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The Internet Becomes Sentient

vIQleS said:
Even if it was some sort of sentience it has nothing to do with the internet - it should be "XP becomes sentient..."

QUOTE]

I thought about this and at one point considered; Notepad Bug Causes Internet to Become Sentient.

It could have been XP, but as the story shows, it's much more than that.

The exact proper byline would be something like:

Notebook Bug Dated 8/4/2004 5:00 AM, in Windows XP, Home Edition Causes Internet to Become Sentient


But


Internet Becomes Sentient


Has such a better ring to it.


I'm sure when I upgrade to Vista, this will all go away.
Click to expand...
 
Gr8wight said:
Thing is, his interpretation is all wrong. The words Bi, touches, and reflects are obviously talking about a pornographic episode taking place in front of a mirror. I mean, this is the Internet we're talking about, right?
Click to expand...

The original thing that went viral was the bug in notepad that said put"bush hid the facts" in sotepad and save it, then reopen it.

If it had started with putting "homo sex cum porno" in notepad and gone viral, then you might be right.

http://bushinchinese.ytmnd.com/

http://rblog-sec.japan.cnet.com/blindspot/2006/06/notepadbush_hid_96f4.html
 
From the link...

The document parasentient uses the Chinese character set font. If you don’t have this font already installed, you may need to install it to see the Chinese characters.

I don’t know how to do that. If someone runs into this problem and figures out how to install it, drop me a line and let me know. I’ll put it here.
Click to expand...
If the 'net is sentient, why not ask it how to do this?
 
What has this to do with the internet, at all?

You have found a so-called "easter egg". Playful coders install them in programs. I'll wager that there exists hardly a single program out there that doesn't have at least one of those things. Some are silly, others are spectacular.

They are in movies and dvds, too.

Look here: http://www.eeggs.com/


Latest: This is not a real easter egg, it is a fault, and it's not in notepad, but in Windows, look here:

http://apipes.blogspot.com/2006/06/this-api-can-break.html



Hans
 
vIQleS said:
What is this guy going on about?
Click to expand...

Very, very little :) But when you're in search of something to be deluded about, why not pick this?

This particular "notepad bug" actually has nothing to do with notepad at all - the "bug" is available to any program written for Windows. Specifically, any program that asks Windows to guess whether or not a run of text is encoded in UTF-16 (as opposed to plain old ASCII) can feature this same odd behavior.

UTF-16 is an encoding that has each "character" in a text stream represented by two to four bytes, depending on that character's Unicode properties. ASCII is different, in that it encodes each and every character as just one byte. Before a program like notepad can properly interpret the contents of a text file for display, it must first know what encoding scheme was used to record the characters in the text file. Programs that write out text files in UTF-16 are supposed to include a special header at the beginning of the file called the "Byte Order Mark" that indicates UTF-16 encoding. Most do not, unfortunately.

Notepad therefore needs to make a guess about the encoding of a text file when you open it up. It does this via a Windows API call. The specific Windows API involved is unremarkably named IsTextUnicode. This function, as clearly stated in the docs, is pretty bad at "guessing" whether or not a run of text is UTF-16 if the run of text is really small. By and large, a very small run of lower-case ASCII characters will usually be mis-interpreted as UTF-16 encoded.

This leads notepad to incorrectly interpret the small ASCII text stream of "bush hid the facts" as being a UTF-16 encoded run of characters that fall in the Chinese character set, as defined by Unicode.

Links of interest:
Blog post from a programmer about this bug
Unicode
UTF-16
 
russell_morris said:
Very, very little :) But when you're in search of something to be deluded about, why not pick this?

This particular "notepad bug" actually has nothing to do with notepad at all - the "bug" is available to any program written for Windows. Specifically, any program that asks Windows to guess whether or not a run of text is encoded in UTF-16 (as opposed to plain old ASCII) can feature this same odd behavior.

UTF-16 is an encoding that has each "character" in a text stream represented by two to four bytes, depending on that character's Unicode properties. ASCII is different, in that it encodes each and every character as just one byte. Before a program like notepad can properly interpret the contents of a text file for display, it must first know what encoding scheme was used to record the characters in the text file. Programs that write out text files in UTF-16 are supposed to include a special header at the beginning of the file called the "Byte Order Mark" that indicates UTF-16 encoding. Most do not, unfortunately.

Notepad therefore needs to make a guess about the encoding of a text file when you open it up. It does this via a Windows API call. The specific Windows API involved is unremarkably named IsTextUnicode. This function, as clearly stated in the docs, is pretty bad at "guessing" whether or not a run of text is UTF-16 if the run of text is really small. By and large, a very small run of lower-case ASCII characters will usually be mis-interpreted as UTF-16 encoded.

