When error messages are good

I was playing around with the new image library of the space shuttle when I broke Photosynth.  I got a javascript popup telling me about my faux-pas and instead of just dismissing the error without reading it, for the first time in my life I read an error message. 

Why? because it was human and funny too - it was like the developer was reaching out to me and giving me a personal experience.  It's a nice touch.  I came away from the crash feeling weird - not the normal frustration but an acceptance that, ok, we're human and humans make mistakes. 

Ergo; because humans make software, software will always have mistakes in it.

Oh, yeah and it did require me to close the tab I was using, but not a reboot of IE.

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