Error Goblin – An Information Resource Not To Miss

Errors. They happen with Linux, with Windows, and with Macintosh, in every well designed program and much more noticeable in the poorly designed ones. After all, I know I’ve faced my fair share of bugs using betas and alphas long before they were considered stable, so has Raymond, and so has anyone else that I could think of. After all, these errors, these bugs, it’s how we learn that we’ve hit something a coder never expected us to encounter. But who can cover every error out there and how to fix it? After all, there’s a few times when I’ve misdiagnosed an error message, and it’s been proven that it’s a different error then I originally thought it was. And other then studying the nearly 16000 error codes that Microsoft itself uses… why not use something a far cry easier?

Introducing Error Goblin, a very minimalistic site that does exactly what it says on the tin: it lets you know about those cryptic error messages and will decipher them for you. It is designed for any Windows operating system, but only for Windows, and is still a work in progress. However, at present, pulling random codes that I’ve seen, such as 0×1004, 0x10E3, and 0x23D (which I might add, might not seem common after all), pulls up faster then when it does during a Google search. The thing that I’m majorly big on is how minimalistic the service is in appearance as you can see below.

The response to my error!

The only downside to this site, however, is that it’s not fully completed yet. It does have a button under the error as you can see, which should tell you how to fix it, but as of yet, the three errors I’ve looked up have had no solution posted. While it also has a portable application so you can learn on the go what’s wrong, it’s also tied to the site for the solution. I do love the fact that it does offer a portable solution for those of us that are fixing something on the go, a great idea for troubleshooting internet connections.

So while not completed yet, it still is a great resource of information if you just need to figure out what error you’re facing, and the fact that it also has an offline portable application at about 40 kb, is rather amazing if you ask me. Until it’s fully completed and has more ways of resolving the problem though, it’s a hit and miss kind of deal. However, now that you’re aware of what your error might be, you just might not have to Google the error for the solution, because it might be related to one you already know how to handle. And if you do, you now know what’s wrong, so how to fix it will be that much simpler. Another great idea might be to give it to someone with less knowledge and allow them to find the error, so you can bring your specialized tools with you, rather then a full toolkit. Overall, it seems to be a great start, and I really do hope they continue developing it!

- Error Goblin -