Even Notepad knows....

[iago]

Try this, it's really cool:

- Open notepad
- Type in, "Bush hid the facts" without quotes and with no newline at the end
- Save it
- Open it

It should be replaced with Chinese characters or something. 

Weird?

More details later, maybe.. :P

[Warrior]

This is dumb, try the same thing with "Rush hid the facts" or "Kush hid the facts"

[Newby]

Does not work for me. File name matter?

[GameSnake]

Try this, it's really cool:

- Open notepad
- Type in, "Bush hid the facts" without quotes and with no newline at the end
- Save it
- Open it

It should be replaced with Chinese characters or something. 

Weird?

More details later, maybe.. :P

Why are you so anti-bush/america? Is this how all canadians act?

[dark_drake]

That's pretty cool! Now, why does it do that?

[CrAz3D]

Notepad must be a terrorist!!!!!!!!!

[dark_drake]

Notepad must be a terrorist!!!!!!!!!

Let's invade it!!!

[MyndFyre]

This is because Notepad attempts to determine the encoding (ANSI or Unicode) based on the types of characters in the file.  If there's not a newline, it can't tell based on the newline character (which is wide in Unicode).  "iago hid the facts" works too.

[CrAz3D]

iago is a terrorist!!!!!!

[Super_X]

iago is a terrorist!!!!!!

I call dibs on spearheading. I want to penetrate his defences!

[CrAz3D]

iago is a terrorist!!!!!!

I call dibs on spearheading. I want to penetrate his defences!

penetrate away dude!

[iago]

Obviously blaming Bush was a joke.  If any of you took my original post seriously, you need to get your heads examined. 

It happens with most (but not all) files that have a 4 letter words, two 3 letter words, and a 5 letter word.  xxxx xxx xxx xxxxx. 

Here are some examples:
this app can break
dead jfk gun shots
Mary had old lambs

And it doesn't happen with the following:
Mary had new lambs
This app can break

And apparently, some other combinations also work:
aaaa aaa aaa aaa
aa aaa aaa

And the best guess I've seen about the cause:

_If_ you save a file that works from its "borked looking" state in
Notepad, you'll get a hint of what may be going on -- the file is
prepended with the 0xFF 0xFE Unicode marker.  My guess -- this
weirdness is due to some peculiar, non-standard attempt to detect non-
flagged Unicode encoding, or some unusual/non-standard form of Unicode
encoding.

[Newby]

Weird how it breaks in Windows yet not in wine? :|

[MyndFyre]

Weird how it breaks in Windows yet not in wine? :|

Probably indicates a Wine API is broken.

[GameSnake]

MyndFyre: Bush hid the facts worked for me but iago hid the facts did not.