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Typing These 8 Characters Will Crash Almost Any App On Your Mountain Lion Mac

Posted by Soulskill on from the break-different dept.

An anonymous reader writes "All software has bugs, but this one is a particularly odd one. If you type "File:///" (no quotes) into almost any app on your Mac, it will crash. The discovery was made recently and a bug report was posted to Open Radar. First off, it’s worth noting that the bug only appears to be present in OS X Mountain Lion and is not reproducible in Lion or Snow Leopard. That’s not exactly good news given that this is the latest release of Apple’s operating system, which an increasing number of Mac users are switching to. ... A closer look shows the bug is inside Data Detectors, a feature that lets apps recognize dates, locations, and contact data, making it easy for you to save this information in your address book and calendar."

13 of 425 comments (clear)

  1. printf by Sigvatr · · Score: 2, Funny

    C-strings strike again.

    1. Re:printf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Here speaketh the Apple fan. No matter what... it's a good thing.

    2. Re:printf by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like C, but the problem is that most programmers cause chaos when they write it. C was always meant as a language that people who like assembler will like and use and be more productive. It was not meant as a language that today's script monkeys should use.

      Also Objective C was designed according to the prinicples of Objectivism - i.e. the code of the looters and moochers would crash and burn and bankrupt their companies whereas the code of Great Men would navigate the formidable obstacles of pointers and demonstrate their status as Nietzschean Ubermenschen and be rewarded with tonnes of cash and Patricia Neal, so this is not really surprising.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. Apple's response by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're doing it wrong.

    no big deal.

    Steve

    1. Re:Apple's response by girlintraining · · Score: 4, Funny

      Steve is in the iCloud now. Someone tried turning him off and then back on again. In an appeal to hipsters, he's gone underground to sell more macs. He is permanently 404. There is no way he could have had anything to say about this. There is no app for that. Get it? :P

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    2. Re:Apple's response by jrumney · · Score: 3, Funny

      Indeed, they already released a fix for it. It's called iCloud. Keeping things in the privacy of your own disk is now officially a bug (soon to be reclassified as user error).

  3. BRB by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Funny

    BRB, heading down to the Apple Store...

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  4. Powerpoint summary of TFS by TapeCutter · · Score: 4, Funny

    - An obscure library bug triggered by a magic string.

    - In the latest version.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  5. You're doing it wrong by greggman · · Score: 3, Funny

    No one should ever need to type file:///

    There are no bugs. You're doing it wrong

    1. Re:You're doing it wrong by sjames · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe he's using a Mac. The first two times he tried that message, Safari crashed.

  6. Even crashes the crash reporter! by Wormholio · · Score: 5, Funny

    I tried this in Safari on Lion. Capital F required, but indeed just "File:/// " crashes it.
    Then you get a pop-up asking if you want to report the problem to Apple? Sure.
    But then that crashes with a pop-up reporting that crash reporter has crashed. Bonus!

    --
    "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." -- William Butler Yeats
  7. WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ok, I didn't believe this, I thought it might be a hoax so I wanted to try this and typed it into a file in the TextEdit.app, and it crashed the TextEdit.app completely!!!!! I had a 10 page paper that I was writing in there opened and it hadn't failed yet. The paper is due tomorrow!! is there a way to sue apple for damages over this?!!?!!!!??

  8. it's an old joke by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Doctor, it hurts when I do this... Can you help me?"

    "Sure, don't to that."

    I'm going to give some free advice to users of Apple's OSX Mountain Lion: Don't do that.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.