Via WiredBlog -
If you're a Windows user, open Notepad and type in this phrase, without the quote marks and with no carriage return: "Bush hid the facts". Now save it and open it again. The subversive text is probably gone, replaced by a line of white boxes, or Chinese characters if you have the font.
Weeeird.
It's not the massive right-wing conspiracy it might seem, though. The folks at WinCustomize.com discovered an odd bug in Notepad that's triggered by a text file consisting of a four-letter word, two three-letter words, and a five letter word. Some text does it -- "this app can break" is their example -- some doesn't. If Microsoft can't keep strange bugs out of Windows' simplest application, we'd better get used to the monthly security patch cycle.
This glitch has been confirmed in XP SP2 and 2003 SP1 & SP2 as of right now.
Andrew Haninger confirmed on the FunSec Mailing list that it happens in NotePad2 as well.
Mary Landesman discovered that something else is at play besides just the 4,3,3,5 rule.
"Mary had new lambs" works perfectly when saved, but "Mary had old lambs" results in Chinese characters.
Strange indeed.
Sounds like it might be an issue in a Microsoft library, which might explain why NotePad2 is showing the same results.
It also works with other combinations such as, "bush hides the facts" or any other 4-5-3-5 set. Certain combinations when translated yield web results.
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