Sony has announced its own computer operating system, now available
on its hot new portable PC called the Vaio. Instead of producing the
cryptic error messages characteristic of Microsoft's Windows and DOS
systems, Sony's chairman Asai Tawara said,

"We intend to capture the high ground by putting a human, Japanese
face on what has been until now an operating system that reflects
Western cultural hegemony. For example, we have replaced the
impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with our own
Japanese haiku poetry."

"The haiku messages are just as informative as Microsoft's and they
make you pause just long enough that you're able to fight the
impulse to put a fist through the screen."

The chairman went on to give examples of the error messages:

   A file that big?
   It might be very useful
   But now it is gone.

   You seek a Web site.
   It cannot be located.
   Countless more exist.

   Chaos reigns within.
   Stop, reflect, and reboot.
   Order shall return.

   ABORTED effort:
   Close all that you have worked on.
   You ask way too much.

   Yesterday it worked.
   Today it is not working.
   Windows are like that.

   First snow, then silence.
   This thousand dollar screen dies
   So beautifully.

   With searching comes loss.
   The presence of absence.
   "June_Sales.doc" not found.

   The Tao that is seen
   Is not the true Tao
   Until you bring fresh toner.

   Windows NT crashed.
   The Blue Screen of Death.
   No one hears your screams.

   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.
   Page not found.

   Out of memory.
   We wish to hold the whole sky,
   But we never will.

   Having been erased,
   The document you are seeking
   Must now be retyped.

   Serious error.
   All shortcuts have disappeared.
   Screen. Mind. Both are blank

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