This leads notepad to incorrectly interpret the small ASCII text stream of "bush hid the facts" as being a UTF-16 encoded run of characters that fall in the Chinese character set, as defined by Unicode.

Links of interest:
Blog post from a programmer about this bug
Unicode
UTF-16
Click to expand...


I've read the explanation of why it does it from a number of sources. That doesn't explain how it could be so similiar to 911, does it?
 
sinsanity2006 said:
I've read the explanation of why it does it from a number of sources. That doesn't explain how it could be so similiar to 911, does it?
Click to expand...
Yes, it does. Now we know that it is a bug, and that a number of different strings could activate it, we see that somebody carefully found a string that implied something about Bush, and translated into a set of Chinese signs that, by a considerable stretch of imagination, could be interpreted as a message about 911.

And, what about the sentient internet? Where did that come in? :rolleyes:

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
Yes, it does. Now we know that it is a bug, and that a number of different strings could activate it, we see that somebody carefully found a string that implied something about Bush, and translated into a set of Chinese signs that, by a considerable stretch of imagination, could be interpreted as a message about 911.

And, what about the sentient internet? Where did that come in? :rolleyes:

Hans
Click to expand...

Hey Hans,

Sigh,

Any chance you could read the article, Then I wouldn't have to post the same thing over and over again, but here we go one more time.

The notepad bug is just the gateway for the translations.

I saved a notepad file using letters of the alphabet, in the form zzzz zzz zzzz zzzzz, four letters, space, three letters, space, three letters, space, five letters. You close it and then reopen it. Nine zeros appear. I copied those zeros and pasted them into the translator. Here’s the translator I used:

http://perso.orange.fr/gaoling/hanzi/index.htm

The zeros appear in the translator as Chinese characters. I translate those characters and up pops a bunch of words, I wrote the words down and looked at them.

When the words come out:

zzzz zzz zzz zzzzz - Air; sky; empty; air force; in vain, air defense, low altitude, anti-aircraft defense.

yyyy yyy yyy yyyyy - A sacrifice at the beginning of a military campaign, cult. Manifest.

x - Rocky hill,

w - Eye; look, see; wide open eyes; to gaze in astonishment, blind; unperceptive, shortsighted, straight, erect, vertical, close eyes, sleep; hibernate, hypnotism; mesmerism, people, subjects, citizens.

v - Fatigued, head sores, chronic disease, chronic illness; sorrow. Legs.

u - Field.

t - Twin gems.

s - Commit crime, violate; criminal,

q - Fire, flame, burn, anger, rage, ashes, dust, lime, to roast, spirit, soul, spiritual world. Sacrificial animal.

p - Small river, gray ash, dust, engineer, head covered in dust.

I say that's a pretty amazing coincidence to 911.

Others, the other hand may think those words have nothing to do with 911.

That's their opinion, and I respect it.

The letter from o-z are not random they are in fact totally not random.

I'm not sure how uptight your imagination is, but if you have to stretch your imagination a lot to see a distinct relation to 911 in the above, I would worry.

Remember this went viral with "bush hid the facts.

Come on, give me a break, go read parasentient.
 
sinsanity2006 said:
I say that's a pretty amazing coincidence to 911.

Others, the other hand may think those words have nothing to do with 911.
Click to expand...

You have hit upon the very crux of the matter. Because you were very concerned about 9/11 conspiracy theories, you took random words, and thought they were somehow related to that. Other people, who have other concerns will take the exact same words and relate them to something else.

The words you have come up with in these translations are only related to 9/11 in your mind. This has nothing to do with MS Notepad, or the Internet. It has only to do with you, and your preconceived notions. Hang around here long enough to develop some critical thinking skills, and we might one day be able to change that headline to "Sinsanity2006 approaches sentience."
 
MRC_Hans said:
What has this to do with the internet, at all?

You have found a so-called "easter egg". Playful coders install them in programs. I'll wager that there exists hardly a single program out there that doesn't have at least one of those things. Some are silly, others are spectacular.

They are in movies and dvds, too.

Look here: http://www.eeggs.com/


Latest: This is not a real easter egg, it is a fault, and it's not in notepad, but in Windows, look here:

http://apipes.blogspot.com/2006/06/this-api-can-break.html



Hans
Click to expand...

The explanation from Mr. Tim Lesher seems to make some sense. Probably more than yours, sinsanity2006.

Take a walk outside. Breathe. Keep breathing until you feel relaxed.
 
GzuzKryzt said:
All theories from people will remain just that. Theories. Unprovable, hence useless for the "search for truth".
Click to expand...
[nag]Hypotheses, mate, hypotheses. If we expect ID'ers to use it correctly, we need to do so ourselves.[/nag] ;)
 
Don't worry, Sin. I sat the Internet down for a little chat this afternoon, and it has agreed not to mess about with your text editing software again. If it does, it's going to have to sit on the naughty step for ten minutes.
 
sinsanity2006 said:
Hey Hans,

Sigh,

Any chance you could read the article,
Click to expand...

