Matthew MillerMy flight at gate 404 is delayed because... the plane isn't there.
I am not making this up.
Matt Campbell@mattdm It strikes me as kind of messed up that that HTTP status code is so well-known. In a sanely designed Internet, arguably the status code would be buried in an enum in some machine-readable protocol definition, canonical identifiers for all of the statuses would be exposed in all of the HTTP client and server APIs, and the actual number of the "not found" status would be something that very few people know. And users would certainly never see it.
Jules@matt @mattdm From the programmers I met in Cobol class way back when, I think the fun of playing as in the humour in this thread was part of the reason they tended to make it visible. I think it was sanely designed for humans who like to play... and to some degree makes the system less intimidating for non-programmers.
Then again, I have been known to comment on my own fact recall when someone asks with "Damn, 404" - the brain area which the search says ought to spit it out says it isn't there