I found this old poem. Probably over 20 years old.
About computer trouble. I felt it would be appreciated
more here in the tech forum due to it's age and not
being furry.
Abort, Retry, Ignore.
Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vison bleary.
System manuels piled high and wasted paper on the floor.
Longing for the warmth of bed sheets still I sat there doing spredsheets.
Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy disk from the drawer.
I then invoked the SAVE command, and waited for the disk to store.
Only this and nothing more.
Deep into the monitor peering, long I sat there wond'ering, fearing.
Doubting, while the disk kept churning, turning yet to churn some more.
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token.
One thing did the phosphors answer, only this and nothing more.
Just, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
Was this some occult illusion, som manical introusion?
These were choices undesired, ones I'd never faced before.
Carefully I weighed the choices as the disk made impish'noises.
The cursor flashed, insistent, waiting, baiting me to type som more.
Clearly I must press a key, choosing one and nothing more.
From "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
With fingers pale and trembling, slowly toward the keyboard bending.
Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored.
Preying for some guarantee, timidly, I pressed a key.
But on the screen there still persisted words appearing as before.
Ghastly grim they blinked and taunted, haunted, as my patience wore.
Saying "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
I tried to catch the chips off guard, and pressed again, but twice as hard.
I pleaded with the cursed machine: I begged and cried and then I swore.
Now in mighty desperation, trying random combinations,
Still there came the incantation, just as senseless as before.
Cursor blinking, angrily winking, blinking nonsnse as before.
Reading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
There I sat distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted.
Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor.
And then I saw a dreadful sight: a lightning bolt cut through the night.
A gasp of horror overtook me, shook me to my very core.
The lightning zapped my previous data, lost and gone forevermore.
Not even, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
To this day I do not know the place to which lost data go.
What demonic nether world us wrought where lost data will be stored.
Beyond the reach of mortal souls, beyond the ether, into black holes?
But sure as there's C, Pascal, Lotus, Ashton-Tate and more.
You will be one day be lleft to wander, lost on some Plutonian shore.
Pleading, "Abort, Retry, Ignore?"
"Author unknown"
