Freakish Clown Error 500

"The BBC website error page; the apocalyptic take on the iconic clown + chalkboard made me smile." - @MrCraigWard

Missing Nuts

I go to the DirecTV website On Demand program guide to see what free movies are currently available. This web site allows DirecTV customers to both view the available programming and remotely program their DVR to record a program.

I select movies on the left navigation menu. I then click the Free Movies tab at the top. What looks like movie DVD cover images are shown above the list of available movies.

I click on the image for Mixed Nuts. Nothing happens. Disappointed that clicking an image didn't bring up an option to record, I select
M at the top of the movie list. I browse through the alphabetical list to where I expect to find the movie Mixed Nuts. It is not there.

Additionally, after having selected Free Movies, I am being showing movies that aren't free.

Perhaps the images at the top and the list below use different data?

Since writing this, I have returned to the site and clicking the moving icons at the top is now displaying additional information and an option to record the selected movie. This movie, however, was not listed.

Sorry, temporarily out of service

"ATM or Windows fail? Both?" - @thisguyritehere

No party for you

"Error I get trying to buy from @PartyCity. Email I sent last night = no response." - @bschaaf



Party City: How about telling customers why you won't ship to them?

Reassurance

"My favorite error message ever. I always laugh when this pops up on my screen." - @HarrisonEarl

With errors so common, maybe it is a good practice to let software users know that everything is fine.

All or nothing

“How do I print only pages 1 and 2 of this 3 page email? #MSOutlookPrintDialog #fail” - @lumbarius

Penguin Cinnamons

"Added $24 item to cart (TWOK phaser), redeemed points, ???, profit...no, that's an error message.
@thinkgeek getting an error on your site, by the way"

 -@Merennulli

Banner

Microsoft Word 2007 won't let me create a mile long paper size.

Maybe a mile is not a reasonable paper size, but why a 22 inch limit? I've printed on paper longer than that with other applications.

The path is too deep

"Microsoft error message - 'the path is too deep' ?! " - @mark_facey

Please tell my creator; he is a geek

"Favourite ever error message." - @paulobrad

Bonus Logout Action

"Formspring.me logs you out of Facebook AND formspring when you click login if you've logged in with Facebook." - @iamdez

General protection fault

"This is the error I get when I launch ME in Steam." - @nathanielpayne

Who is the intended audience of this message?

This isn't me

What isn't me? I don't see any indication of who TwitterFeed thinks I am.

Object excommunication

"This error message sounds like a cosmic struggle between good and evil" - @petroleumj

Unexpected error

@RanMan71: OK Mac Peeps, anyone know why I can't transfer files between these drives? 



Error code is:



After the first occurrence, doesn't this become an expected error?

A corrupted error report

"Corrupted error report: 'Usually indicate a serious problem with your computer'. :O" - @BernhardHofmann

It appear to try to help troubleshoot the "serious problem with your computer." However, if it can't report the error, I don't have high hopes that it can help a user identify the problem.

Acting out to get attention

"If I leave #Photoshop alone for too long it gets lonely and throws this #error" - @jolyon_russ

Just like a two year old child? ;)

You cannot run the program because you are not an administrator.

I did not manually start a program. This started at login.

It appears this belongs to the advanced power management that helps extend battery life.

If only administrators can use this feature, I find this to be a failure.

Denied the Cross Application Communication Permission

"...Anyone ever seen this error? Tryin to re-download Google sync..." - @MissChynaGyrL



Hello kitty doesn't seem to make this any less unhelpful.

BlogThis!

I write a blog post using the BlogThis! feature in Picasa. After writing the post and formatting text and images, I click the Save As Draft button to save the post to Blogger. Picasa responds with the following.



Not connected to the Internet? I am connected to the Internet. I am logged in to Blogger. I've uploaded another blog post using BlogThis! in the past half hour.

I click the Try again link. The software responds with the following: a blank document.



All my text, pictures, and formatting are gone. Nothing is uploaded to Blogger. Even if I had not been connected to the Internet, my document should not disappear if I try to upload it.

Top Stories from Reuters: fail

Saved

While writing the previous post, I clicked the Save As Draft button above.





Nice. It says "Saved" and it says "Post was not saved due to form errors". Which is it? Was it saved or not?
.

Toyota Accelerates

"'I’m afraid of killing somebody – or myself' — Hull senior fears car’s sudden acceleration;
Toyota of Braintree says downloading new software part of recall process.
'I have instructed my children that if I get killed driving this car, that they can sue Toyota,' Anna Brackett said while sitting on the sofa in her Hull home Friday afternoon.

- Cathleen Jeffrey, The Hull Sun

"Indeed there are two issues that lead to the same complaint. ... There is no electronic malfunction whatever. These are both mechanical issues. ... Toyota is also making a change in the software programming that leads to a brake override."

