two negatives usually cancel out depending on the logic. software is far more complicated then most think. even circuits are.

Microsoft failed at making Vista... never "upgrading"

akmed

Yep, those macbook pro's, real high quality products built really really good.

PICTURE SAYS YOUR LOGIC FAILS.

Syndication

"Error. The operation completed successfully."

Wait... so it is not supposed to work? /me votes for this one

easy2panic

@cullen.d: Good job at having a biased comment.

timerider42

My all time favorite error is the old Amiga Guru Meditation:

[en.wikipedia.org]

Although the Linux "this process has been murdered mysteriously" has a certain appeal as well.

Jordan Lund

Far more people drive Honda Civics, shop at Wal-Mart and eat at McDonalds than drive Bentleys, shop at Bloomingdales and have personal chefs so clearly cheap cars, consumer goods and junk food are far superior to well made vehicles, high-end fashion stores and professionally prepared cuisine.

It is, to say the least, a logical fallacy that popular = good yet it seems the vast majority of people make purchasing decisions based on this faulty equation... and because they're cheap.

Imminent demise of all things high quality and value predicted in 3...2...1...

inkswitch

@Klappstuhl: I think you have things backwards. More likely, people at Apple have simply noticed the Mac-friendly nature of many people among Gizmodo's staff and readership and are buying ad space where they deem it likely to provide a good return on their investment.

Brian Sexton

@ImTheKing: You can't compare cars, because there a at least 15 competitors to the focus. Only 6% of the population use Macs. There must be a reason for this. Microsoft doesn't advertise nearly as much as Mac, but Mac can't seem to reach more people than 6%. Is it because they are so similar, Windows computer as more accessible and a PC is cheaper with the same exact functionality....yes. Oh and you still can't game on the MacOS. All I know is that my PC doesn't have condensation forming on it. Is there an error message for that?

slaughter

I once heard an employer start laughing and say something like "Fucking Brian, man!" upon encountering a last-resort error message that said "Something is amiss." when one of my applications encountered an unknown error condition. It may seem silly, but it is easily preferable to crashing or not reporting an error at all!

Brian Sexton

Or you can just make your own. Likely some of these are fake and created by this site,

[atom.smasher.org]

SonicFury

@slaughter: Thats still one of the most idiotic statements to justify one OS being better than another. People need to realize that just because a mass amount of people use an object, it doesn't make it a good product.

Ford Focus sold millions and millions compared to some very solid cars that are technically better and at the same price. But is it better? No. I know I know, let me guess, you cant compare cars to this. Well actually yes you can. You can compare anything you want to prove that mass market share means nothing.

ImTheKing

That picture is classic. that has to be one of the funniest error messages since PC load Letter. "PC load Letter? WTF does that mean?"

xxenclavexx

@Klappstuhl: Advertising and the editorial content in Gawker sites are not related at all. All the contrary, there is an strict policy that separates both.

This gallery was made over the weekend by me, with the entries that Gizmodo readers have been sending since last week.

jesusdiaz

I think you guys have issues (Gizmodo I mean).

But seeing that Apple ad on the right, I guess this post makes sense.

Klappstuhl

Death to the mac ad!

tehmark

Here's one I got while at work:
[jrod.files.wordpress.com]

gizmodome

It's a Mac commericial in typical Gizmodo fashion. People can give up on Vista, but will eventually have to switch because MS will go EOL on XP. There is no need to be a fanboy, when market share speaks for itself. 91% v. 6%.

slaughter

Recycling the recycle bin is a joke, I believe. It's like deleting the internet; all you do is make a .txt file named Recycle Bin and delete it.

Vekter

I can't believe that the Adobe Updater didn't make the list:

Adobe Updater: The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?

LastVigilante

@jeffj-nj:

Notice, it's a ad using featuring PC's fat ass covering the images while trying to get people to "not give up" on Vista. Windoz fan boy rage thread in 3...2....1....

johnnyabnormal

Much love for Abort, Retry, Fail

Munch

Keyboard failure. Strike the F1 key to continue. SO OLD, let's vote for something new, with in Vista maybe :-)

easy2panic

The pic used for the story: Who has Error Reporting turned on anyway? Do you think this report goes to the magical land of Error Fixing? Turn it off and move on. Most electronics get errors of some sort...deal with it or make a better product.

slaughter

I got the "Catastophic failure" one once before. I thought it was so pointless of a message that I saved a screen grab. I'm also likeing the error: no error one.

fsusmithc2

@Yossarian: I think we're supposed to use the last option for that.

Three cheers for proofreading and edit buttons.

