404 Day celebrates the internet's most infamous no-show
- Reference: 1712313543
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/05/404_day/
- Source link:
April 4 (4/04 – geddit?) marks when internet users around the world [1]celebrate that most humble and yet essential part of web infrastructure – the 404 error, thrown when a page or resource that should be there is absent.
The number refers to the error code when a browser was able to connect to a given server or resource, but whatever was requested – for example, a web page – was not found.
[2]
As the World Wide Web ages, 404 errors are becoming depressingly more commonplace, thanks to links pointing to pages that have long since been taken down or moved.
[3]
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Plenty of administrators with time on their hands have sought ways to ease the pain just a little by customizing the default 404 page with something that might bring a wry smile through the tears.
404 Day, therefore, celebrates the unsung heroes seeking to bring a little humanity and creativity to what would otherwise be a frustrating error message, while also standing as a reminder that the World Wide Web needs to be maintained and looked after.
[5]
This writer is an unashamed space nerd, all too familiar with [6]NASA's "The cosmic object you were looking for has disappeared beyond the event horizon" and [7]ESA's "You've lost your orbit, captain!"
[8]Sleuths who cracked Zodiac Killer's cipher thank the crowd
[9]Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep
[10]'Chemical cat' on the loose in Japanese city
[11]Olympic-level server tossing contest seeks entrants – warranty voiding guaranteed
The tech giants are a little less twee. Microsoft and IBM have resolutely refused to join in the fun, although [12]Oracle's 404 page proclaims: "We found a phone. But the page you were looking for is still missing." Admittedly, 404 might as well refer to the number of pages in its licensing documentation, the way things are going.
Developers have a bit more fun as GitHub's [13]Star Wars-inspired effort demonstrates.
We probably spent a bit too long chatting with Grot, Grafana's AI chatbot that resides on [14]the company's 404 page , but the award for the most creative interpretation of a 404 has to go to that most sober of publications, the [15]Financial Times — well played.
Of course, we have our [16]own take on the 404 error, which might as well be a webcam showing feverish activity here at Vulture Central when the editor isn't looking.
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So, the 404 error page. Something to have a bit of fun with, or a stark reminder that not everything on the World Wide Web is forever? ®
Get our [18]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.holidaycalendar.io/holiday/404-day
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZhAgG6JkTn8Y9nKBaNXRSgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhAgG6JkTn8Y9nKBaNXRSgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhAgG6JkTn8Y9nKBaNXRSgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhAgG6JkTn8Y9nKBaNXRSgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.nasa.gov/404
[7] https://www.esa.int/404
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/04/zodiac_killer_code/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/rancher_hybrid_sheep/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/13/cat_chemical_vat_japan/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/06/cloudfest_server_tossing/
[12] https://www.oracle.com/404/
[13] https://github.com/404
[14] https://grafana.com/404
[15] https://www.ft.com/404
[16] https://www.theregister.com/404
[17] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhAgG6JkTn8Y9nKBaNXRSgAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Train 404
Colleagues of mine were pretty amused, when the display at the train station showed that the train they were waiting for, was train number 404.
Some jokes work only with certain people
Re: Train 404
My DAB radio once told me " Now Playing : Error 404 - File Not Found". By the time I grabbed the camera it was gone, to be replaced by a real song title.
If a band named Error 404 actually recorded a song called File Not Found, it would have been less amusing. Maybe they did, though it would have been rather 1990's.
I suspect the great unwashed have no idea of a 404 these days.
Re: Train 404
Presumably on Platform 9 3/4 ?
Re: Train 404
Bing-Bong!
The train arriving at platforms 3, 4 and 9 has come in sideways.
Re: Train 404
You failed to mention... did it actually show or was it a true 404?
Re: Train 404
I'm reminded of the beginnig of 'Three Men in a Boat':
We got to Waterloo at eleven, and asked where the eleven-five started from. Of course nobody knew; nobody at Waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from, or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, with whom he discussed the question, had heard a rumour that it would go from number one. The station-master, on the other hand, was convinced it would start from the local.
To put an end to the matter, we went upstairs, and asked the traffic superintendent, and he told us that he had just met a man, who said he had seen it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they rather thought that train was the Southampton express, or else the Windsor loop. But they were sure it wasn't the Kingston train, though why they were sure it wasn't they couldn't say.
Then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high-level platform; said he thought he knew the train. So we went to the high- level platform, and saw the engine-driver, and asked him if he was going to Kingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Water, or the 10 a.m. express for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere in that direction, and we should all know when we got there. We slipped half-a-crown into his hand, and begged him to be the 11.5 for Kingston.
"Nobody will ever know, on this line," we said, "what you are, or where you're going. You know the way, you slip off quietly and go to Kingston."
"Well, I don't know, gents," replied the noble fellow, "but I suppose some train's got to go to Kingston; and I'll do it. Gimme the half- crown."
Thus we got to Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway.
We learnt, afterwards, that the train we had come by was really the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Waterloo, looking for it, and nobody knew what had become of it.
Lost documents
A recent research article by Martin Paul Eve shows that of a sample of 7438037 DOI-links 2056492 works could not be found.
The journal Nature (14 March 2024) cites Eve: "After you have been dead for 100 years, are people going to be able to get access to the things you've worked on?"
[1]https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/16288/
[1] https://www.iastatedigitalpress.com/jlsc/article/id/16288/
A 404 is better than...
a spammy webpage camping where the old, useful content once was. Recently had an xml tutorial/documentation site turn into a cooking recipe site, with what I suspected was either AI-generated or outright stolen content. The "about us" page was amusing, talking about how much they cared about people finding good recipes, etc. On a URL whose first 3 letters were "xml", yeah, sure.
My old work phone was xxx-404-xxxx. I always found it amusing, particularly that it did, in fact, find me!
How many site admins are now having kittens due to all the 404's suddenly appearing in their logs?
Back when I ran a webserver, the 404s in the logs were useful for 2 things:
1. Finding bad links in my pages. Inevitably a spider would hit it pretty quick.
2. Seeing which incoming connections were legit users (200) or somebody trying to break in (404 with the address being a PHP configuration page; I didn't have PHP).
Fail2ban for the win - 5x 404s in a day and goodbye!
There are 2 good uses for 404s in the logs:
1. Revealing broken links. (Spiders will usually find these pretty quick.)
2. Showing which users are legit (200) versus people trying to break in (404 for lots of PHP admin pages; I didn't have PHP!)
fail2ban for the win - 5x 404s in an hour and goodbye!
Re: kittens
They could put them on Utube.
Grot
Is Grafana's AI chatbot named after the retail chain founded by renowned 1970s entrepreneur Reginald Perrin?
Re: Grot
"I didn't get where I am today by serving up web content, Perrin"
OR
"45 minutes late today, Joan, escape characters at Adlestrop"
Don't forget the moonshark
https://arstechnica.com/moonshark
Don't forget the moonshark
ArsTechnica's moonshark: https://arstechnica.com/moonshark
404 ?
Back when I first started in this game, 1998 if you were wondering, we wondered what were the preceding 403 errors considered more serious??