingly after every print job depending on user privilege and whether Economy Mode is set off or on.

    Addendum (2008-02-06 09:23): And don't forget: Share and Enjoy!

  • (cs) in reply to Tei
    Yea. Imagine. You are the smarter printer on the world, and you are forced to print BORING THINGS!.

    ... and there's this terrible pain in all the diodes down its left side.

  • laZee (unregistered)

    blank desktop: i smell FAKE!

  • Dave (unregistered)

    I don't get the cake reference. What am I missing?

  • (cs)

    I didn't want to spoil the fun, but couldn't resist: the CAPTCHA one is a dup!

  • Nameless (unregistered) in reply to tin
    tin:
    WtfReader:
    I saw the ASCII art as a robot until my eyes focused.
    I saw it as an alien.

    I saw it as a nuclear bomb explosion.

  • j (unregistered) in reply to Dave

    It's from a game called Portal, where this AI keeps promising cake if you manage to get through some logic puzzles in a 3d environment. It's pretty cute and charming in the game, but the whole internet meme is entirely overblown.

  • (cs) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    I don't get the cake reference. What am I missing?
    Portal, considered by some to be the best video game to come out 2007. I wholeheartedly agree, as does Penny Arcade.
  • sarge (unregistered)

    Brain the size of a planet and they ask me to print documents, it's so depressing...

  • sweavo (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    Concerning the prize-winning ads: That's not a WTF. That's an accessibility feature for people with MPD.

    Heh! There's me thinking it was simply accommodating both C programmers and VB programmers

  • sweavo (unregistered) in reply to Grovesy
    Grovesy:
    DOA:
    Someone You Know:
    It also showed "There will be cake"
    Brilliant

    que another Brilliant! / Brillant! debate...

    queue another que/cue debate

  • (cs) in reply to tin
    tin:
    Someone You Know:
    It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Sounds like some people at your work are as obsessed with cake as I am... Or you work at Aperture Science.

    We do what we must because we can.

  • (cs) in reply to sweavo
    sweavo:
    Grovesy:
    que another Brilliant! / Brillant! debate...

    queue another que/cue debate

    debates.offer(new Debate("que", "cue"));

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Can you elaborate on that? I'd like to send phony status messages to my printers also.

  • NeoMojo (unregistered) in reply to savar
    savar:
    Someone You Know:
    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Can you elaborate on that? I'd like to send phony status messages to my printers also.

    email teh codez plsthx

  • (cs)

    Obviously, the Capcha would have validated input of an empty string! </sarcasm> {in order to quel another debate}

  • Corey (unregistered)

    The "unused icons on your desktop" popup is one of the most annoying things in Windows.

    Yeah, just barely related to the subject, but it's been popping up on all my computers this week.

  • (cs) in reply to Otterdam
    Otterdam:
    sweavo:
    Grovesy:
    que another Brilliant! / Brillant! debate...

    queue another que/cue debate

    debates.offer(new Debate("que", "cue"));

    No:

    debates.enqueue(new Debate("que","cue"));

    We don't debate que/cue until the Brilliant/Brillant debate is finished.

  • (cs) in reply to laZee
    laZee:
    blank desktop: i smell FAKE!

    I've got 3 different PCs that all have a blank desktop. I hate hate hate desktop icons... and the people who think that everything has to be stored or linked on the desktop...

  • JimM (unregistered) in reply to sweavo
    sweavo:
    Grovesy:
    que another Brilliant! / Brillant! debate...

    queue another que/cue debate

    [bold]Cue[/bold] another cue / queue debate (unless your name is Manuel, que is not a word in modern English ;) (dictionary.reference.com lists Que (prn. Cue) as an obsolete word meaning half a farthing (i.e 1/8 of an old penny); then again wikipedia claims that Que (prn Kweh) is a noun meaning an idiot, or anything being referred to as an idiot - so maybe we are cueing up another que debate... ;)

  • (cs)

    It's really sad that the developer felt the need to provide a massive ASCII-art stop sign and articulate error message when he really should have simply prevented the destructive action in the first place - if navigating away will cause corruption, prevent the action and then inform the user you have done so. When given the option, users will merrily shoot themselves in the foot and then come to you for reconstructive surgery - all while blaming you for giving them the gun in the first place.

  • (cs)

    re: Printer

    PC Load Letter? WTF does that mean?
  • (cs)

    A personality, in the context of printing, refers to the language used. For example, HP PCL versus Postscript. Someone probably tried to use a PS driver to print to this printer, although it doesn't have a PS option installed. Not a WTF, although it's a confusing message to people who are not technical and shouldn't be trying to interpret printer errors in the first place.

  • (cs) in reply to NeoMojo
    NeoMojo:
    savar:
    Someone You Know:
    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Can you elaborate on that? I'd like to send phony status messages to my printers also.

    email teh codez plsthx

    Oh crap, 1337 hax0rs are visiting the site!

  • (cs)

    Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and...

    Oh. It's been done.

    How depressing is that.

  • Frost (unregistered) in reply to NeoMojo
    NeoMojo:
    savar:
    Someone You Know:
    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Can you elaborate on that? I'd like to send phony status messages to my printers also.

    email teh codez plsthx

    Help a newb? Wanna cyber? How I mine for fish?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to GalacticCowboy
    GalacticCowboy:
    It's really sad that the developer felt the need to provide a massive ASCII-art stop sign and articulate error message when he really should have simply prevented the destructive action in the first place - if navigating away will cause corruption, prevent the action and then inform the user you have done so. When given the option, users will merrily shoot themselves in the foot and then come to you for reconstructive surgery - all while blaming you for giving them the gun in the first place.
    How do you prevent the user from entering a different url in the address field?
  • morry (unregistered)

    Please tell me the printer's name isn't Marvin.

    that would be so depressing.

  • (cs) in reply to savar
    savar:
    Someone You Know:
    That first one strikes me as unremarkable, given that many printers' displays can be changed using a simple perl script executed over the network. There is a printer just a few feet away from me that has recently said things like "Feed Me", "Underpants", and "Beef Cartridge Low". It also showed "There will be cake" while the printer across the hall said "The cake is a lie."

    Can you elaborate on that? I'd like to send phony status messages to my printers also.

    There's a Perl script that will work on most HP office printers available at http://kovaya.com/perl/show.cgi?program=hpsetdisp.pl and with a little research you may be able to find similar things for other brands of printers.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    Daniel Lo Nigro learned that
    Now that's just racist.
  • Bogglestone (unregistered) in reply to GalacticCowboy
    GalacticCowboy:
    re: Printer
    PC Load Letter? WTF does that mean?

    It is a monthly magazine your printer wants you to subscribe.

  • Your Name (unregistered)

    The most disrupting message I put up on the school's printer was "Change Fuser Oil".

    It ended up in three maintenance guys driving in from the central office. Now, this was a B&W laser printer, and besides not having any fuser oil, they were having a difficult time figuring out how to change it.

    The other fun one was:

    ONE COIN - ONE CREDIT

  • GLaDOS (unregistered) in reply to j
    j:
    It's from a game called Portal, where this AI keeps promising cake if you manage to get through some logic puzzles in a 3d environment. It's pretty cute and charming in the game, but the whole internet meme is entirely overblown.
    No, it's not and you are an excellent test subject.

Leave a comment on “THIS is a Warning Message!”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article