This String of Characters will Crash Your Mac
By Gilbert Falso :: 11:58 AM
File this one under ‘strange bug discoveries’ – you can crash just about any application running on a Mountain Lion OS Mac by simply typing in these eight characters:Â File:///
The discovery was made earlier this week, and surfaced on the OpenRadar website. It only happens in the Mountain Lion version of the operating system, and does not appear to affect Macs that are running Lion or Snow Leopard. Typing that string exactly as it appears above, will crash whatever application you are working in at the time.
Want to share this news on Twitter? Â You can’t do it – an OpenRadar user tried Tweeting a message with those characters, and crashed his Twitter application.
The issue behind the bug appears to be in the operating system’s Data Detectors feature. This feature, built into the OS, allows applications to recognize dates, locations, and contact data as it appears displayed on the screen, allowing users to easily save address book and calendar information.
The bug has been reported to Apple, and will likely be fixed in a software patch at some later date. It is not likely to be a rush job, however, so a patch may take a few months.
In the meantime, to disable the functionality that is causing this bug to occur, go to your Mac’s System Preferences> Language & Text > Text, and then uncheck the “Correct spelling automatically†and “Use symbol and text substitution†boxes.