Internet EASTER EGGS Hidden Jewels

Easter Eggs are digital goodies hidden away in programmes for you to find.. Often they are signatures of the developers who wrote the code for the software. They leave these tidbits buried deep somewhere in the programme to immortalize their contribution to the product.
    Usually Easter Eggs take the form of credits and names of the developers along with some small animation. Others can include small games and photographs of the developers. You can't uncover them during regular use of the software. They can only be accessed by using specific key combinations and mouse clicks.    

EASTER EGGS
By Ashish Bhatia

An Easter Egg can be anything from a message, a scroll of names, a sound, an image, unusual programme behaviour to a full game. What you've just sampled are Easter Eggs. Hundred per cent veg, these Eggs are unexpected, pleasant and entertaining little surprises that are concealed within operating systems, software apps, browsers, websites, games, and even movie DVDs. They are officially undocumented applets or events that are carefully implanted by pro­grammers. An Easter Egg can be anything from a message, a scroll of names, a sound, an im­age, unusual programme be­haviour to a full game. They pop up in a programme in re­sponse to a set of secret, non-in­tuitive commands, mouse clicks, keystrokes or other analogous stimuli!

Coders embed Easter Eggs in programmes usually as a signa­ture to get credit, or as a tribute to someone, or as a joke, or just for plain kicks. They are meant to provide a delightful little burp of thrill when you discov­er them - sunny side up, yolk done to perfection. Here's an­other one to egg you on:

Did you know tha in any flavour of Windows
you cannot create a folder named as "CON" ?
TRY IT NOW!

Windows Desktop
Right click on your Windows Desktop and click on Properties. In the Screensaver tab, select the 3D Text screen­saver and click on Properties/Settings. In the text box, type "volcano" (minus the quotes), click on OK and then click on Preview. Howzzat?

Microsoft Word.
Open a new document. Type "=rand(200,99)" (without the quotes).
Press Enter, hold your breath, wait a few seconds and see what happens!
(You can try typing any varia­tion from (1,1) to (200,99) after "=rand" to see diverse results; the first number being the repe­tition and the second the num­ber of times in a row).


Google
has lovely quirkies on offer.

Go to www.google.com . Type "elgoog" (Without the quotes).
Then click on the first link and show the world your white and pearlies!

Go to www.google.com/language.html  and look for each of these terms individually:

Elmer Fudd, Bork bork bork, Pig Latin, and Hacker.

In every case, go to the very first link that comes up.
Each of them is a special funny fake language Google search engine page!

The Web
dishes up generous servings of Easter Eggs too.
Go to Google and you'll find loads of recipes to poach on. Else savour these:

www.eggheaven2000.com/reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7­5020941-1.html?legacy=cnet
www.starwars.com/episode­iii/bts/production/f20050526/
www.softwaretipsandtricks.com/eastereggs
www.j-walk.com/ss/excel/odd/add01.htm


The author is a part-time publishing consultant and a full-time devotee of all things tech.
He can be contacted at ashishone@gmail.com
- HT Horizons, Kolkata 15Jun2005