Yossarian

@Rob C -- No... There is a big story behind it. After XP Microsoft started on a project called Longhorn. They based the code off of Windows XP. Then there was a huge outbreak of Viruses, and Microsoft decided to cut back on development of Longhorn. They then made Windows XP SP2. They decided they didn't want to have to rewrite all of longhorn ontop of SP2, when they had a more stable OS they could base it off of -- Server 2003. So in 2004 the Longhorn Project got a "reset" and ALL code was scrapped. From there Microsoft componentized the OS and based it off of Server 2003. So that error message I am reffering to is from CodeName Longhorn -- the first.

cullen.d

@apeguero: I think we're supposed to use the option for that, since Mac ads are errors in logic all by themselves.

@cullen.d: Notice the title of the gallery - "Windows and other software errors". They're not saying Windows is at fault for all these errors; they just said that they all happened while Windows was running. I'm a PC owner and avowed Mac mocker, but you can't seriously be defending Windows' stability. I mean, really. Pick your battles here.

Yossarian

@MastaFalse: If it's under warranty, get it looked at. I was having kernal panics on my macbook pro, it ended up being a faulty logic board.

lpranal

Funny, the error that's winning isn't even a Windows error.

My favorite is the "Error: No Error Occured" which I know isn't a Windows error either, but still funny.

Bender

Wether the code was written here, there or anywhere else Microsoft and anyone else who distributes the product has the responsibility to check the product and make sure it actually works.

WilCon

I'd love give my opinion, but Gizmodo has been too busy SELLING OUT to Mac and plastered one of those retarded mac v. pc ads over half of the image, rending me unable to advance to the next slide...yes i could use the thumbs below it, but i'll be stubborn and content with my decision.

manjay

@cullen.d:

um...dude. Vista IS Longhorn. Longhorn was the name microsoft gave the software while in development

Rob C

@those who think Microsoft "outsources" coding, keep in mind that 80% + of the code is written stateside. And that is great that you guys think that it has to come out of america to be good. That isn't an ignorant mind set at all -- oh wait, yeah, it is.

cullen.d

@omg-ponies: that's more of the equivalent of the perpetual hour glass. If a Windows computer freezes, it won't likely be able to give you an error report anyway.

Kaiser-Machead

This is amazing how biased you guys are... The majority of these errors are from third party programs, and are only using Windows APIs. Some of them are from a concept product called Longhorn that was canceled. Some not even Vista. One of them is from a computer itself, not the OS... Good job at being really biased.

cullen.d

There are a bunch of great ones in this flickr group as well: [www.flickr.com]

travis

@BigDanInTX:
my favorite errors to come across in programming are oracle errors not captured in code, which is maddening because they are really easy to capture.

but instead some moronic jerk writes code that says an oracle database error occurred, but doesn't capture the error. so you have to spend a ridiculous ammount of time guessing and turning on debug flags for something that should have been automatic.

colleges and universities should have error capturing and writing courses for their students. yes, in india @ IIT too.

drewheyman

I love Windows. Still, nothing scares me more than when my Mac panics.

MastaFalse

@SalParadise: thats correct. Thats what they get for paying cheap labor in India to program their OS.

ImTheKing

Write in vote: "Epic failure"

lpranal

I miss NetPositive BeOS browser's haiku error messages.

[8325.org]

Galley

The "keyboard failure, push F1 to continue" is classic. However, "Catastrophic failure" is the only one that had me laughing out loud.

A strolling player

Oh, come on now. Let's be fair and think aobut all the money Microsoft, Symantec, and all the others saved by outsourcing this code!

Am I jumping to conclusions? No, I am a programmer who has seen this sort of stuff first hand. You get what you pay for, folks.

SalParadise

I never ran into these. I admit though, I like the recycle bin going to the recycle bin.

slingblade

How about this option in the survey: "I cannot see the error because that Stupid Mac Ad is blocking it!"

apeguero

@appletard: Mac bashing? No, it's big f*cking ad covering up the pictures bashing. Only one person "mac bashed" and he's a mac owner so get over it.

Chimera

Why is a BIOS error being classified as a Windows error here?

Gev

I can't believe this turned to mac bashing. What a bunch of windoptic people.

appletard

@pablot: I'm just thinking, "waste not, want not" that's all. :)

strider_mt2k

Being a programmer, I am constantly coming across neat debug errors in peoples' code. My favorite one of all time was "Something terribly wrong has occurred." =-D

BigDanInTX

The big problem with the gallery is that half of the errors are either covered up by the right-hand ad or are too high of a resolution to be read at a smaller size! Pretty bad presentation, guys. =-[

BigDanInTX

My favorite error is the ad covering what were probably some funny errors. Way to go Giz.

Gann

Where's the spinning beach ball? I love when my MacBook gives me that.

(that's right. you don't get meaningless and confusing error messages with a Mac. The shit just stops working for no reason)

omg-ponies

This Windows shit never gets old.

