In Japan there is a grass-roots movement to replace the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict rules of construction: each poem has three lines and only 17 syllables: five syllables in the first, seven in the second and five in the third. Haiku is used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity. Here are 16 actual error messages from Japan, approaching the essence of Zen:

The Web site you seek
Cannot be located but
Countless more exist.

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent and reboot.
Order shall return.

Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

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

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

With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao -- until
You bring fresh toner.

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.
This page is not here.

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

Having been erased
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

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