Have you ever noticed this?

Question

Hie All,

I recently got this mail. I was told that this mail chain is there for a long time. How many of you have noticed these weird things before? This is for those who use Windows

1

Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the Computer which can be named as "CON".

2

Open an empty notepad file .Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes) Save it as whatever you want. Close it, and re-open it.

3

Open Microsoft Word and type =rand (200, 99) And then press ENTER

4

Did you know that a flight number from one of the planes that hit one of the two WTC towers on 9/11 was Q33N. In Notepad / WordPad or MS Word, type that flight number i.e. Q33N. Increase the font size to 72. Change the font to Wingdings. …..

Answer 1

I know I'm straying just slightly off center here dealing with what is, essentially, just a forwarded urban legend email. But the neat thing about all three of these "magics" is that parts are true, parts are false, and all have completely rational reasons.

•

First, let's throw out the falsehood: plenty of people at Microsoft can tell you exactly what's going on in each of these cases. Even perhaps Bill himself, though he'd never actually get dragged into something silly like this.

•

1: you can't create a folder called CON.

True.

In fact, I think you'd have to jump through some hoops to get a file named CON as well. There may be ways to force one or the other, but in general, you can't create a file called CON.

"CON" is a reserved name that dates back to the days of MS-DOS and is short for "CONsole". The idea is that any program could write to the screen or read from the keyboard simply by opening and acting on a file by the name of CON. Try this sometime in a Windows Command Prompt:

COPY readme.txt CON

"None of these are 'magic' at all. They're simply intended behaviors or explainable bugs."

For our example "readme.txt" is any convenient text file you have laying about. That will cause the file to be "copied to the console" - i.e., displayed on the screen.

Other possibly reserved filenames include things like COM1, COM2, and so on for your serial or modem ports, and LPT1, LPT2 and so on for printer ports.

•

2: =rand(200,99) in Microsoft Word outputs a bunch of stuff.

True.

The rand() function is in Word specifically to automatically generate text. In some versions it produces the string "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (every character in the standard English alphabet). Apparently, it may generate other text in other versions.

It's intentional, as documented here in Microsoft's knowledgebase.

The first number, by the way, is the number of paragraphs of automatic text to generate, and the second is the number of lines in each paragraph.

For even more fun, try the =lorem() function; same idea, different text.

•

3: "Bush hid the facts" in notepad returns Chinese or other characters.

True. (Depending on your version of Notepad.)

I hadn't actually heard of this one, but sure enough - a quick search gave me the answer right away.

It's a bug in some versions of notepad that is nothing more than misinterpreting an ANSI text file as Unicode. While "Bush hid the facts" is popular among conspiracy theorists and internet meme generators, there are several different word patterns that can generate the same problem.

As I said, it's a known bug in Notepad. It appears to have been fixed in recent versions and updates of both XP and Vista.

•

None of these are "magic" at all. They're simply intended behaviors or explainable bugs.

Nothing to see here. Move along. (And don't forward the conspiracy email any further.)

• Please explain what happens in the old Notepad when we type "Bush hid the facts." - --Mariana-- Jun 15, 2010
• Thanks for the explanations :) - Vaanz Jun 15, 2010

Answer 2

This isn't working for me!

I tried the notpad "Bush hid the facts" (no quotes) thing and the MS word "rand (200, 99)" thing. :-(

Do you remember when Google had the "weapons of mass destruction" game that gave you a page explaining that you need a change of regime?

Edit: It worked when I typed in "Q33N" and did the font changes. I get the plane and death symbols, but I wonder what the two documents symbolize?

• The two document symbols are the twin towers. And did you typed '=rand (200, 99)' (without quotes)??? It worked for me :) - Vaanz Jun 15, 2010
• Okay, I got the =rand (200, 99) one...thanks! - --Mariana-- Jun 15, 2010