Your desktop is in an inconsistent state

"Anyone run into this error with #vmware view?" - @benwaynet



Due to a potential for data loss, we will force you to logout without providing an opportunity to save the data. Try to login again and retrieve your data. Try. We dare you. ;)

Close Download Manager

The Adobe Download Manager automatically opens after logging into my computer and offers me no options except it. If there are no updates to apply, why did it open?

Hugs and kisses

"Apple have started putting kisses at the end of their error messages, that's nice isn't it." - @bertiestyles

Auto delete is a bug, not a feature

I am in the middle of editing a blog post that was uploaded to Blogger long ago. I select some text to move and accidently press X instead of CTRL-X. Instead of being moved to the clipboard, the selected text is deleted and replaced with the letter x. I quickly attempt to press CTRL-Z to undo my typo and all the text and an image disappear from the blog post editor. Not sure what I pressed, I press CTRL-Z and the document is still blank.



Then I notice that Blogger has chosen to automatically save my document while it was in an accidently bad state. After this save, undo doesn't work. My text is gone. My image is gone.  I did not press any save button.

So instead of automatically saving my document so that I don't inadvertently lose the product of my work, the auto-save feature deleted my document by saving it while it was in a state in which I did not want it saved.  I would prefer to press a save button on my own.

My Account

I log into my DirecTV website account. I click the My Account link at the top of the page.



The following page is displayed; providing options to sign in to view my account.  It appears to be telling me to sign in again.



I click the Sign in to My Account button. I am returned to the page from which I selected the option to view my account.



I click the My Account link again.



This time I click the Sign In link. I am once again returned to the page from which I selected the option to view my account.



I go through this loop several times.  I even have customer support on the phone for something other than what I want to see on the web site.  They suggest I log out and sign in again. I try that and resume the same circular path.

So, I try a somewhat different path.  I noticed that if I mouseover My Account and don't click too fast, a menu pops up offering a number of account-related options.  These links work.

More experimentation shows that sometimes this drop-down list is displayed and other times it isn't. Perhaps my computer is too slow, or busy doing other things.



I then discover that all those bullet items on the My Account  page telling me to sign in were links to the account options.  Due to the instructions at the top of the page to sign in, I had assumed the information on the bottom half of the page was just a list of features and not links to those features.

So, if I am already logged in, why does going to the My Account page tell me to sign in?

O'Really?

“@TeamTurboTax here's the error message i keep getting. i've tried changing it multiple times, in profile and on” - @thelowestdown

A nice catastrophe

"Nice SQL error" - @krummy

What is a user to do when faced with such an ambiguous catastrophe?

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? ;-)