I share your concern with poor icon design and application. I’m collecting articles on the topic at http://iconfu.com/resources/list/icon_design/0.html – there are some really interesting ideas there, including the radical “words might just be better” concept …

cheers -

Shutdown.
System shutting down . Continue (yes/no)?

Now does this mean
1) Continue running, without shutting down?
or 2) Continue with the shutdown.

Just one example of many