- Mike Jackson, Autonation CEO on CNBC
(Starting at ~5:56 in video below.)

---

More:


Sudden Acceleration: Automakers' "Fail-Safe" Systems Guard Against Electronic Interference
Jim Motavalli, BNET
The key points here are that the driver’s foot was nowhere near the accelerator pedal, and the floormats were not at issue. So what’s going on here?


Car electronics are great, but they have their risks
News & Observer
Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group, said Toyota has erred in not adopting a brake override system for all its cars that shuts off fuel if the brakes are engaged with the accelerator down. Most other manufacturers have such systems.


Toyota did not install brake override systems despite complaints
Washington Post
Toyota Motor began facing complaints of runaway cars years ago, but the company did not install "brake override" systems in those vehicles, even as several other automakers deployed the technology to address such malfunctions.

Please use your mouse to click and select

sermoa: is this a Nationwide #fail or a new security feature?! ;)



Isn't it a best practice to mask password characters? ;-)

Upside Down

"The faxed submission was received upside down. 
We are unable to continue processing these images. 

Please resubmit your document."

- United States Patent and Trademark Office

"Our current software cannot read pages that are faxed in the wrong direction and consequently generates an automatic error message."
- Peter Pappas,
Chief Communications Officer,
United States Patent and Trademark Office

---

More:

USPTO Won't Accept Upside Down Faxes; Demands Resends
Erik Sherman, BNET
No, if your fax comes in upside down, they send you a message in return saying that they can't accept it and to re-fax.


More on the USPTO Upside Down Fax Mess -- IT Systems 20 Years Out of Date
Erik Sherman, BNET
When it comes to slow processes, technology can be a boon, but only when adequately and competently implemented. What we're apparently seeing at the USPTO is decades of neglect and poor management.

?

"Wow, that's the most helpful error message I've ever seen :/" - @Mindez

Password Amnesia

"I've checked the box a million times and it still asks me to type it."

- Kahnyl, on MacRumors Forums

"I think this might be a security update in the new version of iTunes."

- Dan F. on Apple Discussions

"Have you ever wished that iTunes wouldn't constantly forget your iTunes Store password?  

There's a patch for that."

- PCWorld

---

More:

iTunes 9.0.3

Apple

iTunes 9.0.3 provides a number of important bug fixes


Fix for iTunes 9.0.1 refusing to save your store password

CNET

After iTunes 9.0.1 was released, a number of users were annoyed that the check mark button for saving their password no longer worked.

Your car computer can kill you?

"It's in the software. It's not a bad accelerator pedal."

- Steve Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple Computer

Your car computer may kill you

John Dvorak

Commentary: Software has to be able to recognize a panic situation


The Perfect Storm May Rain 1's and 0's
Brian Cooley, CBS News
Now an already scary story has a spooky, virusy, cyber-something flavor added to it. Umm, did we forget to tell car buyers that they don't really control their cars any more – computers do?

"So, for some strange reason, I find this error really funny. Any idea why? #microsoft" - @CajunTechie

It appears that even Microsoft has trouble identifying browsers.

The best way

Trying to pay my trash bill.

It appears that putting "Colorado Springs" into the credit card billing address field makes it too long. Funny considering this company is located in Colorado Springs and their address (which is longer than mine) won't fit in their form.

And if I didn't enter the value into the field?

Oracle can be hacked remotely

"Speaking at the BlackHat DC Conference, Litchfield unveiled a flaw in Oracle 11g that would allow a hacker to take over the database server. In an article in Forbes , Litchfield said that his latest bug find was one that would be obvious to any competent software developer."

- Computer Weekly

"It allows an attacker without a user ID and password to take complete control. 

All firewalls become irrelevant."

- David Litchfield, as reported by Reuters

---

More:

Oracle Hacker Gets The Last Word

Forbes

David Litchfield exposes one last Oracle security bug before walking away from his database battles.


Litchfield's Last Hurrah

Kelly Jackson Higgins, The Dark Dominion

"[I've] been bashing heads since Larry Ellison said [Oracle's database] was 'unbreakable.' It was like waving a red flag to a bull," Litchfield quipped during his presentation at Black Hat DC yesterday on his latest research.


Vulnerability in Oracle 11gR2 allows system privileges for all

The H

A second bug, however, allows users to adapt these privileges as required. The guilty procedure is DBMS_JAVA.SET_OUTPUT_TO_JAVA. This launches a new Java VM with the privileges of the SYS user and starts by executing any SQL code passed to it with said privileges.

Priceline has cheaper cars?

Marisa Seal reports:

I would wager that somehow the weekly rates were appearing as daily rates,
but I guess I'll never know for sure.

Is Windows 7 killing your battery?