No. It's too long, too boring, and it's basically gibberish.

sinsanity2006 said:
The notepad bug is just the gateway for the translations.

I saved a notepad file using letters of the alphabet, in the form zzzz zzz zzzz zzzzz, four letters, space, three letters, space, three letters, space, five letters. You close it and then reopen it. Nine zeros appear. I copied those zeros and pasted them into the translator. Here’s the translator I used:

http://perso.orange.fr/gaoling/hanzi/index.htm

The zeros appear in the translator as Chinese characters. I translate those characters and up pops a bunch of words, I wrote the words down and looked at them.

When the words come out:

<SNIP>
Click to expand...

Ok - you used the Internet to translate the symbols, but this bug has nothing to do with the Internet - you still haven't explained how you link this bug with a sentient Internet.

At this point I'm not really interested any more - I'm just trying to help you learn to express yourself a little better.. Try again with short easy-to-understand sentences and make sure you hit all the points you're trying to make.

sinsanity2006 said:
I say that's a pretty amazing coincidence to 911.

Others, the other hand may think those words have nothing to do with 911.

That's their opinion, and I respect it.

The letter from o-z are not random they are in fact totally not random.

I'm not sure how uptight your imagination is, but if you have to stretch your imagination a lot to see a distinct relation to 911 in the above, I would worry.
Click to expand...

Some words that you've listed that have absolutely nothing to do with 911.

anti-aircraft defense
empty
air force
in vain
air defense
Manifest.
Rocky hill
Eye
look
see
blind
close eyes
sleep
hibernate
hypnotism
mesmerism
Fatigued
head sores
chronic disease
chronic illness
Field
lime
to roast
Small river
engineer
people
subjects
citizens

The last three are in the list because they would have to do with anything, and are in no way specific to 911.

sinsanity2006 said:
Remember this went viral with "bush hid the facts.
Click to expand...

You'll have to explain the meaning of the word viral and what you mean using it here in this context I'm afraid, because i think you maybe think it means something different to the way i would use it...

You yourself have already demonstrated that the bug works with just about every letter of the alphabet - it doesn't matter what you type in. 'Bush hid the facts' is just a cool application of it...

And finally - if these words are all relevant, and if the Internet is sentient, (and if notepad had anything to do with the Internet), What exactly is 'it' trying to tell us? Is this a prediction? (bit late...) A warning? (of what?) An attempt to inform us that GW is incompetent? (umm, duh....)
 
strathmeyer said:
We won't know, until you tell us how it is similar.
Click to expand...

The article is short, it would take you less time to read it that post the posts you are posting. I don't know, it may be unreasonable to ask for people that are getting all huffy about an little short article to perhaps read the article.

I'm new here, is that the way this place works? Someone points to an event, nobody looks at the event, everybody dissis the event.

If that's the case. I'm outta here. And for some reason, I think a lotta people here would like that.
 
sinsanity2006 said:
The article is short, it would take you less time to read it that post the posts you are posting. I don't know, it may be unreasonable to ask for people that are getting all huffy about an little short article to perhaps read the article.

I'm new here, is that the way this place works? Someone points to an event, nobody looks at the event, everybody dissis the event.

If that's the case. I'm outta here. And for some reason, I think a lotta people here would like that.
Click to expand...

I read it, three times, and it seems a bit "all over the place". I can't say I got "huffy" and neither do I think the other posters here did.

You're new here.
You should realize that this is the forum of a foundation which encourages critical thinking. I'm almost positively sure you knew that before you came here because you posted in the Challenge Forum with an obvious intent to apply for the JREF One Million Dollar Challenge.

This forum sees dozens of rookies per year who immediately start threads claiming something sensational. If you do that - as you did, in two forums, no less - you should expect careful scrutiny of your words.

And you should get ready to stand intense questioning - after all, your thread title suggests something very weird for an audience who values logic.

Last not least: You decided to go public. You should be ready to stand a sensible reaction.
 
From RandiFan:

RE: Internet becomes sentient.

No.

I'm a programmer and my son is a gamer and an avid easter egg enthusiast.

My take, the person writing the OP is quite naive as to human nature, computer programmers, and computer programs.

My son's take, the person writing the OP is an idiot.

My sincere apology sinsanity2006 for the ad hominem. I told my son to go to his room and think about what he had said. He feels badly now. He really does, he told me through tear filled eyes, "but dad, the guy really is an idiot". {sigh} What can you do?

I'm not sure huffy is the right word, maybe critical thinking is closer, what would you call it?
 
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