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Easter Eggs !
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We find
them mostly behind terms such as "hidden screens",
"Gang Screen" or "Easter Eggs" in English.
What
is it about ?
Software's and games development requires a lot of
people and behind each software product, they were dozens
or hundreds people who spent several months to write
millions of code-lines, to test each software features
or correct bugs.
So, we can easily understand that these people can feel
some pride once the software is released to associate
their name to the finished product as a painter would do
it by signing his canvas.
So, in very numerous software, in a more or less hidden
way, we can find the development team list or a team
picture. The hidden screen can also consist of a
dedication, a tribute, an inscription or a small
animation having very often a funny character.
These Easter Eggs are very often hidden and can be
revealed only discovering the suited "sesame" (mostly a
key or mouse click combination). In the same way, very
numerous Internet websites also contain hidden screens.
In the other way, Easter Eggs have nothing in common
with viruses because it is not intrusive and not aims to
commit damages to data.
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OpenOffice 3 Writer
#01 :
In a new text document, enter "StarWriterTeam"
(without comas) and press <F3> key to make appear
pictures and names of the development team.
#02 :
In the OpenOffice.Org Help / About box,
while holding the <Ctrl> key, hit successively on
keys <s>,<d> and <t>
to see the development team list. |
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In most cases, Easter
Eggs are available in the Help/About box. If the
credits or team list is not clearly
available via a Generic button, a double-click on the
window's icon pressing simultaneously <Ctrl>, <Alt> and
<Maj> keys reveal in most cases the Egg.
Other Easter Eggs appear by the fulfilment of a series
of less evident commands using the software and unless knowing the ad hoc
combination, we have few chances to find them
accidentally. |
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Google Picasa 2
1> In Google Picasa 2,
press the following key simultaneously <Shift>,
<Ctrl>,<Y> to make appear randomly Teady Beers on
your screen ! |
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What form does these Easter Eggs take?
Most of the time, Easter
Eggs reveal the development team list or their photos.
We can also find in them software corresponding codename
as well as the development team mascots such as Merlin
or Adobe Photoshop or the Corel's dirigible.
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Firefox 3
1> In the address
field of Firefox 3, enter "about:robots" (without
comas) to see appear this curious error message. |
Some screens are less
playful and consist of technical information about
configuration, memories or loaded programs status. Such
screens are often designed during development phase for
debugging and tests purpose and are not always removed
from finished products.
Other Easter Eggs must be understood in the fighting
context between softwares editors. For example, some
times ago, the WinWord 2 Easter Egg staged his rival
WordPerfect, as a big green monster, which was
annihilated by the small sprites of the Microsoft team !
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Adobe Photoshop (All
releases)
1> Select the
floating layers palette.
2> Click on the little
top-right arrow on the palette to make appear the options
menu
3> Holding
simultaneously the <shift>, <ctrl> and <alt>
keys,
select with mouse the last menu line "palette options"
to make appear this little windows with Merlin pictures,
one of the Adobe Development team mascot. |
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Some software's editors
tend to banish Easter Eggs from their products, as far
as on some markets, it exists legal clauses forbidding
software's editors to include in their programs hidden
functionalities, what are by definition Easter Eggs...
Others can also argue regarding the "prankster" character
of such practice, time spent by developers to finalize
them or possible bugs they could provoke by interfering
with the software code in which they are hidden to try
to forbid them.
So, we find almost no more Easter Eggs within Microsoft
products while they were even some prolific years
ago...How to find them
?
In spite of their
initial confidential character, Internet development has
allowed better sharing and broadcasting of Easter Eggs
by people who found them. We can realize it by searching
"Easter Eggs" in any search engine or consulting this
Website :
eeggs.com
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