Dept of Utterly Useless Error Messages

[Ed Greshko]

Mike McCarty wrote:
> Ed Greshko wrote:
>> 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?
>>
> 
> Because that would convert a call which the original dialler
> would not know was a toll call into a toll call, without getting
> confirmation.

Actually, it didn't.  This was back when I lived in NJ and area codes were
added and changed.  My area code was 201 but changed to 908.  Then next town
over remained at 201 and no tolls were added.

And even if that were the case, the announcement provided no warning so it
was useless in more than one respect.