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I thought I saw a poem once about the 404 error message, but I couldn't find it anywhere, in my files or on the web, including at the rhf web site. So I wrote my own; it is now the error message given for a 404 on the server in my office. So I guess this is all original.

404

It is said, "To err is human,"
That quote from alt.times.lore,
Alas, you have made an error,
So I say, "404."

Double-check your URL,
As we all have heard before.
You ask for an invalid filename,
And I respond, "404."

Perhaps you made a typo--
Your fingers may be sore--
But until you type it right,
You'll only get 404.

Maybe you followed a bad link,
Surfing a foreign shore;
You'll just have to tell that author
About this 404.

I'm just a lowly server
(Who likes to speak in metaphor),
So for a request that I don't know,
I must return 404.

Be glad I'm not an old mainframe
That might just dump its core,
Because then you'd get a ten-meg file
Instead of this 404.

I really would like to help you,
But I don't know what you're looking for,
And since I don't know what you want,
I give you 404.

Remember Poe, insane with longing
For his tragically lost Lenore.
Instead, you quest for files.
Quoth the Raven, "404!"

by Dan Black
dan@black.org
16 August 1999

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