using Wikipedia to ruin files

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Ever since my posts of #672 through #677 where I quote Wikipedia
there is a formatting that is incompatible with Microsoft and so
the file is unopenable.

So is this the way to vandalize or hack into computers where
someone slips in a Wikipedia article some code which is then
traceable and then download a hacker.

I do not even see those posts on the Drexel Math Forum
of around 3 July.

So does Wikipedia have some rogue editors who use Wikipedia
as a platform to seed a hacker? So that some innocent who
quotes Wikipedia or cuts and pastes and ends up with a
file unopenable or a hacked computer.

[Harold Johanssen]

On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 06:52:45 -0700, Archimedes Plutonium wrote:

> Ever since my posts of #672 through #677 where I quote Wikipedia there
> is a formatting that is incompatible with Microsoft and so the file is
> unopenable.

Just because the file in incompatible with MS junk software does
not imply it is unopenable.

[David R Tribble]

Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
>> Ever since my posts of #672 through #677 where I quote Wikipedia there
>> is a formatting that is incompatible with Microsoft and so the file is
>> unopenable.
>

Harold Johanssen wrote:
> Just because the file in incompatible with MS junk software does
> not imply it is unopenable.

Wikipedia editing is done through a web browser window that
is typically able to handle Unicode chaarcters. Pasting such
non-ASCII characters into a simple ASCII-based editor, such as
Google newsgroups, can often times result in unprintable
characters that will give many Microsoft programs fits.

I usually paste text contents a simple program such as Notepad
in order to strip the "bad" characters, then re-copy it and paste
the second copy. Of course, I also clean up what I quote instead
of just block-copying everything in the text, which almost always
results in unreadable text.

An explanation based on technology mistmatches seems a
lot more reasonable that an explanation based on conspiracy
theories, doesn't it?

[Archimedes Plutonium]

I got the problem resolved tonight. I had two large files that I was
using to archive my recent posts, one was 2.5MB and the other 3.4MB
and then I could not open them. It would read "100% complete
formatting...
please wait" And wait and wait I did but nothing and it tells me the
problem
is with Microsoft and they want me to download something. Well I never
download anything out of habit. That was a day or two ago.

So then I got worried that I would lose those two files and have to
sort of spend gobs of time tracking down 4 months worth of posts.

So then I thought that I had copy pasted something which somehow
Microsoft was incompatible with that copy paste and thus losing those
two files.

So I began to become suspicious that someone could deliberately
have some formatted commands on a website, wherein if those
were copy pasted that the Microsoft would be incompatible and lose the
file.

Maybe Microsoft is just changing some of their software and my two
files had just unluckily interfaced with that changeover.

But anyway, all is back to normal and I have my two files.

And the lesson for me, is never keep large files. So if a loss comes
my
way, it will be a small file.

AP

[Archimedes Plutonium]

Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
> David R Tribble wrote:
(snipped)

> >
> > An explanation based on technology mistmatches seems a
> > lot more reasonable that an explanation based on conspiracy
> > theories, doesn't it?

Let us carry that idea further? Can someone destroy the files of
another by planting some formatt or commands in Usenet or
Web for which a copy paste by some innocent bystander
would destroy his file?

AP

[Larry Sheldon]

David R Tribble wrote:

> An explanation based on technology mistmatches seems a
> lot more reasonable that an explanation based on conspiracy
> theories, doesn't it?

In the Intar Tubes?

What planet are you from.

The weirder the conspiracy (Sarah Palin stole windows from the Sports
Complex) the better.

--
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of System Administrators:
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio Infallibility, and the ability to
learn from their mistakes.
Eppure si rinfresca

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[Dirk Van de moortel]

David R Tribble <da...@tribble.com> wrote in message
9fabb3fc-e2ab-4c78...@h8g2000yqm.googlegroups.com

And an explanation based on painful ignorance of technology
is even more reasonable than one based on technology
mistmatches :-)

Dirk Vdm