"Good job Microsoft, you just cost me (and almost all windows 7 laptop owners) their battery!! Now what are you going to do!!?"

- DanLee81, as reported by Geek.com

"Microsoft has begun an investigation into a possible problem with Windows 7 that might cause poor battery life, and even degradation of the battery itself, on certain notebooks."

- Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet

"The issue seems sporadic, but fairly widespread. It is unclear whether affected systems are simply misreporting the battery life, or if the battery capacity is actually being permanently affected."

- PCWorld

Radio button action

@CADbloke: Today's @AutoCAD UX #FAIL. Radio buttons are for selection, not action. Srsly, send yr Devs to UX skool.

Is your computer a public file server?

"A successful compromise will result in an attacker being able
to blindly read every single file in the local drive"
- Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina, CORE Security Technologies


"Our investigation so far has shown that if a user is using a version of Internet Explorer that is not running in Protected Mode an attacker may be able to access files with an already known filename and location."

- Microsoft

---

More:

Microsoft Warns of Another IE Bug

ChannelWeb

An attacker could then break into a user's machine to access data stored on a remote hard drive, if they knew the exact file name and location.


Nasty new IE bug exposes your files (please panic now!)

Richi Jennings, ComputerWorld Blogs

Microsoft has confirmed a thoroughly revolting vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer. It means that bad guys can read your files remotely.


Microsoft responds to Black Hat talk with IE bug advisory

SC Magazine

The software giant admitted to the vulnerability after researchers at Core Security Technologies, provider of penetration testing software, revealed the issue during a presentation this week at the Black Hat conference in Washington, D.C.



Abusing Insecure Features of Internet Explorer

Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina, Core Labs

Design features of Internet Explorer that entail low security risk if considered individually but can lead to interesting attack vectors when combined together.

Stop & Go

"The computer can fail, send an inappropriate signal and boom, you go...
And if the computer sends an inappropriate signal and the throttle opens and the car runs away, that's a software glitch."

- Forrest Folck, 

motor vehicle forensic investigator

"So now, after decades invested in metrics-driven verification, formal verification, and methodology management, we find that our chips don't work as expected because the software is still being 'verified' by feeding it test cases  until the schedule expires.  And we find that our cars run into things for the same reason,  and the press of course will blame the problem on 'electronics.'"

- Ron Wilson,

EDN Executive Editor

---

More:


Is Toyota's Accelerator Problem Caused by Embedded Software Bugs?

Barr Code

So what's the story? Are embedded software bugs to blame for this massive recall?


Toyota Acknowledges Software Problem with 2010 Prius Brakes

Car and Driver

The software problem reportedly manifests itself as a feeling of slipping during the switch and is being noticed more now that drivers are using ABS as a result of winter road conditions.


Ford to Upgrade Brake Software On 18,000 Hybrids

Wall Street Journal

While the vehicles maintain full braking capability, customers may initially perceive the condition as loss of brakes.


US to Investigate Prius Brakes

Wall Street Journal

Ford Says Its Hybid Cars Also Have Problem


Toyota Recall – Is it the Computer, not the Gas Pedal?

Dvorak Uncensored

As someone who has been in software for over 30 years, I have to ask Toyota this question, “Have you ruled out the computer?”


Ford offers fix for Fusion hybrid brake glitch

Reuters

17,600 Fusion, Milan hybrids may have software glitch


Toyota Admits Software Problem With 2010 Hybrid Prius

ABC News

Toyota Admits Software Problem With Braking System, Deny Withholding Information From the Public

A Spiritual Exception?

"Best. Error. Message. EVER!!!!" - @ssrjazz

Why is the software making a plea for help?  And who is the target of this invocation?

Does God throw software exceptions? ;-)

Fatal refusal

If your login attempt fails, you die? ;)

Normal service will resume shortly

“One of the best error pages I've seen in a long time. From tweetdeck's website.” - @Coffelord

Find out which Post Offices have extended hours

It is the last day for submitting tax returns. It is late in the day. Knowing that some post offices are open late on tax day, I go to the USPS web site to find out which ones are open late.

The site has a web page with information about mailing tax returns. A Post Office Locator box at the bottom right of the page tells me I can find out which post offices are open late. I click the Go> button.



I enter a ZIP code and click the Search > button to find post offices open late on tax day.



The site displays a map and list of Post Offices. Business hours are shown on the page but there is no indication of which post offices are open late on tax day.

Having gotten here by clicking a button labeled to be a search for post offices that are open late on tax day, I assume that all the post offices in the search results are open late.



My business partner takes our return to a post office from the search results and finds it closed. :(

Error: The operation completed successfully

@bjd: Windows I hate you. But I now have proof that not working is normal behaviour and success is an error

At least it tells us what executable file had the error of completing successfully.