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Strange error messages
Like many programmers, when I'm developing code, I'll put in amusing error messages for when
the code does something I don't expect. However, sometimes this code will get shipped before
it's ready. Which leads to querulous calls from the customers. We've had the United States Navy
ask us about some of these, which must have caused some consternation out at sea when they
popped up. Seriously, folks, ASK me before you ship my software!
One time, I was writing a driver while the hardware engineer (his nickname was "Hoppy") was simultaneously debugging the hardware. I kept getting a particular error condition, only to find out it was because Hoppy had been screwing with something. After a few iterations of this, I simply put a printout at that point in the code that said "Hoppy's playing with the wires!" Sure enough, I forgot to remove it, and that message popped up in the field.
"Shut 'er down, Slim, she's sucking mud!" (a favourite of my friend, Ron Eirtle)
And my personal favourite: "I can't get a buffer to save my ass!"