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Hall Of Technical Documentation Weirdness

An anonymous reader submits: "Generally speaking, with the exception of Tina on Dilbert, technical writers aren't very funny. This is something of a rare and unintentional exception. This guy has assembled a bunch of examples of bizarre technical illustration. There's only about 15 at the moment, but he's collecting further examples."

21 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Others by L-s-L69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    To go with... McDonalds coffee: "May be hot." Ready meals: "Remove plastic before cooking" Nitol (sleep tablets) "May cause drowsyness" Laxitives "exessive consumption may produce laxitive effect." The list is endless.

    1. Re:Others by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Funny

      Peanuts - "May contain peanuts". I really like the lack of certainty with this one.

    2. Re:Others by Yxes · · Score: 5, Funny

      it's in our speech everday though.

      "I found it in the last place that I looked"
      - why would you keep looking?

      "needless to say"
      - then why say it?

      "no offense but..."
      - you know you're about to be offended

      "new and improved"
      - if it's new? how can you improve it?

      "save money by purchasing..."
      - really?

      on a tv ad for bioflex
      "to loose the weight you need to add muscle..."
      - really?

      this list too is endless...

    3. Re:Others by MikeCT · · Score: 5, Funny

      From an IBM manual: "The difference between a database management system and other systems is that a database management system helps manage the database for you ...."

      An here's a comment taken from a COBOL program I once had to maintain. It actually does make sense if you manage to guess the right punctuation:
      "If not amending after total blank lines are shuffled up after total blanked lines are left blank in table to avoid shuffling."

    4. Re:Others by soulsteal · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like my coffee like i like my women. Dark, full bodied and slightly bitter.

      I like my coffee like I like my women: tied up in a burlap bag and dragged through the Andes.

    5. Re:Others by JonnyElvis42 · · Score: 5, Funny

      And what about my stick deoderant: "Not for use in the eyes."

      Now what the heck am I supposed to do when I've got a bad case of stinky-eye?

  2. Oh Well. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was oh so hoping there'd be something amusing waiting for me when I clicked through to this guys site. This guys sense of humor includes laughing at perfectly normal operation instructions because they contain "lots of arrows"? ...yawn... Did anyone really read this site before posting this lame-ass story?

  3. THE ARTICLE FAILS IT! by wheany · · Score: 5, Funny

    Might contain traces of funny.

    1. Re:THE ARTICLE FAILS IT! by marcop · · Score: 5, Funny

      Since this article lacks any humor, maybe we should start posting some funny signs/symbols of our own. Here is a link to some funny swat team hand jestures:

      http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?act=ST&f= 19 &t=92950&s=56a40001faa4bd14000861cbfa22fc0 2

      I ran across a site containing funny interpretations of airplane safety literature but I couldn't find it at the moment.

  4. Only about 15 ?! by itsme1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

    There are 12 exhibits, they're even numbered if you can't count to 12 ...

    ---
    "There's only about 15 at the moment, but he's collecting further examples."
    ---

  5. Not too weird... by jdreed1024 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Some of these are simply translated as "The person who wrote this doesn't understand this device".

    For example, in number "11", it's pretty clear it's not a fridge, but an A/V rack. (that being why it's included with a DVD player). And it's saying "Don't wheel the A/V rack towards you over uneven surfaces, or you'll end up underneath it writhing in pain".

    Exhibit 9 is not that stupid - it's pretty clear it's not a cartoon speaking bubble, but rather intimating that somewhere on your computer is a USB port.

    Exihibit 5: "I like it because it says 'insert trousers'" Huh? It's weird because it's correct English? Or it's weird because it's telling you what to do? Or it's weird because this guy doesn't know what "trousers" means? It's a pants press - how is it weird for it to tell you to insert your pants into the rack?

    Move along folks, nothing to see here.

