Dept of Utterly Useless Error Messages

[Ed Greshko]

David G. Miller wrote:

> Oh, come on.  I remember a fellow getting the message "Error in source
> deck." from a programming class way back when (?? ALGOL on in an IBM
> System/370 ??).
> 
> Now that's a utterly useless error message.

My favorite error message came from the telephone company's computer system.

"We're sorry.  Your call cannot be completed as dialed.  You must first dial
a 1 for the call to be completed.".

Ahhhh, if you knew I had to dial 1 then why not just tell me and then
complete the call for me?