Friday, June 03, 2005

Kaun Banega Million Dollar Pati...

Didn’t I tell you that stupidity is the only thing that can spread faster than light ? Here is another example…

There is an email which is going on rounds these days and there are good 90% chances that you have already received it .( Ok if you are one of those 10% souls stuck in their solitary confinement ,ping me , I’ll see to it that stupidity reaches you.)

Anyways the mail Talks about a bug that was discovered by a Brazilian. (Now I’ll forward it and say that the bug was discovered by an Indian what’s the heck* Mera Bharat Mahan*…) It claims that Microsoft professionals have no clue to it and they have announced a prize of $1, 00,000 to the person who solves the mystery. (Now do you get the title...)

So waiting to try your programming skills….here, it goes

The mail asks you to open Microsoft Word and do the following ( I am reproducing the exact message…)

“Open a Microsoft Word File and type =rand (200,99)
and then HIT ENTER and wait ...”

Ok no need to wait if you have a supercomputer but if you have one of those used in Indian government offices …you might have to ..wait,wait…and wait..

The result of the operation is that the document is filled with one of the most famous pangram or holalphabetic sentence in the English language

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

Well before pulling your debugging socks, understand that it is NOT A BUG but a HIDDEN UTILITY.

Try typing “=rand(1,1)” and you will see only one such sentence. This works for any rand(x,y).As far as my knowledge goes “rand” is a function in “C” to generate random numbers and this feature is given in word to fill your document with random text , may be to check fonts as the sentence contains all the letters of the english alphabet.

If you think, I was the one who initiated the mail, click here and let Microsoft explain you the feature.

There is another bug, a bit more realistic and related to his one, mentioned on the net (I tried it but the outcome was not what was expected or claimed, but anyways if you find the explanation behind it, do tell me.)

Here’s the link…

Today I got my hands on this wonderful book at the company where I am doing my training. The book is called “Count Your Chickens before They Hatch” by Arindham Chaudhari. I have just started reading it and I found it truly amazing and I really recommend it.

11 Voices:

d4u said...

I have seen tat mail already....stupidity has struck u late:p!!
As 4 the book, I have readit..its ok!!

Baejaar said...

I wasnt able to reproduce the bug mentioned in the link. I tried not just 20 but nearly 100 times but its of no use.

a_beautifulmind said...

Even I have recvd multiple copies of that mail...
Yet to read the book, have heard a lot but it gets replaced by one or other in priority list :-)

Hail to GV,what a definition...
>>Stupidity is another insane person travel person travelling in a chariot called MIND

Smartalec said...

yup! been across that mail before! and a pretty interesting link!
haven't read d book though, but presently started with rich dad, poor dad which i had for ages but kept postponing:D!

Elixir said...

i didnt get it??!! mayb coz da whole world knos i suck at techie stuff??? BAH!!

Naresh said...

ya cn it alrdy! yes... i am nt among the 10% solitary bngs :P As far as my knowledge goes, such things r cld Easter Eggs!
n reg tht buk of COunt ur..., i strtd it once n the nxt day i saw Rok Sako To Rok Lo directed by the author n i thought he isnt the mtrl worth rdng :P n moreover the way he markets IIPM like a sabzi mandi irks me 2!!!

anubhav said...

@ deepa: yes I am the blessed intelligent soul..

@dheepak:even i wasn't able to reproduce..guess its wrong..

@Krishna: Is it because of that they call some minds tubelight..

@niki:u will ..just wait..stupidity spreads..

@bm:do read d the book ..very good..

@steve: Yup..that always happens..We engineers are big procrastinators..

@elixir: Ya some facts are universally known..like they all know my jokes suck

@naresh: Ya ..IIPM is promoted more like a company ,than like an institution..but i think that trend is catching up... do read the book if u didnt complete it the last time..

a_beautifulmind said...

Yes, I will read as soon as it comes on no. 1 in my priority list anubhav.

Sudipta Chatterjee said...

Anubhav, they are called "Easter eggs". Do a google search and you'll find more of them. I don't exactly remember how to reach it, but in MS Excel 2000 there is a hidden racing game in it... :) anyway nice post.

erratica said...

bug scare is new addition to the huge list of forwards i suppose. first it was abt sending 10 mails within 5 min to ppl u love, now it sending warnin to all the ppl on ur list to save them from bugs

anubhav said...

@ bm: update the list....

@ sudipta: Interesting will try find info on the game

@ erractica: Ya..Men and their use of technology

well as thou say to err is human.. i hope u keep making mistake of landing here..

thanx for dropping by...