KLB Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 Okay this is really weird and could one could get some really good political conspiracy theory mileage out of it. If you are a user of Microsoft Windows open Notepad and type the following without the quotes, without adding a return character and without punctuation: "Bush hid the facts". Now save the file somewhere like to your desktop. Close notepad and then open the file you just saved in Notepad. If you want extra fun, make sure notepad is using the font "Arial Unicode". If you followed the directions correctly and exactly, then when you reopen the text file in Notepad it won't be stating what you typed in. But the file will be just fine in any other text editor. For anyone who speaks Chinese and uses Arial Unicode in Notepad I'd love to know if the message has any meaning or if it is just gibberish. Is this a bug or a political conspiracy? Is this a secret message from China? What is scarier, the idea that Microsoft can't keep bugs out of a program as simple as Notepad or that the China might have coopted software that is on 90% of computers? Will we see conspiracy buffs shifting into over drive? Hmmm, me thinks if it was spun correctly it could get considerable mileage regardless of one's political leaning. Oh you can get more information about this and a little more disclosure at: http://blog.wired.com/27BStroke6/index.blog?entry_id=1502576 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecoli Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 does that happen with other sentences too? I'm guessing it does. by the way, you link is broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLB Posted June 15, 2006 Author Share Posted June 15, 2006 Sorry I fixed the link. It works for some other phrases. It might work for phrases with the following pattern: a four letter word followed by two three letter words followed by a five letter word. It does not work for all phrases that follow this pattern. For instance it did not work for me when I tried "Bush hid the truth". It does work for "this app can break". Of course the method I posted above is funnier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kermit Posted June 15, 2006 Share Posted June 15, 2006 I'm highly curious as to who had the initiative to open up notepad, type in that exact phrase with the exact punctuation and save it. The conspiracy thus isn't on Microsoft's behalf.. it's on the guy who figured that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLB Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 You know what they say about an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of typewriters. Given, however, that not all phrases of the correct word length combinations work, it is pretty funny that the two phrases I've posted do work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5614 Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 That is quite strange. It's interested me for all of a few seconds, but now I've lost interest and really couldn't care whether it's a political thing, another error or just fluke. Just my opinion. I think it's the fact that it changes what you've typed which interested me for a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangloss Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 It also works for "Kerr hid the facts" (I tried Kerry but that didn't work). Clearly it's a specific set of ANSI characters that's triggering a Notepad bug of some kind. Since Notepad bugs are legion, this is really no surprise at all, and clearly has nothing to do with, for example, any anti-Bush sentiment at Microsoft. I don't think Computer Science is where this belongs. It's not political either. I guess I'll leave it here but this is clearly bunk and I'm disappointed to see it posted at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 You can also try "This app can break" and it'll break Notepad. It seems to be any set of words with a specific length - 4, 3, 3 and 5 letters long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecoli Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 would this happened if this pattern is types in the middle of a sentence, I wonder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangloss Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I wonder if this happens in Vista. I've noticed that Vista's Notepad is missing the well-known bug where if you save a document then the cursor immediately jumps back four or five characters (a real nuisance if you save while typing, at least until you get into the habit of typing control-end right after your control-S). I'm backing up my Vista machine at the moment but I'll try it later and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest_Jim* Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I found away to stop it. If you save the file with whatever phrase you want, save it, reopen it, and it will create those boxes, but try putting the same phrase in again and save it as the same file. When you open it next the text is correct. I don't know why this works but it does at least on my computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLB Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 Since Notepad bugs are legion, this is really no surprise at all, and clearly has nothing to do with, for example, any anti-Bush sentiment at Microsoft. Oh I agree that it isn't an intention political conspiracy, but the idea that it could be a conspiracy just adds some fun to it. The Left wing could argue that it is a right wing conspiracy to cover up dissenting voices and the right wing could claim it is a left wing conspiracy to discredit Bush. "Bush hid the facts" is just more interesting than "this app can break". I don't think Computer Science is where this belongs. It's not political either. I couldn't figure out whether it really fit under computers or politics but decided it was really a computer bug so this was the best place for it. I guess I'll leave it here but this is clearly bunk and I'm disappointed to see it posted at all. Sometimes it is fun to find and discuss stupid Microsoft bugs. I mean we might as well find some joy in them when we can because there are more than enough of them that have caused us real heartache. I know I've had more than my share of Word documents destroyed by stupid bugs over the years. You can also try "This app can break" and it'll break Notepad. It seems to be any set of words with a specific length - 4, 3, 3 and 5 letters long. But as I mentioned earlier, the strange thing is that not all 4,3,3,5 combinations trip up this bug, only some do. would this happened if this pattern is types in the middle of a sentence, I wonder? To the best of my knowledge no, but that could really suck if it did. I found away to stop it. If you save the file with whatever phrase you want, save it, reopen it, and it will create those boxes, but try putting the same phrase in again and save it as the same file. When you open it next the text is correct. I don't know why this works but it does at least on my computer. Correct once you open and resave the document the problem goes away even if the text hasn't been changed. It has something to do with ANSI vs. Unicode text according to the blog I linked to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangloss Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 I guess you're right, it's just a fun thing to play with, and the particular phrase just adds to the humor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aeternus Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 http://digg.com/software/_this_app_can_break_Are_there_any_other_forbidden_strings_in_Notepad_ It was picked up a little while ago by quite a few news sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pangloss Posted June 16, 2006 Share Posted June 16, 2006 Ok, I can confirm that it does the same thing in Vista, in spite of the other Notepad bug fix I mentioned earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLB Posted June 16, 2006 Author Share Posted June 16, 2006 Ok, I can confirm that it does the same thing in Vista, in spite of the other Notepad bug fix I mentioned earlier. It just proves that the more things change the more they stay the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1veedo Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Hey neither gedit, kedit, nor nano do this. I think it'd be pretty cool if there was some mathmatical reason that this happened but I guess it's just a Microsoft bug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bascule Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 Microsoft's encoding detection sucks. *gasp* IE uses the same (lame) tricks to try to determine the MIME types of various files. Put any remotely HTML-looking tags in a text file and serve it text/plain and IE will render it has HTML. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5614 Posted June 17, 2006 Share Posted June 17, 2006 It seems to be any set of words with a specific length - 4, 3, 3 and 5 letters long.Good point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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