1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:07,160
Bush hid the facts...
Just compile that..\h

2
00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,480
Oh, Mr. President Sir, I didn't\h
expect to see you down here...\h

3
00:00:11,480 --> 00:00:15,040
BUSH: Are you using notepad\h
to spread lies about me?\h

4
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,200
No, I'm nooo
BUSH: Are you sure?\h

5
00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,840
I, can assure you!
BUSH: There's an old\h\h

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,640
saying in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas,\h
but probbably Tennessee. It says fool me once,\h\h

7
00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:37,600
shame on.... shame on you...........You\h
fool me, I can't get fooled again.

8
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:48,960
In early 2004, it appeared that Microsoft had a\h
problem. By this time the United States Coalition\h\h

9
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:53,120
were a year into their invasion of Iraq,\h
and people were starting the question the\h\h

10
00:00:53,120 --> 00:01:01,280
legitimacy of this war. What was being covered\h
up? Who was lying? Was George W. Bush lying?

11
00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,200
Now this wasn’t Microsoft’s problem,\h
per say, they likely had very little\h\h

12
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:12,080
to do with the whole thing, but they\h
did have a problem connected to it.

13
00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:17,360
At some point, after seeing a blog post online,\h
someone went to their Windows accessories folder,\h\h

14
00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:23,520
opened up notepad, typed “Bush hid the facts”\h
and saved it. We’re not sure exactly why they\h\h

15
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:28,240
did this, or who this person specifically\h
was. But when they re-opened the file,\h\h

16
00:01:28,240 --> 00:01:35,600
the text had gone, replaced with garbled\h
characters that couldn’t be displayed on screen.

17
00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:38,720
Quickly this popped up on Usenet\h
groups, email and internet forums.

18
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:43,680
Hey all try this:
>>>\h

19
00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:45,760
>>>For those of you using\h
Windows, do the following:\h

20
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,640
>>>
>>>1.) Open an empty notepad file\h

21
00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,760
>>>2.) Type “Bush hid the\h
facts” (without the quotes)\h

22
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:56,480
>>>3.) Save it as whatever you want.
>>>4.) Close it, and re-open it.\h

23
00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:01,520
>>>
>>>Real strange huh.

24
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:05,120
People rapidly started reporting\h
that they had the same results,\h\h

25
00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:09,360
and this apparent conspiracy spread like wildfire.

26
00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:13,680
Not long after, someone reported that if\h
you typed one of flight numbers from 9/11\h\h

27
00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:20,640
using the Wingdings font, you would get\h
this. Similar instructions were given.

28
00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:26,476
Open Notepad / WordPad or MS Word,\h
type in that flight number i.e.Q33N\h

29
00:02:26,476 --> 00:02:30,394
> > (Qand N Caps only)
> > * Increase the font size to 72\h

30
00:02:30,394 --> 00:02:33,440
> > * Change the font to Wingdings
> > ……. U will be amazed by\h\h

31
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:35,120
the findings!!!…………………..
> > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IS\h\h

32
00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:37,920
IT COINCIDENCE.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OR WHAT???

33
00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,800
Seemingly another Microsoft derived message,\h\h

34
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:46,320
that must have held deeper meaning and\h
that could be executed within Notepad.

35
00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:48,080
What the hell was going on?

36
00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:52,080
Did someone at Microsoft know something\h
we didn’t? Did someone at Microsoft hold\h\h

37
00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:57,600
a grudge against Bush? Or was\h
something weirder going on.

38
00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:02,640
Well, it turns out that it was\h
actually something a lot weirder.\h

39
00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:07,520
It was actually David Crumps\h
who, on 27th February 2004,\h\h

40
00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:11,520
originally reported on this\h
issue on his self titled blog;

41
00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:19,520
“Someone showed me a weird text file today. It\h
was a bat file with ‘copy MeYou.bak MeYou.txt’.\h\h

42
00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,640
When you would ran it, it would work. But when\h
you opened it in Notepad, there was nothing.

43
00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:27,360
So we decided to look a bit into this and here\h\h

44
00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:31,680
is something we came up with\h
to ‘create’ invisible text:

45
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,160
Open notepad and enter:
‘ abc.bak abc.txt’

46
00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:43,595
(That is: space abc dot bak space abc dot\h
txt, no line break, without the quotes)

47
00:03:43,595 --> 00:03:43,680
It doesn’t work with every string, just\h
follow us on this example and use that one.

