Cake text printer doesn't speak Italian, pens errors instead

While we doubt we've seen every single computing error that could possibly occur, there's definitely been a fair amount to surface, and while this story may not take the proverbial cake, it's good for a hearty chuckle if nothing else. Apparently, a certain Aunt Elsa was supposed to receive a custom baked (and messaged) cake from Wegmans Grocery to celebrate her birthday, and as the part-English, part-Italian message was emailed into Wegmans presumably automated printing machine, a bit of miscommunication ensued. Sure, it makes sense that the machine might not have been ready (or programmed) to handle languages outside of English, but surely someone actually looked at this thing before sending it out, right? Nevertheless, Aunt Elsa was graced with a cake that just barely got the whole "birthday" message across, and we presume even the supportEmptyParas tasted mighty sweet going down.

[Via BoingBoing]

[Karl @ Jan 19th 2007 2:42PM]

haha, that's awesome.

How that got through unnoticed is beyond me. The language shouldn't matter, as they're just strings of letters to a machine. So there must be more cakes like this floating about...

[HoodOrnament @ Jan 19th 2007 2:52PM]

I live here in Binghamton, and I have no hope in humanity any longer... People here are really below the standard, It wouldn't surprise me that this cake made it that far unnoticed.

[homer jay @ Jan 19th 2007 2:53PM]

haha, thats great, doesn't italian use the same letters as english?? I don't get why it came out all retarded.

[JON BLAST @ Jan 19th 2007 2:59PM]

Well, at least it didnt say "PWNED" in big letters.

Actually, i want that cake for my birthday this year.

"U R 25, PWNED!!"

[Andy @ Jan 19th 2007 8:31PM]

Binghamton, NY? My grandparents live there

[Colin @ Jan 19th 2007 3:00PM]

Thats what you get when you use refilled inkjet cartridges.

[Al @ Jan 19th 2007 4:25PM]

best comment ever @ colin

[steve-o @ Jan 19th 2007 3:06PM]

The program was using Windows Vista I bet.

[Sardonic Bastard @ Jan 19th 2007 3:07PM]

Those conditional comments are put in by Office or other Microsoft apps. It appears that the error is not in italian translation, but more an issue with the system being able to properly handle HTML formatted emails. Entertaining nonetheless!

[Don Wilson @ Jan 31st 2007 7:41PM]

This is the coolest thing I've seen today.

[Jeff Keegan @ Jan 19th 2007 3:25PM]

Some people think it's ok to print source code to the cake printer. THIS SIMPLY IS NOT SO!!!

[Cowboy Bob @ Jan 19th 2007 3:16PM]

a C++ cake? Happy Birthday Bill Gates ;)

[Vinny @ Jan 19th 2007 3:34PM]

Story in their local paper...
"Cake printed with virus code. Consumer in hospital after consumption."

[NHAnimator @ Jan 19th 2007 3:34PM]

Sweet.

[gabe @ Jan 19th 2007 3:37PM]

It looks like that code is commented out. At least that is how to comment out code in html, i think.

[Rick Lyon @ Jan 19th 2007 3:59PM]

haha, that's funny. At first, I though the cake had the error code on purpose as a joke. But to find out it was a mistake, and the tech involved, it's a little more twisted in the humor.

[AlBeRtO @ Jan 19th 2007 3:58PM]

This may even come from Italy, precisely from a village called Ciseriis in Friuli, a region in the northeast of Italy, and it is written part in Friuli local languge, part in Italian and part in PostScript or PDF or whatever source code.

Friul to Binghantom = from Friuli to Binghantom

Bon complean alla piu' bella polentona di Ciseriis = Happy birthday to the cutest "polentona" (I can't translate this, it's sort of a joke) di Ciseriis

Avanti a cent'anni! = go on to 100 years!

[Nick @ Jan 19th 2007 4:33PM]

For those who are not lucky enough to have a Wegman's in your area, I appologize. It is truely beyond a shadow of a doubt, the BEST GROCERY STORE EVER. For a while now, they've had the process where they would put a photo on your cake using one of those ink jet jobs, I'm not exatly sure why anyone would want them to print writing on a cake when they could do it in frosting. My guess is that they had some clip art or something inserted there. Nothing spoils a cake like some Sans Seriff, seriously guys at least get it with Times New Roman!

[Just.Rob @ Jan 19th 2007 4:39PM]

Meanwhile, back in Cupertino, Steve Jobs laughs menacingly, for only he knows the truth. Operation "Apple Pie" is in full swing. The seeds of dissent have been planted, and it's only a matter of time before the masses demand a user friendly system to satisfy their hunger.

