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reader50 · Oct 9, 2009, 07:23 PM

Got this yesterday when trying to view a QT movie trailer. It worked without error on the 2nd try.

turtle777 · Oct 9, 2009, 07:32 PM

Is this thread limited to OS X error dialogs ?
There are tons of this for Windows...

-t

reader50 · Oct 9, 2009, 07:35 PM

The thread title is generic. I think the OP left it open to all comers.

iMOTOR · Oct 9, 2009, 08:02 PM

Mmm… brushed metal and stripes.

reader50 · Oct 9, 2009, 09:39 PM

My user account was originally created under Jaguar. Skipped Panther, went straight to Tiger. Some hacking along the way. I've noticed the Jag stripes appear in a few places for no obvious reason. The posted pic hasn't been edited in any way.

Let's see some more. Things to amaze or strike fear into us all. Preferably real rather than PS jobs.

iMOTOR · Oct 9, 2009, 09:45 PM

I skipped Panther and went strait to Tiger also…four years ago.

CharlesS · Oct 10, 2009, 03:05 AM

The Interface Hall of Shame used to have a lot of great brain-dead dialogs.

My favorite was this one from Windows 95:

downinflames68 · Oct 10, 2009, 02:58 PM

I'm still using tiger and don't really see any real reason to upgrade.

Spheric Harlot · Oct 10, 2009, 03:10 PM

There are plenty good ones if you're still on Tiger.

Speed and Time Machine are the two biggies off the bat.

The fact that CoreAudio has been vastly improved (sonically, as well, for a number of things) is important to me, but probably less relevant to you.

Then there's about a hundred smaller ones - the little details: A slideshow button here, a little streamlining there, the signal strength indicator for all Wi-Fi networks in the connection menu, the fact that the menu will appear immediately as you click it, just dozens and dozens of little things like that.

reader50 · Oct 10, 2009, 03:25 PM

On PPC, Leopard is slightly slower than Tiger. Plus I don't like some of their interface issues. One I reported to Apple as a bug - they ~~worked on it for 6 weeks~~ delayed 6 weeks, then told me they have it fixed in SL. That I should install SL on my G5 and report back if it is indeed fixed.

I have Leopard on another partition, which I jump into every few days to let Time Machine back me up. Plus I need Classic for an older game.

Back to error dialogs, please. Stupid dialogs are much more interesting than non-upgrade decisions.

Spheric Harlot · Oct 10, 2009, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

On PPC, Leopard is slightly slower than Tiger.

I assumed he meant Snow Leopard.

Anyway, back on topic.

My personal favorite was Lotus Notes at a former job:

"Möchten Sie Dokument?

Ja _ Nein _ Abbrechen"

which translates to

"Would you like document?

Yes _ No _ Cancel"

Oisín · Oct 10, 2009, 03:56 PM

This one was pretty brain dead:

It’s an error message I got when I tried to install the Safari 4 Beta on my MacBook. It wouldn’t install, and I couldn’t figure out why. “ERROR_SEC” didn’t seem particularly informative to me. When I tried installing it from my English user, however, it gave me the full error message: S4β required a security update I hadn’t yet installed on the machine!

And there’s always this one, my favourite (even if it’s fake and Windows):

(Translation: “Windows cannot find the file. Would you like a yoghurt instead?”)

Oisín · Oct 10, 2009, 04:04 PM

Oh, and there’s this little piece of logic brilliance (even though it’s not an error message): in Activity Monitor, when you want to force-quit an unresponsive application, the Danish translation of the dialogue box is rather idiotic:

“Are you sure you want to quit [Application]?

Abort – Cancel – End”

… huh?

CharlesS · Oct 10, 2009, 04:06 PM

Originally Posted by Oisín

It’s an error message I got when I tried to install the Safari 4 Beta on my MacBook. It wouldn’t install, and I couldn’t figure out why. “ERROR_SEC” didn’t seem particularly informative to me. When I tried installing it from my English user, however, it gave me the full error message

What that means is that the localizers forgot to put in a string for the key ERROR_SEC in the Localizable.strings file. You should file a bug report against localization, because that should be fairly easy for them to fix.

Oisín · Oct 10, 2009, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

What that means is that the localizers forgot to put in a string for the key ERROR_SEC in the Localizable.strings file. You should file a bug report against localization, because that should be fairly easy for them to fix.

Yeah, I know—but that would only be relevant for the S4β installer, wouldn’t it? And who’s going to bother installing the beta now?

CharlesS · Oct 10, 2009, 04:24 PM

Unless they never fixed it for the final Safari 4 installer, which is possible, since bugs like that are kind of tricky to find. You have to get a specific error message with a specific localization selected in order to see it, and otherwise, you can remain blissfully unaware of the bug forever, unless someone reports it to you.

sknapp351 · Oct 10, 2009, 05:14 PM

While setting up a network based 20 server Maya render farm this past week I received and error that said, " Maya has exited with Error code 1". I couldn't find any reference to Error code 1 in the manual, so I called Autodesk Tech Support. They couldn't tell me what it meant either. I would at least expect them to know what the first error code meant...
That isn't so much a brain dead error code, but brain dead support. I ended up finding the solution without them and then calling to let them know how to do it so they could help the next person.
SAm

downinflames68 · Oct 10, 2009, 06:28 PM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

There are plenty good ones if you're still on Tiger.

Speed and Time Machine are the two biggies off the bat.

The fact that CoreAudio has been vastly improved (sonically, as well, for a number of things) is important to me, but probably less relevant to you.

Then there's about a hundred smaller ones - the little details: A slideshow button here, a little streamlining there, the signal strength indicator for all Wi-Fi networks in the connection menu, the fact that the menu will appear immediately as you click it, just dozens and dozens of little things like that.

