Would You Add Easter Eggs To Software Produced At Work?

Mr. Leinad writes "Do you add Easter Eggs to the software that is produced at the office? I mean, if you have complete control over the final product, do you spice it up with that little personal touch, which, as unlikely as it is that anyone will see, carries with it an 'I was here' signature? I've just finished the development of a large software product, and I have a couple of days left to try to add my own personal Easter Egg code, but given that the software is quite professional, I don't know if I should. What do you think? Should we developers sign our creations?"

Comments

Re:God, no

[Krishnoid]

These make for great legends, but as much as I hate to admit it, I've gotten very serious about my work. Easter eggs are not generally appreciated by the Powers That Be, or by clients paying big cash for a product. My personal reputation, and producing a quality product have become important to me.

Here's one of those legends where a well-executed easter egg of sorts served to corroborate one's professional reputation:

My old boss spent some time writing statistical analysis packages for the Archimedes. One of them got fairly popular for Archie software, and he started a small business selling it. For those who don't know, Archie software usually came as source code and was executed through an interpreter.

One day at a scientific meeting, he noticed that another company was showing Archie software with remarkably similar functionality to his own, so he wandered over. The longer he watched, the more familiar it looked. Eventually, when the sales representative had gathered a good crowd, he asked in a loud voice:

• My Boss: "Are you using my copyrighted code for this?"
• Sales Representative: "Of course not."
• My Boss: "So what happens if you press [key combination]?"
• Sales Representative: "Nothing."
• My Boss: "Do it for me."
• Sales Representative: "Ok sir, but I can assure you it does--"

The screen displayed my boss' copyright notice. All they'd done was remove the front end.

It widely accepted as the biggest laugh of the show.

Re:Well, yes

[imsabbel]

[ ] You know what Raid 10 is
[X] Your original post was talking out of your ass

Re:Ask yourself one thing.

[Splab]

It's called a roof, it stops rain from falling on your loved ones.

It's called food, it stops hunger.

Having a job and being secure in said job helps with this. Pushing easter eggs into the code when you should have fixed #00314224 Critical could end up costing your ability to supply roof and food.

here is the story you are looking for

[Yaur]

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Stolen_From_Apple.txt

Re:My Easter Eggs are comments and error messages.

[warsql]

Because it makes the conversation hard to read.

Why shouldn't I top post?