48
00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:47,840
Save your file. Notepad picks\h
default ANSI as encoding.

49
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:52,080
Open your file, Notepad seems to\h
open by default in Unicode encoding.

50
00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:55,360
Your text is now invisible.”

51
00:03:55,360 --> 00:04:00,800
As you’ll notice, this error doesn’t have anything\h
to do with the text string “Bush hid the facts”,\h\h

52
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:06,560
instead the text is “abc.bak abc.txt”,\h
and the error was actually stumbled upon\h\h

53
00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:13,800
by accident. I fired him a message to see what he\h
recalled, but it was a fairly inconsequential run\h\h

54
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:20,880
of the mill batch scripting problem, just\h
before he became an intern for Microsoft.

55
00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:26,480
It was the fallout that was more significant.

56
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,560
You see, the error is down to a\h
fundamental function of Windows\h\h

57
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:36,880
called IsTextUnicode that Notepad uses\h
to determine the encoding of text files.

58
00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:42,320
Every file stored on your hard drive is just\h
collection of bytes. Each byte being 8 bits in\h\h

59
00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:48,800
length. Each of those bits can be on, or\h
off; a one or a zero. In the olden days,\h\h

60
00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:54,080
we just had plain text, otherwise known\h
as ASCII, this was extended by ANSI,\h\h

61
00:04:54,080 --> 00:05:01,760
or more officially, SO/IEC 8859, and each\h
character took up exactly one byte. 8\h\h

62
00:05:01,760 --> 00:05:10,800
bits in each byte gives the potential for 256\h
permutations, and so ANSI had 256 characters.

63
00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:15,600
So, if this is the only encoding\h
format, notepad would look at a file,\h\h

64
00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:22,480
see the hex code for each byte, and translate\h
it to a character on screen, as per ANSI rules.

65
00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:24,960
But, by the time Windows was knocking about,\h\h

66
00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:29,840
there was need for more than just ANSI.\h
There are many languages around the world,\h\h

67
00:05:29,840 --> 00:05:35,440
and a lot of them have their own character sets.\h
So, other encoding standards were developed.

68
00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:41,280
One of those was Unicode. The development\h
of Unicode dates back to the 1987,\h\h

69
00:05:41,280 --> 00:05:46,720
when Xerox employee Joe Becker, along with\h
Apple employees Lee Collins and Mark Davis\h\h

70
00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:51,840
started looking into a universal character set.\h
Various other members would join the group,\h\h

71
00:05:51,840 --> 00:05:59,120
including from Microsoft, and on the 3rd January\h
1991, the first Unicode Standard was published.

72
00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:04,240
But, for Unicode to function, it needed\h
more characters, and so 16 bits were now\h\h

73
00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:11,920
used for each character, or two bytes.\h
This gives 65,536 possible permutations,\h\h

74
00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:18,640
and enough to include most languages. This\h
encoding used the UCS-2 Character set,\h\h

75
00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:27,120
and is now known as UTF-16. But just like\h
Microsoft does, I’ll refer to it as Unicode here.

76
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:37,200
So, if we open up notepad and type ” abc.bak\h
abc.txt”, and save the file. Then re-open it.\h\h

77
00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:42,800
Notepad has to now determine how the file is\h
encoded, and display the appropriate characters\h\h

78
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:49,280
on screen. If it assumes ANSI, reading each\h
byte as a character, then we’ll get our text\h\h

79
00:06:49,280 --> 00:06:55,280
file as normal. However, if it decides it is\h
Unicode, and uses two bytes as each character,\h\h

80
00:06:55,280 --> 00:07:01,120
then we’ll get either invisible text, or a bunch\h
of squares. This is because, on this computer at\h\h

81
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:07,680
least, Notepad is trying to display characters\h
from a character set that isn’t installed.

82
00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:14,320
This has a name, it’s called Mojibake, and\h
its definition is the gibberish resulting\h\h

83
00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:18,720
from text being decoded using\h
an unintended encoding method,\h\h

84
00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:25,360
and it happens more than you may realise. From\h
websites to software, Mojibake is pretty common.