Yeah... maybe someday. Just not really seeing anything that makes me feel like wasting a few hours upgrading it. I have 10.5 on my laptop and I honestly don't even notice a difference.

CharlesS · Oct 10, 2009, 06:35 PM

How about the ability to run virtually any third-party software anymore, since not much seems to be compatible with 10.4 these days?

goMac · Oct 11, 2009, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

How about the ability to run virtually any third-party software anymore, since not much seems to be compatible with 10.4 these days?

I'm pretty sure that excellent application, Pacifist, still runs on 10.4. Pacifist is perhaps the greatest installer package viewer ever created. Sometimes people ask me "Colin, if I could only load one application on my old iMac G3 running 10.4.2, what application should I load?", and it doesn't take me any time to answer at all, because the answer is clear: Pacifist.

Some people say that OS X is the biggest contribution to the Mac community in the history of the Macintosh, but they would be wrong, because the biggest contribution to the Mac community would be Pacifist. If you have not already bought your friends and family each a copy of Pacifist yet, I would do so as soon as possible. Pacifist also makes an excellent Christmas gift.

(I expect my check in the mail, CharlesS.)

CharlesS · Oct 11, 2009, 04:11 AM

^ Suck-up alert.

Yeah, I try to be compatible with older systems as long as I can. I think I'm pretty clearly in a minority, though.

goMac · Oct 11, 2009, 04:33 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

^ Suck-up alert.

Yeah, I try to be compatible with older systems as long as I can. I think I'm pretty clearly in a minority, though.

I am simply stating what is widely known by the Macintosh community: Pacifist is the shining example of what all shareware should live up to, and everyone should buy three copies for themselves right away. It is a small wonder Apple has not bought Pacifist yet and shipped it on every Mac in place of the entire suite of applications normally shipped with OS X.

Some say that angels themselves brought Pacifist to Earth at the beginning of time. Buying Pacifist also brings you good health. If you buy Pacifist now, the value of your license will increase ten fold over the next two years.

I can't repeat it enough: Buy Pacifist. It will change your life.

(Stillllll waiting on that check.)

CharlesS · Oct 11, 2009, 04:41 AM

Well, looks like I've got at least one satisfied user here.

reader50 · Oct 11, 2009, 05:10 AM

Now, now guys. I specified "Brain dead error dialogs", not "Brain dead dialog". I'm sure Pacifist is a fine program, but not nearly as entertaining as some good stupid error messages.

Chuckit · Oct 11, 2009, 05:13 AM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

^ Suck-up alert.

Yeah, I try to be compatible with older systems as long as I can. I think I'm pretty clearly in a minority, though.

Well, it doesn't really make sense to be backwards compatible to OS versions from that long ago. People who don't upgrade their OS are kind of a self-selecting group that's relatively unlikely to shell out money for your software either.

Oh, OT: Lots of goodies along these lines at TDWTF's Error'd category. One I happened to like:

Oisín · Oct 11, 2009, 06:33 AM

^ Why is that brain dead? A bit unfortunately (or at least not particularly informatively) worded, perhaps, but not brain dead.

…

Oohhh, wait, now I get it!

ghporter · Oct 11, 2009, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by reader50

Now, now guys. I specified "Brain dead error dialogs", not "Brain dead dialog". I'm sure Pacifist is a fine program, but not nearly as entertaining as some good stupid error messages.

Favorite. Error. Ever. They had to have thought hard before they included that one...or not thought at all in any way. Either way, it's my fave.

- - e r i k - - · Oct 11, 2009, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by reader50

Now, now guys. I specified "Brain dead error dialogs", not "Brain dead dialog". I'm sure Pacifist is a fine program, but not nearly as entertaining as some good stupid error messages.

I ran into this a lot on my Commodore PC/20. It appeared if you booted up without a keyboard connected. Always gave me a chuckle.

turtle777 · Jan 7, 2010, 10:19 PM

Got this one today, Safari on Windows:

-t

CharlesS · Jan 7, 2010, 10:29 PM

Does Safari on Windows really look like that? Aqua UI controls and everything?

If so, no wonder Chrome has been able to pass it on Windows already.

turtle777 · Jan 7, 2010, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by CharlesS

Does Safari on Windows really look like that? Aqua UI controls and everything?

If so, no wonder Chrome has been able to pass it on Windows already.

Yes, it does.

-t

slugslugslug · Jan 8, 2010, 01:30 AM

Back when I did phone support for Adobe products (1996 & ’97), Acrobat had a dialog that said “Something really bad happened.” Or maybe it was “very bad”. Thing is, I think we had a document in the database that told exactly what it meant.

Person Man · Jan 8, 2010, 02:57 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Got this one today, Safari on Windows:

-t

Localized string not found? Are you using your computer auf Deutsch?

olePigeon · Jan 8, 2010, 03:08 PM

She was looking at at lolcats.

turtle777 · Jan 8, 2010, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Person Man

Localized string not found? Are you using your computer auf Deutsch?

Nope. English Safari on US English Windows XP.

-t

Oneota · Jan 8, 2010, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Nope. English Safari on US English Windows XP.

-t

Safari 3 or 4? I thought version 4 returned to the more familiar Windows UI elements? Or am I thinking of iTunes 9?

0157988944 · Jan 8, 2010, 07:21 PM

No, iTunes still has a fake-Mac look. Safari 4 Windows has native(-looking, at least) controls and UI. I don't know for sure, but there may be an option to switch to the faux-Mac look.

d4nth3m4n · Jan 8, 2010, 08:57 PM