When communicating via HTTP, a server is required to respond to a request, such as a web browser request for a web page, with a numeric response code and an optional, mandatory, or disallowed (based upon the status code) message. And there comes the unique ‘404’ .. .. .. the 404 or Not Found error message is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard response code, in computer network communications, to indicate that the client was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested. The web site hosting server will typically generate a "404 Not Found" web page when a user attempts to follow a broken or dead link; hence the 404 error is one of the most recognizable errors encountered on the World Wide Web.
Now read this interesting
piece found in Daily Mail. A screenshot
purporting to be from the New Zealand Government website's 'Page not found' 404
error screen has surfaced on the internet to the delight of many. The screen
shows a map of the world, accompanied by the headline 'We're sorry, something's
missing'. The screenshot first appeared on the Tumblr and has been viewed by
over a lakh of people.
What most found so
humorous, was the actual map of New Zealand was left off. Not sure whether it was
consciously done ! or just another mistake.
Daily Mail adds that it could not verify if the Tumblr post is real or
fake, the founder of Tumblr site, 'World Maps without New Zealand' claimed the
error message was indeed correct and was taken in September. The blog's founder, Arnold from Wellington,
New Zealand, compiles a list from around the world of other instances where New
Zealand has been left off the world map. 'It’s quite amusing to not find New Zealand
not there half of the time,' he said.
While he started with just
a handful of maps, he has now been bombarded with submissions - with examples
including everything from tattoos to children's playground and even world map
puzzles. The 4.4 million person, 268,000 square kilometre, island nation has a
landmass bigger than the size of Great Britain, and was voted the 'best travel
destination' by Lonely Planet two years in a row. Auckland based producer,
Tessa Mitchelson, told the Daily Mail about a time when she attended a
geopolitics talk where the lecturer's power point left New Zealand off the map.
'As a Kiwi, I'm used to
people leaving New Zealand off the map, but not in a university lecture. When
traveling I constantly get mistaken for an Australian. It's like we don't even
exist sometimes.'
Interesting !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
24th Dec 2016.