85
00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:31,360
So, if we go back, create the file and save it\h
again, but this time, specify Notepad to save\h\h

86
00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:37,200
it as Unicode, then open it again, there’s no\h
problem. This is because we’re making Notepad\h\h

87
00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:44,400
specify the encoding using a BOM, or Byte Order\h
Mark. Which is essentially a Marker in the file to\h\h

88
00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:51,040
tell a parser what encoding format is being used,\h
but text files don’t always have this marker,\h\h

89
00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:57,920
and so Notepad then falls onto the function\h
IsTextUnicode to attempt to guess the encoding.

90
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:06,080
Thankfully, you can be sure that your encoding\h
will be spot on with sponsor SquareSpace.

91
00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:12,800
Come on it's easy. Use blueprint AI, or select a\h
template. Choose your colours. Choose your style.\h

92
00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:16,640
Change some text. Change your\h
font... you can't use Wingdings,\h\h

93
00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:21,200
but that's probably for the best.
See what it looks like in mobile form.

94
00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:24,160
Then, when you're live check out\h
the analytics to see where your\h\h

95
00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:29,760
visitors are coming from. Then make\h
changes to ensure they come back.

96
00:08:29,760 --> 00:08:33,440
Simply head to Squarespace to get\h
started, then when you're ready go to\h\h

97
00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:41,360
Squarespace.com/nostalgianerd to get 10%
off a website or domain.

98
00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:48,720
IsTextUnicode is a Win32 function that has\h
been around since Windows NT 3.51. It was then\h\h

99
00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:55,120
passed down the NT lineage including Windows\h
2000 and XP. The function is different from\h\h

100
00:08:55,120 --> 00:09:02,560
the hyrbrid 16/32bit versions of Windows, and\h
so, this behaviour won’t replicate on those.

101
00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:08,080
If we take a look at the Notepad source code,\h
we can see the point at which IsTextUnicode\h\h

102
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:13,920
is called, in an attempt to ascertain\h
whether our file is ANSI or Unicode.

103
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:19,520
IsTextUnicode will take a string of text,\h
typically the first 256 bytes of a file,\h\h

104
00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:26,000
perform some statistical analysis, and then return\h
whether it thinks the file is Unicode or not. In\h\h

105
00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:32,480
this instance, for whatever reason, it decides\h
that our file is in fact Unicode and thus, Notepad\h\h

106
00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:39,040
presents it as such, resulting in what we see,\h
or don’t see, depending on your choice of font.

107
00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:46,240
On 24th March 2004, Microsoft developer Raymond\h
Chen would publish a blog post entitled “Some\h\h

108
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:51,040
files come up Strange in Notepad”\h
in response to David Crumps post,\h\h

109
00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:55,520
where he explains the various encodings.

110
00:09:55,520 --> 00:10:02,560
Then on 30th January 2005, Lead Microsoft\h
developer Michael S. Kaplan posted about\h\h

111
00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:09,360
“Why I don’t like the IsTextUnicode”\h
API, detailing some of its pitfalls,\h\h

112
00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:14,720
and pointing out that this function was now\h
written some 10 years prior by someone outside\h\h

113
00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:21,600
of the NLS (National Language Support)\h
team, when there wasn’t as much Unicode\h\h

114
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:32,880
awareness or acceptance. Nethertheless, it does\h
sometimes assume Unicode, when it’s not Unicode.

115
00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:39,040
On 18th May 2006, someone going by the\h
username Zoomba wrote on the WinCustomize\h\h

116
00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:44,880
forum about how you can type the sentence\h
“this app can break” into Notepad, save it,\h\h

117
00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:48,640
reopen it, and voila. We have the same problem.

118
00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:53,680
Kaplan responded to this with his own blog\h
post, identifying that, in this instance,\h\h

119
00:10:53,680 --> 00:11:00,240
Notepad is actually trying to display a\h
bunch of CJK ideographs. It seems then,\h\h

120
00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:04,880
that IsTextUnicode thinks that it’s more\h
likely that these characters fit together,\h\h

121
00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:13,520
than the original ANSI characters. Which\h
isn’t as outlandish as you may think.