    --
    There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
  6. Oh where can I find.... by ThosLives · · Score: 5, Funny
    A picture of my favorite:

    On a Caterpillar trench digger, there was this funny picture of a NO sign around a chainsaw looking thing and a caption that said, "Engage crowd control before operating".

    because-trench-diggers-control-crowds

    --
    "There are a dozen opinions on a matter until you know the truth. Then there is only one." - CS Lewis (paraprhase)
  7. I used to like the japanese... by BadSeqtor · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but now I'm not that sure any more...

  8. It was getting slow.. I have Mirrored it. by Organized+Konfusion · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mirror be gentle to my host plz ;-)

  9. If you enjoy bad translations into English... by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Visit engrish.com! Hours of fun...

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  10. Huh by sg3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know that this page should have been funny, but for some reason, I'm not laughing. And I'm even familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda.

    I kind of expected something like "Engrish" or the often funny Airtoons (but it's probably only funny for those of us that fly a lot). Or even, the hasn't-been-updated-since-the-millennium Kibo and his amusing criticisms of font use or Gerald Holmes, which has outlived the silly .com web awards that are featured on his site. Hooray for Gerald!

    --
    Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
  11. Re:japanese toilets by DrSkwid · · Score: 5, Funny

    If it made your eyes water you *were* doing somthing wrong.

    I prefered it when it watered other parts of my anatomy.

    And the Japanese are totally on the ball with this one, having warm water sprayed on my ass was the highlight of my overnight stay.

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  12. Microfortnights by Christian+Engstrom · · Score: 5, Informative
    The documentation for the VAX/VMS operating system (this was in the eighties, before they started renaiming it every other year) claimed that one of the system parameters in SYSGEN should be specified in "microfortnights", but then proceeded to say that for added convenience, microfortnights were approximated by "seconds". (If you can't be bothered to bring out your calculator, a proper microfortnight would be 1.2096 seconds.)

    At least I thought this was rather funny, but perhaps I am just very childish.

    --
    Christian Engström, Former Member of the European Parliament 2009-2014 for The Pirate Party, Sweden
  13. This page left blank by SuperBanana · · Score: 5, Funny
    Years ago while helping my high school with some card-catalog software, I was flipping through the manual and saw:

    THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

    My first thought was "god, what a bunch of anal-retentive...." So I continued reading, and almost didn't notice that the next blank(or not blank) page was:

    THIS PAGE ALSO INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

    I smirked a little, and read on. It kept getting better though:

    YES, THIS PAGE -ALSO- INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

    THIS PAGE SHOULD NOT BE LEFT BLANK. OOPS, JUST KIDDING.

    etc. etc...they obviously had some fun with that one, realizing just how stupid those messages are and poking fun at it.

    It's almost as good as the Irix workstation which was donated to the HS...it would get increasingly cross if it found someone else was using its IP, and the logs would look something like this:

    Computer with MAC Address 34:23:23... is using my IP address
    Computer with MAC Address 34:23:23... is using my IP address
    Computer with MAC Address 34:23:23... is still using my IP address
    Computer with MAC Address 34:23:23... is STILL using my IP address
    Computer with MAC Address 34:23:23... IS STILL USING MY IP ADDRESS GOD DAMMIT!

    (I don't remember the exact wording, but yes, it would finally start cursing mildly).

  14. One time by RightInTheNeck · · Score: 5, Funny

    One time I helped put together a childrens jungle gym sorta deal. It came in a box about the size of a small Australian territory in about 367,894 seperate pieces. Being the men that we are and with the youngins watching in great awe we tossed the directions aside and dove in. After we finished we realized it looked like a scene from that movie "Labyrinth" and something was very very wrong. I picked up the directions finally and opened up to the first page and at the very top in really small print it said "Welcome back". Now I dont know if it was meant for another reason or it was the author being a smartass but it was damn funny at the time you had to be there I guess.

  15. Shuttle Carrier Aircraft by Feng · · Score: 5, Funny
    On one of the carriers they use to ferry space shuttles around, there's a blindingly obvious sign written on one of the struts which reads "Place Orbiter Here... Black Side Down"

    :)

    --


    --- if y cn rd ths y cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgmmng!