[common] This term is closely related to the older
Black Screen of Death but much more common (many non-hackers have
picked it up). Due to the extreme fragility and bugginess of Microsoft
Windows, misbehaving applications can readily crash the OS (and the OS
sometimes crashes itself spontaneously). The Blue Screen of Death,
sometimes decorated with hex error codes, is what you get when this
happens. (Commonly abbreviated BSOD.) The
following entry from the Salon
Haiku Contest, seems to have predated popular use of the
term:
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death
No one hears your screams.