122
00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:20,080
Now I actually dug out the source code, although\h
it’s also explained well in FlyTech Videos,\h\h

123
00:11:20,080 --> 00:11:24,320
the algorithm it employs checks the\h
difference between the two bytes which\h\h

124
00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:29,840
would make up a Unicode character. It plots the\h
difference in value of each first character,\h\h

125
00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:33,680
and each second character. Let’s\h
take these ones and convert them\h\h

126
00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:40,240
into decimal to make it easier.\h
So 74 becomes 116, 69 becomes 105,\h\h

127
00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:50,240
20 becomes 32, down the left hand column.\h
On the right, 68 is 104, 73; 115 and 61;97.

128
00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:55,760
Ok, so we start with 116 on the left,\h
and calculate the difference between 105,\h\h

129
00:11:55,760 --> 00:12:04,720
which is 11. The difference between 105 and 32 is\h
73. Now we do the same for the right hand column.

130
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:13,200
It then adds these values together, and then uses\h
the final numbers to perform a calculation. That\h\h

131
00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:21,040
is, if the left hand sum > right hand sum*3 then\h
it’s Unicode. This kind of makes sense as, Unicode\h\h

132
00:12:21,040 --> 00:12:26,720
characters will typically have a higher left hand,\h
or low byte value than the right hand, or high\h\h

133
00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:33,680
byte value (assuming Little Endian formatting,\h
otherwise it’s reversed, but forget about that),\h\h

134
00:12:33,680 --> 00:12:40,880
so even if you multiply the right byte value\h
by 3, it will still typically be less. BUT,\h\h

135
00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:47,040
it’s very much not without its flaws. As we can\h
see….. and we can easily force this algorithm to\h\h

136
00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:53,040
guess incorrectly every time, simply by limiting\h
the amount of deviance (and therefore numerical\h\h

137
00:12:53,040 --> 00:13:00,400
difference) of every even character, which the\h
algorithm will see as the right hand Unicode byte.

138
00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:06,160
Now, you’ll probably have noticed that “this\h
app can break” follows the same pattern as\h\h

139
00:13:06,160 --> 00:13:12,720
“Bush hid the facts”. A four letter word, 3 letter\h
word, three letter word and a five letter word,\h\h

140
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:18,560
and it just so happens that this combination\h
also triggers IsTextUnicode to return a TRUE\h\h

141
00:13:18,560 --> 00:13:25,120
value when asked. I mean, that’s\h
simplifying the function’s input\h\h

142
00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:25,360
and output slightly, it has various arguments,\h
but if suffices for explaining this story.

143
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,440
If we add an extra character onto the\h
end of this 18 character sentence,\h\h

144
00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,920
then Notepad will no longer make the\h
mistake. That’s because there is now\h\h

145
00:13:33,920 --> 00:13:40,480
an extra byte. 19 bytes doesn’t fit into the\h
Unicode bracket, as its bytes come in pairs,\h\h

146
00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:47,520
so IsTextUnicode returns FALSE and Notepad\h
correctly presumes this is an ANSI file.

147
00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:52,480
But, given what was in the news at the time, all\h
the time, it didn’t take long for someone to come\h\h

148
00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:59,280
up with Bush hid the facts, and start spreading\h
rumours of this weird apparent conspiracy.

149
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:02,880
Of course, the vast majority of\h
people on the internet, even then,\h\h

150
00:14:02,880 --> 00:14:08,000
weren’t developers with a specific knowledge\h
of the IsTextUnicode function, and therefore,\h\h

151
00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,560
upon seeing such strange behaviour, their\h
instant reaction was to conclude some kind\h\h

152
00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:18,080
of weird foul play, and then, pass the\h
message on, which led to the “Bush Hid\h\h

153
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:23,360
the Facts” conspiracy spreading around\h
forums and groups for years and years.

154
00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:28,937
Usenet groups alone were brimming with the\h
stuff1. But it also did the rounds in email,\h\h

155
00:14:28,937 --> 00:14:35,280
on forums, and it even made it into\h
the press. Because of course it did.

156
00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:39,680
Hoaxes and conspiracies aside, this\h
clearly this wasn’t useful behaviour\h\h

157
00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:44,320
for a Notepad application to have. If\h
you save a file, you kinda want to be\h\h

158
00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:51,840
able to read it again…. and so, by April 2008\h
Microsoft decided to do something about it.

