<p>One of the problems with operating system today is their error messages. When something pukes out in Windows you will receive a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) with this hexadecimal error that you have no idea what it means until you look it up. </p>
<p>My question is why does technology still give error messages that are not understandable? Given the state we live in today I would guess that it would not be all that difficult to replace that hex number with a legible error. So, if the code means that a driver cause the problem just state that. They can also state that numeric code to make searching easier, but troubleshooting a problem would be significantly easier if the message was understandable.</p> <p>I am going to pick on Microsoft here as they seem to be the worst offenders. In their programming language ASP the errors are something like:</p>
<pre>error ‘8007000e’
/program.asp, line 14</i></pre>
<p>Without searching for this error one has no idea what it stands for. A quick google and you find a <a href=”http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/components/why-do-i-get-8007000e-errors.html”>page</a> that explains that it can be several options. The error not only is difficult to understand, but it also can mean various things. To a true programmer they will learn to understand these errors, but to the part-time hackers like myself you tend to get lost rather quickly.</p>
<p>One classic moment in geek movie history is the PC LOAD LETTER error in <a href=”http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151804/”>Office Space</a>. This is an error on an HP printer that is out of paper. This is an error seen by the end user, yet is totally unclear. If the error stated TRAY 1 EMPTY or LOAD LETTER PAPER it would be much easier to understand. It just seems that the engineers who create this technology are so engulfed that they forget about the end users.</p>
<p>I know that there are people out there who love these bad error messages as it means job security. I really do not believe that the number of tech jobs will decrease if the error messages become easier to understand.</p>
