Amusing 404 "Page Not Found" Images for Trilogy sites?

Question

I'd like to have amusing but on-topic images for our 404 Page Not Found page on:

• Stack Overflow
• Server Fault
• Super User
• Meta

By on topic, I mean the 404 image on Stack Overflow should be a programmery "not found" of some kind, and the Super User one should be a power user's "not found", and so forth.

These images would be shown in addition to the existing 404 page text, so nothing is getting lost, we're just trying to inject a little fun into the process.

I'm having trouble coming up with anything. Any good suggestions? Post them as answers!

If your submission or suggestion is highly voted and meets the criteria outlined, it's likely to be deployed as the "official" 404 image for one of the trilogy sites …

EDIT: 404 page winners!

• Mark Rushakoff : Stack Overflow
• squillman : Server Fault

The other two I selected myself.

Answer 1

I'd like to see some kind of polyglot for Stack Overflow's 404 page. Here's a little polyglot for Befunge-93, Brainf*ck, Python, Ruby, Perl, and C that simply prints 404 to stdout. It probably works in whatever other scripting languages that use # as a line comment and accept the keyword print. Could possibly add Whitespace as well, but that doesn't show up very well in images.

# define v putchar
#   define print(x) main(){v(4+v(v(52)-4));return 0;}/*
#>+++++++4+[>++++++<-]>++++.----.++++.*/
print(202*2);exit();
#define/*>.@*/exit()

There were a couple things I didn't care for in the version that's up on the 404 page now, so I propose this modified version. It still works in Perl/Python/Ruby/C/Befunge/BF (at 143 chars), but I got rid of the exit stuff since it didn't really add anything, and technically the BF output a \0 that I didn't originally mean to have in there.

# define v putchar
#  define print(x) main(){v(4+v(v(52)-4));return 0;}/*
#++++++++4[>++++++<-]>++++.----.++++<*/
print(202*2)
#undef /*>.@*/v

I'm actually not sure if Perl needs a semicolon after print(202*2) — I can recall Perl requiring a semicolon after each statement, but Perl 5.10.0 on my machine doesn't complain, even with the -W flag.

Answer 2

Here's another for SF. Found it here, not sure about permissions.

404: Server not found

Answer 3

For Stack Overflow (or any of the sites; it's a Star Wars reference).

404: These are not the Droids you're looking for.

Or:

404: We couldn't find the Droids you were looking for. Try Google?

Answer 4

As usual I'm late to the party... :-) The inline image sucks (auto sizing and all that)...

EDIT: Actually given some more thought to this (even though the bounty is over, I would do the 404 page as an actual question. Asked by "Community" or "StackOverflow.com". The text of the question would be the text/links on the current 404 page (and maybe the winning image from this question). And for fun I would allow users to actually answer the question. Imagine the chaos that could ensue... :-)

Answer 5

For any of the sites:

"Despite his best efforts, Joel Spolsky was unable to locate the item in question"

or, more neutrally,

"Despite our best efforts, we were unable to locate the item in question"

Vintage image.

(Original source from Google Image search for "IBM punch cards")

Answer 6

For SO

It seems you're trying to access a page that doesn't exist. You should totally drop that and try jQuery.

Answer 7

Stack Overflow:

function lookForPage(url) {
  if (pageExists(url)) {
    return page(url);
  } else {
    return lookForPage(url);
  }
}

Answer 8

For Meta.

Unfortunately, there are no waffles here.

[Ed- Image no longer exists.]

Answer 9

For ServerFault:

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

or

"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't find that."

http://www.drucker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/hal9000.gif

(from google image search for "hal 9000")

Answer 10

This could work on Super User:

Error 404

Just for kicks, we tried:

sudo "make me a sandwich";

It didn't work. We'll be back up in a minute.

Answer 11

For SO.

It seems you've followed a dangling pointer.

original image (dead)

Answer 12

This is for Super User

Answer 13

For Super User:

"Your input could not be processed"

(This is from a Google Image search for "cat keyboard")

Original: http://dontclickthis.whatingods.name/cat-on-keyboard.jpg

Answer 14

In honor of Geocities, called home by the Lord today at much too young an age:

Answer 15

Answer 16

Here's a play on a qmail bounce, for SF:

Answer 17

Here's a couple for SF/SU:

As suggested in comments

For Linux users:
Not Found - Windows http://www.sqeq.com/image/SF_404.jpg

For Windows users:
Not Found - KDE http://www.sqeq.com/image/SF_404_KDE.jpg

Someone will have to pick me up on the Mac Finder shot, I don't have a Mac lying around here...

Answer 18

Sorry, we can't find your page. You may have mistyped something.

(from google image search for "monkey keyboard")

Answer 19

For Meta

I took Ólafur Waage/random's answer and added freehand circles with dropshadows and unnecessarily high JPEG compression. (Properly compressed version here.)

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/160/404comp.jpg

Answer 20

For StackOverflow: punch cards scattered across the floor and the text: "Error: We didn't find that hole."

Answer 21

For SuperUser: A generic super-hero's costume (incorporating the logo colors?), on either hanger or a mannequin, with the text "404 Hero not found".

Answer 22

For Meta: a picture of that "Thinker" statue in a ditch of dirty water; "404: Amazingly, that's one thing we didn't find here."

Answer 23

For StackOverflow: reams upon reams of green-bar paper with (presumably) code printouts, along with the text "What line did you say that was again?"

Answer 24

This isn't a picture but it's still a funny 404 message. Unfortunately you will have to click the link: Depressed Server. If someone knows how to make it show up here without having to click the link please edit my post so it will.

Answer 25

This is for Server Fault.

Answer 26

404, the waffles are outdoors today.:
Waffles and Dinges http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/webassets/.pond/Newtruckpostcard5.jpg.w560h527.jpg

Answer 27

Here is a nice collection of images for inspiration. An amusing image is a good idea, but I would take the "URL as part of the UI" metaphor one step further. Turn the juicy bits of the miss-typed URL into a search.

If they type something starting with

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/ - Search for a question with the rest of the URL. If it has a big number (like a question ID) that isn't found, then discard it.
• https://stackoverflow.com/tags/ - Search for a tag, if there is nothing close, then search for a question.
• https://stackoverflow.com/users - Search for a user, if there are no results, search their profile.
• https://stackoverflow.com/badges - You get the idea . . .

You could put some other parsing in there to make a more educated guess for what they were going for. Apply the same pattern to any site in the trilogy, or for that matter on Stack Exchange.

Answer 28

We made you a question ... but we eated it.