159
00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:59,680
This came in the form of Windows Vista SP1,\h
where the IsTextUnicode calls from Notepad were\h\h

160
00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:07,440
bolstered with additional checks, and just like\h
that, Bush apparently no longer hid the facts. I\h\h

161
00:15:07,440 --> 00:15:13,440
mean Saddam Hussein had been plucked from his hole\h
by now anyway. The only problem of course is that,\h\h

162
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:20,000
it was Windows Vista. So most people just\h
stuck with XP and Bush hiding the facts,\h\h

163
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:27,120
and the conspiracy kept spreading. That is\h
until enough posts popped up explaining the\h\h

164
00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:35,101
reality that it just kind of fizzled out. The\h
website Hoax-Slayer being one of the first.2

165
00:15:35,101 --> 00:15:36,080
The Wingdings Issue
But, that doesn’t explain\h\h

166
00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:42,080
the Wingdings issue, which was often shared in the\h
same posts as the “Bush hid the facts” conspiracy.\h\h

167
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:48,320
Now that, is a different deal entirely,\h
and honestly, even more of a piss take.

168
00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:56,240
After September 11th, an email began circulating\h
claiming that “Q33 N” or “Q33 NY” was the flight\h\h

169
00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:01,120
number of the first plane to hit the Twin\h
Towers. If you type this into Notepad,\h\h

170
00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:05,200
or anywhere else, using the Wingdings\h
font, then it would generate a plane,\h\h

171
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:10,960
two filing cabinets, a space, a skull and cross\h
bones and, with the added Y, the Star of David.

172
00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:15,520
Now this was supposed to represent,\h
apparently, the strike on 9/11. However,\h\h

173
00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:19,840
it’s driven off the back of a conspiracy\h
theory some ten years earlier,\h\h

174
00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:25,680
after the release of Windows 3.1, which\h
came pre-loaded with the Wingdings font.3

175
00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:30,800
It was The New York Post who kicked off the\h
controversy with the 1992 front page headline\h\h

176
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:36,160
“PROGRAM OF HATE… Millions of Computers\h
Carry Secret Message That Urges Death to\h\h

177
00:16:36,160 --> 00:16:42,320
Jews in New York City”. *sigh* A headline that\h
was clearly going to sell copies of the rag,\h\h

178
00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:48,960
and it was all because typing NYC\h
using Wingdings would result in this….

179
00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:52,960
The consultant was testing a mailing-address\h
use of the program when he noticed the letters\h\h

180
00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:57,200
“NYC” had been replaced by a hateful\h
message – a skull and crossbones,\h\h

181
00:16:57,200 --> 00:17:00,480
the Star of David and an\h
approving thumbs-up symbol.

182
00:17:00,480 --> 00:17:04,560
Microsoft strongly denies any\h
hidden message. Others disagree.

183
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,760
“There’s no way it could be a random\h
coincidence,” said Brian Young,\h\h

184
00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:11,440
a friend of the consultant,\h
who does not wish to be named.

185
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,120
Apparently, the friend of an anonymous\h
programmer who discovered the issue,\h\h

186
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:20,960
Brian Young, calculated the odds of the three\h
letters of the alphabet being combined with 255\h\h

187
00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:31,360
symbols were less than one in a trillion.\h
Less than a trillion hey Brian? Good work.

188
00:17:31,360 --> 00:17:34,960
This purported anti-Semitic message\h
apparently referencing New York’s large\h\h

189
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:40,240
Jewish community was nothing more than random\h
placement of glyphs relating to characters,\h\h

190
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:44,240
however it didn’t stop The Anti-Defamation\h
League from sending a letter of complaint to\h\h

191
00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:49,680
Microsoft or for it from bouncing around\h
in the news for years. Even after The\h\h

192
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:56,320
League and other groups concluded there was no\h
malicious intent by Bill’s software company.

193
00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,480
Microsoft’s Brad Silverberg commented\h
“The Wingdings were like Rorschach blots,\h\h

194
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:07,360
it probably said more about the person than the\h
symbols”. Which, given you could extract meaning\h\h

195
00:18:07,360 --> 00:18:14,240
from pretty much any words you typed; NUN is two\h
poison signs with a cross; IBM is an openhand, an\h\h

196
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:27,440
OK sign and a bomb, and MILLENIUM, which would pop\h
up in 1999 is this, its a valid statement to make.