ImTheKing

the one about windows closing itself sounds like it should be an apple ad. "To protect your dumb buns from destroying your computer, our computer will now go out and find something apple to put in here instead, since you couldnt be trusted to have it done in the first place."

gpvirgin

@92BuickLeSabre:
I know! I agree, the Mac ads are chopping up the punch lines for half the pictures! Maybe that was there plan from the beginning, show us Windows errors to sell us a Mac....very sneaky!

2playedout

@strider_mt2k: I'm pretty sure that it is a fake, just name a file "Recycle Bin" and press delete...

pablot

I'd love to take a good look at those errors. If the pretty ad weren't covering up half the images.

(I am a big fan of that particular PC v. Mac ad, but still....)

92BuickLeSabre

an*

speaking of typos

P3nnst8r

@strider_mt2k:

I'm pretty sure that would create and infinite loop in the time/space continuum

P3nnst8r

Lotta typos Jesus.

Recycling the recycle bin is always a good idea.

strider_mt2k

@slaughter: 1. again your retarded. Go to Apple.com and look at the game section before you make yourself look any dumber. 2. Windows capitalized on mass market share way before Mac did. Back in the day, Mac sucked. I remember OS8 and OS9 and let me tell you they sucked. But when it comes between Windows today and Mac today. Huge difference. Ones built on the most solid platform available, and the other is a compilation of shit over shit over shit. Windows 95 + more garbage + more garbage + more garbage + more garbage = XP + more garbage = Vista.

End of story. Go take some more of your computer science 101 classes so you can learn how to make a Hello World app.

ImTheKing

Oh Windoze, you never fail to amuse. Fortunately, for those times when I'm looking less for a joke and more for an operating system, I have my Mac.

Pender

@Syndication: Puleeze! Did you take some time off from reading the JAWA Report to post that? It looks like your logic is failing if you can't apply thermal grease correctly. Why don't you go fetch some photo of exploding Dells batteries for us, Mr. "Fair and Balanced".

johnnyabnormal

the majority of these errors are caused by moronic users, not the software. And some of them, like the Norton one, aren't even caused by Windows. Not to mention those who are legitimate errors like the Explorer one that usually shows up when your computer is being attacked by a hardcoded worm in a website.

I could upload hundreds of ridiculous error messages generated by Macs but then I'd be burried in bull from all the fanbois on this site so I'm not gonna bother. The reality is that any software on any platform will generate stupid error messages from time to time. But people are obsessed with the Windows ones because they need someone to peck on. Get a life.

mor10

Lol i remember when i recycled my own Recyled lol..

DJJS

@Geeum: No, it's not just your PC. I am running a resolution of 1650x1080 and I had the same problem too.

easy2panic

Is it bad that my PC, running Mozilla, on XP, cant click through the images of Windows screwing up because the APPLE ad keeps covering the "next" link? Which one I choose to blame matters solely on whoever I hate the most. But unbiased, its probobly mozilla getting the frames all out of whack.......Or Giz for doing it on purpose.....or my resolution of 1280x1040 being too low for surfing nowadays. Or apple being so blind as to ruin a windows bashing with its own advertising.

Geeum

Those errors are so common that we must be used to to us living with them

SkinCancer

The best error message ever is in the introduction sequence to "The IT Crowd" when the screen flashes, "!FAIL!"

"Catastrophic Failure" is almost as good.

cynicalliberal

in the ultimate moment of irony, my internet explorer froze in the middle of searching through the gallery. i would've taken a screen shot for you, but it completely whitescreened. apparently errors spawn errors, even through pictures.

tygergolf

"This problem was caused by Windows Vista, which was created by Microsoft Corporation. A solution is available that will solve this problem."

I just got this one while browsing through all the pictures

Koocha

@ImTheKing: Harsh. Nice to see Mac can finally play Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon. They still haven't caught Windoze, but switching to an Intel platform, finally, might help them get on the same planet as Windoze.
Windowze capitalized on mass market share and Apple didn't because Steve loves his closed OS.
What does CS 101 have to do with anything? Maybe I should learn how to make a IMTHEKING IS GAY app first. It's a very simple minded app.

slaughter

@LastVigilante: "I can't believe that the Adobe Updater didn't make the list:"

Here's a shot of that one: [flickr.com]

Sadly, I got an "Adobe Updater needs updating" dialog the other week and they've written new text for the dialog.

"A new version of the Adobe Updater is available for installation. Click OK to install it now. Note: You may be required to authenticate in order to install."

someToast

Is the 'Trash' folder in the english version of XP really named "Recycling Bin"? What kind of asshat came up with that? What the hell would I be recycling?

Ferris Wheeler

@Syndication:Now that's a solder joint!

w00zzy

all were very funny

I could see them too
adblock plus FTW

mferrari

@w00zzy: Uh, not it's not. It's a processor with thermal grease smeared all over it.

johnnyabnormal