Aw, Snap!
2011-06-07 10:23:37
I was working on a project the other day and crashed Chrome. You don't get a simple numeric error when chrome crashes, instead you get this:
Aw Snap. That's wicked. Total Burn, dude. Your page is WHACKED. WTF?
Actually, the WTF was my response to the Aw Snap error… I know they're trying to be cool and amusing, but it's like a total 'in your FACE, luser.' I'm already irritated that chrome just crashed, and for it to just taunt me with '90s gangsta slang is just irritating. They might as well have the bully from the Simpsons sing out his HaHA at me.
Sure, they're trying to be cool, but we're talking lame cool like listening to Dave Matthews Band to be cool… 'Aw Snap' is the Adult Alternative station of slang (if you're in Gen Download, that's a radio reference).
I prefer my retro error messages to be more like Robbie the Robot in Lost In Space -- 'Danger Will Robinson' and arms flailing about… Maybe a 30's gangster reference like, ''dis page is sleepin' wit da fishes' -- at least you would KNOW they aren't trying to be cool.
It would be less irritating if the hip programmers who put that error message up there then gave me some kind of information about WHY the browser failed to load the page. I've had Chrome fail and other browsers work, so this 'lookit me I'm a cool dude who works for Google' error message has the subtext of, 'you're not cool enough to figure out what went wrong.'
I have to then fire up Firefox, load the page, and open up the error console to find out what went wrong and fix it. I know, 'error console' isn't nearly as cool as 'Aw Snap' but I'm not trying to be cool when I'm working on websites for clients. I'm trying to be productive.
Of course the traditional Microsoft world of acronym's and jargon is pretty much the same thing as using street slang -- instead of 'we're cooler than you' it's a message of 'we're geekier than you' but either way… It's just plain annoying, which is what people tell me all day about their computers…
Maybe it's not the computers that are annoying after all…