197
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:30,320
A rebuke by PC Computing Magazine columnist,\h\h

198
00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:35,200
Penn Jillette, quickly did the rounds,\h
correcting the ridiculous claims and\h\h

199
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:40,480
odds and penning various tongue in cheek\h
comments, including among other things;

200
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:42,080
There is so much hate, paranoia,\h\h

201
00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:47,901
and bad math in this whole thing that\h
I quit. (“QUIT,” incidently comes out;

202
00:18:47,901 --> 00:18:51,680
[airplane] [cross] [hand held up] [snowflake]
This must mean “A plane carrying christians must\h\h

203
00:18:51,680 --> 00:19:02,320
be stopped if it’s snowing.” The odds of obtaining\h
this message by chance are one in 4,228,250,625“

204
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:07,440
In an attempt to smooth things over Microsoft\h
would roll out their Unicode compatible Webdings\h\h

205
00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:14,400
font a few years later, in 1997, using\h
this now deliberate combination for NYC4…\h\h

206
00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:20,720
Something that only brought out the hoaxers\h
once again. HOW CAN THIS BE A CONICIDENCE NOW.

207
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,440
So, as you’d expect after 9/11,\h\h

208
00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:29,120
this rumour cropped up again and Microsoft\h
felt obliged to issue a further statement;

209
00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:33,920
“We can certainly understand how people would\h
respond with some shock to this apparent issue.\h\h

210
00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:38,240
We did too when it first came up nine years\h
ago and we investigated it thoroughly in\h\h

211
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,480
partnership with the Anti-Defamation League.\h
The conclusion was that the sequence in the\h\h

212
00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:47,600
Wingdings character set is coincidental and\h
that there was no malicious intent. In fact,\h\h

213
00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:53,040
it impacted several software companies at the\h
time and continues to do so. Unfortunately,\h\h

214
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:58,000
there was not an easy way to fix the problem.\h
We understand that this requires explanation.

215
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:03,280
At the simplest level, wingdings and webdings are\h
much like an alphabet of characters and provide\h\h

216
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:08,160
thousands of potential combinations from which\h
a person could choose. Changing the character\h\h

217
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:14,640
set would create an impact of unknown scale on\h
existing data and code using the affected font.\h\h

218
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:18,480
Again, using the example of the alphabet,\h
what would happen to existing documents and\h\h

219
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:23,360
applications if we switched around a handful\h
of letters? The likely result is that we would\h\h

220
00:20:23,360 --> 00:20:28,400
create significant issues for people, cause\h
some unintended humorous moments and several\h\h

221
00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:34,880
offensive ones. For that reason Wingdings has\h
been left unaltered since its inception.”4

222
00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:41,680
Even so, they had no reason to, if people only\h
looked at the facts, rather than being reactive\h\h

223
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:49,360
knobends, the claim that Q33NY was the flight\h
or tail number of either of the planes that hit\h\h

224
00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:55,440
the towers was completely fabricated. It was\h
a hoax, designed to spread a new conspiracy,\h\h

225
00:20:55,440 --> 00:21:01,040
a new drama to propagate the web. Not that people\h
ever let factual inaccuracy get in their way.

226
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:07,200
Combine it with the very real bug of “Bush\h
hid the facts” and you had a rather sinister\h\h

227
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:11,680
story pointed against Microsoft, and\h
specifically Bill Gates… Because if\h\h

228
00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:16,560
you’re gonna throw a conspiracy out\h
there, he is apparently the man.

229
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,320
Thankfully by the end of the decade\h
things had calmed down. Most people\h\h

230
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:23,120
now had a version of Windows\h
that didn’t replicate the error,\h\h

231
00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:27,120
email was no longer the primary method of\h
spreading information, and there was now\h\h

232
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:34,240
social media and a whole spate of brand new\h
conspiracies to keep people occupied instead.

233
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:35,680
Hurrah.

234
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:47,360
Fool me once, shame on... shame on you........\h
you fool me, I can’t be fooled again.

235
00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:52,560
Until next time, I’ve been Nostalgia Nerd.

236
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:53,840
Toodleoo.