For too long consumers have suffered from poorly rendered textures and a gooey experience that leaves a bad taste in their mouths. Prepare yourself naysayers and heathens! The time is nigh for a revolution of culinary connectedness. At the next World Wide Confectioners Conference, Apple will unleash...


...iCing...

and your world will never be the same!

[Rod @ Jan 20th 2007 1:03AM]

Apple iPie? I want one now. Can you indicate the size of the slice you want by moving your fingers?

[ParloItaliano @ Jan 19th 2007 4:51PM]

Looks to me like Internet Explorer-specific commands embedded within HTML comment tags.

Adding on to AlBeRtO's translation: "polentona" is the feminine gender version of an Italian colloquialism for a "northerner" (because traditionally it was northern Italians who ate polenta--cornmeal mush, aka "grits" in the southern US). Friuli is the NE extremity of Italy.

[ParloItaliano @ Jan 19th 2007 4:50PM]

Looks to me like Internet Explorer-specific commands embedded within HTML comment tags.

Adding on to AlBeRtO's translation: "polentona" is the feminine gender version of an Italian colloquialism for a "northerner" (because traditionally it was northern Italians who ate polenta--cornmeal mush, aka "grits" in the southern US). Friuli is the NE extremity of Italy.

[granny down east @ Jan 19th 2007 7:16PM]

ParloItaliano; right on brother! There's a little double entendre here because polentona could also be a big cake of polenta- or a "little bit of Polish" thrown in. Kind of a Stateside Italo-Anglicism.

Which for some paesan' from NY State would be a big insult, unless they loved you lots.

[nftyj @ Jan 19th 2007 5:10PM]

Who knows, maybe Aunt Elsa's a l33t haxor?

At any rate,I hope there wasn't a worm in the cake!

[ts @ Jan 19th 2007 5:22PM]

Reminds me of "values of beta will give rise to dom" (http://www.cloanto.com/garage/)

[alehawk @ Jan 19th 2007 5:32PM]

I cant believe a pritner for a cake. There are no more artisan in this world. Magic is lost.

[Korey @ Jan 19th 2007 5:46PM]

I live in Binghamton and just to see us on engadget.com just made my day and the cakes from wegmans are the shit.

[gillsans @ Jan 19th 2007 5:55PM]

And they used Black Helvetica. Awesome. Nothing spells delicious like some mid-century Swiss design.

[Jaredude @ Jan 20th 2007 4:27AM]

LOL So much for Print->Preview

[Marko @ Jan 19th 2007 6:26PM]

Should have converted the type to outlines before sending it to the cake press. DUH.

[Cyberpun @ Jan 19th 2007 7:17PM]

I live in Binghamton too, I wonder if I wanted HTML printed on a cake if they would do it for me now.

[David Li @ Jan 19th 2007 7:48PM]

Looks like yesterday's DailyWTF. They had chocolate ingredients with SQL in it:
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Chocolate_Covered_SQL.aspx

[Brett Martin @ Jan 19th 2007 10:52PM]

Hah. I live in binghamton and know people who work at Wegmans lol... I am going to give them shit for this!

[epobirs @ Jan 19th 2007 11:44PM]

This doesn't appear to much to do with the use of Italian but quite a lot to do with operator incompetence. I'd be curious to examine the software to see how easy or hard it is to cause such errors.

[Chef Boyardee @ Jan 20th 2007 1:14AM]

I used to work part time in a bakery, It's actually printed on rice paper using a slightly modified desktop inkjet printer (canon or hp) printed with edible food dyes.

[Don @ Jan 20th 2007 8:37PM]

The problem is the HTML comments are wrong. There are supposed to be blanks after the opening "!--" and before the closing "--". So, that junk is text to the HTML parser, which was doing its job correctly.

[Harbinger @ Jan 21st 2007 12:00AM]

Christ, the Just.Rob commentary was priceless.

[Magallanes @ Jan 21st 2007 9:18AM]

At least was for the aunt, if it was for the grandfather then surely you will earn a good kiss of death. ;-)

[tom muscatello @ Jan 28th 2007 10:07PM]

The woman who the cake was for is my Aunt Elsa. I was at the party. It was a message my cousin e-mailed to Wegman's to be printed on the cake. The computer text was NOT intended to be put on the cake. We couldn't believe they did it. We laughed
alot over this one....